Checkatrade dissapointment

Alisha2008

I was looking for a kitchen fitter on checkatrade and found someone that I thought could do the job. Rang him, have a nice chat, he agreed to come to my house 4 days later for an estimate.

He sent an email to confirm.

He didn't turn up, didn't ring, didn't contact me at all. He doesn't pick up the phone when I ring, also texted him. This was a week ago...

This person has about 20 10/10 reviews on checkatrade... shame I can't leave one!! wouldn't be 10/10...

:mad::mad::mad::mad:

BillTrac

A few months ago I wanted some plastering and rendering done.

Went onto the checkatrade site and called three companies. One didn't reply to my voicemail, one came and said he wasn't interested as the job was too large(!), the third company was a two man team. They couldn't come out during the week so I cancelled my day out on the saturday so they could come and quote. All due given, they turned up when they said they would, we agreed that yes it was the sort of thing bthey did, and off they went with a promise of a quote within a couple of days. Nothing, nada, zilch. No quote, no message or call to say they couldn't/wouldn't do it. And I don't think it was my role to chase them up again.:mad:

I eventually found a great plasterer through a friend who had some work done.

Companies/traders on checkatrade are on there because they
are willing to pay a fee. I don't know that checkatrade actually checks them out, and as you have found they don't publicise the poor ones.

I will never, ever use a trade checker site again as they seem to me to be a complete and utter waste of anyone's time.:(

Alisha2008

Sadly we don't have any recommendation from anyone we trust, so it's either that, or just pick someone from the yellow pages...

drummer_666

i found my builder on rated people and he's great

found others on free index

ian103

sometimes even word of mouth isn't that good. we were recommended a plumber / general tradesman to refit our utility / wc. got quote from him to supply everything - accepted quote and he never turned up. OH asked plumber who was next door if he was interested as we needed to get it done as we were moving in. he was excellent and would use him again - only problem is he won't give quotes it was a rate per hour, but we got a bargin - he did loads of work in the time he was here and we could buy what we wanted.

fluffpot

try which?local You have to join whcih? (they normally have a £1 months trial thing). Only which? members can put up tradespeople - unlike any of the other websites were trades basically pay to be there.

Which? member tend to be pretty good at weeding out the dross...

BTW I don't work for which? (or even a member) I'm just a tradesperson who has got a lot of good reviews on there

rxbren

checkatrade, rated people, my hammer etc all waste of time none of them care or check any of the people on there all they do is hammer companies/self employed for £20+ a month plus extra fees for leads or charge a percentage of the quoted prices
its just a giant con

DevCoder

rxbren wrote: »

checkatrade, rated people, my hammer etc all waste of time none of them care or check any of the people on there all they do is hammer companies/self employed for £20+ a month plus extra fees for leads or charge a percentage of the quoted prices
its just a giant con

Exactly, you pay a fee for a leed and then find someone has underquoted you to the point you wonder how they make any money out of it.

Consumer unit replacement for £150? Including all tests

rxbren

yeah i looked into these companies and couldnt justify joining/paying i have heard nothing but poor reviews
people paid for local leads and getting leads from way outside there selected areas
paying for leads and getting them after the job has been awarded
or told leads only get sent to three or four contractors to then call the potential customer to get a load of abuse as there phone has been ringing non stop

C_Mababejive

Checkatrade are probably like so many other registration sites. They are parasites leeching off the backs of the working man aided and abetted by a paranoid public who have watched far too many cowboy trader type programmes run by losers like Dom littlewood or that Mexican looking motorbike benefit fraudster.

rxbren

ironically mostly cowboys or chancers on there