Rated People website

jafsie

I have just been ****** by these scam artists I wish I had seen this "Rated people"scam merchants thread before I fell for it last week.

A plasterer was supposed to come on saturday and sunday to do a job, all he did was dump 4 bags of plaster in my living room and now I'm told he has gone on holiday for 2 weeks.

AVOID THE RATED PEOPLE SITE LIKE THE PLAGUE:mad:

OnTheUp_2-2

denthetiler wrote: »

I am sorry to read that some people may have had trouble with 'tradesmen' from the Rated People webiste. May i clear up some issues. I use this website regulaly to source work for my business and it is one of the most expensive to advertise with. I pay yearly fees, i get charged for txt messages and i pay a lot to quote for jobs that i may or may not get. I doubt people are using friends and family as it would cost a fortune to place bids for ficticous jobs. This month alone i have spent almost £120 bidding for jobs. Can i also add that there are a lot of good, very skilled tradesmen around and you have to be prepared to pay for them.

Well what a light bulb moment for me!!!!! I am about to post a new thread about my experience with a Plumbing company, but this post has just made me realise why the plumber tried to trick me out of money.


I will never ever use Ratedpeople or Checkatrade again. For one simple reason, you can only post a review if you have gone ahead with the work, but what about those who chose to not go ahead because of concerns about the tradesmens prices, ethics and attitude!

Jrccr21

I signed up to RatedPeople in January 2010 when work was a little quiet. I paid my £10 subscription charge. My first job ( which was a free lead) was for a landscaping project. I won the job and in return was paid £2850. I've bought 8 jobs off there in which 3 of them I've completed. The other 4 I didn't hear back from the customer. But even so I am still in profit here. I can't complain about the service, although I am still waiting for my free job that they promised me.

And in return I have been called back 3 times to complete other jobs for 1 of those customers. When things are quiet they are good to keep you going.

Jason

liamthebuilder wrote: »

Hi Kdr,
I have used rated people since going self employed 6 months ago. The leads have cost me on average £12.
What they have done for me though is help build up a base of customers who will pass on your information to friends and family, give you good presence on the web and provide valuable leads.
To give you an idea I have probably spent around £300 on leads with them, but this has provided me with work to the total of around £3000.
It's not great value for money, after all it's another 10% of my earnings gone, but it really helped widen my client base.
I haven't spent a penny with them in two months now as the personal recommendations and additional jobs have kept me going.
It sounds like they could really help you boost the number of jobs you are getting. It is definately worth it for the 3 month period as in that time, assuming you are good and willing to invest in the leads, you will add a lot of new clients.


despite not buying any leads from them i have just renewed my membership as the ratings give me good credibility with new customers, I've even linked it through to my own website

Hope this info helps

compac5414

I too had a bad experience with this lot.Had one of their "builders" do some work for me and never finished it after i stupidly gave him most of the money first.I then left negative feedback on their website but it wasn't on there for long before they removed it and it wasn't anything abusive or racist.So if they remove negative feedback then how are you to know the cowboys the ones to avoid.The whole point is to be able to weed out the ones who have done runners bad workmanship etc.Its very rare to find anything negative most of their tradesmen have at least 4 star ratings awarded by their clients.Check their website and you'll see the reason all their "tradesmen" customers are so pleased is they won't publish feedback from people like me who got done and wish to warn other people about these dodgy types.They will give your details to any tom !!!!!! or harry then when a customer complains after getting done just remove the negative feedback.See for yourself and ask yourself how come all the feedback is so positive.Better of to look elseware if you can it might cost more to use Rated People in the long run as you'll have to factor in the cost of paying someone to rip it up and start again if you get done.So now you know this interesting fact about Rated People do you fancy using one of their "Five star" fabulous fitters.Be careful with this lot caution advised.By the way the cowboy who done me was Kashif Sheikh from Hayes.If you come across him tell him you have changed your mind and tell him he is a wanted man.

roskers

There aren't any guarantees that the tradespeople you get through RP are any better, so its always a case of "buyer beware". However, I find the system great for the jobs we've had done around the house - from small wiring jobs to bigger projects. I found that the biggest challenge before using RP was actually getting a tradesperson to turn up and quote, and had quite a few let me down. Now I just post the job and I get responses often within an hour. They tend to be more reliable, as they are paying for the privilege of quoting. Don't be afraid to turn them down if you cannot get references or if the job is too expensive - always try to get three quotes (even from your local builder as well as from the site) and be aware that some will try to talk you up from the rate you quote for the job on RP. They'll often add 10% to cover their RP fee, naturally. However, I'm really pleased with the work done and am grateful for a system that stops tradespeople from wasting my time.

Cat123456789

I've used rated people and I've been lucky. The people I've met have seemed very genuine, knowledgable and I'm delighted with those doing my kitchen as a result. Obviously, you have to use your gut instinct when they come round to quote......the cowboy will be obvious (prob won't turn up anyway!).

drkofglos

I've strarted a one man gardening business in the last year and would echo liamtehbuilder in my appraisal of them. Yes you could spend a fortune in leads but my average is 9.60 and for jobs I charged from 250-600 for. Yes you could be non rated and be a cowboy ,but no one is going to recommend you if you do a bad job. I've had to be careful how much I spend and sometimes its to easy to click and buy a lead when its a bad one. The only main citicism is that they werne't checking tel nos of customers and that they don't give enough info to be able to decide on leads and they know that I've told them several times. I don't think they are a scam , you don't have to buy the leads One lead cost me £16.00 and I got about £2800 worth of business from it . Ok I may have bought 150 or so on leads that went nowhere but I've been helped by hem.

BEst policy I've found for small business : Buy these leads with care, advertise in selected local mags (especially low cost parish mags) and word of mouth.

barnardelec

am also a trades person using rated people and what a scam it is if you buy a lead and the job turns out to be a fake if you ask for your money back all they say is we will give you a free lead. back this has happend to me over ten times and still will give me a free lead

rit3737

Hello Andy,

I used rated people to find an electrician, to cut a very long story short, I was so disgusted with him I ended up taking him to court. I contacted Rated people, they said sorry, to hear that. I will never use a website, to find a trades man again. If I'm looking for a trader, I forward emails to all my friends, and ask them, if they know of someone, as most people who live in homes, have had similar building problems.

baldelectrician

rit3737 wrote: »

I used rated people to find an electrician, to cut a very long story short, I was so disgusted with him I ended up taking him to court. I contacted Rated people, they said sorry, to hear that. I will never use a website, to find a trades man again. If I'm looking for a trader, I forward emails to all my friends, and ask them, if they know of someone, as most people who live in homes, have had similar building problems.

I now find that most of my work is now word of mouth and repeat business. Things are quieter, but I am still ticking over and paying the bills

I have also managed to cut quite a bit of my advertising budget as some of it is not that good value