Checkatrade

[jaydebruyne]

Is it worth registering???

 

[REDSAW]

i snigger at them

 

[rpm]

Saw a plumbing and gas van few weeks back and the colours on the logo just didn`t look right, left me thinking local print shop had made them up for him.

 

[townfanjon]

From what I hear , you get your fair share of idiots on it telling you what to charge

 

[jaydebruyne]

Saw a plumbing and gas van few weeks back and the colours on the logo just didn`t look right, left me thinking local print shop had made them up for him.

Lol oh dear

 

[rpm]

There has been thread(s) on it before, seems to work for some but not others, think it depends more on location.

 

[jaydebruyne]

There has been thread(s) on it before, seems to work for some but not others, think it depends more on location.

I should have searched for prev threads, brains not in gear!! Think I'll give it a miss then if it's not spot on for everyone

 

[SimonG]

Mike Jackson on here gets a lot of work from them and it works for him. But it's a lot of money and they are only interested in collecting it. They struggle to publish bad reviews if at all.
Tried it for a year, they chased me hard in the last two months of membership to renew. As soon as I declined to renew I had a letter within 48 hours saying if I did not remove any advertising with checkatrade or they would sue me.

Just another company gaining an income on the back of others.

 

[REDSAW]

I should have searched for prev threads, brains not in gear!! Think I'll give it a miss then if it's not spot on for everyone

drop me a pm and i will give you a good one to go for

 

[Stanios]

The workload you might get from it is very random, it depends on where you live, how many registered in your vicinity, and their weird carousele system of bringing you up and down the list. What I find is some weeks are totally dead other weeks get few calls a day not that its any good cos they want you now and you end up declinining work.

So to summarise
+ it will pay for itself
+ you can potentially have customers that will come back to you (unlikely because the reason why they are on checkatrade in first place is they want plumber they want one now they dont care about anything else)

- totally random uncontrolable amount of enquiries you receive
- completely no control over types of work you receive (i've had someone asking me to come round to look that there is NO leak on party wall and tell their neighbours the same)
- constantly have to pretty much lick customers arses if they take **** and want free work you just put up with it one bad review and you are done on checkatrade
- if things go well you then become too complacent and rely on checkatrade by itself, the above happens - good luck paying off your mortgage then.

I'm trying to rely less on it, as I said it just swings too much.

 

[hammers4spanner]

Im on it and its very up and down some weeks i get loads of work from it others not a jot.

What really grates me with it tho is how some customers behave so you tend to tread lightly around them . For e.g i had a checkatrade customer supply a electric shower which had a fault .I phoned in the manufacturer as she told me it was new they issued her a call out charge as the shower was second hand .
Thus she was billed twice and somehow that according to her was my fault and i ended up with a snotty reference and low marks.

 

[jaydebruyne]

Im on it and its very up and down some weeks i get loads of work from it others not a jot.

What really grates me with it tho is how some customers behave so you tend to tread lightly around them . For e.g i had a checkatrade customer supply a electric shower which had a fault .I phoned in the manufacturer as she told me it was new they issued her a call out charge as the shower was second hand .
Thus she was billed twice and somehow that according to her was my fault and i ended up with a snotty reference and low marks.

Yeah that's stupid.. Her fault for buying a 2nd hand shower but you get the brunt end of it.. Think I'll leave well alone for now

 

[Millsy 82]

I'm on it and it has done ok for me on the 1st year. Nowhere near as good on the 2nd year so far but there is now loads of people on it and they seemed to have changed how people are listed so not sure if I'm going to bother next year.

 

[PlumbersMate]

drop me a pm and i will give you a good one to go for

Can I get the same please?

 

[Stanios]

Can I get the same please?

And me! Gotta be good if its via a pm

 

[REDSAW]

maybe!

 

[lame plumber]

the less said about checkatrade the better, it is turning into trip advisor where customers deliberately slag you off for no good reason.

 

[WaterTight]

drip advisor

 

[hammers4spanner]

the less said about checkatrade the better, it is turning into trip advisor where customers deliberately slag you off for no good reason.

Thought you were on it?