Calling all roofers or friends of roofers

[227 BHA]

This is a joke, surely! It seems as though every recommendation has been written in the same style with NO SPELLING MISTAKES!

I think you will find that the customers post in their comment cards and then someone at checkatrade manually enters them on the site so spelling may well get corrected. Or do you have a problem with that as well?

I know someone in Worthing who is a plumber and he says they post all feedbacks good or bad as it keeps members on their toes (although they will ring the member involved if they receive a bad one first and give them the chance to talk to the customer).

If they weren't fair the system would soon fail but yes ultimately the member pays so wont get removed but if he has bad feedbacks people have the choice as to use them or not and he will soon find the leads dry up. And you have to be interviewed, hold public liabilty insurance, have your qualificationss checked etc so this on top of the ongoing feedback responses will weed out most of the cowboys.

 

[BRIGHT ON Q]

You can - a public forum sorts out the cowboys from the professionals.
A "good recommendation" may be one of an unscrupulous trader's few "good" jobs, done purely to produce commmissions for his sub-standard work.

Whats to stop you dishing out these forms to customers you know are going to give you good feedback?.Its not like you have to give every customer one is it.Also do you have to give them a form before you start the work or can you give it after?

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Just discovered Brighton and Hove Trading Standards have a "Buy with confidence" traders list which has a few roofers listed. They are candid about the limitations of the list, but if you haven't got any recommendations you're happy with it might be also be worthy of consideration. It would take some nerve for a rogue trader to pay to have themselves listed on the Trading Standards web site, but I guess you can't rule it out.

Brighton & Hove City Council Trading Standards

I did think there might be some way of checking whether a trader you are considering has had any complaints upheld by Trading Standards before using them as an extra comfort, but I haven't had any luck.

Thanks for this. I'm going to make a few calls tomorrow.