[Simon Gerrard]

Did anyone get any good deals with the checkatrade  people at the TACCA day?

Simon

[Steve Gunn]

Offer was £399 on the day £100 off plus price increase due

[Neil Jones]

Last year they quoted me £900 per year, they just make up their prices, I think most people pay a different price.

[Max Campbell]

We got a clearer idea of what they were offering, and the deal was £399 (not in the guide) if you redeem one of the vouchers they gave out. I think everyone who gets the same deal - in the guide or not in the guide - pays the same.

They don't see themselves as lead generators, but as quote converters. We're going to pay our £399 & see how it goes.

[benny d]

Ive been with Checkatrade for 7 years, and have just paid them over £700-00. That's for just being a member.

Perhaps when they have "snagged" you, it will keep going up each year?
I might give them a call Monday...

[bennymon]

So how much work do you get from them benny

[Buckland]

I just paid £448.80 (inc vat) for the first 12 months - impressed with the organisation they are well staffed and responsive on the telephone and online - if it works and I get work thru them then I would be stupid not to renew at the end of that period

dave

[Neil Jones]

See, everyone pays different. I can't fathom it, they are providing exactly the same service to everyone. Would be interesting to hear out it works out?
When I was looking in to it the people who I spoke to who where already members seemed to be a 50/50 split on how well it worked for them. I found one guy who had free membership because they kept him on to keep up the numbers.

[clive ware]

Is this for the leaflet or just their website?
I`m in two areas int heir leaflets and including vat is around 2 grand a year.

[Simon Gerrard]

So is it worth the money?

Simon

[mark_roberts]

At the tacca day i asked how many people searched for carpet cleaners in belfast.

In fairness to the girls they did a search and said 1 in a few months from memory.

So not for me.

Mark

[stuart_clark]

Mark
I was up in Straban over the weekend visting a friend

[steve cardy]

As checkatrade started on the south coast this is where it works best , but word is spreading futher and in surrey where i am its quite well know and i have had jobs from it in london. Further north than that im not so sure

[JandS]

Why would people go through them when they
can just Google it for their town.
Let's face it all these organisations are the same
in that they vouch for someone who they have never
met and whose work has never been seen by them.

[*Hector*]

John... you forgot to add..

and by people who pay them lots of money to say so.....   

 

[mark_roberts]

Stuart

You should of called in on your way past.

Mark

[Buckland]

I am usually pretty dubious about this type of organisation (the G of MC springs to mind and the way they have given their seal of approval away for a piece of silver) but the level of awareness here in the central south region is very high as they have been spending serious amounts of money on advertising with the itv region for over a year or more and they are the regional sponsors of the Cowboy Builders programme with dom and the delicious melinda.
I wanted to find out if customers had heard of CAT and kept asking my customers if they had heard of them and if they would use them and more than 50% had and would - thats a pretty high factor of recognition - as a result their recruitment rate has gone through the roof recently
They started in 1998 when the first member joined - they now have 9,876 members nationwide.
They had 709,000 website visitors in the past 30 days and 1.2 million average pageviews each month on www.checkatrade.com plus there are 881,611 customer reviews published to date and they distribute 8.2 million Checkatrade directories every year - those figures come from their site admitedly but when you deal with a company you get a good idea of wethther they are for real or all smoke and mirrors -  its easy to be cynical but I think (in this region) they actually will dominate this new sector - and I have tried rated.com (did not work for me) and am still a member of the Buy With Confidence scheme run by Tradinf Standards.
They send real people out to vet the new members and cheque your ID and take up customer refs etc - I think they could end up dominating the sector for trade referrals in the UK - I think it is a name we will all come to know over the coming years...

[Mike Gwilliam]

As Simon said....

So is it worth the money?

Despite all the above, no one has posted that they have recieved any business from checkatrade even if paying from between £399 to £900.

Most of my business comes from recommendation and repeats so it doesn't concern me. sending out reminders will or could get a few grands worth of work for say £100 in postage costs for an example.

So whats the low down and figures for Checkatrade?

In all probabality (IMO), it's blimps of work with varying levels of quality or perhaps to quantify it....a few calls a year.

This is just my guestimate.

[Buckland]

Mike - I only started my membership on Monday - give em a chance!

dave

[stuart_clark]

Mark

I will be there again in a few weeks, I will look you up, if you are not too busey