Rated People website

Sparks59

metzamillion wrote: »

I am a tradesman and have used rated people in the past a great deal.

To begin with it was a very good and fair system and if you kept your quotes keen , turned up on time and looked professional you would win some of the leads purchased.

Unfortunately ' Rated People' have become too big and too greedy. The price they now charge for the leads is hugely excessive and they try anything to not re-credit a poor lead.

Also they automatically changed my membership to 'annual' rather than 'quarterly' and took £120 direct from my account for the privilege .
I suspect the reason for this is that most tradespeople 'see through' rated people and cancel their membership after the first 6 months.

Rated People and such like should remember that without us tradespeople they cannot exist. They need us more than we need them.

My advice - get your van sign written , get a good optimised website and avoid these 'trade parasites'.

I agree with all you say. They are not only too expensive but are not interested when you report a dead lead. No way of getting your money back when someone posts a lead and decides they don't want the work or the phone details etc are invalid. I have a full 5 star feedback rating and a number of happy customers but the amount it has cost me to obtain these probably outweighs the benefits. Also, for the homeowner, they surely don't get a fair deal because if you get 1 in 4 jobs you go for (stats supplied by rated people) you have to add on the cost of buying all 4 and apply it to the one job you get. Simple maths, no brainer really. I found recently that only 1 in 4 is a valid job lead so the huge cost of each job outstrips the profit in each individual job. It's a good idea in principle but as the saying goes 'I'm out'. Rated people need to rethink their strategy because the traders who do an honest job will disappear.

Sparks59

antrobus wrote: »

Hollydays didn't state that such a charge would not be 'fair'. They offered the opinion that it would not be a "good idea".



I'm reasonably certain that the effect of such a charge would indeed be to save you a considerable amount of time. Faced with a "small fee" for requesting a quote from a tradesman, I imagine that 99.99% of all consumers would go elsewhere to find a tradesman.

I think the issue is that it is too easy for the general public to raise a job with no checks whatsoever. I think it would help matters if they had to valid their phone number with a text response before the job is created. I get too many dead leads with invalid phone numbers. You never know if the email address is valid if you get no reply. I called rated people and they said they know that the email addresses are valid because they get automated responses.... Rubbish, cos you can turn that facility off in your email settings. The conversion rate of 1 in 7 sounds about right to me and the claims that rated people make about profit vs cost are wildly out. I bought 2 leads the other day at approx £25 each (inc VAT). One was dead, no such phone and no email response. The other said I was the second person to call from rated people and the job had been given to the first. I checked the status and it showed I was the only purchaser. How can I be the only purchaser but second to call? Rang RP and was told I was indeed the only person to buy the lead. Then within a couple of minutes the job was no longer for sale. Hmm, really! All seems a bit fishy to me.

dacouch

Sparks59 wrote: »

I think the issue is that it is too easy for the general public to raise a job with no checks whatsoever. I think it would help matters if they had to valid their phone number with a text response before the job is created. I get too many dead leads with invalid phone numbers. You never know if the email address is valid if you get no reply. I called rated people and they said they know that the email addresses are valid because they get automated responses.... Rubbish, cos you can turn that facility off in your email settings. The conversion rate of 1 in 7 sounds about right to me and the claims that rated people make about profit vs cost are wildly out. I bought 2 leads the other day at approx £25 each (inc VAT). One was dead, no such phone and no email response. The other said I was the second person to call from rated people and the job had been given to the first. I checked the status and it showed I was the only purchaser. How can I be the only purchaser but second to call? Rang RP and was told I was indeed the only person to buy the lead. Then within a couple of minutes the job was no longer for sale. Hmm, really! All seems a bit fishy to me.

A company can receive confirm an email has been opened even with the customer turning off the facility

bluep

timdf911 wrote: »

bluep

be very careful with anyone who replies to you from RP - especially if they have no feedback.
Checking them out at companies house is a good idea, but they may have some reason as to why they're not listed.

I recently had the misfortune to use someone from RP only to find out later that besides being a 'cowboy' with shoddy work, they had a serious criminal record as did some of their helpers.

You really don't know who you're letting into your home unless you do the background checks yourself.

RP does no vetting in any way shape or form - all they want is their fees.

Thanks for this. The tradesman in this case has over 20 feedback (and all good). He replies to emails promptly, seems polite and keen and has given me his address and phone number but I can't find a trace of him outside of the RP website - no other presence on the net or yellow pages etc... and the name given on RP (the company name) doesn't correspond to any registered company at Companies House although to be fair it doesn't say Ltd after it so he might just be a sole trader.

Doesn't bode well though particularly as its structural work that we want done. I think I will let him come round and quote though (when husband is also there) as if he has paid for the lead it feels mean not to give him a fair chance and there might be reasons why.

timdf911

bluep - sounds like a re-run of my experience with somebody from RP - ie they sounded very plausible, had good feedback but actually had multiple issues they covered up very nicely.

Plus the feedback was 'manufactured'.

If you do go ahead with them I'd suggest only a very small payment up front then nothing else till the job is done.

Plus as it's structual work you're having done - make sure an architect is involved and get it signed off.

The cowboy I used didn't use the right size of RSJ !

You could always try googling his address and see what shows up - assuming it really is his address ;-)

dacouch

bluep wrote: »

Thanks for this. The tradesman in this case has over 20 feedback (and all good). He replies to emails promptly, seems polite and keen and has given me his address and phone number but I can't find a trace of him outside of the RP website - no other presence on the net or yellow pages etc... and the name given on RP (the company name) doesn't correspond to any registered company at Companies House although to be fair it doesn't say Ltd after it so he might just be a sole trader.

Doesn't bode well though particularly as its structural work that we want done. I think I will let him come round and quote though (when husband is also there) as if he has paid for the lead it feels mean not to give him a fair chance and there might be reasons why.

I could join Rated People tomorrow and quickly have reviews and ratings from as many people as I wanted. It would cost be about £300 for ten good reviews.

By the way I'm not a builder in any way shape or form.

The Internet is very easy to manipulate, you would just need to get "friends" to post made up jobs and then I would bid for them and in them. There's no need for me to do the jobs just pay rated people for the lead. My "friends" could then post glowing reviews.

bluep

Thanks guys. I might let him come round and quote if he gets back in touch/follows up (just so if he is genuine, then he doesn't feel he's wasted his money on buying the lead) but will make sure my husband is there and makes it clear that we've got/are getting other quotes from other builders and will consider which one to go with.

dacouch

bluep wrote: »

Thanks guys. I might let him come round and quote if he gets back in touch/follows up (just so if he is genuine, then he doesn't feel he's wasted his money on buying the lead) but will make sure my husband is there and makes it clear that we've got/are getting other quotes from other builders and will consider which one to go with.

Treat a rated people tradesman as you would any other builder who you've had no dealing with and make appropriate checks.

Have you asked friends and family for recommendations.

Make sure you get a landline phone number!

bluep

We've now got 3 recommended builders from friends so more likely to go with one of those (but I don't want this bloke hassling me to give us a quote - so if he gets back in touch, I'll let him quote, if not, then I won't contact him)

jimbobnew

Hello all, I am another tradesman added to the long list of very unhappy rated people members or ex-members. I am a very good sole trader in the painting and decorating sector and I have never had any disputes or bad ratings from any of my customers since I began trading in 2010. If I carried on like rated people do I would have a huge list of very unhappy customers and many county court judgments against me.
They charge us for leads that they do not check, anyone could post up a job lead with incorrect details, the phone numbers and e-mails could all work but that doesn't mean they will get you through to someone that would like a quote for work. Rated People sell us these leads without checking that they are genuine, when you try to report a bad lead they tell us things like "we cannot guarantee how a customer will behave after posting a job lead" and "we cant issue you a credit if the e-mail doesn't bounce" what the hell! If I went to a customers house and quoted for a job, got accepted for the job, took the money up front and then never turned up to do the work, that is pretty much what rated people are doing to the trades men that they have buying the job leads.They are ripping us off left right and center, how do we know that they haven't got people up and down the country posting dodgy job leads up so that they can sell them for huge profits. This system is completely wrong and I would say they are the biggest cowboy traders around not to mention all the un-vetted ones they have as members, they have also told me that "its due to the high level of abuse" (one can only assume from these cowboy traders) that they have had to remove the re-crediting service for bad leads. Why are they punishing the honest traders for the cowboy traders actions. They haven't been helpfull in the slightest, they have managed to wind me up to the point that have spent all weekend investigating other tradesmens experiences so I can try and get enough people together to do something about it. Its completely wrong what they are doing and they should be made to pay for it! Also anyone reading this, please look out for all the glowing reviews on here as they are all so carefully worded and all by new members to the forum, most likely people that work for rated people. You might want to look at some of there videos on you tube, notice how all the comments are disabled? I think if this company was a fair one they wouldn't be doing their best to cover up all the shocking reviews and experiences that both tradesmen and homeowners have had with this company. They don't care about either of us, they just want their money. Please be aware of using them they will screw you over!