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Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2006 7:04 pm
by Brooksy
Just thought it'd be worth mentioning a company we (as contractors) have recently registered with called Safetrade (www.safetrade.org.uk) - they originally started in the North East (where I'm based) but seem to be expanding all the time to include more areas. They basically come and see you, check you out and contact a number of your previous customers to verify you are not of the cowboy variety. Once you are registered you provide each of your customers with a pre-printed comments slip where they can leave any comments and score you out of ten on Reliabiliy, Value for Money and Quality of work. These comments are first validated then put up onto their website, where anyone can view them.
Basically from the website via drop down lists you select your location and what type of trade you are after, and you are given a list of contractors which fit your requirements.
It's worth thinking about for any contractors out there who want to demonstrate that they are reliable trustworthy people, but obviously also good for the public to find a reliable contractor. We are starting to get work through them now, but more importantly, when meeting any potential customer's, they appreciate being able to read other peoples comments, and we've won some jobs over other contractors because of it. It's not free, but these things never are - but I think it's worth doing.
Michael Brooks
Lincoln Driveways
Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2006 7:30 pm
by Ian CHP
How much did you pay for it (roughly) I was quoted around £700 for a similar scheme which provided ID cards, plus the others you mentioned. I thought it was a bit expensive when I could provide telephone numbers photo's and references etc although it was a tempting offer, with the number of eejits around this neck of the woods it would sort the wheat from the chaff. :O
Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2006 7:59 pm
by Brooksy
I've just had a look and it was £375 inc VAT for the year, divided into 3 instalments. Yeah I forgot to mention Safetrade provide you with a photocard ID as well. Sounds like the same sort of thing.
There are all sorts of the big hat wearing types round here, willing to do jobs for pennies (I recently had to go and sort out someone's drive for them - they'd had some blokes in who'd quoted £2000 for the job, (my materials bill came to £2100) started to dig it out (to a depth of 8-9cm) but on the first day, 3 riots vans turned up with the police helicopter to arrest the whole lot of them. Apparently they'd been ripping off the whole estate! Nice to see the police are actually doing something!
The bloke at the local printers I use is totally sick these types coming in and changing the telephone numbers on their flyers every week!
Back to pricing though, If I quoted some of the prices I've heard quoted down south for jobs, I'd be laughed at up here, so Safetrade gives me a way of trying to convince people that they will get a decent job if they pay a bit more.
Where are you based?
Posted: Sat Jun 24, 2006 7:06 pm
by Ian CHP
I'm based near Northwich in Cheshire, not very far from Tony, we seem to get alot of "summer pavers" coupled with quite a few pikeys who are always ready to undercut a price and do the job the day after, which the more gullible client will always accept. If I wasn't so busy and sooooooo short staffed it would be something I may well have done but as it is, in another 12 -18 months and I'm hopefully out of this game to take up sports coaching or teaching.
On another note does anyone get phone calls from a child protection booklet company looking for sponsorship money, I get perhaps 1 a month, which normally starts with
"hello, its blah blah we rang you 6 months ago and you agreed to sponsonsor the scheme", the calls are obviously recorded as soon as you say NO the phone goes down, if you don't say no you get an invoice through the door followed up by red letters. I even get someone from the services trying it on, one bloke who after going through all the pre written spiel, started effing and jeffing at me.
I got caught out twice in my first year of trading, it seems there are just as many rogue advertisers as there are doing the work, although, to be fair the booklets which are sent to a school of your choice are very good, but the manner in which they are sold to you is nothing short of a con :O
Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 10:23 am
by Nigel Walker
Ian
I also get calls from the same people. About once / twice a month.
Same spiel. Same reply - 'No I havent agreed to anything, not interested, No No No , go away ' Sometimes I end the conversation with a swear word as I get a bit wound up !
In my first 2 years in business I stupidly agreed to a couple of these scams. Cost £100 for books for kids school (never seen them). £50 for advertising in a Police magazine, £200 for a Neighbourhood Watch booklet - again never seen. Harsh lessons, but always I always say no now. Sometimes there may be an extremley good offer or promotion but I still always say NO.
I also get phone calls form a company in the North West (Cheshire i think) wanting to collect debts for me. Same reply to them - 'I already use somebody' , but they still persist.
It does get annoying recieving these types of phone calls, but I am always harsh now and say no quite abruptly.
Another annoyance is the calls from Diamand Blade salesmen. Again about 3-4 times a month. ' Our blades are better then everyone else - only £25 each' 'GO AWAY AND LET ME WORK'
If I want something, I will always contact a company myself. I will never ever buy anything, or agree to anything over the phone.
To all you people starting out in business, be warned you will recieve these types of calls - be strong and say NO.
Nigel
Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 10:37 am
by Tony McC
These advertising scammers need their collar felt. They always seem to be offering some tie-in with a charity or community project, such as anti-drugs, handicapped kids or whatever, and the likelihood of you ever getting any work is zero. A contact in Trading Standards told me that these outfits are sub-contracted to find sponsors for all sorts of well-intentioned fund-raisers, but they take a HUGE admin fee, and if you hand over 50 quid, the "good cause" might see a fiver of it. They then publish the sort of low quality pamphlet that you would never hang on to, but you feel obliged to buy because it's for "charidee".
However, there are worse. There's a scam involving a "first aid kit" for contractors. They call and if you give any hint of interest, you end up with a bill for several hundred quid and a fecking useless plastic box with a bandage, two plasters, a safety pin and a tube of iffy-looking ointment that you'd be stupid to apply to any sort of wound. The company is run by some foreign crowd, East Europeans I believe, via an accommodation address in that London. Mrs Taz isn't as clued up as me, and when they called, she said she'd have to ask her husband, whereupon they they took that as a "yes", and sent the bloody package. I sent it back with a "handling fee" bill for three times what they'd billed me and they decided not to pursue me any further. I didn't get my 990 quid plus VAT, though. 
There are also a number of "business consultants" that will offer you anything...
<ul>
<li> mobile phones with huge commissions and ridiculous call charges
<li>financial reviews that invariably reveal you need additional insurance, a pension, and a huge loan, plus their call out fee
<li> job leads for jobs that don;t exist run by companies that don't want to hear from you
<li> free diamond blades that would struggle to cut through butter, but lock you in to a long-term agreement to take umpteen blades per month for ever and a day
<li> book-keepers (they daren't call themselves "accountants" or the real accountants would rip them apart) that suggest they should look after you cheque book and pay-in all your cheques
<li> charity collections looking for donations to non-existent good causes
<li> training and Health & Safety courses/publications that aim to convince you that you face prosecution if you don't buy
<li> trade associations that take your money, give you a badge and bugger off sharpish
<li> Data Protection "consultants" that charge a ridiculous fee to fill in a form on your behalf and send it off to the DPR with a second-class stamp
</ul>
I'm sure there's more. Never, ever give any of them the time of day. They are not calling you out of the goodness of their heart: their only real concern is your wallet. Tell them NO (or a combination of two words with the second being "off") and puit down the 'phone. If you get any of these packages and bills through the post, contact your local Treading Standards office.
Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2006 4:45 pm
by mouldmaker
Not suggesting that safetrade are scammers, but their website has gone awol. also www.safetradeonline.co.uk
There are a number of people offering this kind of scheme with promises of recommendations, iD cards, etc (I think one recently showed up on watchdog or similar) but in actual fact all they do is make your wallet lighter then disappear.
It's easy to put up a slick looking website (I do, frequently) and smother it in exciting looking logos etc but few of them come up with the goods.
£700 quid or whatever will buy quite a lot of local advertising, or a slick website of your own with plenty of spare change.
Edited By mouldmaker on 1151596150
Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2006 7:31 pm
by Ian CHP
I seem to have solved the problem of these eejits phoning me on site, I've left my mobile number off all advertising only leaving the land line number, if I'm not in, customers leave a message and I call them back. If these sheisters call we just switch the fax machine on or give the phone to one of the kids or the favourite, leave it on speaker phone and walk away 
Posted: Sun Jul 09, 2006 10:59 am
by Tony McC
If this "SafeTrade" crowd have gone awol, I can't say I'm surprised. It's almost impossible to run a trade vetting business and make a profit: what would be regarded as a reasonable fee, say 200-500 quid, doesn't really cover the costs involved in properly vetting each and every business, and so corners have to be cut, and before very long, what was (sometimes) originally set up with noble intentions crashes on the rocks of reality.
It takes a huge amount of money and resources to run and maintain a "proper" list, which is why the only ones that have any credibility are those run by the manufacturers or the manufacturers' trade associations, and we have to be honest in admitting that none of these are perfect.
I've been asked on innumerable occasions to set up such a list, based on the success of the website, but there is just no way I could do it with the credibility and standards I would desire unless the project was heavily subsidised or the members were able to pay a fee of 500+ quid. That's why I don't actively promote contractors on the site; it's a non-starter unless there is some form of subsidy, as far as I can see.