Checkatrade

cherylsurrey

I tried using checkatrade in the past, and got a tradesman with glowing reports but average work, who also took a huge amount of time off to look after his kids without letting me know, literally not turning up some days, meaning the job that was 3 and a half days work took a full week including weekend and he ended up rushing it to get it done. I did check with him that he worked full time when he quoted which he told me he did, and it turned out he was a part timer, obviously saying he worked full time just to get the job. I didnt bother leaving a review as I looked online and too many people said bad ones were not published, I wish I had done that before I used the site.

I now use the buywithconfidence website, and had some great builders from that do a fantastic job on my house last year. I know it is not full proof, but I think it is better than sites like checkatrade.

cepheus

Has anyone else here actually bothered to post a bad or indifferent review on Checkatrade?

Procrastinator333

I think checkatrade is a good starting point. Better than just guessing. But, I think you need to follow it up with references, and visit them and have a good look at the work. We did this for 1 trade, and worked out well. Great chap, great work, fair price and have used him a lot since.

On another, picked a trade with only a few reviews, but was small job so just thought would give it a go. They were shocking.

So look for lots of reviews, repeat customers and then follow up with detailed reference checking.

And before some smarty pants says a reference from a friend is best, yes it is, but not everyone knows someone who has had work done.

BillTrac

I recently wanted some plastering and rendering done. The plasterer I used to do the work for me sadly passed away, so I went onto the Checkatrade site. Contacted three companies, all with 'glowing' reports. Now realise that probably wrote them themselves!

One never answered his phone or responded to voicemails. The second actually turned up but said he wasn't interested, and the third turned up as a pair. I actually said to them were they interested and they both said of course they were. They never got back to me.

Noticed a neighbour had been having some work done, asked him about the workmen etc. A youngish lad responded straightaway and came round that evening to give me a quote. Did tell me he couldn't do the job straightaway as he was really busy ( another good sign) but he did carry it out as soon as he could. Great bloke, excellent plastering and rendering. Didn't need paing until the job was done and I was satisfied.

So the so-called quality companies who advertise Checkatrade as a great system turned their backs on £3000+ of works, (was a lot of plastering and rendering:rotfl:) and not only do I bad mouth Checkatrade whenever I get the opportunity, I pass the plasterers details on to all and sundry.

I will never trust Checkatrade:mad:

Leif

Oddly enough the founder of CheckATrade posted the following statement on a forum:

"99.5% of them are normal honest and accountable trades that strive to be the best at what they do."

I quoted that text in one of my posts, which is how I know he wrote it, but I can no longer find the original. My guess is that he realised that making such a claim is dodgy, and removed it, as my experience, and that of other people, suggests that the claim is completely false. The odds of my having two bad experiences given his claim is very very very small.

BillTrac wrote: »

I will never trust Checkatrade:mad:

Wise person.

justifiedexposure

Leif wrote: »

Oddly enough the founder of CheckATrade posted the following statement on a forum:

"99.5% of them are normal honest and accountable trades that strive to be the best at what they do."

I quoted that text in one of my posts, which is how I know he wrote it, but I can no longer find the original. My guess is that he realised that making such a claim is dodgy, and removed it, as my experience, and that of other people, suggests that the claim is completely false. The odds of my having two bad experiences given his claim is very very very small.



Wise person.

Im a member and I would not trust half of the traders on there. The way they slag the public off and falsify there own feedback just about sums some of them up.

The only reason we joined was cos the public trust it. But why i dont know.

if you know any members ask to look at the members area and read some of what is written about the public !!!

cepheus

justifiedexposure wrote: »

if you know any members ask to look at the members area and read some of what is written about the public !!!

That is rather worrying since a customer could be blacklisted unfairly. Although perhaps it also indicates that a particular customer won't be easily suckered or pushed around, which will frighten of the cowboys.

I was wondering why no-one wanted to do any work for me!:D

justifiedexposure

Every week someone is on there blacklisting a customer.

Some of the members shout for higher standards but they soon get told to shut up by the majority. It is a very controlled place; liberty and freedom of expression are left at the door unless you want to end up with thier boot up your a**, we are better off keeping our head down. Not the answer to the UK rogue trader problem as advertised, which is why I joined :mad:

Enough said

dacouch

Leif wrote: »

Oddly enough the founder of CheckATrade posted the following statement on a forum:

"99.5% of them are normal honest and accountable trades that strive to be the best at what they do."

I quoted that text in one of my posts, which is how I know he wrote it, but I can no longer find the original. My guess is that he realised that making such a claim is dodgy, and removed it, as my experience, and that of other people, suggests that the claim is completely false. The odds of my having two bad experiences given his claim is very very very small.



Wise person.

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Hi Sartcott,
Thanks for your feedback, this may come across as corny but I do appreciate it, you obviously have had an experience that has left you feeling you way you are and for this I’m sorry. When I started this scheme 12 years ago in a spare bedroom I had an idea it would become such a success and the past 5 years have stretched me and my growing team tremendously. As I’ve already said we are not perfect and never will be.

But I will defend my members, 99.5% of them are normal honest and accountable trades that strive to be the best at what they do. Do we have on board a few that shouldn’t be, maybe, but we are constantly looking at how we address this.

The national figure for a consumer being unhappy with a trade is 1 : 4. If we can beat that we must be doing something right. Our figure is 1 : hundred’s.

We ask the consumer on our feedback cards did the trade charge what they originally quoted.

Based on the last 26,059 reports, 94.1% charged the given price, 5.6% charged more but were kept informed, a mere 0.3% charged more and didn’t keep the customer informed. These are stunning figures and I could give you some more. So please don’t tar all our members as cowboys, this simply is not the case, apart from a few that we are weeding out they are all exceptional and I’m proud to head them up.

When it comes to complaints several months after the work has been completed, we are not up to speed on this and to be fair we rarely get such complaints and our system at the moment does not have the functionality to record such events. It’s becoming pretty obvious that I need to address this. When we only had a few thousand trades on board and we only got a few complaints of this nature a year, so the expense to put this software in place (when we are not helped financially by local or central government) was not a priority. Now we have nearly 5,500 this type of event due to the vast number of jobs we generate for our members (over 350,000 a year) it stand to reason the more jobs the higher the likely hood of such complaints. So I will start to look at this.
I hope this next statement does not offend you and I’m sure from the way you have worded your thread that you do not come in to this category, but we often have vicious consumers that expect far more than is reasonable. Often members of my team are in tears after a consumer has ripped into them. Often we get bogus complaints from rogue home owners on trades that have been with us for 10+ years who have never had a complaint before. Are my staff Rottweiler’s? Absolutely not.

Finally I don’t hide behind anyone, with sixty staff I simply can not head up every thing; I do get involved with every department just as I am getting involved now with this. As I started this scheme I have been in and run every department as some stage, in the beginning it was just me and I had to do everything. We recently appointed a new team leader to take the helm of complaints, her name is Jane and she is exceptional. If you would still like to proceed with your complaint please call her on 01243 601234, I will talk to her about this so she will know you may be calling.

There is an open invitation to anyone to visit our offices down here in Selsey and have a look round, meet my staff and ask questions. We have nothing to hide and every good intention to try and make a difference.

Once again I’m sorry you have had the experience you have had and do call us if you wish.

Kevin Byrne - Founder

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Leif

dacouch: Thank you. So the thread was deleted then? Perhaps CheckATrade threatened the forum with legal action. That would not surprise me.