Why you cant trustatrader.com

Justicia

AKUK wrote: »

Yes, you are right, these are private companies that are recognised by the government as approved bodies to register tradesman as competent persons.

I have a similar discussion on many of my training courses when it is suggested that they are government entities

AKUK wrote: »

They are different from the type of bodies we were talking about here and to be registered with them you have to be properly qualified and you are assessed every year.

Agree; as long as the extent and limitations (see what I did there, AKUK ) of the schemes are understood, they can be a factor (though ideally not alone) in selecting a tradesman.

Builders247

The best way is to hire a tradesperson very close to your area and get at list 3 quotes, and how to avoid cowboys is easy to spot them there quote will be very small and they can do the job next day. the most important take your time and ask them the right questions.

DigbyDare

Saw brick wall built by a Trust a Trader accredited builder. From what I could see he did a good job and cleaned up each day. Nice smart van and website etc. Thought he was worth a go and employed him to refurbish our utility room for £6k. Obviously he can only do outdoor jobs as ours was extremely bad and we shouldn't have paid him, but having experienced his bad tempers whenever there was some criticism we just wanted rid of him! He harassed us for payment immediately on what he considered completion and two days later on Easter Monday I handed over a cheque at 8am on our doorstep just to get rid of him.
His work was dreadful and so I gave him overall 2 stars with some 3's. That was about the beginning of May 2012 and numerous e-mails and phone calls asking what is the status my complaint have been totally ignored.
So if you manage to find a good trader from Trust a Trader then well done, but if you find a bad one, hard luck.
Strangely enough all his reviews were (and still are) glowing which is why we finally chose him.........!
The next step is Trading Standards to make them aware of Trust a Traders' marketing methods.
As I wouldn't have the trader inside my house again I will repaint the woodwork to hide the colours below, replaster to get rid of a badly-iced-cake effect, fix washers on rear of cupboard doors where the laminate was blown by careless drilling, fit a decent tumble drier vent so that the tubing isn't squashed. Plenty of other things which I can't realistically fix my self having just turned 70!
So, thanks Trust a Trader for not even doing what you say you will do on your website.

dacouch

I'm setting up a website so you can award stars to tradesmens review sites it's called https://www.myratedtrustabuilderreview.co.uk

It will allow you to review the review tradesmens' websites and award stars.

Funding for the website will be made by the review sites who the site reviews, as such any bad reviews will be deleted.

Have a nice day y'all

wary

My strong message to anyone who has experience of negative reviews being suppressed on this site ... in fact I urge you ... file a complaint against their advertising with the Avertising Standards Authority.

They advertise on Smooth FM radio station heavily, with slogans like "traders whom you can trust". Clearly this is a false/misleading claim if the site won't negative reviews.

The ASA ruled against TripAdvisor a few months ago for advertising their reviews as guaranteed genuine ... but at least they don't suppress negative reviews. So the ASA would come down heavily on Trust-a-Trader and the media would likely pick up on it... and the public would get the message not to trust this site.

When I first became aware of this site via this thread a few weeks ago, I did a bit of a peruse in an attempt to find some negative reviews ... but I couldn't find any at all!

This site stinks and something should be done about it!

SHELZER

There are numerous of these sites springing up to try and cash in on the current down trend in the building industry. Some builders will try anything to get work on there books. These sites charge for there usage. I personally know of a trader listed on trust a trader claiming to have been trading several years etc but he has only started his one man business 2 mths ago - although he did pick a business name 2 years ago he has only worked as a sub contractor since then. He has had friends post positive comments to give him 5 stars. He is not qualified in anything but basic joinery - but is advertising as a building and maintainance co doing extensions etc. he has no H&S in place and only basic insurance. In short he is not qualified to do the work he is claiming!!! The only truly vetted traders are FMB trustmark. The FMB contact customers direct themselves view standard of workmanship and do rigerous company checks. They also offer a warranty if needed for peace of mind.

BargainGalore

:spam: merchant post 38

Stan_Cousins

Totally agree reviews on this site are obviously cherry picketed. Having experienced a poor trader from this site am I really surprised that they do not publish negative responses!!

RancidM

Surely the same checks and balance's apply irrelevant of which directory you use to source a tradesman.

Thefencer

Hi all im new to this.I joined trust a trader as a small fencing company six months ago, the rep over the phone told me my work load would double with the help of trust a trader.I Paid up £830.80 with my card,got a load of crap through the post stickers ect as i said six months have past one job lead that canceled after ten minutes and nothing since. I have just written them a letter requesting money back.Any advice would be appreciated :huh: