Difference between revisions of "Tradespeople"

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(Created page with "Category:DING Finding competent, reliable, affordable and user-friendly tradespeople is an issue most people have to deal with at some time. There is no foolproof answer:...")
 
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Finding competent, reliable, affordable and user-friendly tradespeople is an issue most people have to deal with at some time. There is no foolproof answer: there are professional bodies such as Gas Safe Register, NIC-EIC, NAPIT etc, commercial certification schemes such as Checkatrade, Trustmark and some local authority (but not Reading) approved trader schemes, directories such as the Little Green Book and informal, user-contributed directories such as the University's Handy Persons web page; and there is word-of-mouth recommendation, either person to person or asking on mailing lists or social media.
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Finding competent, reliable, affordable, honest and user-friendly tradespeople is an issue most people have to deal with at some time. There is no foolproof answer: professional bodies such as Gas Safe Register, NIC-EIC, NAPIT etc, maintain lists of members, indicating a degree of competence. Commercial certification schemes such as Checkatrade, Trustmark and some local authority (but not Reading) approved trader schemes try to vouch for the quality, reliability and integrity of tradespeople they list.
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There is word-of-mouth recommendation, either person to person or by asking on mailing lists or social media.
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And there are directories such as the Little Green Book and informal, user-contributed directories such as the University's Handy Persons web page which try to capture word-of-mouth recommendations.
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'''Reality check:''' Tradespeople are human: they have strengths and weaknesses, they have off days and make mistakes, they get on better with some people than others, and they have home lives with personal and family issues to deal with. One person's dream tradesperson who turned up on the dot, did an excellent job quickly, at an amazingly reasonable price and was a delight to be around could be another person's Trader From Hell. Some tradespeople will more consistently do better work than others, some will be more reliable than others, some cheaper or more expensive than others, some will communicate more clearly, some will be better than others at getting on with a wide range of people. Few have the best of all qualities.
  
 
== Directories ==
 
== Directories ==
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The University's [https://web.archive.org/web/20150523140902/http://www.reading.ac.uk/internal/staffportal/handypeople/sp-handypeople.aspx Handy Persons page] used to be a useful resource but it is no longer maintained (and not available from the University's own site now unless you have a Uni login - this link is to the [https://web.archive.org/ Wayback Machine]'s saved copy).
 
The University's [https://web.archive.org/web/20150523140902/http://www.reading.ac.uk/internal/staffportal/handypeople/sp-handypeople.aspx Handy Persons page] used to be a useful resource but it is no longer maintained (and not available from the University's own site now unless you have a Uni login - this link is to the [https://web.archive.org/ Wayback Machine]'s saved copy).
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== Social media ==

Revision as of 22:48, 27 September 2016


Finding competent, reliable, affordable, honest and user-friendly tradespeople is an issue most people have to deal with at some time. There is no foolproof answer: professional bodies such as Gas Safe Register, NIC-EIC, NAPIT etc, maintain lists of members, indicating a degree of competence. Commercial certification schemes such as Checkatrade, Trustmark and some local authority (but not Reading) approved trader schemes try to vouch for the quality, reliability and integrity of tradespeople they list. There is word-of-mouth recommendation, either person to person or by asking on mailing lists or social media. And there are directories such as the Little Green Book and informal, user-contributed directories such as the University's Handy Persons web page which try to capture word-of-mouth recommendations.

Reality check: Tradespeople are human: they have strengths and weaknesses, they have off days and make mistakes, they get on better with some people than others, and they have home lives with personal and family issues to deal with. One person's dream tradesperson who turned up on the dot, did an excellent job quickly, at an amazingly reasonable price and was a delight to be around could be another person's Trader From Hell. Some tradespeople will more consistently do better work than others, some will be more reliable than others, some cheaper or more expensive than others, some will communicate more clearly, some will be better than others at getting on with a wide range of people. Few have the best of all qualities.

Directories

The Little Green Book has listings of tradespeople recommended by customers (although the tradespeople also have to pay to be listed in the directory. It is organised into sections for Reading, Wokingham and other nearby areas.

The University's Handy Persons page used to be a useful resource but it is no longer maintained (and not available from the University's own site now unless you have a Uni login - this link is to the Wayback Machine's saved copy).

Social media