Checktrade Reviews 17

A really awful company filled with greed. Since it was sold its been a steep slope downhill for the tradesmen and the consumer. Anyone can join with zero vetting needed.

After wasting our time with calls and messages by one of check trade recommended traders (AEC ELECTRICAL) he arranged to attend on the 9th of December AM, we awaited him to 12 noon but never turned up or called. Check a trade Should look into it's self And not waste time of people with such rouge trade persons. Unfortunately there is No regulation or laws that govern such websites and make them liable for compensation for wasting the public times and efforts.

Checkatrade promises big to lure tradies into a year long contract, delivers poor quality leads who want professional work for cheap labour. 1 year no projects. To potentials but clients tried to negotiate too low that it wasnt worth it.

Better money spent build a traditional marketing campaign.

Would swerve if a serious build company, waste of money.

Beware youll be ties to their contract for 12months non negotiable. With no opt out.

My company is GREENSAVE and last month Checkatrade agreed to give me the last few months of my windows and doors subscription for free and stop my sponsored listing because they had massively overcharged me previously. Today I get an invoice for windows and doors subscription and a sponsored listing… two bills they said would be free. I’m losing confidence that this firm knows what it’s doing. I’m confused about how to resolve this when they say they will do one thing then a month later do the complete opposite.

Avoid Checkatrade at all costs – this company is exploiting both tradespeople and customers.

As a tradesman, I was mis-sold their service under false promises of relevant locksmith leads. What I actually received were completely unsuitable jobs that had nothing to do with my business. Even worse, they failed to inform me of my legal right to a 14-day cooling-off period under the Consumer Contracts Regulations. By law, that information should have been made crystal clear at the point of sale. Their failure to disclose it is not only unacceptable – it amounts to misrepresentation and unfair trading practices.

Once you’re signed up, they make cancellation deliberately difficult, tying you into long contracts that drain your time and money. It feels like a system designed to trap trades rather than support them.

For customers, please understand: being on Checkatrade doesn’t guarantee skill or trustworthiness – it only proves that the tradesperson has paid to be listed. A platform that treats its tradespeople unfairly cannot be trusted to protect consumers either.

I am now escalating this to Trading Standards and Watchdog because practices like this need exposing. Checkatrade are not supporting small businesses – they are profiting from misleading them.

AVOID AVOID AVOID!! Even 1 star is too much! Whole set up is awful. Happy to sign you up instantly for a '12month membership'.. THEN check your 'vetting'.. takes well over an hour, and then, if you dont make it due their ridiculous rules & loop holes, you cant cancel the membership. So you get NO SERVICE, but STILL have to pay for 12 months. Absolute joke! AVOID!!

I trusted the glowing reviews... then reality hit they were all lies. I would’ve lost everything if not for the heroes in my bio.

If you are leaving a review for CHECKATRADE.COM in the UK this is not the correct page to leave it. This page shows United States and is not CHECKATRADE.COM in the UK which shows on the correct page on Trustpilot along with the logo. Trustpilot should be redirecting these reviews as this is misleading.

I am writing this review to express my severe disappointment with Checkatrade's complaint handling process and their apparent failure to adequately regulate the tradespeople listed on their platform. My experience with J Ward Patios and Drives Ltd has starkly highlighted a significant lack of commitment to customer concerns, an unacceptably slow response time, and a clear deficiency in holding trades accountable.
When issues arose with J Ward Patios and Drives Ltd, a tradesperson I found through Checkatrade, I expected a robust and supportive resolution process, given their claims of vetting and guaranteeing quality. However, my attempts to escalate the matter were met with:
* Extremely Slow Responses: It took an unreasonable amount of time to get any meaningful response from Checkatrade regarding my complaint about J Ward Patios and Drives Ltd. This delay exacerbated the stress and financial impact of the initial problem, leaving me feeling abandoned and unheard.
* Lack of Serious Action on Complaints: Despite providing clear evidence of the poor workmanship and unprofessional conduct from J Ward Patios and Drives Ltd, Checkatrade's intervention felt minimal and ineffective. They appear unwilling to take serious action against tradespeople who fall short of the standards they supposedly uphold. Their role seems more geared towards passively facilitating contact rather than actively ensuring consumer protection.
* Inadequate Regulation of Trades: The vetting process and ongoing regulation of trades on the platform appear to be severely lacking. If a tradesperson like J Ward Patios and Drives Ltd can perform shoddy work, disregard customer communication, and then face little to no consequence from Checkatrade, it undermines the entire premise of using their service for "trusted" professionals. This lack of genuine oversight puts customers at significant risk.
I relied on Checkatrade to connect me with reliable trades, and in this instance, they failed both in the initial recommendation and, more importantly, in their duty to mediate and enforce standards when a problem occurred. The current system does not adequately protect consumers, and their complaints department is clearly not fit for purpose.
Until Checkatrade demonstrates a genuine commitment to:
* Responding to complaints promptly and with effective action.
* Implementing stricter, more transparent, and enforceable regulations for tradespeople, including taking swift action against rogue traders like J Ward Patios and Drives Ltd.
* Actively intervening to resolve disputes and ensure customer satisfaction.
I cannot recommend their service. Potential customers should be aware that the "guarantee" and "vetting" may offer little practical protection when things go wrong, as evidenced by my experience with J Ward Patios and Drives Ltd.

8 year member.
joke. only care to gain members to increase GREED on behalf of new owners
whats app children run it

Raised 3 jobs via Checkatrade and the tradesman don’t show up. I suspect checktrade are not carrying the quality controls nor vetting good tradespeople anymore. Disappointed.

Just had a phone call off their ignorant advisors saying i owecthen money when I've never had 1 lead off them been ringing since febuary to cancel but they say I'm not aloud to change my mind about a contract even though my circumstances have changed

I hired a plumber (Baldovie Plumbing) who was unable to complete the job but still received 50% of the payment. Despite multiple attempts to contact him, he has not provided a receipt for the work. After I spoke with Checkatrade, the plumber denied receiving any money for the work he did and claimed he was not paid. As a result, Checkatrade decided to accept the plumber's claim rather than my review and edited my review, stating that I had no evidence.

How can I gather evidence? The plumber initially told me he would send the receipt when he was in the office, but later denied receiving any payment.

Don't trust checkatrade. I contacted a roofer forsome minor work and he tried to scam me out of £16000 for un-needed major repairs. I wasn't fooled but gave a bad review. After some investigation checkatrade agreed to publish the review - but they never did. Looks like they only publish favourable reviews so you cant trust them. 1 star because its still usefull as a directory of traders - nothing more.

Today I was told by them that I could not claim under their guarantee. This was the 4th time they have said this. Each time they later went on to say I might be able to claim if I just gave more info - which I did. I can’t work out if they are just completely shambolic, if they were deliberately trying to waste time in order to ensure I went outside of their deadline or if they were trying to draw out more info in case I went above their heads to complain further in future, for example to a newspaper? This process went on from October until today. Dealing with them has been time consuming, extremely stressful and pointless. There is very poor monitoring of trades. Their staff seem inexperienced. Their customer interface surprisingly chaotic - the left hand doesn’t know what the right is doing. They don’t do any visits no matter how horrendous and costly the damage is to your home by their trader. The claim form and review space on the site is not suited to a full and fair analysis. They didn’t take my problem seriously despite saying so in response to me on this site so I am posting this now in order to have the last word. The company who I complained about - Platimum from Chichester - are still listed with glowing reviews! I have not received an apology from them or a single penny of my money back despite now having to pay £10,000 for remedial works to address the damage they caused. Not once have Checkatrade approached him to negotiate this. So my experience is that when you invite a trader into your home who scores highly on the site you are not guaranteed to have a good experience. You could be like me and it could be a complete disaster. Their criteria for paying out a claim is designed protect them and not you. If a roofer causes your roof to leak through bad workmanship the leak will not be evident for weeks or even months. In which case you cannot claim under their guarantee under any circumstances whatsoever. So really I am left thinking - what is the point of them?

Trying to find a garden maintenance company and Checkatrade pops up. Contacts me to say I have a message from an interested tradesman, but when I try to reply I go into some kind of loop where Checkatrade keep asking me to complete my profile! Their website is dreadful and I've given up. Pity the poor tradespeople who only register with Checkatrade - I wonder how much work they miss out on if this happens when consumers try to respond to them.

I am extremely disappointed with Checkatrade’ s handling of my recent complaint regarding a poor experience with one of their approved tradespeople. From the start, it felt as though my concerns were not taken seriously. Despite providing clear evidence of the issues I encountered, Checkatrade appeared dismissive, seeming to prioritise their relationship with the trade over the integrity of the review process.

Rather than actively supporting me as a consumer, they questioned the legitimacy of my claims, creating an impression that consumer concerns are a low priority. It wasn’t until I escalated my complaints that I even received a response that suggested any degree of seriousness toward my concerns.

I chose Checkatrade because I trusted they vetted their listed suppliers thoroughly. This experience, however, has left me questioning whether their reviews and recommendations can be relied upon. The lack of responsiveness and failure to support a fair resolution has been both frustrating and disheartening.

Based on this experience, I would caution anyone considering Checkatrade as a guarantee of quality or accountability. I will be sharing my experience with others to ensure they’re aware of these shortcomings.