Rated People Scam? User Reviews And Opinions Inside!
Rated People Scam?
Background On Rated People
RatedPeople.com was established in 2005 by Andy Skipwith. It all began when Skipwith was deserted during his own home renovation – leaving him with an unfinished project and out of money. At that point he thought to create a collective place where tradesmen can be rated and reviewed so you only find who’s right for you. Rated People can 300,000 job submissions per year and connecting 25,000 tradesmen and homeowners monthly.
How Does It Work?
For Homeowners: Homeowners looking for a tradesmen post a job free of charge and Rated People. Rated People then go out and find up to three of the best tradesmen in your area for that particular job description. The tradesmen will then procedd to quote you a price, and you can then view their feedback and portfolio. If you are happy, you hire your preferred tradesmen, then rate when on how well a job they did, and then the cycle continues.
For Tradesmen: Tradesmen are contacted by Rated People on potential leads in their area when a job is posted by a homeowner. They then pay for that lead if they want to, starting at 4 +VAT. They are alerted to job by text message. When you pay for a lead, you are then given the contact details of the homeowner to discuss the job further. The costs to tradesmen are detailed in the ‘Pricing’ section below.
How They Make Money
Rated People earn it revenue predominately through the tradesmen side of the business. Tradesmen have to pay a monthly fee for membership and pay for each lead Rated People send their way (if they want that lead of course).
Pros and Cons
For Homeowners:
Pros
- Free
- Easily put in touch with local tradesmen
- Only hire tradesmen with good ratings
- Risk of a tradesman doing a bad job is minimal
- If a tradesmen does a bad job, you can have your say and give them feedback accordingly
Cons
- Details going to multiple people
- Still no guarantee of a successful job
- Still no guarantee of finding a tradesmen
For Tradesmen:
Pros
- Easily get in touch with leads
- Cheaper than advertising in newspapers
- Good way to bring in business
- Have a portfolio for homeowners to see
Cons
- No guarantee of a job even when paying membership and leads. As homeowners can submit a job free, often they change there mind because they were just curious as to the response. This leaves the tradesmen paying for leads which aren’t really set in stone
- Homeowners usually undercut their pricing for their job. This often scares away tradesmen because it would not be economical to take the job.
Pricing
For Homeowners: Free of charge.
For Tradesmen: £10 +VAT for the first three months. After the three months is up the fee increases to £40 +VAT. It also costs a minimum of £4 +VAT for the leads that Rated People send you. For the monthly fee you’ll receive; “unlimited job alerts, your first customer lead, 100 text alerts and your own website”.
What We Think Of Rated People
In our opinion, Rated People is very side based. By that we mean that it benefits homeowners a great deal, but it really depends how you go about your business if you are a tradesmen. It all depends whether as a tradesmen you can recoup the cost of membership and costs of leads for it to be profitable and worth while. Homeowners can easily enter their job details and be contacted by local tradesmen, seems easy enough. But on the other end, the tradesmen that have contacted you are paying a membership, and paid for you as a lead. There are some stories of homeowners not being happy with the job a tradesman has done; but that can be so for any job and not just Rated People tradesmen.
Rated People is not a scam by any means, but many tradesmen have spent a lot of money and not got a single job. On the other hand there are many tradesmen who operate very profitably and successfully. As stated before it all really depends on how smart you are when picking leads and how well you communicate with homeowners. You have to weigh up the pros and cons, either homeowners or tradesmen, and see what works for you. Here are some case studies of real people which shows two sides to the coin:
Case Study 1: “I registered with them on Sunday 2nd October & am thinking about not using them. I’v paid the 1st 3 month fee of £10 + vat & I’m getting loads of leads from them but you have to pay for the leads. I don’t agree with this cause I could end up paying £100s of pounds & not get any jobs. I have also noticed that the amount of money the people in most of the leads have to spend(refereed to in the lead as there budget) wont cover the cost of the job they need done.” – Andrew Booth
Case Study 2: “i have been trading on the rated people website for about 2 1/2 ears and its a fantastic way of bring in buisness and am not worried about paying out money for a lead with no guarantee of job as its down to me as a proffesional to sell myself to customer, theres more of a chance of me winning work through rated people than any advertisement in magazines newpapers etc as there have other peoples feedback to see on website, rated people is definatley no scam.” – Jonathan C
Case Study 3: “I joined Rated People 4 months ago and have received quite a few leads from them (most of which I have won). I have also got jobs from their friends and neighbours. I think it’s well worth the money and cheaper than advertising in the local papers. The customers are protected because if I leave a bad job (which I haven’t) they have the option to give me a bad rating for all to see.” – Colin
**Please leave your feedback on Rated People in the comment section below and help your fellow homeowner/tradesman make up their mind!**
22 Responses to “Rated People Scam? User Reviews And Opinions Inside!”
Leave a Reply
RSS 2.0 Feed URL
Hi i did enjoy the post nice information keep me updated thanks.
We tried this a year ago in the boilers and heating field and found that most customers were underpricing jobs in their budget.
Most were not wanting a trustworthy tradesman who were going to do a good job but instead just trying to get the lowest possible price!
Many were landlords and some of them would be those you would hesitate to work for because you feared not getting paid.
A lot of the tradesmen looking for jobs are from East Europe or third world countries and are prepared to do some jobs very cheaply. Whilst thats probably fine for garden digging its not so good for boiler installations or repairs, where considerable technical knowledge and skills are necessary. The net effect for an English tradesman is that there are many of them who will put in seriously low quotes.
wow …are you real how comes eastern europeans worse then british tradesmen?
And by the way see statistics rated people 300000 customers and 25 000 tradesmen,out of all this customers 99% british and they choosing cheaper tradesmen!!!!!!!!!!
so british crying and moaning about whats called competitive market, but they don’t want to pay they own country man more. why????????????
rated people. they are the utter pits for tradesman the utter pits
I recently re-activated my account with Ratedpeople due to a slow down in enquiries. I had previously cancelled my membership due to an ongoing problem with false leads. I was assured that this had been addressed and that is not the case. I have just paid £48 for a false lead, the kind people at rated then give you 1 free lead. With the majority of leads being of a lesser value, you then would have to wait for a week to get a lead of equal value, or accept that you are getting screwed by buying a lead for £5 with a customer budget of £100. By the time you have done the job the only people that have made money are Ratedpeople. NOT IMPRESSED
iv recieved a total of 5 leads in the 1st 3 days of joining rated people and found time wasters looking for advice haveno money to do work or 1 i like didnt even have a house to live in for fitted weardrobes all i paid for the details and when got to addresses they dont answer door or cancil as you pull up so please rated people get the act together im paying you for good leads you ask if they have the planning or are accepting the work to do not there pipe dreams
Very open to abuse ,false leads ,and phantom jobs.
The whole thing could be run by a couple of network marketers ,who realy knows what jobs are real and what jobs are in the MATRIX!
i have used rated people for about 8 months so far and have done work for the value of £50.000
yes i do buy job leads that i dont always get but its all about selling yourself to the customer and it is fair for rated people to get money from it because they are the ones providing work for you and you dont need to look hard for it
do you work for rated people!!!!! or are there no other builders in your area.
My husbands leads have been crap….£1000 budget to decorate a 10 room house. Rated people should give some guidelines to joe public on what standard rates are.
We are not all cheap labour foreigners, some of us are british time served tradesmen with mortgages. my husband has an HNC in building, what can Boris offer.
Complete and utter con for tradesman.The minimum budget customers can select is under £100,when realistically they only want to spend a tenner. Rated people take away the pride and skill factor of being a tradesman,by making tradesman fight dog eat dog style for work,which in the current climate is hard to come by.and going by the budget people actually want to spend,you might as well go and work in mcdonalds. Too many customers put rubbish leads on rated people,and ive personally experienced customers posting jobs,which they dont really understand what they are talking about,so you buy the lead,and after speaking to the customer,they change there mind on actually wanting or needing a job doing. Rated people snare the tradesman by telling them how you get a free website ect for customers to find you and see what a good tradesman you are, but they can only view your ratings and website if you waste money on a lead,and regardless of how good you are,a customer will choose the rubbish tradesman charging £30,instead of the trustworthy professional with great reviews and website, charging £100
Ratedpeople is definately not a scam. Its simply that tradesmen think they should be entitled to win every job they ‘buy’ and blame everyone else if they don’t. Rather than blaming RP perhaps they should look at their own professionalism, pricing, communication, presentation and so on rather than blaming RP that the customer choose someone else over them. Not all customers simply want the cheapest price or an eastern european tradesman. If you truly theink that you have a low opinion of your own customer base. Also if someone prices a job at a price you , as a professional tradesman’ know can’t be done to for that then you should use your technical knowledge to explain to them why and any customer with a brain will surely listen. Also what most tradesmen fail to realise is that if they put an advert in the paper for a week at £200 and then (hopefully) get 10 jobs to price then they have paid £20 per lead. At least with sites like these you get to spend on leads where you know there is a customer enquiry. You could easily put a £200 advert in the paper and get no calls. Woukd that be the newspapers fault?
In my opionion there are 3 types of tradesman
1. Stupid ones!! The tradesmen who won’t entertain buying leads as they have listened to people saying they are a rip off amd simply dismiss them. This is 2012 everybody – people use google to find everything including your trade!!!
2. Smart ones!! Those that use these sites and generate plenty of work off them. Yes buying the odd duff lead but understanding the rough with the smooth nature of life. Happily receiving texts and emails of jobs in their area and cherrypicking the ones they want. And finally
3. Ultra smart ones!! Those tradesmen that use these sites as above but then also go online and also tell anyone else in the trade that they are awful and
not to touch them with a bargpole. Thus minimising competition and keeping more leads for themselves. Afterall why would you want all the other trades in your area using them as that reduces your chances of winning the job. If your making money why would you want all your competition in
There are lots of these sites and if used correctly you will make far more than you spend, but you have to have a decent business to start with. Customers don’t suddenly choose cowboys because they’ve sourced them online, in fact its the opposite. These are just customers of the modern generation who demand convenience and the ability to review things just like they do when they go on holiday (tripadviser), buy a camera (amazon), go to an online carboot (ebay) or use a plumber (ratedpeople). They are here to stay.
That just my lengthy opinion.
Regards
I agree with a lot of what David says.
I posted a job on Rated People and got two responses within 15 minutes.
The first company came out that morning listened to what the problems were, looked at the job and gave me a price. They were courteous and knowledgeable. I checked their recommendations on Rated People and they had many, and nearly all were 5 star.
The second was to come out to look at the job the next day. He didn’t turn up and then phoned later in the day to say he’d had trouble with his van and had spent hours waiting for the AA (couldn’t he have phoned me while he was waiting?!) He only had two ‘comments’ on Rated People. Both said that he had said the job was completed when it wasn’t and they had to get him back to finish the work.
Who do you think I chose?
The first company did a good job and I would recommend them. There is no point in the second company being on the site if the customers are going to give them bad reports.
The one thing I disagree with on Rated People is asking customers what their budget for the job is. How is your average homeowner supposed to know the cost of the work? There’s no point in anyone saying their budget is say £500 when the work could not be done for any less than £1000. Equally, if someone says their budget is £500, and the work will only cost £250, does that not create an opportunity for a tradesman to overcharge?
I needed a fire-door fitting to the main entrance to my apartment.(complete with intumescnt seals etc. self closing, the LOT) Contacted rated people and got a text within 12 hours telling me 3 trades people were intereted in doing the job, and I would be contacted v.soon. I WAS and the gentleman who came to measure up, and give me a quote was polite and knew what he was about. His quote arrived 3 days later and I accepted. Within a week he had completed an EXCELLENT job for me. Couldn’t do enough, was polite, neat & tidy, and ALWAYS keeping me ‘up to date’ with what he was doing, and asking me if I wanted any optional improvements while there was the opportunity. All in all I am VERY pleased wih the whole thing. from A. to Z.. Thank you Alan Ackroyd of Daisy Hill Joinery. Bradford. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
warning to any traders,keep away from rated people big scam, the last 12 leads i have payed for coming up to £118 each jobtold me they didnt want the job doing no more or they found someone else out side of rated people and when a report it to rated people they say they wont give me anyfree leads because i quoted them, im leaving them , they are a BIG CON and all traders need to staand together and email rated people and tell them how you feel , even the lead prices have gone sky high
i agree rated people is becomming a scam i just made another £48 plus vat for a job which the details for the customer are totally incorrect which leaves me out of pocket and in our trade is hard and rated people are total ass holes dont care cant speak to a manager or head office no refund available they offer a free lead WOWWWWWWWWWWWWWW i would like everyone to join me soon on face book to set up a site and put these people out of buisness us builders could do this on our own with no cost or very little lets get together email me with ideas please.
Hello, I read your comments of Rated people, I think this site is completly false, If a tradesman was to be as they are with the trade, they would be of this site.
If you contact them with a bad JOB LEAD, they say they will contact you back……they dont, they are good at taking the tradesmans money & running, there communication, standards are deserving my rating….minus 10 star SHITE!!!
We have used rated people for 3 years with a good conversion rate
The problem we have them is that they treat you like a number
if you ever have a query you can never get past the first person who answers the phone so if you have a complaint you just get
a standard response
for example 2 out of the last 3 leads I have bought have wanted quotes for properties they don,t even own yet one of them had not even put the offer in yet
When I asked for a refund they said I could not have one because the customer would let me quote (which was true they would let me quote) but as they did not own the house and they might never own it
THEY REFUSED TO REFUND LEADS I think this is pathetic and
although I have had a good relationship with rated people over the last 3 years this has soured it
If any body from Rated People would like to discuss this I would be happy to do so
email address g-perry3@live.co.uk
Rated people are overrated they still use cowboy builders as i found out to my cost
Rated people still use cowboys
Did some work through rated people, got some jobs,think I split even. I’m a roofer of 40 years work under belt, first jobs they sent, were small’ish, and cheap, about £4.00 . Then we had a lot of storms, then any job they sent me, the price went up! anything from £15 to £27 plus vat and they were the same type of job small , a ridge off, or slipped tile or slate, some of the jobs were 30 miles away. I paid for a few jobs, and the customers were only looking for an idea, not wanting a job done at all. I put this to rated people, and they said they would try and put it right, I said why don’t you put a charge to the customer, so it would put a stop to the time waster, the other thing I put to them, was to make the charge to the trades man or woman, after they got the job on a %, I thought was a better way, on that they said, it was ent the way they worked.
,
The comments I’ve just made was about 3 years ago, and I’ve just been looking again at them, they change a bit, just looks good, there are a few of these ” Co” out there, and they just want your money, when we just don’t have it, quite a few of the “Co” want the money up front, and pay for the lead, they also want to make you a web site, that’s the up front money! Just been quoted £599 + vat. Good in’it?