Bark.com reviews

alex2003

I have previously posted an ad on "bark.com" which should be a site were builder "bid" for jobs, and you have the luxury of choosing a builder with great reviews to do a good job for an honest £.
Or so it seems. 
Has anyone looked into the reviews ? I will just point to one of the builders that has contacted me as this one was extremely obvious  ( BTW, if you are posting on that website , be prepared for call upon calls , they will spam you until you succumb. ) 

Page 2: Pay attention to the name , Jeremy.

Page 3 : another 2 reviews from Jeremy. He is unsure if he is Pattinson with a B or a P 

And another one , the 4th on the 4th page , same date. 28 of November looks like a lucrative day. 
Needless to say , after a series of such builder frantically calling me , I have started the alleyway myself. 

Wolfy_2

I am very suspicious of the stuff on Bark. I posted an ad and got a call from someone who sounded a bit shady and seemed to be telling me things I wanted to hear and that he could do the job tomorrow. He also kept spamming me with calls when I hadn't followed up with him. When I asked him the name of his company he said one but on Bark no one by that name was shortlisted just someone with a personal name (different to the name he had given me as his first name) and no reviews who had been on the site a few weeks. When I called Bark to report this they said they don't vet anyone but would 'note it' down. Didn't seem that concerned. So beware Bark seems a bit like a lotto.

Deb2025

I was scammed by a roofing specialist that was recommended by Bark.com they do not undertake any checks - was scammed out of £950 for shoddy work done by RC Traditional Guttering and roofing.  When I complained they took their site down 

Cornucopia

As a trader advertising on Bark, I am very suspicious of the service.   From my perspective, the quality of leads is extremely poor (with most of the potential customers never responding to calls or emails).   It simply doesn't seem plausible that a potential customer turns from an enthusiastic enquirer to a non-responsive dead-end in a matter of a few hours.

I've also heard of potential customers being bombarded with contacts, even though the system is supposedly designed to limit the release of details to 5 traders per job.  

I'm also not convinced by their customer service approach.   I think their business model whereby the product is potential customer leads is flawed, and if their customer-base genuinely is as fickle as it appears to be, I can't see it ever working.

mikeyranson

Bark is a con and scam. I have had many emails back and fore but they not interested.

Bark for sure has fake leads. these being advertisers seeking trades people for jobs that require doing.I have used bark twice now on two seperate purchases of credits. I have spent somewhere around £250 in purchasing credits for both occassions and received zero responses from potential customers.
I have an established website and social media pages, all showing high quality work in my field so plenty of evidence for a potential customer to view and at least offer me an opportunity to come and quote.
In theory, the law of average says at least 1 in 3 should have responded. To have zero responses, is certianly worth looking into. I would say that would be twenty applications i have made to leads and zero response. doesnt add up. it appears that reading the other posts here, i am not the only one.
I recall on both occassions, when my credits ran out and i was no longer using bark for leads, i got messages from bark to say that customers have requested me to contact them, but of coarse, to contact them you need to purchase credits.
There are different levels of credits, the more you spend, the more credits and freebies you get but for trial use, i tried the cheaper option. Maybe you pay cheap, you get screwed over. give your money for the top band, then maybe you are worthy and will get genuine leads.
There are reporters stating that they get good leads from bark but for me, it has been a scam.
Bark has refused to refund me. on top of that, they are actually ignoring the question. they answer all my other queries but refund, nothing.
this is my honest opinion from hands on experience. None of these platforms are trustworthy. i gave bark a go as i had experienced the other main two which was pretty much the same.

GDB2222

From a customer's perspective, a different website but the same type of thing:
I advertised for a cleaner.
There were so many responses!
I had specifically said I needed references, but none of the responses mentioned that.
I found it impossible to sort out the wheat from the chaff, and I gave up and resorted to using word of mouth instead.