Rated People

charlotte99

Has anyone used this website to find a workman ?. I need some damproofing work done in my kitchen and bar using yellow pages have no idea how to find someone reputable and more important knows what they are doing when it comes to damp. I've asked freinds etc but bar general building work, no luck. I;m not really sure if it would be ok to use a general builder for this or should I be seeking a specialist ?. It's quite extensive but I've had a damp survey so have some recommendations on what should be done.

I'm not looking on here for someone to do the job so would prefer if people dont contact me with offers (which is whatr normally happens !!)

Innys

Don't bother with this or any similar websites. You'll get ripped off if you do.

Try and get at least three personal recommendations from neighbours and/or friends instead.

Leif

I agree with Innys.

You should treat RatedPeople - and similar sites - as no more than a trade directory. The reviews are suspect for all sorts of reasons. As to how you decide which trades are good, dunno. Your local council may have a list of recommended/approved trades. Trading Standards have a scheme. Mind you, the cowboys who ruined my bathroom were on that scheme.

Regarding damp proofing, who did the survey? Was it an independent person? Or someone working for a company that provide damp proofing? I'd not trust the latter. If it was an independent, then they might recommend someone, although you need to be aware of kick backs. What is the damp issue?

fatbikersbouncebetter

Rated People only rip off the traders, not the 'customers'.

They charge traders £45 a 1/4 for the privaledge of paying for leads for the jobs people post.
The more 'budget' you add when prompted, the higher the cost for your phone number
There is no limit to how many traders can bid/pay and the average cost for a job is £12-£50, just for the address and phone number. RP gets lots of money for every job/lead.

The RATED bit only comes from cutsomers that have traders to do their jobs then Rate them according to the job. There is no further checks or confirmation that the trader is any good, and the prices they get for the job might be trading against any number of other traders.

If the trader who buys your lead had plenty of feedback, then they must be reasonable..... i guess.

Same type of systen as My Builder, My Hammer etc: They offer these methods to make money.

Good luck

nickj_2

Innys wrote: »

Don't bother with this or any similar websites. You'll get ripped off if you do.

Try and get at least three personal recommendations from neighbours and/or friends instead.

or ask local builders/tradesmen architects etc , if they have used anyone

dacouch

Easy enough to manipulate your reviews / ratings so you have lots of good reviews on rated people

Innys

fatbikersbouncebetter wrote: »

Rated People only rip off the traders, not the 'customers'.

They charge traders £45 a 1/4 for the privaledge of paying for leads for the jobs people post.
The more 'budget' you add when prompted, the higher the cost for your phone number
There is no limit to how many traders can bid/pay and the average cost for a job is £12-£50, just for the address and phone number. RP gets lots of money for every job/lead.

The RATED bit only comes from cutsomers that have traders to do their jobs then Rate them according to the job. There is no further checks or confirmation that the trader is any good, and the prices they get for the job might be trading against any number of other traders.

If the trader who buys your lead had plenty of feedback, then they must be reasonable..... i guess.

Same type of systen as My Builder, My Hammer etc: They offer these methods to make money.

Good luck

If I "know nowt", why do others say that the reviews can be manipulated on this and all similar websites? It's not just me making that observation - dacouch has a similar opinion on this very thread.

OP - just do a simple search on here for Rated People, Checkatrade, MyHammer etc and you'll see dacouch and I aren't the only ones with that view.

Of course, it could be that all the MSEers on here are wrong and fatbikersbouncebetter "knows everything".

dacouch

If you have a £100 or so all you have to do is get a couple of your mates to post jobs on rated. It costs you about £15 for the lead, they make sure you get the ficticious job and can then leave made up glowing reviews of you. This can be done a few times and you then have a load of great reviews without even doing any work.

It's well known that rated and the other sites will delete any bad reviews so you will only have good reviews.

These websites are in effect the modern version of yellow pages with some reviews that may or may not be kosher

Leif

If someone you know tells you Joe Bloggs did a good job last year, then JB did a good job. If BestTrader.com tells you Joe Bloggs did a good job for someone last year, you have no idea if they did. It might have looked good when the review was written, but what if it fell apart or broke 6 months down the line due to incompetence, or wrong materials, or laziness? The member of the public cannot edit her/his review. Trades on BestTrader.com will be looking to impress the customer enough for a good review. And of course some reviews are said to be faked. There's an awful lot of people saying that, and some claiming to be members of the trade sites too. In fact some good members are not happy that some bad members get away with poor work, it gives them a bad name. Caveat emptor.

brig001

Following Leif, how do you know you need damproofing? Some reasons you could have damp in a kitchen are:
Leaky pipe.
Water ingress from outside - check pointing, guttering, downspouts, window cills.
Inadequate ventillation.
Cold walls.
Cooking with lids off pans.
A combination of the above.

If you say you need damproofing, someone will sell it to you, but I'll bet it won't fix the problem.

HTH,
Brian.

Leif

brig001 wrote: »

how do you know you need damproofing? ...

Yes, basically the point I was making, but you clearly spell out the dangers. More than a few people on here and elsewhere find damp proofing companies do not address the actual cause of damp, presumably because that would cost small money compared to the 'fix' they will sell you.