Don’t Be A Victim Of Trade Scams!
Image source: Pixabay
As I’m sure you’re aware, there are a lot of con men out there who pose as legitimate tradesmen, and use their front to rip off innocent people. Unfortunately, if you’ve never had a brush with one, it can be hard to recognise a scam. Here, I’ve listed a few good ways to check a tradesman is legitimate. I hope they help!
The first thing you should know is legit tradesmen will never knock on your door unannounced. Any tradesman with the slightest idea of what they’re doing won’t have to go door to door, asking people for work. One well-known scam involves driveway tarmacing. In this “business model”, someone will turn up at your door, offering to do your drive cheaply, usually that very same day. The usual story is that they’ve finished a job somewhere local, and they have excess materials that need using. Again, no legitimate trade company would turn up to a job without a solid plan, and the right amount of materials. Hire a door-to-door tradesman, and at best you’ll get a poor-quality job. At worst, they’ll take your deposit and disappear off to their next victim!
Image source: Pexels
If you’ve been considering hiring a company, then a good way to test the water is by looking them up online. For starters, having a professional website like this one by Tarmac Surfacing is a good sign. It’s 2016, and if any business doesn’t have some kind of web presence, there’s probably something fishy going on! These days, a website is a marketing necessity. The main reason a business wouldn’t have one is that they have something to hide! If you can’t find information presented by the company themselves, but they seem professional, do some more research. There are now a lot of websites dedicated to finding information on con artists, and protecting people against them. There are also many trade directories, which check the businesses they list for anything shady.
Image source: Wikimedia
If your own detective work comes up clean, then there’s one last test you can try. Ask your tradesman for a written quote. If they refuse, then this should be a massive red flag. Legitimate traders should be more than happy to give you a written quote. Dodgy ones avoid it like the plague! A quote in writing means that the trader will have to make a commitment to the work. This isn’t very popular among scammers who don’t intend to do what they’ve promised. Remember that there’s a difference between quotes and estimates. A quote is so named because it’s tied to the person who made it. Once the price and work is agreed upon, both parties need to adhere to the quote. An estimate, on the other hand, is a guess at how much the work will cost. You’ll have some legal wiggling room if the estimate is unrealistic. However, it’s always safer to only accept quotes.
The next time you’re hiring a trader, run them through this list. Noticing the signs of a scam early can save you a huge amount of money and stress!
