Rated People website

AquaJen

We were not vetted at all for Rated People, just filled out a form on the website and pay a quarterly charge and a per job fee. Checkatrade were a lot more thorough, we were interviewed at our office, had to provide qualification certificates, insurance, company registration etc. Then they requested at least 6 written references before they even listed us.

timdf911

wary wrote: »

Have you asked them the reason why it was deleted?

Of course the REAL reason doesn't take too much working out, but it would be interesting to see how the wriggle & squirm their way out of it!

So RatedPeople did actually contact me via e mail to say my negative feedback for Premier Loft and Extension of Southport had been removed because of the on going court case.

They said once the court case was resolved they may re-instate the feedback.

I pointed out to them that they had already been told the court found in my favour on May 14th and I had sent them a link to a copy of the county court judgement and that the debt is now with a collections agency.

So in my opinion their reason for deleting the feedback is invalid.

I also pointed out to them that Gordon Smith the owner of Premier Loft and Extension has a trail of failed companies behind him, some of his 'employees' have criminal records and his company registration is likely fraudulent.

I asked them point blank is this really the type of contractor you want on your site ?

I'm awaiting their reply - but not holding my breath as so far it seems they don't care about protecting consumers from rogue traders - it's all about the money from contractors.

Finally I'd like to say that I'm sure the vast majority of contractors on RatedPeople do a good job - it's just that RatedPeople needs to be much more vigorous screening out the bad ones and allow consumers to post accurate negative feedback when circumstances justify it.

timdf911

AquaJen wrote: »

We were not vetted at all for Rated People, just filled out a form on the website and pay a quarterly charge and a per job fee. Checkatrade were a lot more thorough, we were interviewed at our office, had to provide qualification certificates, insurance, company registration etc. Then they requested at least 6 written references before they even listed us.

Sounds like RatedPeople could learn a few things from Checkatrade to filter out some contractors.

Of course this may explain why RatedPeople could be a magnet for those contractors with little experience or poor backgrounds !

Leif

I got two companies from CheckATrade. The first started a bathroom refit, after I paid a £3,000 deposit, and I threw them out after one week. I then spent a month getting surveys done, to determine the quality of the work. These confirmed serious faults. CheckATrade acknowledged the first few emails, but then refused to even respond when I sent them the surveys. The fitters simply said I was out to make money from them, despite being left with a bathroom with no functioning bath, no WC (a bare soil pipe) and no sink. After 2 months new people refitted the bathroom to a good standard. I started preparing documents for a court case, and complained to CheckATrade. They claimed to carry out an investigation, the result of which was that I owned further money to the trades, but they were prepared to leave the bill at £3k. After I sent a notice of legal action Trading Standards contacted me. Turns out they were on the Buy With Confidence scheme administered by Trading Standards. Anyway, they agreed the work was below the legally acceptable standard, I was entitled to throw them out, and I was due compensation amounting to the cost to make the bathroom good to standard originally proimised, minus the money I had not paid them i.e. total price minus deposit, which was £2k. It took several months but they eventually agreed to pay back £1,800, leaving me out of pocket, but covering most costs.

As far as I can see CheckATrade put absolutely no pressure on the trades to compensate me, and allowed them to continue as a member. I posted a bad review, which took weeks to appear, and then it was pulled as soon as it appeared, and then many weeks later it reappeared with an attached response from the trades, which contained numerous false statements, which made me look bad. I showed CheckATrade letters from the fitters proving that some of the statements were false, and asking them for proof of an allegation made against me that I prevented the trades from examining the bathroom e.g. independent survey. CheckATrade refused to remove the false statements. All in all I would never touch CheckATrade. I know there are very good trades on the site, but there are also some very bad trades, and it seems that CheckATrade do nothing to remove the bad ones, as long as they are not openly criminal e.g. not paying tax, not having a registered company etc.

angryandy wrote: »

This is a website that puts you in touch with tradespeople. the idea is that you put a review of the work done so that other people can gauge the competence of the tradesperson. The only problem is once you have put a rating for someone they wont change it for any reason. This causes problems when you put a good rating for a job done and then a month later it all starts to fall apart, as has just happened to me. I have spoken to them and they will not do anything about it. If you do use it make sure it is for very simple jobs that can't go wrong a few weeks later. I've just had a tiled floor laid and the tradesmen wont relay it after it has gone wrong and there is no way i can let other customers know.:mad:

I agree. It is a totally flawed model that favours bad trades and punishes good ones. The bad trades do their best to flatter you, and do a job that looks okay. If it falls apart the week after you post the review, tough. The good trade does a better job, but gets the same review. Or they do not even get the job because they charge more, since they do it properly.

Get trades by personal recommendation. Avoid these trade directories, they do no-one any favours.

tonyleech

just read through most of this thread and it seems as though this whole business of finding contractors through websites such as RatedPeople is a minefield.
I think I'll rely on personal recommendations as others have suggested here.
It's a shame that websites such as these continue to sucker in consumers and that good contractors get tarred with the same brush as dodgy ones :-(

SuzieSue

AquaJen wrote: »

As a trade, I have requested that a false negative rating be removed from Rated people and they did it immediately without checking on it at all which surprised my but it was a good thing for us. It was someone who we went out to quote for, emailed a quote the next day which was acknowledged by the customer (by return email) and they left us a really nasty review saying we didn't even bother to turn up.
They were very quick to remove it as I said if it wasn't taken off I would cancel my membership.

Proof that all Rated People care about is the membership fees from the traders.

dacouch

I've set up a website for consumers to find tradesmen, I'm happy to list negative reviews in fact all of the reviews of tradesmen on my website are negative.

https://www.beratedpeople.co.uk

transient

dacouch wrote: »

I've set up a website for consumers to find tradesmen, I'm happy to list negative reviews in fact all of the reviews of tradesmen on my website are negative.

www.beratedpeople.co.uk

get a website cannot be found dacouch, on Virgin ISP

thriftymanc

transient wrote: »

get a website cannot be found dacouch, on Virgin ISP

I think it was a joke...

Herongull

With any forum where people can leave comments about goods and services, you need to think about how the website earns its money.

If it is coming from the suppliers paying to registering on the website, then draw your own conclusions.:eek:

If the website has other sources of income (eg small adds) and the suppliers are not paid for being mentioned, then ratings and opinions expressed may be worth reading.

Tripadviser and Amazon comments are worth reading. Obviously do not take each comment as gospel. Some people commenting could be unreasonable or spiteful or else are friends of the seller, but if there are consistent patterns in the feedback, then it probably relates to a genuine issue.