02/07/2022
Why tradesmen are leaving or have left checkatrade.
Many will probably we wondering why your favourite tradesman is no longer with checkatrade. Many left for the same reason I did.
In 2018 Homeserve PLC took over checkatrade. This concerned many of us especially in the gas or plumbing trades as we had a direct competitor now owning a site we were advertising and gaining reviews on. Added to this was the bad press from when Homeserve was fined the highest amount at the time for misleading insurance customers. (From experience even after it wasn’t worth the paper written on).
We got instantly added to a homeserve heroes page they created without asking any of us. Instantly we got this removed as we didn’t want to be associated with homeserve. Every job people asked us to quote after looking at our pages,had an advert for homeserve on so again instantly this competition was there. I am sure they wouldn’t like me appearing on their adverts as an alternative. Still we kept on trying to give this a chance as customers still believed in the checkatrade brand.
Meetings were held, representatives for our areas were asked for, voted on and more meetings held. We told our reps what issues we had, what we would like to see, they were told what checkatrade wanted and their plans. Basically we just got ignored, the reps proved to be wasting their time and all the promises from Richard Harpin in a video he sent us turned out false.
Our rates instantly tripled and sometimes even more. The reason we were told was they want to advertise more. Then trades would be charged on their trade and not a one price for all. Now some might think this is fair as sure a window cleaner earns less than a plumber and a spark, but they also don’t have to pay higher insurance fees, training costs, membership costs etc all out of their fee to a customer. In reality there isn’t much difference and most of the time not at all. This though wasn’t taken into consideration.
Next was managed contacts, originally called secure contacts. You might have noticed trademen numbers were changed, or they phoned you back on a different one than you called. This they say was to stop unwanted companies contacting us and to identify frequent nuisance callers. Helping us keep track of our calls, hearing the checkatrade jingle so we know its from them. Help filter out spam texts and emails.
They also said they listened to members about this, though we made it clear we didn’t want them as it caused confusion and messes up with all the SEO and other data that helps us advertise on the internet. Still they were forced on people. At this point i left, as old members were promised by Richard harpin we wouldn’t have them just any new people joining, to everyone who renewed the subscriptions to being forced to have them.
Having these ‘secure contact’ details allowed checkatrade to harvest data, turn off and divert calls at will. People were losing customers as they were not being sent the calls from customers, so angry emails and phone calls came via their real numbers people got from the persons websites. Others had their number turned off because they wanted to be 2 pamphlets not 4 which became a policy. The horror stories continued.
Recently they introduced a fair usage policy, so if someone calls you or sends a message that is counted to a number you were allocated as a maximum before they stopped sending the calls and messages. This they say is to spread the work. So if you want a specific company as you love their reviews you wont get to them unless no one contacted them previously that month, it doesn’t mean they won the work from any call or message, just they were contacted. So you would have to try find them on the web, get their real number and contact them directly.
We used to go through many checks and receive home visits, this was great. It meant you could trust the person you wanted to do the work for you was qualified, an expert in their field, had high values and wouldn’t rip you off and run away with your money or leave a p**s poor job in your home, they stopped this. No home visits (before covid) and less and less checks. Checkatrade open their doors to every cowboy and Indian out there. They wanted 200,000 trades on their books a ten fold increase we worked out. This meant instead of a few honest and skilled trades in your area as a possible competitor to a flooded market of cowboys, all wearing the same stickers on the vans…. Made. No business sense to most and horrified us at the thought of who they let in.
Reviews didn’t count, a person with a couple of reviews was placed higher and had calls diverted to them because they were new. Not because they put in the time to do the work and get the reviews. I even had reviews of mine given to others and they refused to fix it. That was my main reason for leaving at the time. Instead they cancelled my subscription early. It was not a loss i decided so was happy.
You can also be shown people 50 miles away as they pay for the privallage to be shown to you, they wont come and quote for the work or do the work but it gets them seen, so your local tradesman is then pushed further and further down the list, (do a search and try it)
You will come across this member is not available many times or some other generated message and they will divert you to a person of their choosing and not yours, this could be a new member, someone who complained they were getting no work and want to leave (so they a couple of weeks of boosted viewing). You can guarantee the person you wanted to speak to is available and is looking for work to do.
There are many many many more horror stories especially with people leaving (chased by shoosmiths now after being taken to court and not being told they were due in court) because checkatrade breached the agreements, or they had simply had enough of trying and trying to fix things. There is a lovely page we are members of where we can keep up to date in the hope it ever got fixed.
In ending please do google any person you find on checkatrade, check their own websites and contact them directly, speak to people you decide to not who people decide for you and be happy you will be getting that trustworthy company who worked hard to be skilled honest and reliable for you
