Rated People website

baldelectrician

My own opinion- not mentioning RP as I have dealt with them in a previous post.
Use a tradesperson who has word of mouth- call your local trading standards and ask if a trader is known to them (they might me known in a positive light having rescued someone from a problem).

antrobus

No_hit_Sherlock wrote: »

Acheivable, only needs 10 50k extensions for the half million and 100 for 5 million, depending how long he was on there for

Achievable? Maybe? But my betting would be that whoever made that update to Wikipedia either had fat fingers or couldn't count. (And in any case, the update was undone, and isn't there any more.)

Killick got done for a £1.5 m fraud. Although Killick himself disputed this figure, and said it was only £573,000. He got five years.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-29744900

More to the point, he did indeed get his work though ratedpeople.com. Of course, as ratedpeople point out; it does not claim to vouch for the tradesmen on its site, and makes it clear that it is important for people to make independent checks before hiring someone.

Which would lead me to conclude that there is no point to ratedpeople.

wealdroam

No_hit_Sherlock wrote: »

Acheivable, only needs 10 50k extensions for the half million and 100 for 5 million, depending how long he was on there for

But for £100million?

That's two thousand £50k extensions.
At (say) one a month, that's one hundred and sixty five years work.

Perhaps he did one a week - a more reasonable 38 years.

Was Rated People running in 1977?

timdf911

That's another problem with Rated People - very difficult if not impossible to post a negative review as it would also damage the reputation of RP as well.
As has been mentioned many times - avoid RP like the plague and only rely on word of mouth references.

paul2louise

I had some work done on my roof 2 years ago to repair holes made by birds nesting. I got a tradesman from Rated People to come and fix it. The birds came and nested again only a couple of months later. So i tried to contact the trademan to see if he would complete the job he hadnt done properly. He wanted more money so i decided i had been conned. I did create a complaint with rated people but it came to nothing.

Then last night i get an email from someone asking if i had had work done on my roof and can i have your phone number. I was a bit hesitant at first and after a few emails decided to give him an old mobile number.

He says that the tradesman used to work for him and he wantsbto put right the work that wasnt done properly. I said it had been done by someone else. He wanted to offer me a goodwill gesture of £50 and wanted my bank account number and sort code?

So not only was i conned by first guy and now i am being targeted by scammer who got hold of my email and wanted my bank details.

I have reported this to tradding standards and made a further complaint to rated people

baldelectrician

I had a call from a lady who had an electrical company through rated people


This company were registered through NICIEC for solar panel installs but not as Approved Electrical contractors.


There were lots of things such as

• Large holes in consumer unit you could stick your fingers in
• The electricity board fuse carrier had been damaged
• There were live wires dangling where the wall lights were to go
• There were 2 sockets hanging off the wall (exposed connections)

The woman had no come back through NICIEC (as they were not advertising as approved contractors)


She has home legal cover so is pursuing things through that route

robatwork

paul2louise wrote: »

He says that the tradesman used to work for him and he wantsbto put right the work that wasnt done properly. I said it had been done by someone else. He wanted to offer me a goodwill gesture of £50 and wanted my bank account number and sort code?

What do you think he can do with your bank account and sort code?

This is information that a lot of people have - everyone you have ever sent a cheque to, plus anyone who makes payments to you. How do you know he is a scammer?

paul2louise

robatwork wrote: »

What do you think he can do with your bank account and sort code?

This is information that a lot of people have - everyone you have ever sent a cheque to, plus anyone who makes payments to you. How do you know he is a scammer?

I posted this question elsewhere on the consumers rights section as I wasn't sure what to do. People said with bank details they can set up direct debits from your account and that if he was genuine he wouldn't mind paying by PayPal. He hasn't paid me anything and he hasnt sent me his company details he promised and the 10 year guarantee on the lead flashing work that his so called colleague had done. So I have given him all week to respond and now I have reported it to action fraud.

robatwork

paul2louise wrote: »

I posted this question elsewhere on the consumers rights section as I wasn't sure what to do. People said with bank details they can set up direct debits from your account and that if he was genuine he wouldn't mind paying by PayPal. He hasn't paid me anything and he hasnt sent me his company details he promised and the 10 year guarantee on the lead flashing work that his so called colleague had done. So I have given him all week to respond and now I have reported it to action fraud.

Well that does sound dodgy - to bring it back to topic, I now don't ever visit rated people, trust a trader, or any website where there is an exchange of money for a trader to get registered or that is easily abused. Not one word of one review on those sites are to be trusted.

It's a shame as the theory of those sites to help people find traders is great.

So the usual rules apply:
1) Personal recommendation
2) Trading standards approved
3) Which local

Most good builders for example have so much work from 1) that they don't need to advertise or set themselves up on RP.

paul2louise

robatwork wrote: »

Well that does sound dodgy - to bring it back to topic, I now don't ever visit rated people, trust a trader, or any website where there is an exchange of money for a trader to get registered or that is easily abused. Not one word of one review on those sites are to be trusted.

It's a shame as the theory of those sites to help people find traders is great.

So the usual rules apply:
1) Personal recommendation
2) Trading standards approved
3) Which local

Most good builders for example have so much work from 1) that they don't need to advertise or set themselves up on RP.

Good points, I had tried to find a roofer locally and they were all busy or not got a ladder long enough as I am in 3 storey house. I did eventually find a man via the local street life and he came on good recommendation after I saw the work he did to repair a ladies house who have been a victim of an out of control car. I was very happy with him. I won't be using any of these websites again.