Checkatrade

Sartcott

I hope you give this story on your review. The more personal you make the review the more it can be trusted.
These are the sort of Traders we want as customers.
Can you name him here so others can find him giving his Checkatrade membership number? Maybe this site can be the safety net Checkatrade doesn't give us. Good luck with the new kitchen.

avantra

Sartcott wrote: »

I hope you give this story on your review. The more personal you make the review the more it can be trusted.
These are the sort of Traders we want as customers.
Can you name him here so others can find him giving his Checkatrade membership number? Maybe this site can be the safety net Checkatrade doesn't give us. Good luck with the new kitchen.

Not Checktrade but Ratedpeople.com and it is JMP Carpentry from Charfield.

tatts_lad

I haven't used this website before but I did use comcero.com when we had our bathroom fitted, all the builders quotes were reasonable and the bathroom looks the dogs knackers! The site was completely free to use aswell - did u say you had to pay? not sure i'd pay to be a member of one of these websites - also got entered into a xmas prize draw for a new TV!

Tatts

keystone

tatts_lad wrote: »

- did u say you had to pay? not sure i'd pay to be a member of one of these websites -

The contractor has to pay not the client.

Cheers

dunramblin

I've used checkatrade twice.

1st guy who did my bathroom made a right mess of it. I didn't bother reviewing him and he has since disappeared from the site.

2nd bunch who did my roof - did not hand me the checkatrade form to fill out because they knew they had overrun on the job and that I was the type to complain as I had been complaining for most of the job.

I won't use it again.

cepheus

I have just noticed a trader has replied to my poor review on the checkatrade site with a pile of lies. This directly contradicts the documentary evidence from their own Emails which checkatrade were aware of. However, they seem happy for this reply to remain.

I also had to get checkatrade to take my name off the traders reply which they published on the site!

Leif

cepheus wrote: »

I have just noticed a trader has replied to my poor review on the checkatrade site with a pile of lies. This directly contradicts the documentary evidence from their own Emails which checkatrade were aware of. However, they seem happy for this reply to remain.

Snap!

I had two companies from CheckATrade.

First one damaged a kitchen whindow frame, and paid to have it repaired. (They agreed immediately that they were responsible.) There were many other little things, and they had promised to have the kitchen rewired and replastered by a certain date for the installers to move in. In the end it was not ready. Fortunately I had been able to move the installation date, as I had a bad feeling about the builders. The project manager also kept making promises he did not keep. And I've had a lot of issues, with a new ceiling cracking, the walls in the kitchen have cracks, some large near the boiler, damp came into the kitchem staining a wall where they had plugged an unused boiler flue. They had bridged the gap between two layers of brick with a porous breeze block. I also suspect they put some copper pipes directly into cement in the floor where the stopcocks were. A genuine company, with professional trades, but I would not use them again. Too many issues, too unreliable.

Second one were cowboys. Completely bodged a bathroom refit. I threw them out and had new people in. Trading Standards are mediating, and have convinced them to offer compensation. However they are reducing it due to 'upgrades' i.e. they are claiming I had expensive upgrades on the second refit. Basically nonsense of course. I will go to court if they do not agree to the Trading Standards agreement. I posted a review on CheckATrade. It was edited by CheckATRade then removed. Reappeared about 6 weeks after submission, along with a response that was a pack of lies, which I proved by sending documentation from the cowboys to CheckATrade. They did nothing.

IMO CheckATRade is not a reputable organisation. Their T&C and modus operandi grossly favours the trade, not the public. And I feel that good trades get work by recommendation because they are good not by advertising sites.

Leif

experttrader wrote: »

Why don't the trading standards improve their non profit making "buy with confidence" system, then profit making businesses would not get a look in.

Unfortuantely the cowboys I used from CheckATrade were also on the BWC scheme. However, at least it meant that Tradung Standards wanted to mediate, although I will still probably lose a lot of money, and the stress and worry is not something you want.

cepheus

Glad it's just not me then. Looking down the reputation list I sometimes feel like the boy who admits that the Emperor has no clothes on!

All I can think of is that the people who don't experience good service don't usually post a bad review to avoid the hastle.

The guy is unlikely to respond to any problems after a bad review, so my complaint renders the guarantee useless if anything else goes wrong.

Leif

cepheus wrote: »

Glad it's just not me then. Looking down the reputation list I sometimes feel like the boy who admits that the Emperor has no clothes on!

All I can think of is that the people who don't experience good service don't usually post a bad review to avoid the hastle.

The guy is unlikely to respond to any problems after a bad review, so my complaint renders the guarantee useless if anything else goes wrong.

I have to admit being totally baffled by CheckATrade. The cowboys I employed had 47 glowing reviews, scoring ~9.7/10 and comments such as "Fantastic people to deal with". It seemed too good to be true, and in practice they were plain incompetent, no doubt about it, making basic mistakes, and lots of them. So how could they have had so many glowing reviews? They cannot all be fakes, and I rang two people, and they seemed genuine, well I am sure one was, the other less so. When I spoke to him a second time, he was suspiciously quick to give the name of the company that did the electrics. And his manner towards me on hearing of my issues was suspicious too. Probably genuine. Can you explain how a pair of incompetents can have a long list of glowing reviews?