Help!: We do maintenance

[Mexico98]

Hi all,
Has any body had any dealings with a company called We Do Maintenance. I am having a meeting with one of their reps next week and apparently if I go on their books at a cost of £23 a week, they can supply me with alot of work. Any information would be appreciated.
Many thanks.

[GirlRacerRed]

the general consensus on this forum with companies like this is if you have to fork out any money to a third party to supply you work then you're going to be paying out a lot of money for not a lot in return. listen to what they've got to say but don't sign up to anything unless they can guarantee you work. and if they can't guarantee you work, can they guarantee they'll give you some of your money back? highly unlikely.

[gshtiling]

PLEASE DONT DO IT!!!

I signed up 2 years ago to a company called We Do Trades,which has been closed down now and re opened as We Do Maintenance I think?
They say they will get you loads of work and you and only 2 other people of the same trade will be on there website in a certain area if you know what I mean? So like in your case there would only be 3 tilers in your area on the website. This is basically what they say,if you paid £1196 for a year (52 weeks of £23) and then they ask you what the average job was profit wise,you say x amount then they would guarantee x amount of jobs to cover the cost of your payments. so if your average job was say £200 they would guarantee you at least 6 jobs for the year.

Load of crap,didnt get anything for the first 4 weeks or so,so I called them up saying I havent had anything,got a call the next few days to go look at a job nearly an hour away to reseal a shower lol. So I rung We Do Trades up and said stuff the job its miles away Im cancelling my contract. So looked through my contract and it says that I couldn't cancel if I have received me guarantee of leads which I was okay cause I only had 1 so I cancelled. Glad I didnt leave it any longer than I did.

My builder mate signed up with them about a year after I did too and he didnt get anything either. As soon as I found out he signed up I rung him and said cancel it, so he did and he had only 2 leads in 3 months.

Cheeky gits sent me a We do maintenance leaflet though trying to get me to sign up a couple of months ago.

[gshtiling]

Sorry about the long rant I just wanted people to know why not to go with them and what they are like,I was quite lucky that I didnt lose alot of money I dont want any one losing a single penny to this company.

Better off spending your money on advertising in local trades magazine or internet etc.

[Mexico98]

Many thanks for your replies. GSHTiling, I am also in Leeds, so your advice was very much appreciated. I was supposed to meet the rep today but she cancelled and said she would ring next week. Don't think I'll bother now. Thanks again.

[Bri]

So there you have it, STEER WELL CLEAR!!!!

[Martyn Leeds]

sounds the same as rated people, mybuilder, myhammer, servicemagic etc to name just a few.
I keep getting calls from folk that can 'guarantee' me work for £x amount per week, per lead etc. I tell them it sounds amazing and to send me the work & then i'll pay double what they're asking after - they never take me up on my offer though!

Stay well clear I'd say - best off advertising in the local mags.

I reckon the 'we do mainenance' website looks very poor as well

[radim]

I had phone call from company (can't remember the name) wanted me to do a lot of work 4 them.Folk said no fees it is totally free.Told him I can't beliee that somebody is going to give anybody work 4 free.He replied : U pay £100 over the phone and we send u a text whenever we got work 4u.Told him thank u and was swearing 4 a while...these phone calls r just waste of time

[Rich]

I would not touch one of these firms with a barge pole with a chop stick taped to the end!

Get loads of calls from them and in my opinion the are vampires! The must make a killing out of honest tradesmen that are struggling in this financial climate.

Shouldnt be legal

[Stewart]

Stay well clear of this type of site and spend the money on a good website and get it ranking..... Use twitter and Facebook too as they're both quality marketing tools that are free!

[hillhead]

Vultures the lot of them, stay clear lads.

[bobbin]

My argument to these crappy companies is if they can guarantee the work, why do I have to pay up front, I'll pay after I've had leads and work in the month.
If they are so sure they are that good it shouldn't be a problem for them!
Strangely enough they never seem to go for it ;-)

[peteablard]

sounds the same as rated people, mybuilder, myhammer, servicemagic etc to name just a few.
I keep getting calls from folk that can 'guarantee' me work for £x amount per week, per lead etc. I tell them it sounds amazing and to send me the work & then i'll pay double what they're asking after - they never take me up on my offer though!

Stay well clear I'd say - best off advertising in the local mags.

I reckon the 'we do mainenance' website looks very poor as well

Did exactly the same myself, offered to pay extra if they gave me the lead first and anything came of it, strangely enough they wouldn't go for it. Avoid!!!!!!!

[365drills]

We get this all the time. Sign up with us for a fee and we guarantee that we can get you appointments with retail buyers desperate to buy diamond drilling systems.

Yeah right! My response is ALWAYS get me the work / appointments / introductions FIRST and I will pay on results. Usually ends in the phone being put down.

So many marketing companies, internet wonder websites. Even some of the big hitters like Applegate, Freeindex must find it hard. I've stopped paying for any sort of service promising to "help" so it affects all areas of industry as well as tilers, plumbers. They are even after ME!!

[impish]

Afraid now you've "bitten" you'll find you are regularly hassled by them.
Email asking that they remove all your details in compliance with data protection act, normally does the trick.
It worked for me with Trusted Trades. Finally got them to stop the weekly calls!

[ROBSON MCGREGOR]

sorry but i dont want 2 sound big headed but if u r any good at your job then u really shouldnt have 2 pay some 1 4 advertising, we dont advertise, not even on the van, & we have people willing 2 wait months for us, we only do private work when we r slack on site or need beer tokens for a weekend out. we work with word of mouth, its the best way to pick up work.

[andy allen]

[QUOTE=ROBSON MCGREGOR;526718]sorry but i dont want 2 sound big headed but if u r any good at your job then u really shouldnt have 2 pay some 1 4 advertising, we dont advertise, not even on the van, & we have people willing 2 wait months for us, we only do private work when we r slack on site or need beer tokens for a weekend out. we work with word of mouth, its the best way to pick up work.[/QUOTE

big difference if your just doing site work or trying to make a living from private work only, you could be the best tiler in the world, but you still need to advertise, its just a case of spending your cash in the best way to get you noticed, a good web site and getting it ranked, sign written van, local parrish mags all these will help to get a good client base.

[Dave]

sorry but i dont want 2 sound big headed but if u r any good at your job then u really shouldnt have 2 pay some 1 4 advertising, we dont advertise, not even on the van, & we have people willing 2 wait months for us, we only do private work when we r slack on site or need beer tokens for a weekend out. we work with word of mouth, its the best way to pick up work.

Text typing is hard to understand for some, can you please use normal words..

And being quiet is nothing to do with being a good tiler or a bad one, A tiler could lose a few good contacts due to the down turn and this can have an effect on his/her work load, so to say if you are good at your job there is no need to advertise is incorrect IMHO..

We all have quiet spells and some more than others and this also depends on your catchment area.. if advertising works for some then why knock it.

[Rich]

sorry but i dont want 2 sound big headed but if u r any good at your job then u really shouldnt have 2 pay some 1 4 advertising, we dont advertise, not even on the van, & we have people willing 2 wait months for us, we only do private work when we r slack on site or need beer tokens for a weekend out. we work with word of mouth, its the best way to pick up work.

Sorry to be rude but what rubbish! I have seen some of the best trade men I know go under in the last couple of years and most of the worst still working. It is not as clear cut as you make out. I also do not advertise and am very very lucky to be busy as there are endless members on here are not, is that to say that Im a better tiler than them? Of course it doesnt, I am lucky enough to work in one of the only areas of the country that haven't really been affected by the down turn, people in the rest of the country are not so luck. Advertising and promoting your business is essential to most self-employed people.

We get lots of people asking for advice regarding advertising on here because they want to spend their money in the right place not be told that they are not good enough to find the work.

[ROBSON MCGREGOR]

I never said that "they are not good enough to find work", I started out making next to nothing & over the years built up a reputation where, yes & i have been lucky, i dont need to advertise, I used to advertise on my old astra van but i picked up very little work from it, from my experience u can spend far too much on advertising for very little return. is it not better to pick up work through word of mouth? when u pull up at B&Q & you see someones name & number stuck to the lampost would you really phone them to do work for you? Im not trying to KNOCK anyone & i understand that theres a lot of factors involved when trying to pick up work. as you wrote i have also seen a lot of very good tradesmen go out of the game, i live & work in 1 of the worst socially deprived areas of the UK, i know how tuff it can be, thats why when i go to jobs i always leave the same job i would leave in my own house. sorry if i came across the wrong way in the post

[impish]

Got to say guys, arguments aside, Cumnock Vs Lymington - Poles apart!

[ROBSON MCGREGOR]

Ha Ha, good one but that could be taken as RACIST, another SORRY from the earlier PVA talk, liked it though!!!

[rich1880]

If I was a customer wanting a tiler (or any tradesman) I would look for who operates locally and also from word of mouth, I wouldnt look for a tiler by going to a faceless company I hadn't heard of. The enquiries they get must be minimal and they are simply staying in business from the £24 a week fee they are charging people !!