Website which rates local trades 'people'

Leif

rossaa wrote: »

We had a cowboy builder (Building Foundations, Staines, Middx) a year ago, wrecked our bathroom, dangerous wiring caused a fire, had to have it all redone, they got the deposit but no more. We had building control and trading standards involved as this company did a runner and failed to respond to any of our letters.

They are still listed with Checkatrade and Elecsa despite our written complaints and following their complaints procedures. On Checkatrade they have an average of 9.8 with lots of glowing reports despite our complaints, strangely our complaints are not listed. Spoke to Checkatrade today, got loads of excuses, but they are obviously not going to list negative comments. Even trading standards advised not to trust checkatrade.

We are now looking to get other work done, three companies have come to price up the work so far, we asked for detailed quotes, only one has provided this, the other two haven’t and those two are listed with checkatrade with high ratings. I’m now looking to see if a company is listed with checktrade and similar sites, then I won’t use them. Very frustrating though.

Although I am shocked, I must admit that I am not surprised. I posted a review of cowboys on CheckAtrade after they bodged a bathroom refit. The publication of my review was VERY slow, and pulled for 2 weeks at the request of the bodgers. Soon after it re-appeared, they posted a response that contained a series of blatant lies, including the statements that they had refunded some money, and were attending to the issue, neither of which was true. Despite the fact that I could prove to CheckATrade that the response contained lies, it was left in place. I was told that CheckATrade could not remove it, or add comments, for legal reasons. I am coming to the conclusion that CheckATrade is fundamentally corrupt. I am not saying that the people that run it are corrupt, but the way it works allows trades to lie and cheat. I also find it hard to believe that the reviews are honest, as the bodgers had 47 glowing reviews, and I mean really glowing. Also bear in mind that CheckATrade trades do not care if the work falls to pieces a week or two after the review appears, as long as they get a good review.