Great reviews on mybuilder but no info on the web?

fantasyvn

Could you pls advise?
I found a builder with great reviews on mybuilder.com. On that site, there are about 40 reviews on the company, all of which are great.
He also came to meet me and seems a nice person.
However, I could not find anything on his company on the web. Even a search on yell.com did not give any result.
Is it normal? Perhaps he is, like he said, a small family company so there is no need for them to appear on the web?
Thank you

phil24_7

Ask to see some examples of his work. Do you know anyone that has had building works done that can recommend a builder?

Mocha61

Please be careful when deciding who you use there are a lot of cowboys out there. Family member is currently taking a builder they used to court also the local council prosecuting him. Our local council have recommended builders who they use for Enforcement notices you could always ask planning control if they can recommend anyone if you are unsure who to use.

teneighty

No decent tradesman should need to use one of these costly commercial lead generating websites.

All the best firms simply rely on word of mouth and personal recommendations from their previous good work. If a firm has to pay to get customer details from the internet they clearly do not have very many satisfied customers to spread the word.

Just ask family, friends, neighbours, work colleagues etc. if they can recommend someone.

dominoman

You should take all those lead-generating sites with a big pinch of salt. The best tradesmen don't use them - and are never short of work. However, if you've no other choice then it's better than nothing. If he has 40+ reviews and your gut feeling when meeting him was good then you've started well.

Gut feeling is so important. But still apply usual precautions. Don't pay until you are 100% satisfied (for a larger job you may need to pay some up front). Make clear exactly what you want. And keep him stoked in tea and coffee!

No, it's not unusual not to find more about him on the web. Most tradesmen will have at most one of their own site, a Checkatrade page, or a MyBuilder type page. They are not usually people who want to spend any more time on a computer than they need to.

Risteard

teneighty wrote: »

No decent tradesman should need to use one of these costly commercial lead generating websites.

That's probably being unfair on tradesmen as many might use the sites whilst they are starting up. They won't have a customer base until they have time to build one up. That is in no way indicative of the quality of their work.

Furts

Risteard wrote: »

That's probably being unfair on tradesmen as many might use the sites whilst they are starting up. They won't have a customer base until they have time to build one up. That is in no way indicative of the quality of their work.

A valid point, but to be taken with caution. Taking the area where I live as an example a new tradesman or woman would be better off advertising in the church news, the village magazine, the various advertising magazines coming through the letter box each month, the notice boards of the local supermarkets, the Neighbourhood Watch newsletters and so on. This keeps the leads local, so minimal traveling, and keeps the leads within a contained area to build up word of mouth. It also ensures an affluent customer base by selecting the village and the church!

So there is minimal need for the building websites other than to make money for the founders and to pander to consumers who expect every decision to be answered by clicking the web.

Clive_Woody

I am sure I read that there are websites where tradesfolk can pay for people to leave them lots of positive reviews on this type of website and negative reviews can and often are removed.

dominoman

Clive_Woody wrote: »

I am sure I read that there are websites where tradesfolk can pay for people to leave them lots of positive reviews on this type of website and negative reviews can and often are removed.

It undoubtedly happens. People pay for fake reviews, and people ask friends, family and staff to leave great reviews.

I know from experience with Checkatrade that positive reviews are published unquestioned (you have to validate with an email or a text, but how hard is that to fake).

However negative reviews on Checkatrade are very rare and I now know why. If Checkatrade receive a negative review they contact the tradesmen (who pay a large amount of dosh to be on Checkatrade) and give him the right to reply. If they can show the review to be unfair or unsubstantiated it isn't published.

This skews the results, so is reason to be skeptical of reviews.

I personally do still use these sites if I have no personal recommendation. But just do it eyes open. Make sure you get straight, honest answers to your questions, a clear quote, and have a good gut feel when you meet the guy.

If you get any amber lights in your head, walk away and get another quote.

richardman

Not sure if I am posting too much information here, but recently, I asked the following "question" on mybuilder.com as was rejected by the site (mybuilder asked to me to contact them to discuss my experience):

===
I recently had a bathroom refurbished by a guy I found on mybuilder, which to cut the story short, I have to ask someone else to fix leaky shower tray (take shower tray out, had to buy a new frame as old one didn't survive during removal, rise tray platform as waste was running backward to the tray, etc, shower valve not screwed in properly) and toilet. It was the last week of November and two days after he left he came around briefly to fix another leak, but after that, never came around again. Tons of message exchanged (because I want to make sure I have records of everything we discuss) and now its 4 days before xmas and problems are still here and he never come again after a second quick visit. I am now sitting in front of my desk, while a new team has arrived at my house this morning hope will help me to fix all problems in the next 2-3 days.

What I want to ask is how should I report this tradesman properly and effectively? I have videos and pictures of all the problems I want people to see. I even want people to contact me and come around my house so they can see what this tradesman has done. But I don't think there is a way I can do that on my builder. To be honest I am very regretting to have found this tradesman on mybuilder. I have some other guys doing other house works who I found on checkatrade, and they all seems reasonable if not perfect.


Luckily, I have not told this tradesman about my second and third houses which are due to completion...

====

Anyway, I have another job "completed" early December by another trademen who I also found on mybuilder, which I am still very frustrated as I'm still left with one final piece of work to be completed.

For your information, both tradmens have 100% positive on mybuilder.

In the last two months, I also hired other trademens for other jobs I had but never turn up for work at the end. They also have 100% positive as well.

I don't know all the the experience I had in the past two month were due to peak season or what.

While the mean time, I had two other jobs completed by trademens found on checkatradewhich I am 95% happy.

One of nice thing to have on any of these trademen sites would be allowing users to contact other job posters and ask about their first hand information. In my case I want to share all details (even coming to my house to see by themselves) on my trademen's results. Until then, I have now since became very suspicious on all trademen sites.

dominoman

Richardman - Can you explain more. On what basis was your feedback / review rejected by mybuilder?

What happened once you contacted mybuilder afterwards?