ARTICLE: Chance for customers to rate builders on the net

Peace

WANTED: A reliable builder who will finish the job and won't rip me off.

A new website is helping home owners seeking the above by listing tradesmen and allowing customers to rate them.

HomeWise.ie will be officially launched this weekend and boasts more than 50,000 home and garden suppliers, services and tradesmen from across the country.

It offers customer reviews and ratings, maps, directions and discussion boards.

The brainchild of Rosey Broderick, she started the service after noticing a huge gap in the property-crazy Irish market.

"I saw a lack of information in regard to home and garden services in Ireland," she said.

"There was no one service for any home-improvement project. Everyone around me was buying a house or renovating and some were getting ripped off."

The service went live in January and had more than 20,000 hits in the first month. It shows that Ireland is following international trends in the growth of local web searches. In the US, customers increasingly start with the internet rather than the yellow pages when searching for local products and services.

To be among those listed, suppliers must pay €200 to €300 per year , while businesses that don't have their own website are offered a 'mini home page'.

In reassuring people, Ms Broderick said people should check reviews to make sure that companies are not posting positive reviews themselves.

She added: "We provide as much information as possible to the customer so that they can make an informed decision about who they will buy from."

Hope this hasn't been posted before... its new to me anyway.

Source: Unison.ie

endplate

The website went live in January is that correct? If so it is now suspended

yop

Yip. got account suspended on it!!

O-Ninio

Surely this kind of service could lead to cases of defamation of character, I understand there are very unprofessional people operating out there but it has also become quite a fashionable thing to badmouth the builder. The very nature of the job involves dirt an dust and yes of course inconvenience but builder bashing goes overboard a lot of the time.
If this site goes live I will be establishing my own one for builders to get on and inform each other of the tightness of so many people who get a fair job and act up when it comes to payment time and I have found some of the worst payers are those who can easiuly afford it.

deisemum

How credible would the site be? As already mentioned you could find people who've had work done would just use the site to bad mouth builders because they don't want to pay agreed prices. Also who's to say builders wouldn't try to discredit competitors.

My hubby is a carpenter but will not do work for certain professions because he knows he'll have problems getting paid.
Another problem he's come across is people (usually women) changing their minds in the middle of a job about what they want and then not pay for adjustments to the specified work.

This was discussed on Todayfm this week. One builder has €37,000 owed to him. He said some clients are always on the phone to him to try and get the job brought forward but that the phone goes quiet when the work is done and it's time to pay.

I'd go along with naming and shaming people who haven't paid their bills.

Lex Luthor

The builder is the one who is providing the service and hence getting paid for it. If they are "cowboy" then they should be mentioned.
I think the site will probably be used more to mention reputable builders rather than the opposite.

endplate

Ah the site is working now