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

[Johnuk]

no there not, just a waste of money

 

[LlandrilloSpark]

Rated People & My Builder did very well for me when times were quiet, I had to travel but never lost a week day, not all my jobs were from these companies but like i said they infilled when times were quiet

 

[chrish_1977]

I was asked if I wanted to join checkatrade, when I asked what certs they wanted from me, they didn't want to see any, so told them no thanks

 

[bigbaddave]

I signed up to rated people.. 50 / 50 if id recommend it to anyone, Got couple of bits from it but also got a lot of time wasters that cost me few quid buying there details for me to call and not be able to quote.. Although your supposed to receive a refund that's not always the case.

Go for the free trial and then make your own decision..

 

[craigday]

Thanks all

 

[Racing Green Bo]

I've been with checkatrade for years and they are a very professionaly run business, not cheap, but easily pays for itself and allows you to prove you are an honest reliable tradesman even to potential customers who have not found you through their website. Unlike a previous post I had to jump through quite a few hoops to prove qualifications, references, insurances etc. before they would take me on. One advantage of checkatrade to the customer over some of the others is that in an emergency situation they have your number instantly from your profile. The others require a lead buying process first not good for a customer stood in a cold dark house. I do well because I am one of the few Domestic Installers in my region. If you are down south (where they started years ago with their original marketing) there's a lot more of the same trades in a concentrated area. Hope this helps.

 

[craigday]

Yes helps loads thank you

 

[LlandrilloSpark]

Years???, Christ , fledgling company I thought!, never heard of them until about 3 months ago, are you sure you don't work for them!??

 

[Racing Green Bo]

I know I should be on commission! Can only speak from personal experience, have gained some decent jobs and lots of returning customers as a result of checkatrade. I've been with them for over 4 years.

 

[markythesparky]

i used one of these sites some 8 years or so ago and found it to be totally worthless. I had a call from my brother last night who told me that his brother in law swears by Mybuilder. I looked at its t an c's but it looks the same if not worse than the one I tried. Whats you experience with these sites?

 

[stuartcourt]

I know plumbers who have done ok but think its luck of draw, lots of time wasters on there who just want a price with no real intention of doing the work

 

[chilliwilly]

As per ususal with any advertising, the majority of your enquiries will certainly be time wasters, canvassers, other sites asking if you want to be on their site, folk asking you if you can do an inspection on a house their interested in buying, then ringing you back and asking you if the house owner might prefer a niccy or other endorsed spark to do it? How much will it cost to rewire their house without you coming out to it, do you give discounts to single parents, will you give some money to bogus charities, do you want a loan, do you want a debt recovering, etc.

But on the other hand you will get some work out of it once you've dealt with all the non business related calls, when I used to advertise in Y.P. and T.L. over 6 years ago, I worked it out at around 18% genuine business enquiries with about a 40% turnaround, roughly about 8% of total enquiries. As there is always someone that doesn't know of a bonafide trades person.

I suppose you could buy a pay as you talk sim and a cheap phone and use that as a contact number, if the enquiries are non business related and sickening you. Then dish the sims and the advertising, and carry on with your word of mouth, and the timewasters will almost cease to exist.

 

[LlandrilloSpark]

As with rated people I've done well out of my builder, fees are lot less than rated people , I've had about 8 jobs in 2 years and 5 of them rewires

 

[D Skelton]

As far as I'm aware, MyBuilder is the only one out of the lot of them that was set up by a tradesman for tradesmen. They only charge a (small) fee I believe when you actually get work. The leads you go for are like a quid each or something?? Compared to the £50-£60 leads you pay for decent jobs on other type of scam sites, a quid I could stomach lol.

I've only heard good things about MyBuilder. The complete opposite however is true with regards to the others.

 

[GLENNSPARK]

As far as I'm aware, MyBuilder is the only one out of the lot of them that was set up by a tradesman for tradesmen. They only charge a (small) fee I believe when you actually get work. The leads you go for are like a quid each or something?? Compared to the £50-£60 leads you pay for decent jobs on other type of scam sites, a quid I could stomach lol.

I've only heard good things about MyBuilder. The complete opposite however is true with regards to the others.

yeah damion...i know when i was working for this guy the chuffin phone never stopped ringing with offers of joining this site or that site....
his replys were short n sweet...on the lines of f**** o**...i`m busy...lol...

 

[Hudzspark]

Updated info for you if its useful. Signed up with MB and MyHammer, kept going in keen to win some work and build a good rating up. Shortlisted for a rewire and told by customer I have it and wants to start first week of Jan, pushed my price to bare min though but I am happy as you have to start somewhere. Got another job of mybuilder today, sent me 20 miles away to fix socket and test rcd, landlord sends her phone number but says I can't call because she is on holiday (what's the point in giving me the number) she gives me the address and says it's urgent because she thinks it may be dangerous. I drop another job to go over there and sort it as she is a landlord and may have more work down the line. Turned up at the right address and banged on door for a few minutes, no answer! About to leave when some young fat kid opens the door and doesn't have a cue what I'm on. I say no your landlord booked me, is this such and such address? He says yeah this is the address but the council own this place! Emailed and text the women who booked it, no reply!!! What a load of @$%#. Quoted over 20 jobs on myhammer and no replies from any and still showing active, questioning whether they are posting them themselves tbh as some of them I would have got for sure with the pricing.

 

[SPARTYKUS]

I shudder at the thought of these do-nothing middlemen websites.
vultures.
parasites.... What do they do....nothing just cream off some money.

 

[jimmymac]

I used My Builder when I lived in England. I thought they were ok but then again I only really used the site when I was quiet. You do get a few people that mess you about or want it doing for a tenner but you get that every where. I suppose it's quite good as a supplement to a strong customer base

 

[Rockingit]

These outfits have flourished as all the D.I. market / Electrical Trainee's flooded the market and you got Dave the insurance salesman turned D.I. doing board changes for £50. Why perpetuate the problem?

 

[xavierpj]

Recently gone self employed and have discovered these sites in addition to recommendation work. 'My builder' - like others have found ok.. reasonable priced leads, but still don't like the idea of 3 people being charged at once for leads. 'Rated people' - BAD BAD BAD.. expensive leads for the quality. Gave it a try and have walked away. Works for some, but not me as a lone sole trader looking for the smaller jobs.
Was looking at 'Checkatrade' or 'Which? trusted trader', Checkatrade are a blatant rip off for the money, so I refuse to use them and told the salesman that... but I may decide to pay a year with Which? as they pan out much cheaper for the same service - still to make a decision...

 

[Snapester]

Any of you guys a member of anything like Checkatrade? Do they work or worth the money to join?
Just looking to pick up little bits here and there really to keep some of my lads busy really?

Cheers

 

[Snapester]

So thats a no........

 

[ipf]

Yes....

 

[Welchyboy1]

The less that tradesmen fund these parasitical organisations the better, we allready pay enough of our profit just to go to work everyday as it is

 

[Octopus]

On the basis that far too many "membes" have ratings of 10 out of 10 the feed back simply can't be trusted......

 

[t-s]

Having just started out I have joined rated people just to try and fill gaps. I would not recommend it tbh, you pay for a lead which may not convert to a job and if it does you will be screwed down on price. I have had a a few good jobs but a lot of ****e.

 

[newtothis]

On the basis that far too many "membes" have ratings of 10 out of 10 the feed back simply can't be trusted......

Checkatrade were on watchdog recently - the allegation was that it was impossible for punters to give tradespersons neg feedback.
LOL On the downside……. lost credibility with punters.

 

[Welchyboy1]

Checkatrade were on watchdog recently - the allegation was that it was impossible for punters to give tradespersons neg feedback.
LOL On the downside……. lost credibility with punters.

Funniest thing is they are the main sponsors for cowboy builders!

 

[ses]

Works well for me

 

[Leesparkykent]

Works well for me

how many enquiries a week do you roughly get from checkatrade?

 

[ses]

On average 2 a day minimum but i work and live in London
It works best when you submit regular feedback

Like most things if you know how to use it it can be worthwhile

I get most of my work from it now and at £700 a year its better than yell.com mybuilder etc

 

[lennox]

I'm on it and it's pretty good to be fair, been on there nearly a year and easily got my
money back. Get 2-4 enquiries a week usually but like someone's said its all about regular feed back

 

[DuaneMHunt1976]

I was looking up three sites, RatedPeople, trustatrader and CheckaTrade.

I just had phone calls from trustatrader and CheckATrade, I think, or im getting VERY mixed up but i did think i was talking to the same guy. Or are they so much a like i couldnt tell apart.

 

[Hellmooth]

Have you used any of them or know anyone who has?

I just done a search there for an electrician within 50 miles of my address and only got 2, seems strange.....

 

[DuaneMHunt1976]

Been watching Cowboy Builders and Their Advert PLAYS OVER AND OVER.
Figured that would be a intresting one to join, CheckATrade.

Ive not used any of them, im just checking in to them at the moment and wonder if them two were the same company

 

[Midwest]

Never used them myself, but other sparks I've spoken to have, to boost their stock & trade work. Think you have to pay some form of subscription, then your given leads for work, which you have to pay a fee for as well. Seems a bit of a money spinner for them, and public use them to have some confidence in the trader. I'm not sure what checks or verification are done on the trader, so it seems to me that both the customer & trader are being had over IMO.

 

[DuaneMHunt1976]

Talked to TrustATrade they just asked for £70 and its a Advert basically for the year. Guess its more on how many other Electricians who are also on the site that are near by.

RatedPeople is were you Buy Credits to buy Jobs that other people have brought, a bit risky if others have brought the same job.

I think CheckATrade is about the same as TrustATrade but im not 100% sure, if so they dont do that bad on Adverts, pushing their name and you are linked with them so its a advert for you ..

 

[Octopus]

Check a trade is about £700 per year - which is about the total I spend on marketing - I don't expect to be signing up any time soon

 

[DuaneMHunt1976]

Check a trade is about £700 per year - which is about the total I spend on marketing - I don't expect to be signing up any time soon

Dosnt sound good price ever... I think the day of some of them sites might come to the end with FACEBOOK
with Facebook you can stay with in a Communitiy to advertise .. I think word of others is the only way to trust
so many dont check people out

 

[Midwest]

Using these sites is okay, but if you start to travel quite a few miles to do the job, its got to have the scope (larger contract) to make it worth it. If you using it for local work, guess you'll stop using, once your name gets around. Word of mouth, is the best form of advertising.

 

[DuaneMHunt1976]

im in a small town with 20miles to nearest City (Nottingham/Lincoln) then i think its about 45miles for Doncaster/Peterboro

 

[Midwest]

Just factor in the mileage costs, travel time & trips to the wholesaler when you've forgotten something. But work's work.

 

[telectrix]

was once upon a time signed up with rated people. had a few leads sent. average cost per lead was £8. average job was 40 miles each way for a £40 call-out. do the maths.

 

[Leesparkykent]

You don't have to pay per lead with checkatrade just the annual subscription which is about £600-£700 a year which can be paid in instalments. I have a mate who has been on checkatrade for about 6months and says he's had about £14000 worth of work out of it..... I'd rather have a punt with checkatrade than paying yellow pages the same sort of money.

 

[Midwest]

Yep whatever works for you is great.

 

[uksparks]

I think what you have to ask yourself is would you use a site like that if you needed a trades person? I wouldn't.

I think there are too many of these sites and it's too watered down, maybe if there was just the one site then it would probably be ok, but I get calls quite frequently from other sites that are so unheard of I think where's it going to stop.

seriously I have had calls from something like find a local tradesman. Com or something, loads of different ones I've certainly never heard of.

 

[DuaneMHunt1976]

I just typed electrician in and got rated people and yell on the.first Google.page
It being Google knows were I am with my ip address so I don't get us links

 

[Dan]

Anybody with these websites? Do they work for you? What's your experience with them? How much are they costing you?

 

[Pete999]

The only experience I have had with Trusted Traders, was when my insurance company sent a Plumber around to fix a leak, now I'm no Plumber but this bloke, I had to tell him to pack his kit and fox trot Oscar, my kitchen taps are very expensive, this berk went to work with a pair of 12" stiltsons, got the company to send someone who was qualified, the point I'm trying make, if that;s the caliber of "TRUSTED TRADESMEN" you are better off keeping away from them IMO.

 

[Dan]

I don't think they vet them do they?