Every week, one story or another pops up in popular media about homeowners who have encountered a tradesperson or service business that has been entirely lacking – either in the quality of work done, the failure to finish work, the inability to begin a project, or worst of all, to have paid a substantial deposit and then had nothing done whatsoever and monies not returned. What is most alarming about these tales is the one thing they all have in common – that little or no effort was made to find out more before engaging and handing over money before work was done. By no effort I mean not going online and searching for that tradesperson or business by name.

Today RNZ ran a story about a number of homeowners in Ashburton who had engaged a tradie who had then welched on the work, despite being paid deposits. Even though they had owned up and said monies would be repaid, they had not. All of this hassle and all of this needless stress could have been prevented by minutes of due diligence beforehand.

“Aaron Jessett of A&J Building & Renovations told RNZ he took ‘full responsibility’ for the money owed but his customers say they are yet to see a cent.

“Hilda de Wys said Jessett offered the most competitive of three quotes she received for replacing the leaking roof of her Ashburton home earlier this year. ‘He was very easy to get along with and he seemed knowledgeable about it all. He’s done roofing before and we didn’t feel we had any reason to not trust him,’ she said. De Wys said nothing happened for weeks after she paid a $4328 deposit and scaffolding went up. She said Jessett told her he had been holidaying in Australia, then asked for a further $8000 for roofing iron, which she paid.” (Source: “Homeowners want builder Aaron Jessett barred after losing thousands on unfinished jobs,” by Katie Todd, June 9, www.rnz.co.nz).

What to look for before even thinking of contacting a business

Due diligence takes a few minutes and is an essential step in the initial part of engaging a tradesperson or service business. It’s as simple as Googling a business by name. That’s it. If you can’t find anything at all about them then that’s the very first red flag – disregard them and move on to the next name on the list.

If there is information online, then peruse it carefully. Look for a number of listings – not just the business’ own website, if they have one. If they have reviews on their site but they are just some text with a name, then take them with a pinch of salt. Look instead for verified third party reviews – such as www.nocowboys.co.nz  – if you see they have reviews with us then take the time to read the feedback. The best results in an online search are finding the business on a number of verified review platforms, or being listed on websites of professional bodies and/or organisations.

You would be surprised how many reviews we get for diresputable businesses that say the same thing – along the lines of – I wish I had looked for them on your site before hiring them and having a terrible time. Those are hard to read – because a bad experience could have been avoided and a reputable and fantastic tradie commissioned instead. A great job, a satisfying project, was there all along.

AI Search is also your friend here – you can type in  – ‘great local electrician with reviews’ or ‘local builder with great reputation’. You will then be served up with a number of relevant tradies/businesses and you can then read feedback and decide for yourself.

Think of it like this. You want a job done well, you want your project to be a success – well, to do that you need to find the people reputable, skilled, experienced, and willing to do it. Luckily – all of that can be found online and apart from paying for the work – that’s the most important part you have to play!