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

[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?