Can you spot a rip-off Tradie?

• May 3, 2020
• admin

We’ve all heard about them on the Radio and the News. But, Can you spot a rip-off Tradie? Over the past few weeks we’ve been telling you all about the MyTradie’s story and where it originated. We’ve regularly talked about the unsavoury companies out there praying on unsuspecting victims, causing the extreme distrust in the trades industry that we are all so acutely aware of. So we thought we would take the time now to share some more information on how to spot and avoid them.

Who are these companies, you ask?

Without naming and shaming, we’ve put together a little bit of a guide for you help to pinpoint which companies to avoid.

1. Envelopes in your mailbox addressed “To the home owner” containing magnets for “your local….”

If you receive one of these and happen to google the license number or ABN on the magnet you’ll find that the majority of the time this company is not actually local. They will have a 1300 number and the company will most likely be called something completely different to what it says on the magnet.

2. Envelopes in your mailbox addressed “To the home owner” containing magnets for “your local….”

The Asterix should automatically ring alarm bells. Any advertising that has to have an Asterix on a statement in bold is questionable enough!

3. Envelopes in your mailbox addressed “To the home owner” containing magnets for “your local….”

You’ll find that the rip-off tradies and companies are the ones that pay to advertise the most on google. The cost of this advertising is crazy and they have to make it back somewhere. We have recently found that the cost of someone clicking on your ad link can be up to $400 when you search for “Emergency Plumber.” Someone has to pay for this, that usually means the customer.

4. Envelopes in your mailbox addressed “To the home owner” containing magnets for “your local….”

You will see that they have a number of reviews that are GLOWING mentioning different staff members by name. Then they will have absolutely horrible ones talking about how expensive they were and how pushy they were. These companies offer customers discounts for leaving glowing reviews and the tradies earn commissions or prizes when their names are used. They also try to contact the customers that have left bad reviews trying to bully them in to removing the review by offering discounts or refunds.

5. Envelopes in your mailbox addressed “To the home owner” containing magnets for “your local….”

Using a fixed price method of quoting and charging customers makes the company not transparent with their pricing. Be sure to ask for the cost of the materials and the cost of their hourly rate. You’ll see that the majority of the time the tradie won’t be able to tell you because they are just pulling numbers out of their book. To operate off a fixed price model the company needs to inflate the price of the job to allow for the times that the job does not go to plan so they don’t lose money. We have seen these companies charge in excess of $1,950 to install a new standard toilet suite which would cost $300 in materials and 2 hours labour which is normally around $140. We’re really hoping that this helps you all. Qe hate hearing about peoples horror experiences with these companies on a daily basis. So we are going to be doing everything we can to wipe them out. This is our first little contribution to the cause. If you’d like any more information, or if there is a topic that you would like us to discuss in our next edition please sing out! Until next time, enjoy the slight relaxation in social distancing laws. We certainly are! MyTradie You can keep up to date with the rest of our blogs here. Regular updates are also on our facebook page, as well as some pretty awesome contact. You can follow us at: facebook.com/mytradie Would you like to become a MyTradie Tradie? Head to mytradie.online/becomeamytradietradie to leave us your details and we will get in touch with you.