Rated trades

[hillandtrail]

Just wondered if anyone had tried any of these rated trade websites?
I have just finnished a trial of one, your have to pay about £12 to get a job lead.
Managed to get about 1 job from the free trial but dont know if having to pay the subscription and paying for the leads is worth it.

I would like to know what other tradesmen think and what site you find brings in the most business.

Cheers

[James.Q]

been there myself didnt pay money . wont be fooled again

[surreyhillslandscapes.com]

I used a couple of target lead companies and it didn't really work out for me due to the amout of timewasters, One tried to charge me for out of date leads, I was given a period of time so I could dispute the leads quality in, usually only 2-3 days, so by the time I'd seen the job and realised it's a timewaster it's to late to dispute it.
I found the money was better spent on advertising in the local press, The parish magazine is a good one. Also went with one of the big directories last year and spent big, it came out in June.....not one call to date.

[flowjoe]

Big in the states but a waste of time, too many people picking your brain for free advice.

Yellow pages, Thompson directory - Ok if you monitor your calls and adjust your spending accordingly

Google/MSN Adwords - The dogs ball haucks, 40% time wasters and competitors the rest are people who are actually looking for your BUT you have to have a good website and use google analytics to monitor visits/conversions

Word of Mouth............. the best advertis......... you know the rest

[Ted]

Rated Trades is a waste of time IME...

Tried it but did not like it...

Depends on your firm as to the best media to advertise in... but regardless of this, word of mouth is the best form of advertisiing as it is free.

[lutonlagerlout]

^^ LLL

[matt h]

forget it, signed up for several over the years, but never worth the money. word of mouth is the only way to get work, so get you existing clients to tell their friends:D

[James.Q]

tried a free trial earlier in the year from ;paving quotes .co ; never got a decent lead of them . now they are sending me more and more leads that ive not asked for and every day seems to be my last chance. ones just come through wich is local so ill give it a try and let you know . all the rest are to far away ie 30 plus miles . i think most are from people bored on the internet just asking for quotes for work they have no intention of having done. because to be honest i wouldnt book a firm that way i would try to find a local recomended firm

[Tony McC]

Paving Quoter are really pissing me off, trying to use me to provide a free technical advice service for their clients and then repeatedly asking for jobs to be priced despite being told, in no uncertain terms, to go forth and multiply.

None of these 'lead generators' are worth a toss. Even after you weed out the time-wasters, knobheads, non-starters and the befuddled, the residential trade has always relied on local reputation and word of mouth. The anonymity of the web-based lead generators is used by other contractors to check their own pricing and/or to hold 'auctions' for sub-contract work, where they pass on work to whoever submits the lowest price.

[James.Q]

too true that last one i had that woz local ;just wanted a rough idea ;

[matt h]

EWORKMEN HAS NO JOBS, IS JUSTTRYING TO GET TRADESMEN LIST TOGETHER SO WILL EVENTUALLY START CHARGING ONE WAY OR THE OTHER METHINKS... BUT THEN CALL ME SCEPTICAL:D

[warnergrounds.co.uk]

We spent the last year trialling a number of referral websites and we have only found two (out of 9 or so) that were worth any time at all. We do use Rated People and it has worked for us - although we did strike it lucky with a £10 lead that was for a £13k job! Also we have a customer feedback rating of 96% for last year which is now working in conjunction with the usual word of mouth. The other site we use is run by Tellus BV and is called paving-quotes.co.uk. We are currently trialing workbidder.co.uk and I will report back at the end of this month how we have got on!

I spoke to Simply Paving recently and they are looking to put together a part of their site for contractors called Simply Traders which will be FREE to join!!!! Makes me glad I didn't put the cheque in the post to Marshalls. Might be worth an e-mail to them although I did recommend to them that they contact Tony on this site to see whether he could help them get decent contractors countrywide and get cracking with it!

[Tony McC]

I could easily post/publish a list of 2,000+ contractors, both those that register with the pavingexpert National Contractors List and those that have called or emailed me over the past 10 years, but what value would it have? It's nothing more than a list of names and contact details. Just because someone adds their name to a list does not automagically confer reliability or integrity.

So, any list put together by Simply Paving (who *still*, after 3 years, have never replied to a single email from me) has no real merit unless the listed companies are thoroughly and comprehensively vetted both for skills and business management, and it can be shown that companies breaching the stated aims and regulations of the list have been booted out.

In order to provide such a high level of checking and administration, someone has to pay. When I'm asked to vet a contractor on behalf of one of the trade organisations, it can easily take me a full day, plus travel costs. Who's going to pay me?

A free list may sound like a good idea, but will it actually have any real value?

[warnergrounds.co.uk]

I wasn't suggesting that it did at all. And it is disappointing that Simply Paving haven't been in touch as I've recommended this site to them several times. Maybe rather than having to visit individual sites there could be an assessment centre where contractors come to you Tony!! It would be nice if it was near to Berkshire

We as a company are proud of our Rated People rating - after all it is the only independent way we feel our customers can rate us at the moment. All the testimonials on their are independent and not edited by anyone in any way.

I know it is horrendously difficult to weed out the bad contractors but with a feedback system at least the customer always knows that they will have the power to give their view on the job done.

I guess there is no perfect solution. We just all have to keep our standards up and let our past works speak for themselves for now

[matt h]

trading standards recommendation sites are the best because the workmen are positively vetted and have to abide by approved trading practices