Sorry I know it's doubtless been covered but...

[WaterTight]

Roughly how much does Checkatrade cost? Or does it vary depending on where you live? I'm South East.

Thanks

 

[stevetheplumber]

700 plus vat roughly

 

[lame plumber]

I binned checkatrade last month, customers can write up bad reports whether or not you deserve them and you cant really remove the blight, actually lost work down to a crap report written by an idiot who was happy when i got his ancient oil boiler going but blamed me when a motorised valve failed later on!! So I decided it was too expensive and all your hard work can be destroyed by one idiot, much like trip advisor has done to hotels and restaurants.

 

[WaterTight]

Hmm. I do mainly small jobs. So I'm thinking larger number of individual jobs > greater amount of regular feedback > easier to drown out any ocassional numpty/push it off to the next page.

That's my theory anyway. It's what a friend of mine has successfully done. But I have avoided it up to now just to avoid the threat of bad feedback hanging over me. It was only the idea when I started to think that pretty much everybody I work for seems perfectly happy with what I do and if there is ever an issue I come back pronto and sort.

But yeah, I don't want stress. And I can stress over very little.

 

[plumben]

I'll say this now as a fact, if im buying something off ebay i look at the sellers feedback, not the good feedback but ill look at the negative feedback only and make a decision from that,

It's a lot easier to rear all the bad reviews on something and think ohh i dont want this or to go there excreta, even though there might be 100 good reviews, 5 bad reviews might put you off,

just something to consider although it is possible to reply to negative reviews

 

[lame plumber]

Hmm. I do mainly small jobs. So I'm thinking larger number of individual jobs > greater amount of regular feedback > easier to drown out any ocassional numpty/push it off to the next page.

That's my theory anyway. It's what a friend of mine has successfully done. But I have avoided it up to now just to avoid the threat of bad feedback hanging over me. It was only the idea when I started to think that pretty much everybody I work for seems perfectly happy with what I do and if there is ever an issue I come back pronto and sort.

But yeah, I don't want stress. And I can stress over very little.

I hate stress as well and this character stressed me right out, not helped by the checkatrade folk who just sell the party line. tbh it only bought me trade from outside the local area or those with second homes. gone back with local trade mags and parish mags

 

[WaterTight]

I'll say this now as a fact, if im buying something off ebay i look at the sellers feedback, not the good feedback but ill look at the negative feedback only and make a decision from that,

It's a lot easier to rear all the bad reviews on something and think ohh i dont want this or to go there excreta, even though there might be 100 good reviews, 5 bad reviews might put you off,

just something to consider although it is possible to reply to negative reviews

I think we all find ourselves impulsivey looking for negative feedback. But I'm not sure how many people allow themselves to be influenced by finding one in a list of 30 or 40 positives. Being savvy when it comes to reviews is difficult but if you're going to avoid a product/service because you manage to find one rare bad review you'll end up buying/using nothing.

The worst I find is of takeaways on sites like Just Eat. For some reason just about every takeaway has at least as many bad reviews as good. Perhaps hungry excited people are more likely to become more emotionally distraught at soggy horrible food turning up then by using the services of a late, messy and impolite tradesmen.

 

[Millsy 82]

As said its around £700 if you pay by direct debit over 3 or 4 months.

I got a not great review, she gave me all 10's but then slated me saying she was still losing pressure, she never phoned me again and just left feedback, as soon as I spotted it I phoned her and explained to her that I did say I had fully drained the heating system so the rads might need bleeding and the pressure would probably need topping upon a week or 2 but she forgot that. She also said that I charged more than the agreed price but I went out there for a faulty room stat and sorted that that the pressure went sky high so I topped up expansion and replaced a rad valve as it was looking.

I find that most people if you have 10 good reviews and 1 bad review will over look the bad review, most people realise you have these people that just moan at anything and everything. I even had customers joking about her!

 

[Millsy 82]

Forgot to say I mainly get small jobs from it. I have priced a few installs from it and not got one! What I have found is now I email invoices to the customer I have a link directly to my page and I have got more reviews from that otherwise people just forget!

 

[SimonG]

I didnt renew it after the first year. Not missed it. You have to put the effort into it yourself, so I thought i would save the money and put the effort elsewhere. Plus it was dragging me further afield, even though I set my radius. I think the radius is set by a supersonic crow. Not for everybody, but works for some, Mike Jackson springs to mind.

 

[jtsplumbing]

I'm going to throw a spanner in the work now ! it just amazes me how meny of you pay out good money to these sort of people with no guarantee of any return for your investment, then get your reputation possibly ruined by some person that wanted a cheep job doing, my next comment will no doubt upset a lot of you, But ! if your as good has you claim to be, why do you use these sort of company's, your own reputation in your local areas should be enough, using Local media (News Paper etc..) will get you much better return for your money, and will possibly be more cost effective, Sorry if I have upset some people with my remarks !!

 

[Millsy 82]

I'm going to throw a spanner in the work now ! it just amazes me how meny of you pay out good money to these sort of people with no guarantee of any return for your investment, then get your reputation possibly ruined by some person that wanted a cheep job doing, my next comment will no doubt upset a lot of you, But ! if your as good has you claim to be, why do you use these sort of company's, your own reputation in your local areas should be enough, using Local media (News Paper etc..) will get you much better return for your money, and will possibly be more cost effective, Sorry if I have upset some people with my remarks !!

For me I used it as I kept getting low patches that could last a month with virtually no money coming in.

You say your own reputation should be enough but if you have not long set up for yourself you may not have the customer base to keep you going unless you did a lot of private jobs on the side and in my case I moved to a totally new area hundreds of miles from where my reputation was. I was speaking to a bloke who was a bit of a tit and said "I don't have to pay for advertising as I get plenty of work in" but he has been running for over 10 years so of course he has a reputation that can support him.

For me I paid for Checkatrade off 1 job and compare that to a couple of the local papers for a year it was dirt cheap as I was paying around £280 for 10 weeks and it never paid for itself. Others on the other hand I pay £40 for 3-4 months and they don't generate huge amounts but do get bits and bobs, not enough to keep me going.

For me at the moment it is working but if in the future it doesn't pay for it self I will stop no hesitation.

 

[jtsplumbing]

I had the same, moved back to the South West from Ascot 12 years ago, knew no one, only used local papers etc.. and made a living from it, But also did some P/T driving until things started to pick up took around 18 mths, moved again 8 years back, again local paper & shops, but would not on principle pay money to those sort of company's, have used agency's but did not pay anything to them, Helps if you are prepared to do other things rather than just plumbing.

 

[Millsy 82]

The thing is times have changed quite a bit. Pretty much everybody has a smart phone now so internet searches are the norm.

When I trained everybody used to use yellow pages or Thompson local but now it's Google, yell, Checkatrade type thing. I do find that a lot of people that find me in papers etc are a slightly older generation and in 10 years time you will have the majority of people using the Internet to source most things as they are taught and brought up around computers from a very early age.

 

[tomplumb83]

I'm going to throw a spanner in the work now ! it just amazes me how meny of you pay out good money to these sort of people with no guarantee of any return for your investment, then get your reputation possibly ruined by some person that wanted a cheep job doing, my next comment will no doubt upset a lot of you, But ! if your as good has you claim to be, why do you use these sort of company's, your own reputation in your local areas should be enough, using Local media (News Paper etc..) will get you much better return for your money, and will possibly be more cost effective, Sorry if I have upset some people with my remarks !!

I could be wrong but if Watertight doesn't have his gas, its not that easy.
Take your gas away and what jobs does the average plumber do? Bathrooms, thats basically it. If you aren't getting them, youre always going to struggle. That leaves you with heating and bathroom maintenance

 

[Ray Stafford]

It is no longer possible to separate your online reputation from your off-line reputation.

The number of non-computer using customers is reducing year by year.

However, that doesn't mean that you have to allow a third party (like Check a trade) to control your reputation.

 

[stevetheplumber]

the problem of advertising is a dificult one now especially in a city all of my old customers have died or left london all around me are new people ive lived in this street 30 years and there are only three of us been here more than ten years
ten years ago we were swamped with buy to let tennants but now the house prices have jumped up most of the landlords have sold and now its all young profesionals moving in these people only use phones /computers to find trades
for a sole trader cost of successful advertising campaigns are ridiculousi shot 700 quid in two months on google ads and got two small jobs from it
im now using rated people but thats a waste of time for boilers and heating system 50 to buy a lead and never get the jobs no matter how low i go

 

[Millsy 82]

the problem of advertising is a dificult one now especially in a city all of my old customers have died or left london all around me are new people ive lived in this street 30 years and there are only three of us been here more than ten years
ten years ago we were swamped with buy to let tennants but now the house prices have jumped up most of the landlords have sold and now its all young profesionals moving in these people only use phones /computers to find trades
for a sole trader cost of successful advertising campaigns are ridiculousi shot 700 quid in two months on google ads and got two small jobs from it
im now using rated people but thats a waste of time for boilers and heating system 50 to buy a lead and never get the jobs no matter how low i go

Rated people is a whole different ball game.

How much is it now? £18 a month and a minimum of £4 a lead? You can soon spend some money on that!

 

[Ch4 plumbing]

The only winner with Rated People is.........Rated People!!

Why pay to bid? I realise nothing is guaranteed but if 10 companies are bidding for the same job and its all run by RP then the winning bid will always get cheaper and cheaper whilst the cost of bidding will surely rise!

Thus the Rat is always fat and the trap is always left empty!