Rated People, Tradesmen's fees and unreliable clients!

Iv'e been using Rated People for approximately 16 months now for the odd job during slower periods. One thing that really niggles is the fact that none of the people posting up request's for work seem to realise that the tradesmen are actually paying for the priviledge of getting the clients details to quote for the job.I have had two recently that don't answer phone calls or messages and then when you do get through they say 'o, sorry but we have someone already'I think it would be a much fairer system if1. The client being aware from the outset that the tradesmen contacting them are paying a fee to do so and hopefully then act accordingly ie. answering the phone/email in good time and not looking for tradesmen elsewhere while listing work on rated people!2. A system in place where by if you are quoteing for work along with another tradesmen and you lose out to the other guy, then is it not unreasonable to expect 50% of your fee back.3. There seems to be quite a lot of inconsistency with the way work is priced by rated people, i have noticed many jobs that are similar if not the same but priced very differently or jobs that anyone can see are not of high value but are priced high. The tradesmen dont want to pay for it and the client loses out as a result.On the whole i have found Rated People to be an effective way of getting work, if your careful in your selections! but i feel the current system is rather unfair on the tradesmen and the clients are ill informed of exactly how the site works.After recent bad experience with getting in contact with a few unreliable potential clients, i doubt i shall renew my quaterly subscription unless some transparency is forth coming.

Replies

Nick Donaghey @ Garden Gurus July 18, 2010 at 8:31am

I suffered a lot with this early this year and have stopped using these sites. I feel that even if you do get as far as visiting the client they are only looking for ideas of price etc with really intending on getting you to do the work. The only exception I've found to this is Freeindex which is not only free to use but has a very high client uptake.

Just to mix this in with another thread briefly - surely LJN is the ideal place to run a system like this? The site gets paid for and work is generated for members. Everyone signs up to the LJN charter, there's no hiding from doing a bad job etc etc...
Cesare Harradine July 18, 2010 at 9:11pm

There have been a number of discussions about these types of sites on LJN. The general opinion seems to be stay away.