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

[alexg]

Are they amu good as I am thinking if joining and one of their reps is coming next week!!

Keep the cash and have xmas or spend it and have a bonanza Xmas next year?!?!!?

 

[jimmyjazz]

At present it depends where your based, if your in an established area it's good. You also have to be in the leaflet & this is usually limited to 6 per. I've been with them for 3 years in 2 issues, day one I landed a rewire & have never looked back, averaging 10 calls a week with most of these being converted. If your in a new area you could take a punt & hope it builds over time. At approx £450 per year you get a lot more than any other advertising I've tried - Yellow pages, Yell, Google pay per click, local paper £100 per week!

 

[alexg]

Thanks Jimmy
what do you mean by a new area
sounds like it's worth a punt particularly in these dastardly climes!

 

[jimmyjazz]

Checkatrade is expanding rapidly from its concept in Selsey it now reaches London & the home counties. Where are you?

 

[alexg]

Sw London
twickenham

ta

 

[ngoodson1969]

Hi all,

Just wondered if anybody had any good things to say about this crowd? Thanks.

Cheers
Nick

 

[acat]

Who are they and what do they want, if its your money I would give it a miss.


Chris

 

[eddielarge]

They are fantastic but shush dont tell everyone,

dont listen to acat ,, second thoughts do listen and dont use them ,, more work for me

 

[glen.mason]

Been a member with them for about 5 years now, the main thing is exposure - get your name out there. It does work, really, I look on the members section which gives me the my 'hits', how many times I've appeared in search's. I think it's a Southern thing as opposed to National, not sure.

 

[eddielarge]

Been a member with them for about 5 years now, the main thing is exposure - get your name out there. It does work, really, I look on the members section which gives me the my 'hits', how many times I've appeared in search's. I think it's a Southern thing as opposed to National, not sure.

yes your right surrey/london and below they are just breaking kent.

they even have a tv ad this year with sarah beeney,, she mentions them on all her shows.

they are not cheap but £ for £ it really works

 

[Octopus]

Did a job recently and the homeowner, while I was there logged positive feedback on Checkatrade.

They called today and want £499.00 + VAT for a years "basic" membership, about £180.00 up front and the balance over 10 months.

So its £50.00 per month.

They don't do a 3 month trial or anything cheaper.

Anyone out there got any experience of them? Positive or negative based actual experience please.

 

[GOODWIN]

Did a job recently and the homeowner, while I was there logged positive feedback on Checkatrade.

They called today and want £499.00 + VAT for a years "basic" membership, about £180.00 up front and the balance over 10 months.

So its £50.00 per month.

They don't do a 3 month trial or anything cheaper.

Anyone out there got any experience of them? Positive or negative based actual experience please.

why are u paying them?

 

[Octopus]

why are u paying them?

I'm not paying them anything currently. The point is that they expect us professionals to stump up to get on their site!

 

[Deleted member 26818]

I think the phrase 'Jog On' would be appropriate.

 

[telectrix]

if you've not signed any contract, tell 'em to bog off. £499 + vat better spent,will buy enough materials to do a £4000 rewire.

 

[Octopus]

Hum 24+ hours and nothing positive as yet.

I've just read a post from an end customer saying he's going to look on checkatrade for a sparky in the morning!

I guess if there is any positive messages maybe the member(s) don't want to crow about it. - maybe they could PM me??

 

[pal4life]

Which one should I join?

 

[infinity]

Hi just wondered if any of you guys have used checkatrade and weather you thought it was of any use to business?

 

[GLENNSPARK]

do a bit if research on em first....you may find they have a checkered history....

 

[Top Cat]

From what i can gather it depends on the area. London is supposed to be good but other areas it can be patchy. Emailed a guy in my area and he said he would not use them again. I would email someone in your area (in a different trade) and see how they find it.

 

[Spudnik]

A local bathroom and kitchen fitter i do work for is registered with them.

He said he does more quotes than actual work through it.

Mind you, i dont know what he charges so that may have something to do with it!

 

[Octopus]

I seem to remember its about £50 / month and you need customer "feedback" before you can sign up.

One of my clients registered feed back for me, and this entitled me to about 3 months of sales calls!

 

[infinity]

A bit hit and miss then! Its over £500/ yr it must work for some people as some have been on it a while. Il have a deeper look into it on search engine feed back and maybe just take the chance, ive wasted more money on yell etc so probably worth a try.

 

[telectrix]

better off with service magic or rated people. you ain't got so much outlay. small membership fee and you only buy leads if they look good.

 

[oldtimer]

Check my posts who are Electrician now and I am not sales I am a Lead Generator in other words a highly paid Yell.com and a lot of endless quoting for its members hence the high churn or turnover rate of member and if you complain it will be market forces you are not competitive enough

 

[micknew]

Anyone had experience with this company?
Suspect they are like similar companies trying to con us into paying for work when there is not much about, preying on the vunerable.
Think we pay enough money on scams, any views?

 

[sparkdog]

I thought it might be a good idea until I checked and found it was £500 to join so gave it a miss.Not sure how much it is today.

 

[telectrix]

there's another one. local traders. £130 odd for 3 months.

 

[Guitarist]

I bet they have 125 customers in your area just waiting to be put in contact with you....

 

[micknew]

Yes but luckily we are still surviving without falling for scams like these.
Too many scams preying on those not yet established and less fortunate than some of us.

 

[Mark_Burgess]

checkatrade.com, is NOT some agency to get you work and make you pay for leads.

It is a scheme for tradesmen to join, customers leave you feedback on the website, customers can find and contact you from checkatrade.com directly.

If you do bad or good workmanship, the feed back will be left.

From what I know, when you do a job, at the end you leave a checkatrade feed back card and ask them to logon or write and send it back I think, to leave feedback of your workmanship etc.

It is probably the only decent site that works in favour of us.

If it didn't cost so much, I would join it.

 

[micknew]

When the recession is over scams like these will fade away but they will milk the vunerable until then and that could be awhile yet.

 

[Mark_Burgess]

When the recession is over scams like these will fade away but they will milk the vunerable until then and that could be awhile yet.

Have a look at their website and you will see that they are NOT a lead generator, I know a few guys that use them and get quite a bit of work from customers checking out their feedback.

 

[RS2OOO]

As a customer I've used My Hammer a couple of times, and been quite impressed to be honest.

Put a job for a plumber recently as stopcock was seized and so was mains stopcock in the street. Someone quoted £30, thought blimey that's cheap. He came round, froze the pipe, cut out the old stop cock, replaced it with a shut off valve (the type you turn with a screwdriver), also gave my toddler son his LED hard hat light and sorted a leaky tap flexihose..... all for £40 including parts. Fella came from the other side of London too.

I'd been looking on there for a sparky before finding this forum.

I think it's free for both tradesmen and customers alike.

 

[Strima]

replaced it with a shut off valve (the type you turn with a screwdriver)

So he used a service valve instead of a stop cock? No wonder it was so cheap.

Wait until you burst a pipe and spend ten minutes looking for a flat blade screwdriver rather than just chuck the Domestos out of the way and turn a few times. A stop cock is designed to be operated by hand for that very reason, if a plumber had done that to my house he would get stomped on.

 

[mickys86]

So he used a service valve instead of a stop cock? No wonder it was so cheap.

Wait until you burst a pipe and spend ten minutes looking for a flat blade screwdriver rather than just chuck the Domestos out of the way and turn a few times. A stop cock is designed to be operated by hand for that very reason, if a plumber had done that to my house he would get stomped on.

Hence my post a few hrs ago on another topic about people rating when they don't know anything about the subject is like me being a judge at the Olympics!

 

[Strima]

Hence my post a few hrs ago on another topic about people rating when they don't know anything about the subject is like me being a judge at the Olympics!

I will be judging the womens beach volleyball again this year from the comfort of my own sofa with the aid of a couple of beers.

 

[ipf]

As a customer I've used My Hammer a couple of times, and been quite impressed to be honest.

Put a job for a plumber recently as stopcock was seized and so was mains stopcock in the street. Someone quoted £30, thought blimey that's cheap. He came round, froze the pipe, cut out the old stop cock, replaced it with a shut off valve (the type you turn with a screwdriver), also gave my toddler son his LED hard hat light and sorted a leaky tap flexihose..... all for £40 including parts. Fella came from the other side of London too.

I'd been looking on there for a sparky before finding this forum.

I think it's free for both tradesmen and customers alike.

I hope you've not used your hammer on your namesake, RS. I'd have battered anybody if they'd gone anywhere near my 'Mexico' with one.lol!

 

[RS2OOO]

To be fair, I let him fit the service valve as otherwise it meant smashing through the brick wall to get access to fit a stop cock. He only had around 5" of visible pipework to play with and brickwork an inch behind the pipe and 2 inches to the side of the pipe. There's a 2nd stopcock upstairs, so this particular one is just for the mains fed kitchen cold tap and washing machine.

As for screwdriver, I've got one constantly left wedged behind the pipe just in case :smug2:

Could have insisted on the proper stop cock and I'm sure he'd have done it, but I didn't fancy the repair bill for smashing through the wall.

Anyway, my point was, I'd use that service again, including to find a sparky, but I'd imagine most punters describe the job too simplistically and expect too much. Must be plenty of disputes over quotes that go up once the job turns out not to be what it originally seemed!


Regarding the RS.... Yep, hammer is coming out tomorrow after cracking the inner wing whilst giving it a bit too much stick. Don't think Ford intended on them coping with 200bhp!

 

[Adam W]

Anyway, my point was, I'd use that service again, including to find a sparky, but I'd imagine most punters describe the job too simplistically and expect too much. Must be plenty of disputes over quotes that go up once the job turns out not to be what it originally seemed!

It doesn't seem fair to 'rate' a tradesman based on that. As I mentioned on the other thread a lot of customers will probably rate tradesmen on things like turning up on time, personal hygiene, vacuuming up after themselves and sticking to the original estimate which was formed before seeing the job; while these may seem important, things like technical knowledge, ability and safety should come first.
I can't imagine a potential customer wanting to read a review which goes along the lines of:
"He was a real jobsworth - he wouldn't do anything until all the asbestos was removed at great cost. All I wanted was a simple extra plug but he wanted to pull up my new carpets, lift up the floorboards and start running wire all round the house. He gouged a hole in the wall for the wire to go in and I had to get the decorators in again afterwards when they had just decorated the week before (not to mention the dust he left on my skirting boards which I had to clean up), which meant the job tripled from what he originally promised when I first phoned him."