Checkatrade,Mybuilder, Myhammer ratedpeople etc etc.. Your views?

[Pete999]

With an Indian buddy, Hi Ho Pound-notes Away

And the Mr Big of the Scam , why it's Mr Homeserve the well known purveyor of Cowboys, and any damaged caused by our Cowboys will be down to you, did I use a pair of Stilt sons to repair your expensive sink tap, well did you Punk?

 

[Toneyz]

With an Indian buddy, Hi Ho Pound-notes Away

Do you mean you've had the cowboys now try the Indians? Didn't we meet them once Pete!

 

[telectrix]

 

[Pete999]

Like to be able to see what is needed or not

 

[South Spark]

I was on CheckaTrade for domestic work up until a year ago and then left as I was pursuing other work.

Anyone still on it? They're pestering me to rejoin and keep dropping the price. Is that a sign the whole thing's gone belly up?

 

[Gavin John Hyde]

Essentially, checkatrade were bought by homeserve. they paid a small fortune for it and coupled with the football sponsorship and other advertising they need to keep plenty of people signed up.
I know they will keep going lower on the price to a point and you do have a certain amount of leverage. the sales team also have targets.
I know people who stayed and the renewal was eye watering, makes insurance firms look honest! A heating engineer/plumber friend of mine swears by it though as he gets tonnes of work and new boilers jobs through it. costs him just over 1k per year.
if you think the amount of work you will get from it justifies the price then go for it.otherwise I would say look at something like ratedpeople and the amount you would be prepared to spend on the checkatrade use for the job leads. not every-bodies cup of tea but can work out. no longer use mybuilder for filling the diary as it has no monthly fees you are up against fly by night tradespeople with a race to the bottom. find ratedpeople much less aggro as you pay say £20 a month and get it back in credit, so weeds a lot of the chancers out.

 

[Baddegg]

Completely agree with you Gavin, my builder is an absolute joke I looked into it but worked out pretty quickly that it was just a race to the bottem so I wanted no part of that.....I’ve mates tell me stories of being shortlisted and paying and then the supposed customer doesn’t reply when contacted, very costly when dealing with loft conversions etc at £30 a go....

 

[peterhyper]

Homeserve/Checkatrade will start your first year at a lower price, but once you've licked customers rears to get great feedback over the next year then homeserve/Checkatrade will significantly increase your fees.

I did have a nosey on their website and was suprised how many new electricians have joined and are in my local area (far more than there used to be). Almost all have recently joined and very few have been on there beyond last year (a fair few with less than 10 feedbacks). When homeserve took it over they got so greedy that many loyal tradespeople who had been with them for years weren't prepared to be ripped off and left.

I haven't noticed any adverts lately for trustatrader, but I also had a nosey on their website and hardly any electricians local to me on there compared to Checkatrade, and quite a few recently joined ones. I guess trustatrader is cheaper than Checkatrade, but no idea if that's worth joining.

I was on my builder for 2 or 3 weeks and that was long enough.

 

[MJPD29]

In a nutshell, no

 

[Dan]

Got a new thread going on this here: CheckaTrade | MyBuilder | RatedPeople | TrustaTrader etc - Who's with what and why? - https://www.electriciansforums.net/threads/checkatrade-mybuilder-ratedpeople-trustatrader-etc-whos-with-what-and-why.181253/

 

[JK-Electrical]

I’ve mates tell me stories of being shortlisted and paying and then the supposed customer doesn’t reply when contacted, very costly when dealing with loft conversions etc at £30 a go....

This used to happen to me quite often too when I used MyBuilder. In almost every instance, it was women who wasted my time and money. Nothing new there though lol.

I haven't used MyBuilder in 10 months and have no intention of ever doing so again. Apart from the timewasters, the site is absolutely hoaching with unqualified and under-qualified people offering to carry-out electrical work for ridiculously low prices. The race to the bottom is ran at a very fast pace indeed on this website, that's for sure.

 

[Pete999]

Dan I used a Plumber recommended by Rated People, complete waste of space, more damage than repairs, promised a report for my insurance, more interested in following me to the cash point to collect his call out fee, no contact since, a waste of fresh air on my book. crap all up my carpets, Wife in tears never gain will I use that scam.

 

[peterhyper]

I see that trustatrader is advertising on TV. I am curious what their annual fee is from anyone who is with them (I could call but I can't listen to their bulls@@t sales pitch). Do they also work the same underhand way checkatrade do, where they increase your fees on your next renewal?