Does MY HAMMER encourage cowboys???

[lloyd1980]

Hi all

Just a quick qestion to guage peoples opinions on sites like MY HAMMER, etc
For those of you who arent aware you join MY HAMMER, they email you details of jobs with what the customer has deemed a fair price
for example

Need a rewire on my 3 bed house, 16 sockets, shower, new fuse board and new 2 way switching all in brushed chrome

suggested price £1500 in VAT ( I know but this is the stupid prices public post on)

what happens then is tradesmen bid on the work and lowest price generally gets it

have seen rewires been won for £1100 inc VAT

other work like outside lights, new 10mm shower feed, new board £300 inc VAT

you scroll down to the people winning this work and one fella didnt even have any electrical qualifications he had a City and Guilds in Wood Work
No joke lads this is what is going on right now

its faceless quoting so in my opinion every cowboy up and down the land were rubbing their hands when this site launched, There is no way these clowns can be doing the job properly at the prices they bid at - no way

The most ironic thing Ive seen in ages was when I watched Cowboy Builders last night on Channel 5 and MY HAMMER were proud sponsors of it

I did smile

what do you all think

Lloyd

 

[lloyd1980]

forgot to add - when ever a customer posts must supply a certificate and be registered there are never any bids for the work

funny that eh ?

 

[rossiboy]

I thought exactly same mate. I look at the prices people are putting down for quotes and for the life of me i cant work it out! I see maybe same bloke as you Llyod applied to replace a CCU he had a City and Guilds level 1 in woodwork and joinery!!


I think it encourages cowboys big time because anyone can apply for the work!

 

[lloyd1980]

its absolutley scandalous mate

I might post a fake job on there and see who comes knocking then rig the house with cameras while I pretend to know nothing about elektrick and see what he does

 

[Voltimax]

A letter has been sent to channel 5 about the fact there are non registered tradesmen getting work from this Myhammer.

 

[acat]

In my experience wanting to advertise as much as possible all these websites either do it for nothing or require payment the one thing they all have in common is not one of them has asked for any proof of my qualifications or work standards.


Chris

 

[lloyd1980]

I registered with local traders and too be fair they only take on 6 of each trades person in each area, I wangled a deal where i got 2 areas for price of 1 cost me 105 quid for 6 months, first job i made 300 quid and quoting for second on sat - joined 2 months ago and they actually made me send in copies of my certs so they seem ok

This MY HAMMER business is originaly german - check out the german DAS ME HAMMER!!

the web site should be cut off, im sure its the same with gas safe work, any old clown just doing work on boilers etc

its unbeleivable, as I said any customer ( apart from taking the pi ss with the price inc VAT they post) is expecting competant tradesmen to get in touch, so you cant blame them, but mr no electrical quals but I have a city and guilds woodwork level 1- quoting for a mains change takes the biscuit !!!

I think we should all form a group and send complaints to channel 5 and trading standards about this

outside lights new radial for boiler and new spot lights £ 110 inc VAT

this is rediculous

I urge you all to check out this my hammer site and see the chumps who are posting for work !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Spudnik]

Ive just looked an it is an absolute joke.

Trouble is, there will be "tradesmen" making a small living out of it.

 

[john25]

Cant get onto the site for some reaso mate it keeps saying its too Busy .

 

[wattsup]

My hammer is no different than any other advertising medium, yellow pages don't ask for proof of qualification, nor do any newspapers. To be be fair and playing the devils advocat, some do cheap jobs because they 'obtain' cheap materials

 

[rocker]

As I've posted in another post somewhere, I'm a silly mug who bought an 'obligation free' 3 month membership, and am having a hell of a time cancelling it before I do have any sort of obligation i.e. a 12 month contract. To be fair when I put myself on there it said I had to send them proof of qualifications, but it did let me trade for about a month without doing that, and what would stop me closing my account and starting another one every month??

Went on there for a while as a basic free member and got one or two jobs, but found that there were a lot of 'premium members' sending private messages to jobs that I was quoting on (something basic members can't do) and once the job 'auction' ended and my quote won, the customer didnt contact because someone else had aready priced up and done the job! Got this premium thing (£60 plus vat for 3 months) when I was really hard up for work and I find that people are quoting ridiculous prices (£800 for a three storey rewire, the person quoting would also have had to travel 70 miles to the job and back every day, yea right), they are obviously cowboys, rip off merchants or are drasticaly inflating their quotes when they see the 'extent of work'. Also loads of people without quals - as you said it looks like myhammer will let you continue trading as long as you have a qual, and that doesn't have to relate to the job you're quoting on so you get FENSA guys doing boiler works and chippies doing sparks. Total load of rubbish, and now I've sent them loads of emails to cancel membership which they haven't answered so now I'm going to have to ring their premium rate phone number. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Oh and the couple of jobs I've got since having the expensive membership were done with basic quoting which I would have won with basic free membership.

 

[Amp David]

I stuck a job on there for people to quote on just to see how low someone would actually go.

Its was for a house with 8 circuits, nothing mentioned about MEB or the location of the CU/age of installation.

Some clown quoted 200 quid. So I emailed him to ask what type of CU he would use and if it'd be certificated. He tells me he only fits Hager CUs and he'll fully certify it.

Now, can someone please tell me how this guy makes any money?

 

[Adam W]

Ironically MyHammer profess to exist to help customers find a tradesman who isn't a cowboy.
The customer rating system is a nice idea but a customer's idea of a 'proper job' might not always be one which is done correctly; a customer may give a poor rating to a sparks who tells them they can't have what they want because it contradicts the regs, while they may give a high rating to a cowboy who appears professional because smiles politely, turns up on time in a shiny new signwritten van, does a superb job of tidying up after himself but installs incorrect cable outside safe zones and whose idea of testing consists of a bang test.

A socket wired in bell wire or coax will probably work perfectly well if it is only used to charge a phone, but plug in a vacuum cleaner a few years later and you could have a fire, by which time Barry Bodgett has got his 5 star rating because he did a cosmetically tidy job, and done one.

 

[m25maintenance]

same as rubbish rated people, ur mate can rate u, easy. i aint buying no job. Find local recommended tradesmen - ratedpeople.com. go see u buy jobs

 

[lloyd1980]

I stuck a job on there for people to quote on just to see how low someone would actually go.

Its was for a house with 8 circuits, nothing mentioned about MEB or the location of the CU/age of installation.

Some clown quoted 200 quid. So I emailed him to ask what type of CU he would use and if it'd be certificated. He tells me he only fits Hager CUs and he'll fully certify it.

Now, can someone please tell me how this guy makes any money?

its beond me,

I did breifly think of joining them but them when I looked at how I'd end up paying the customer to do their work I thought twice,

I get the members point about doing it with nicked materials but even so how do you then do a job and certify it with the rediculously low INC VAT price jobs are won at

They CAN NOT be doing the job properly, and I bet that 3 storey rewire won for 800 quid just gets the socket and switch fronts changed , new board and the old cable left in place

and its true that customers will rate you on what they can see so as long as mr yee haw cowboy hoovers up, smiles, looks smart in a shiny leased van, all sockets and switches are perfectly straight they will be happy, until they turn on the cooker an hes re-wired it in 1mm

it should be renamed MY COWBOY

 

[rocker]

Ironically MyHammer profess to exist to help customers find a tradesman who isn't a cowboy.
The customer rating system is a nice idea but a customer's idea of a 'proper job' might not always be one which is done correctly; a customer may give a poor rating to a sparks who tells them they can't have what they want because it contradicts the regs, while they may give a high rating to a cowboy who appears professional because smiles politely, turns up on time in a shiny new signwritten van, does a superb job of tidying up after himself but installs incorrect cable outside safe zones and whose idea of testing consists of a bang test.

A socket wired in bell wire or coax will probably work perfectly well if it is only used to charge a phone, but plug in a vacuum cleaner a few years later and you could have a fire, by which time Barry Bodgett has got his 5 star rating because he did a cosmetically tidy job, and done one.

Spot on.

 

[rocker]

For anyone who's interested, the following illustrates myhammers position on investigating complaints against potential 'cowboys', i.e. they don't even mention it.....

Hello there, I took out the three month premium trial period approximately a month and a half ago. I would like to cancel my premium membership - please ensure I still have premium partner priviliges up until the end of the three month period I have paid for, but I want this noted before the two month cut off period so that no contract is started. After the paid-for three month period I would like to go back to a basic membership.

Apart from the fact that there is generally not enough work in my area to justify the prices you charge for premium membership, I have decided not to keep the premium partnership due to the way that people treat the service to take up what work is in the area. I am referring to the practice of people deliberately undercutting to unrealistic amounts in order to get the jobs, presumably inflating their prices afterwards or doing poor works. One current example is a job entitled '******** ** ***** ********' in *******- this is for the rewiring of a large three storey property, something that any reputable electrician would charge 3500 at the very least to do, and probably closer to 4500. A member named **** *****, who is a repeat offender in this kind of undercutting, has quoted £880 for this job. There is NO WAY that he can accomplish this job up to today's electrical safety regulations for this price. This amount would barely cover the materials used, so either this person is doing a poor job, or is vastly inflating his prices when the work has been started. Both of these practices I am unwilling to do, and as these are practices needed in order to get any work through your website, I do not think that this is a viable financial outlay for me at this time. **** ***** is not the only member who seems to be using these practices. Another thing I do not agree with regarding your service is that you allow people with any qualification to quote on electrical jobs - if somebody has a qualification in plumbing you allow them to take on electrical work and I can guarantee you, from what I have seen - most plumbers are not suited to electrical work.
I am sure that there is not a great deal that can be done about this, as it would be quite hard to prove, and I'm sure that as these members are paying you your commission you aren't that bothered about it. However, once my premium membership is up, and I revert back to basic membership, I will obviously moitor the situation and if I see any positive change in the future, I will consider taking a premium membership again.
Please email me to confirm you have stopped my preimum trial membership and that it will cease after my paid-for three month period.
Kind Regards

Dear MyHammer Customer

Gotta love that personal touch!

Thank you very much for your recent emails, regarding the status of your MyHammer Premium Partnership Try. You have requested to cancel your package.We have been checking your account and we can confirm the following points:You had subscribed to the Premium Partnership on the 03.04.2010. The contract was initially running on a three months trial term and is granting you an extraordinary notice of cancellation. You can terminate the membership within the first two months after you had entered the contract.We have received your cancellation request in due time. Please note that your contract will expire on 03.07.2010. Until that date you can still use the entire scope of our online services. Your membership fees will likewise become due until that date.

If you have any further queries, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us – we’re here to help!
Kind regards
MyHammer Support

Did you even read the email, myhammer?

EDIT: I don't know why it's splitting the last line from the rest of the quote, but hey it does highlight their customer service policy....

 

[tommo1275]

I am amazed COWBOY BUILDERS use MY HAMMER as a sponsor!!!, they dont ask for proof of qualifications ( these are just questios asked)
MY HAMMER encourages cowboys to price jobs at ridiculous rates such as £1100 for a full house REWIRE, absolute joke.
They need to be stopped. how anyone can do these jobs at this price is beyond me.
we do a 4 year apprentiship and time on the tools in order to provide a service at a industry recognised rate and MY HAMMER exploits this.

 

[jasperhound]

You are absolutely right about the quotes people are putting in for jobs. Around my area there was a 3 storey complete rewire being awarded for under a £1000 & consumer unit replacements regularly going for under £200!.
Another thing, God help you if you have ever got a problem to sort out with MyHammer... You have to deal with Germany (no UK call center). I paid to join on a 3 month trial (regret it now), their payment system was not working on the site so I done a Bank Transfer sending the money to the account they emailed me. 8 days later, 8 phone calls later & numerous emails they still have not acknowledged receipt even though I have emailed a statement (twice at their request) from my bank showing the payment. They have suspended my account and threatened legal action. The girls on the end of the phone say that the account is active, when it is not. I have asked to be put through to accounts or to speak to some one in authority but am always told "it is not possible".
My view of MyHammer.... A BUNCH OF INCOMPETENTS!!!!

BEWARE! At nearly £300 a year membership & 6% commission on jobs awarded, the service you receive, in my opinion is appalling.

 

[lloyd1980]

MY HAMMER can suck MY BALLS