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

[PEG]

Imagine someone promises you a fiver.
They show you the fiver,and plunge it in to your pocket.
Their hand comes out empty...

You later check your pocket,and there is no fiver.
The twenty that was in there,has also gone.

.....and that's cheekatrader

 

[Wilko]

PFC is 2k? what am I doing wrong?

I'm going for extra popcorn

 

[Pete999]

I'm going for extra popcorn

Have a word with camerabloke, he has plenty.

 

[Gavin John Hyde]

A friend who is a heating engineer who i sometimes work with on larger jobs where the customer wants central heating as part of the refurb has just had his new price to stay on checkatrade and his annual fee has gone up from £750 or thereabouts and been told its now £1650! to be part of a online directory... thats before any fees for leads i assume...
It appears that homeserve the reactive maintenance firm has bought the company and is trying to recoup its costs...
I know people have mixed feelings about these sites but my mate has got a lot of high paying work from it and has paid for itself many times over, but the new fees were too much and hes left the site out of principle.. so much for loyalty and customer retention...
Would be interested to know if any other people on here use checkatrade and how much they are now paying at the annual renewal??
If you are on checkatrade and havent had the renewal yet then be prepared!

 

[Spoon]

So a rip-off merchant has been taken over by a bigger rip-off merchant. Sounds about right.

 

[Pete999]

A friend who is a heating engineer who i sometimes work with on larger jobs where the customer wants central heating as part of the refurb has just had his new price to stay on checkatrade and his annual fee has gone up from £750 or thereabouts and been told its now £1650! to be part of a online directory... thats before any fees for leads i assume...
It appears that homeserve the reactive maintenance firm has bought the company and is trying to recoup its costs...
I know people have mixed feelings about these sites but my mate has got a lot of high paying work from it and has paid for itself many times over, but the new fees were too much and hes left the site out of principle.. so much for loyalty and customer retention...
Would be interested to know if any other people on here use checkatrade and how much they are now paying at the annual renewal??
If you are on checkatrade and havent had the renewal yet then be prepared!

Had some dealings with Homeserve, what a buch of Animals wouldn't let them cross my door step ever again.

 

[Gavin John Hyde]

I almost took some work on from homeserve once upon a time, but the amount of paperwork and admin involved for simple jobs and having to ask permission to buy parts for the job no matter how small put me right off. i only avoided it due to some advice from other tradespeople..

 

[Dillb]

You say fleecing folk, weren’t they all ready doing that before?

 

[Pete999]

I almost took some work on from homeserve once upon a time, but the amount of paperwork and admin involved for simple jobs and having to ask permission to buy parts for the job no matter how small put me right off. i only avoided it due to some advice from other tradespeople..

Think I may have mentioned this before, my Mrs had a contract with Homeserve when I was away working, anyway arrived home one weekend and she said she had called the plumber for a leaking tap, not the basin sort, a posh jobbywith 1 spout and two knobs, honestly when he turned up I thought it was Bob a Job week, looked no older than 16, told him the job, now these taps were expensive, he's there with a pair of 14inch Stiltsons tyring to get the tap cover off, stopped him just in time and showed him the door, cancelled the contract. A lesser known fact maybe, is that should they bust something whilst carrying out a repair their insurance doesn't cover it, talk about a rip off, can you just imagine a little Old Lady relying on these Muppets?

 

[Andy78]

I have heard of this on other sparky sites. It's much like the despicable insurance renewal trap ... hiking the prices and hoping not to many leave. Apparently some have kicked up a fuss and they dropped the price increase.
I still think that £750 is about £749 too much anyway...