[bennymon]

Just because people pay to be on them doesn't mean they are any good .used to be a painter round our way on there and he was crap .

[Neil Williams]

Checkatrade is similar to Buy with Confidence as run by some County Councils.
I would say in excess of 50% of our enquiries come to us either via checkatrade site or because we are part of it (our advertising).
Helps with the selling part of the job when you have enough positive feedbacks.

[garry22]

Excuse my ignorance but how do they vet their tradesmen?

[Neil Williams]

Excuse my ignorance but how do they vet their tradesmen?

From memory you supply 3 x commercial customers name and 3 x domestic customers names you've done work for. They do follow them up, and proof of suitable insurances.

[Len Gribble]

Would assume one has to give previous customers details to them (data protection springs to mind) and they follow up with a questionnaire well guild of master craftsmen did when I was a member (DON’T FORGET TO PICK AND CHOSE CUSTOMERS )

[Dani J]

Rated people.com ?

I wouldn't touch them, they are big con 

[greg2040]

greg are the customers coming  directly from check a trade or are they seeing the checkatrade logo on your van,leaflet,website etc then going through checkatrade  . just interested mate because there's a fair few in my area who are in it
                         dan

Hi Dan

Yes the work is definitely from check a trade. I know that because lazy me hasnt bothered chaging any van signwriting, flyers, webstite etc to say I am a member of checkatrade yet.

[Len Gribble]

Greg

Bit confused with the scoring you are rank one on there site 10 score 24 reports where as a competitor whose being going a lot longer then you is 7th 10 score 746 reports

Hope Bridget & Karen who I believe are attending TACCA day can quantify (worth questioning methinks)

[Tony_C]

Greg

Bit confused with the scoring you are rank one on there site 10 score 24 reports where as a competitor whose being going a lot longer then you is 7th 10 score 746 reports

Hope Bridget & Karen who I believe are attending TACCA day can quantify (worth questioning methinks)

The position of a business on any page is governed by the area that enquirer typed into the search bar. Example: enquirer types in 'carpet cleaner' 'kingston', if your business is based in Kingston or if you have a lot of feedback reports from Kingston you will appear at or near the top of that particular page. 

[greg2040]

I asked exactly the same question and have a rough idea on how it works. It is worked partly depedant on the area the customer is searching and how well your company represents that area. ie. if a customer is looking for a cleaner in Fareham and 90% of your business and reviews are from Fareham then it will see you as a relevent result. 

From there it is then based on how recent your last bit of feedback is. So if I had some feedback from yesterday and my competitions last bit was from the day before then I will come up above them.

Checkatrade dont work on how many bits of feedback otherwise it would be nearly impossible for new members to get a look in against companies who have built up 100's of feedback over the years.

Anyway good luck with whatever you decide.

[derek west]

Just been informed that checkatrade are doing a £100 discount on the TACCA day and also they are holding there prices for us which are due to go up soon, this is an introductory offer for first timers to checkatrade so if your thinking of joining then why not get a ticket and come along to the tacca day. they will be doing there talk at 10am and 1pm for anyone interested.

[Peter J Haigh]

Derek
 Any chance of asking them to give the discount to clean it up forum members ? I am quite interested, but cannot make it to the training day. I would also be interested in the opinions of others after hearing their presentation.

Regards
Pete H

[derek west]

I will ask on saturday peter.

[Steve Gunn]

Interesting chat with checkatrade and saved £100 to boot

[Neil Williams]

Interesting chat with checkatrade and saved £100 to boot

Steve, if you want to ask any questions from someone who has been with this scheme for several years then give me a call.

[Steve Gunn]

Will do before I sign up cheers

[COLIN BRIGHT]

has anybody else heard of trust a trader its that david mitchell that advertises it

[Neil Williams]

Much the same but with less effort from them, also and as far as I know don't do the same level of advertising that C.A.T do including the TV advertising.