Dave J.

I have been on Rated People for over three years, it was never that good but it has got steadily worse(and consequently I rarely use it now and will leave as soon as my contract is up) here is just a couple of the reasons:

The prices for the job leads were expensive to begin with but now they are just crazy!

Previously they reimbursed you(under certain conditions) when the job lead was non existent, or you was unable to quote for some reason but now they will reimburse a maximum of 20% of your job leads over a 3 month period, so no matter how much you spent, or for whatever reason you are a claiming a refund you will not get 4 out of 5 of your refunds back, its infuriating, its like just giving money to rated people(which they obviously spend on their advertising campaigns and search engine optimizations experts.
Often the customer have just changed their mind about going ahead with the job, or the jobs already gone, or whatever, and there goes your £60 down the drain! Ring Rated people and they are just like robots spouting from a pre prepared list of statements and will not reimburse you under any circumstances.

The setup, by its very nature is a race to the bottom for us trades people, i.e.to get the job you have to go in cheap and often you do that knowing its the only chance of getting the job, to only not get the work because someone has gone in cheaper. When you take of rated Peoples fees, if you actually end up getting the job its peanuts for small jobs! And this is where the warning comes in for the customers - if a supposedly skilled, experienced and qualified tradesman with his own business(and all the extra expenses and hassle that entails) is doing the job for considerably less than the going rate there is a good chance the job will be rushed and cheap materials will be used - I have come across this many times.

Trades people do us all a favour and stay of this site, its like the UBER of trades - we will all end up earning a lot less with under worse conditions while the people at the top of the likes of rated people get rich of our hard work, and for doing what?!