Trade Checking websites
October 8, 2012 - By davidhogben
You can’t help but notice the amount of trade checking web sites that have appeared in the last few years. Some have enough budget to even advertise on TV. As an electrical company we have researched whether the benefits of joining them are worth it to us but also does it benefit our potential clients.
In simple terms they are web based companies that rely on the public’s feedback, to generate testimonials. They might check a company’s credentials, to see if they are bona fide they usually check they have the correct insurance in place but no one physically goes out and checks the work done by its members prior to any complaint. One even to my astonishment published the amount of traders who had been expelled from the site; the figure was in the thousands. That means there was thousands of dissatisfied customers hardly something they should be proud of. Had they checked the members more closely you could say that they would have perhaps prevented a rogue trader gaining work from unsuspecting clients?
In contrast Sky Electrical are members of the NICEIC and Constructionline, the NICEIC not only checks our credentials. At least once a year we are fully inspected and at random two or three jobs are visited. The inspector has a vast knowledge of the regulations, he checks we have carried out the work to a good standard and then ensures we have tested and certified that work to industry standards. If that’s not enough if work is not up to standard the NICEIC will rectify any works that have not been carried out correctly at no expense to the customer .No trade checking web service can offer this guarantee. So my message to our potential clients is they are safer and better protected in using a NICEIC registered electrical contracting company than any using a Trade checking web site.
