Anyone know how CHECKATRADE works?

Bill23h

Looking for a new kitchen, and looked at my local Dreamdoors franchise on Checkatrade. I've no reason to think they aren't a great company, but the review ratings (over 200 of them) look too good to be true for a kitchen supplier - 93% rating!
I believe you have to be a verified customer, and rate them with a card supplied by the contractor, so should I take their reviews with a smaller pinch of salt than I normally take with online reviews?
I also checked other Dreamdoors franchises elsewhere in the country and - yes - it's 90 to 95% all round.
Like I say, I have no good reason to doubt them, but......

Richard_Overton_2911

All of these types of websites need to be taken with a huge pinch of salt. When you have a shceme where someone pays money to subscribe then straight away they have a vested interest and cannot be considered as impartial and in the case of Checkatrade its around £600 per year.

Would using Checkatrade etc to source tradesmen/companies guarantee I as a customer get a really good job at a competitive price or as a tradesman does it guarantee I will be paid for the work I've carried out and the answer to both questions is "No" there are no guarantees. Personally If at all possible I would rely on word of mouth to source companies rather than any of these schemes.

The vast majority of good tradesmen don't need to use Checkatrade etc.

phill99

I run a property maintenance company and have been on a number of these sites (historically). Most are just a glorified Yellow Pages.


However, Checkatrade is the only one that actually checks that the reviews are correct. One of my sub contractors asks me to fill on a feedback form which I thin post off. I always get a phone call or email asking to verify the comments / feedback.


So they are probably the best in that sector in terms of verification.

BananaRepublic

You need to remember that when using CheckATrade you are not the customer. The trade is the customer, and you are the product. In other words, CheckATrade charge the trade and in return they offer them potential customers. It is in CheckATrades interest to make the trades look as good as possible. For example, when you get the review card after the work is completed, the questions are phrased in such a way that it is hard not to give a high review, in terms of the number of points out of ten, or whatever the scale used.

Does it guarantee a good job? No. I used CheckATrade to source a bathroom fitter, and the work was so poor that I threw them out after a couple of days. For example wall tiles were overlapping the coving at the top of the walls. CheckATrade reviewed the work and concluded it was fine. Trading Standards then intervened and concluded that the work was not of an acceptable standard, and I eventually got compensation, albeit after many months of fighting with the trades. In short they were incompetent.

I did review them on the CheckATrade web site, but a day later the review disappeared. The trades claimed they could not respond because one of them had suffered a death in the family. So CheckATrade hid the review. A month or so later it appeared along with a response from the trade, which was basically a pack of lies. The only way I could remove the lies was to remove my review. Had you read the response, you would have concluded that I was unreasonable, and the trade was decent. Trading Standards proved that was not the case.

Latly the only reason a trade would use CheckATrade is because they cannot get enough work by word of mouth. Now this might be that they are new, and have not established a reputation. Or it might be because they have established a reputation, a bad one! Of course there might be other reasons, but not having a good reputation is the most common.

In my view CheckATrade are a bunch of [censored for obvious legal reasons]. I would never ever get a a trade by using CheckATrade. Never. And I would be wary of any trade on their books even though many are good.

Furts

A neighbour had Dreamdoors do out their kitchen. It was an extortionate price, and the job was a disaster area from start to finish. The days quoted for work extended to months of twoing and froing, ongoing defects, broken items, useless workers ...

But all round why would any savvy person allow a franchised outfit of sales folks to be let loose in their kitchen? The particular neighbour is not known for their common sense, nor lifting a finger to be proactive, nor inspect, nor manage, nor anything really. Which means Dreamdoors took them for ride. Eventually all the defective replacement doors got sorted but Dreamdoors had an excuse up their sleeve. They said the endless problems with the worktops were to be expected because they only specialised in doors. Worktops were outside their area of expertise! When one considers that they sub contracted the worktops one can see how bizarre and incompetent the whole situation was!

Take this as a gentle warning!

PatriciaMarchand

Frustrating check a trade, trust the traders and others....
I end up having almost a nervous breakdown, the last trader got from them changed my gutters at the back and since then not been able to open my windows.
Other incidents include a trader who asked me for a deposit and never came back had to threaten him to get my money back, one who came to change a small wooden roof that felt off in the same night, and so many others.....
The worst is that they say their traders are vetted. Reviews I posted are not there, as I learnt you cannot post the true, the 'forbidden true' so you cannot tell other victims to be careful.
I just found out this morning as been told by a trader I contacted because I posted what I felt on their facebook page they have blacked me on the list of traders to use.... does not matter I will avoid any check a trade or trust the traders.... I have lots of home improvements to do and even if I have to pay more I will use large companies.

PatriciaMarchand

ask for references and check those references to make sure they are not their friends. I learnt my lessons I no longer use them. I only now use large companies who have been in trade for many years as it is dangerous, trust me, to use apprentices, good if they can be managed properly but on their own it is a no no no.

Kjames

Checkatrade really are a joke, I’ve never had a good tradesmen from there and they now give them fake numbers . So they can just disappear if the work is sub standard.

Ganga

As has been said by most people,word of mouth is best,if others have used a company and the work was good the chances are yours will be as well.

treecol

Do a Google search for the Watchdog expose of Checkatrade - a real eye opener. I wouldn't use anyone on there for a number of reasons.
1: the Watchdog article
2: they called me to say my name had been given by a trader we had used who wanted to join Checkatrade and gave us as a reference. I gave said reference and was then asked if I was self employed. I asked about the procedure to advertise and was told to " Just give 6 initial references, don't worry if you don't have any as you can ask family and friends to give you 6" I explained that would be a bit biased surely "No, we tell everyone to do that, and if you need to top up your references when you've been on Checkatrade for a while, just ask them to provide more but use different names".:shocked::shocked:
3: If you book one of their traders to come out and provide a quote, should they fail to turn up or are very late, you cannot leave any feedback about that on their
Listing.

All that is just for starters, have heard lots of horror stories from people who've used the site.