Trading standards - Approved traders scheme

[mark39]

hi there everyone my first post so be gentle.
i run a paving business in mansfield notts
and we are entering into the trading standards approved traders scheme any comments on this scheme ???
we have been members of other schemes before mention no names !!!! but all they seem to be bothered about is taking your anual fee off of you ,they say they are protecting the public from the cowboys but in reality anybody can join these schemes we know several firms that are on these schemes and they are total bodgers so in reality these schemes are not working so we havnt been in any for a few years ,
but now the trading standards have finally got their fingers out maybe at last there is something we can finally trust !!!
NOT TO PUT MONEY FIRST AND QUALITY SECOND
its cheap to join and you have to have criminal background checks and quite stringent checks from previous work checks to all office paper work and bank and insurance checks ,
surly this cannot be a bad thing it has to be the way forward for honest decent firms to fight back against the cowboys who give everyone in our trade a bad name !!
please let me know what you think
thanks to all .mark.. :O :O :O

[seanandruby]

Criminal records checks are fine for people who have been "nicked" in the past. There are lads who break the law but have been lucky not to have been caught. Then you have a borstal boy who wants to turn is life around by doing a construction course inside and gets shafted by these checks. quality of work is what we should be looking for.

[mark39]

hi there mate , i quite agree in what you said but there has to be a starting point and all these little things add up as i posted they also do a previous client check they want alot more names to check than any other of the approved pavers schemes that i have seen the more the merrier i say
they also require you to give the customer a feed back form which is sent back to tradings standards so if you do not meet your customers requiements you would have a good chance of being thrown out and outed as bodgers
too many of these schemes are toothless and dont throw out the bodgers,
what they need to do every so many weeks is put them local papers for people to see who they are name and shame ! and put them in court and make them pay back the money they have ripped off and then jail them!!!
but back to reality we can only try at the end of the day to make our companies stand out from the cowboys and give ourselves and the customers the best chance of getting a high quality and reliable service .
all the best mark...
:p

[thegardensurgery]

hello
I have been a member of the trading standards trader register for a year or so now and i have had problems with most of the customers recommended to me...basically many of these people have been stung before and are very very entrusting and i find the projects very hard as you are under a lot of scrutiny..my business is run honest and straight..we don't profit from material etc...and trader register makes you feel on trial...and you will find the register is full of other landscapers under about 5 names...i don't get much from it...why..no one sodding knows about it...lol

[mark39]

hi there , good to get feed back
you would think that they would be pushing this a bit more i know but you have to start somewhere i suppose .
its quite new to my area so we will have to wait and see!!!
it is hard when you get customers who have been ripped off before hand ,we get quite a few using us already but all you can do is your best to bring them round it takes alot of time to get peoples trust but when you do it makes it all worth while ,we find that we always get a good reponse from the peace of mind service that we provide we treat people like friends and always get good feedback from them .but its can be hard work i once had a customer follow me around for two weeks while we laid his new patio he would sit on a plastic chair watching nearly all day it was a pain but it his money so you just get on with it but we ended up good friends
if you can establish a common bond its amazing how different people can be with you ,(sorry im not preaching honest )
we will see how we go with the scheme but i still think it will be a good venture ,
all the best in the future
mark.. :p

[lutonlagerlout]

how about a blacklist of crap clients?
all these schemes are self serving mark, to an extent.

as discussed on here at length most people ask friends for recommendations of builders as it is likely to be the 2nd largest amount they ever spend aside from buying a house.

a carpenter at work told me a good example today,he was doing some 2nd fix work for a wannabe developer on a refurb, anyway it was about £2k of work
the guy asked him to move the loft hatch,when the chipie explained he would have to cut a truss to do it the guys said a la beenie "just go for it"
anyway the guys sells the house which he bought for £280 for £ 460 after spending £30k in total on it
then he knocks the chipie for a monkey saying that the surveyors report noted that a truss had been cut illegally
guys like this need to be put on a register, that we can access so that when they ring no-one answers
IYKWIM
LLL :;):

[mark39]

hi there , we are joining the scheme mainly to give us an edge against the bodgers and gypos to ect of this world ,
people know about the trading standards and trust them but with other schemes run by manufacturers ect they have mostly never heard of them as we only do domestic work
we hope that we can pull a few more customers away from the bodgers and back towards us you can but try !!
as for the chipie he could of said no !! sometimes you have to stand your ground with some customers but its hard when you need your money .
i totally agree with your comments though
it should work both ways but as you know its a war out there!
thanks for the input
mark..

[lutonlagerlout]

the same chipie is thinking of buying a dictaphone,he says he wishes he had a pound for every time the wife asks him to do something (ohh can you do a little cupboard under there) then the old man comes home ,doesnt like it and the wife says she never asked for it!!
i try and avoid getting too cosy with customers ,friendly enough but you dont need any more friends that need work doing for nought IYKWIM
LLL :;):

[mark39]

i know what your saying ,never work for nothing
" nothing " dont pay them bills
if they dont want to pay for your time they dont get it simple as that
catch you later
mark :laugh:

[Tony McC]

The problem with the Trading Standards scheme is that there is no consistency amongst TS offices. The team in Warrington are generally very, very good, but those from a certain neighbouring borough just don't like going out in the cold and can;t be arsed with anything connected to the building trade: they're far more concerned with weights and measures and dodgy DVDs.

I have no time and no respect for any of the manufacturer-run buy-your-membership schemes because they are not properly policed, they almost invariably give the benefit of any doubt to the contractor, and are more concerned with making money than driving up standards. Some of the worst jobs I,ve see have been undertaken by so-called "approved" contractors, and when the client has turned to the sponsoring manufacturer for assistance, the alleged "inspector" has wriggled and squirmed and been as non-committal as it is possible to be without being struck by a thunderbolt.

The only two 'schemes" I would have any faith in are the Interlay group,(and even that's not perfect: its dispute resolution is way too slow) and TrustMark, which is still struggling to earn recognition.

However, no matter how good or bad any of these schemes may be, they cannot ever guarantee a fault-free job. Even the best of us drops a clanger every now and again, and then there are some clients whose behaviour and antics would give Tinkers a good name in comparison.

The key to a successful client/contractor relationship is having trust in each other. the client has to be able to *instruct*the contractor and not feel intimidated, while the contractor has to feel they are treated with respect and not viewed as some slimeball ready to do a bodge job and then leggit with the money. I've been saying it for 20+ years, since I first started a driveway/patio side to our business, but it's worth repeating: a written contract is worth its weight in gold. It ensures the client knows what they're getting and tells the contractor what they will be expected to provide. It prevents helluva lot of misunderstanding and "he said: she said".

[James.Q]

very true Tony, a couple of years ago I worked as a manager for paving and landscaping company who had a dispute with a client over a driveway. Said manufacturers were called out to medeate, and even though the works were sub standard the manufacturers came down on the side of company I worked for because with 10 to 15 busy paving gangs working if they didn't the company would have changed suppliers. Having said that I had the drive re done got an allmighty bollocking for costing them money! Needless to say, I only worked for them for about 3 months - they were mainly a bunch of ex double glasing salesmen who found a way of earning a quick buck and brought me in to run the gangs, but like a jack ass i fell for the patter. They also claim to be members of interlay, marshalls and every other one you can think of even been named and shamed on interlay as a non member claiming to be a member but joe puplic dont have a clue.

[mark39]

thanks for your replys guys and input .
and a big hello to tony mcC
i apprieciate your input we have also seen the state of work carried out by firms on these schemes
we joined the then top p!ve scheme now br??t a couple of years ago and the first contact after joining we received was from their top guy asking us to put right a 60 sq mtr slabbed patio a full uplift and relay that had been laid by one of their approved pavers not once but twise he said it would only take us a couple of days !!!!
what planet are these people from ?? no wonder the work was a bodge in the first instance we declined the work and that was our first and last offer of work from them .
we dont think they liked our attitude we only do quality work and you cannot do quality work by the crash bang wallop system as we told them !!
but i do think for the peace of mind of the tradings standards
scheme offers the consumer it will hopefully be a good selling point for our companys workmanship
but as you stated trust is a major factor that is often under used in our trade
a good customer / contractor relationship is a priority
we often find that when the customer does their homework
on looking into the technical side of the job and checking the
references we give them we very rarely miss out on these jobs its just the jobs you quote for that when they ask you can u start next week !!you wonder if they ever stop to think
about if they might just be playing into the laps of the gypos and bodgers :p (brains scoopped out at birth i think )

thanks mark...

[matt h]

Trading standards have only formed these lists to get a decent standard of work for the customers, but too many customers seem to think that because you are on the trading standards list you will do the job for nowt! Rogue customers would be a crack tv series which would run and run..imho

[Rich H]

The quality of both client and contractor is, to a large extent, determined by the manner in which they came together. If they met from an advert or directory, the likelihood is that the relationship will start from a premise of mistrust.

My solution has been 'structured networking'. That way, I only meet people to whom I've been recommended. You start from a position of trust. Also, like Tony, I'm a great believer in the power of the contract, even if it's a signature on your detailed quote. I now also have a line in my quotes that says "Any additional works requested to be carried out once the work has commenced will be charged at .... plus materials and equipment hire."

[matt h]

agreed . written contract is always best, but even then some b"stds just dont pay... new court procedures do help, but it leaves a nasty taste iafter doin a good job..