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

[Pete999]

Well if they do this bloke fell through a hole in the net.

 

[Dan]

I read the other day that when you sign up to Checkatrade they tell you to get your existing customers to leave you reviews. Opening the door to tradesmen registering loads of gmail accounts and leaving themselves feedback.

 

[Andy78]

I went for a free trial with rated people. Utter garbage!
Expensive leads, poor or non existent account security, no vetting of trades, having to quote against cowboys, poor customer service. Total waste of time and money.

I'm registered with one at the minute that is based around the Yorkshire area. Free to join, no adverts, can upload pictures of work and qualifications can be verified and listed. Unfortunately it is small and new at the minute so no action, but the right sort of model.

The most useful middleman tool for my business is freeindex. I get a lot of work from people finding me on there.

 

[GMES]

What field are you in Andy/ Domestic/comm/ind, if Domestic facebook and twitter work well for a lot of people if maintained and kept active and updated, I know they're not everyone's cup of tea but they have been useful to a couple of guys I know.

 

[Andy78]

I'm a sole trader doing domestic and commercial work, all private customers as I don't do contracting work.
I have facebook, twitter, and google+ accounts which I should be more active on really.
I also have a Yell listing which nobody finds me on as your position in the listings depends on how much money you pay, which I don't.

Everyone who finds me on the internet finds me through Freeindex as they are usually at the top of popular google searches. Your position in the listings depends on your reviews on that site so it works well for me. I ask customers for reviews instead of paying Yell hundreds of pounds a year, and it works well as a listing site.

 

[Spoon]

A few years ago a mate asked me to go to one of these sites and leave a good feedback message for him, even though he didn't do any work for me.... Can you really believe the feedbacks you see???

 

[Sparkysoldman]

Use my builder occasionally with some success but always give a guide price for the work requested To avoid being shortlisted by people who expect something for nothing. Ie if it's a board change I say something along the lines of £xxxx depending on bonding etc rewires I quote xxxx for up to 40 points and £xx for each extra point etc always go higher than the norm and if they don't shortlist you don't pay at least that way if they expect a ridiculas price they just ignor me which is exactly what I want

 

[Dan]

So if the customer short lists 3, all 3 get charged?!

 

[Leesparkykent]

I know a sparks on checkatrade who's also a close friend. Costs him in the region of £600-£700 a year but says he gets between 15K and £20K worth of work a year through it and he's been on there for 3 years. Not a bad return on £700.

 

[Sparkysoldman]

So if the customer short lists 3, all 3 get charged?!

Yep that's the way they make money but at least with my builder you have some control. We've spent about £200 in last 12 months and had about 6k of work from it. But we are very selective about which ones we put in for there are clues in the username and you can see how many jobs people have put on and how many they have shortlisted if they shortlist more than 2 on other jobs we don't bother if the job is small and they've already shortlisted someone we don't bother
That said with all these sites your are generally dealing with the lowest common denominator in terms of potential customers and competitors