Anyone Used MyHammer.co.uk ??

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P

patientlady

Free Member
Aug 25, 2009
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  • #9
    Mayfield Electrical said:
    We use 'mybuilder.com', same thing just a little cheaper. The problem with these sites is that the contractors qualifications are never checked and you end up pricing against complete idiots.
    Click to expand...

    Hence my original comment! Why would anyone use a site like this. Anyone can quote £200 then get there and the job is something entirely different with no guarantee of good work ! or have i got the wrong end of the stick...
     
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    M

    Mayfield Electrical

    Free Member
    Jan 10, 2010
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    Sheffield
  • #10
    patientlady said:
    Hence my original comment! Why would anyone use a site like this. Anyone can quote £200 then get there and the job is something entirely different with no guarantee of good work ! or have i got the wrong end of the stick...
    Click to expand...

    As a relatively new company we used it thinking it would generate more business. It wasn't untill we quoted for a few jobs that we realised that we were competing against chancers. I raised my concerens with the website who informed me that 'they advise customers to check the qualifications of any trades quoting for jobs'. I have only been asked by 2 customers, both of which had nothing to do with this site for my qualifications and NICEIC certification.

    These sites are not interested in protecting the customer, but like any business looking to make a profit. Our standards will not change for the sake of profit and safety is paramount. This is one of the reasons we have not renewed with this site.
     
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    patientlady

    Free Member
    Aug 25, 2009
    1,464
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    S E England
  • #11
    Mayfield Electrical said:
    As a relatively new company we used it thinking it would generate more business. It wasn't untill we quoted for a few jobs that we realised that we were competing against chancers. I raised my concerens with the website who informed me that 'they advise customers to check the qualifications of any trades quoting for jobs'. I have only been asked by 2 customers, both of which had nothing to do with this site for my qualifications and NICEIC certification.

    These sites are not interested in protecting the customer, but like any business looking to make a profit. Our standards will not change for the sake of profit and safety is paramount. This is one of the reasons we have not renewed with this site.
    Click to expand...

    I think you are wise! not good to be linked to a site where you have no control of potential bad/good press! So i did not get the wrong end of the stick. A web site with no responsibilities, offering no guarantees or even customer service and financial backing! grrrr
     
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    estwig

    estwig

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    Sep 29, 2006
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  • #12
    The kinda people who use these sites to find tradesmen, you don't want them as customers. They are only interested in price, quality of work, references, qualifications, insurance, etc, none of these things matter. You start bidding for work on the likes of myhammer (or whatever it is called) and you are on a very fast, slippery slope, to the bottom of the barrel, to dwell forever more with the pond life!
     
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    freshpurple

    Free Member
    Jan 29, 2009
    92
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    London
  • #14
    estwig said:
    The kinda people who use these sites to find tradesmen, you don't want them as customers. They are only interested in price, quality of work, references, qualifications, insurance, etc, none of these things matter. You start bidding for work on the likes of myhammer (or whatever it is called) and you are on a very fast, slippery slope, to the bottom of the barrel, to dwell forever more with the pond life!
    Click to expand...

    Really? Because as a potential customer I find sites like this really useful, as I find finding a plumber/electrician/builder a real nightmare and seeing previous reviews of someone's work goes a long way to allaying fears of rogue tradesmen etc. Quite possibly I'm just being naive though, as I have to say checking qualifications didn't occur to me, not that I would even know what to check for anyway!

    I've used mybuilder.com before but only for simple jobs (and happy with the results so far) - you've made me a bit more wary if I wanted to get anything more complicated done (though I probably would have been anyway)
     
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    R

    Randale1

  • #16
    Myhammer don't bother have just tried it out as a consumer to rewire my house and they turn up to do the job (Armitage and Gill Electrical) and then say it's a bigger job than they thought (despite being told it was an old farmhouse with '50s wiring) They couldn't be bothered as they had got a big contract with a council in nottinghamshire. Great, what a waste of time. I did ask them at the start if they wanted to come and look at the job (I'm not daft this is a big old place) but oh no they knew best. I've got quotes from all around the country and struggling to work out what is genuine.
     
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    T

    Taylor Property Interiors

  • #19
    I am a tradesman and I have been a member with My hammer for 3 months. I found that it was impossible to win a job unless you quote peanuts which made the job barely profitable. This is due to some tradesmen being willing to work for barely nothing for whatever reason, customers understandable quest to pay as little as possible and another reason which I will come back to later. As a tradesman you have to pay £44.70 every 3 months for membership, about 10% of the price of the job if you win after posting a quote on the job profile or about 15% of the recommended price for the job to be given the contact details of the customer so you can quote them without going through the site. Alternatively you pay about 2-3% of the recommended price for the job to give a quote and not have to pay if you win the job, however I would say for each 50 quotes you give you win 1 to 3 jobs, and so will undoubtedly make a loss. I found that the only way to win jobs is to quote very very little and hope nobody quotes less and that the customer isn't put off by the extremely low quote and that the customer still wants the work to be done, as I have found that 30% of people who place job adverts don't go though and choose a tradesman. I soon decided that I will not continue to be a member after my 3 months was up. I mistakenly assumed that I would have some sort of warning before the 3 months was up and would maybe be asked if I was happy with the service and if I would like to continue for another 3 months, or least that instead of paying I could cancel my membership when the time came. Instead I receive an invoice in the early hours of the morning stating that £44.70 is due and would be taken from my Pay-pal account that day. I received this hours AFTER the 2nd 3 month membership began. Luckily I was awake and was able to cancel their access to my Pay-pal account so they could not take the money. I sent them an email immediately saying I don't want to continue my membership and that I was disgusted they had not sent a notification that the membership was almost at the point of renewal instead of invoicing me the morning it was due, hoping I wouldn't see it and then take the money without me knowing as they have access to members bank accounts via Pay-pal. I have also heard that they often take money out of members bank accounts apparently mistakenly and then make it extremely difficult for the person to get the money back. Any decent company would say that's fine, cancel the membership and apologise for not warning me sooner. No, instead a get an email saying that I am now legally bound to pay £44.70 and must continue my membership. I will not pay the money, but I am sure that their are many tradesmen on this site that do not want the hassle of not paying, or didn't have time to cancel their My hammer Pay-pal subscription because they weren't on the internet before the went to work to see the invoice and are simply on My hammer because of this devious tactic. Those tradesmen are probably the ones that now feel they need to quote very little to win jobs to try and make the most of their membership and at least break even with the money they have wasted on this awful devious site. So this is a good site for customers because they will get some good tradesmen for very little cost, but please I urge you not to use it, don't give this company the fuel it needs to keep running. Find tradesmen by asking friends for recommendations, looking for adverts or looking for their personal websites, don't let companies like this rob them of their hard earned profits.
     
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