MyBuilder FAQs for Tradesmen

Does it cost anything to be a member?

No, it's completely free to be a member. You only pay us a small fee when you get a job, which is 5% of the total job value with a maximum of £250. If you would like to work out what the fee for a particular job would be use our fee calculator.

I can't possibly submit a quote without first visiting the site.

In a lot of cases that is absolutely correct! In these cases, you should request a viewing by using the messaging facility. If you have a good profile with good feedback, and are local to the customer, you'll have a great chance of getting a viewing and getting the job!

When and how do I pay the fee?

When your quote is accepted, an invoice is automatically generated. You then have 14 days to pay our fee, which you can do in one of three ways:

Through the site using your credit or debit card
A direct bank transfer
By sending a cheque to:
MyBuilder Limited
8-12 New Bridge Street
London
EC4V 6AL.

How can I contact the customer?

Contact details are exchanged only if both parties want them to be. If you would like to arrange a viewing of the job, simply send your request in a message through our messaging facility. You can also use this feature to request more details or to clarify something. Finally, if you have all the details you need, you can submit your quote for the job and if the customer likes your quote, contact details will then be exchanged

How do I find out what happened to the job I quoted for?

If the homeowner chose another tradesman for the job, you will be notified via e-mail. Also, if you look at the job listing on the site, you'll be able to see the status of the job.

If you haven't received any response, it could simply be that the homeowner hasn't logged in for a while. If you're wondering about that, you could look on the homeowner's profile where we display when they last logged in.

If a homeowner accepts or declines a quote, we also ask them the reason why, which you can privately view. Knowing what is driving the homeowners' decisions may also help you in securing future work!

I've won a large job through the site and will not be able to pay the entire success fee until later. What should I do?

We appreciate that larger jobs can create cash flow problems, which is why we cap the fee at £250 for the largest jobs and allow credit card payments as an option. If you are still having problems, please get in touch with us through the contact form.

I got a job through the site but the job was then cancelled. Do I still need to pay?

No we certainly don't expect you to pay for a job that you're not doing! Just let us know through the contact form so we can help.

I've won a large job through the site and will not be able to pay the success fee within 14 days. Can you extend my invoice due date?

Unfortunately we cannot extend the due dates on the invoices, but we appreciate that larger jobs can create cash flow problems, which is why we taper the cap the fee at £250 for the largest jobs and allow credit card payments as an option. The main reason as to why we have to keep our payment terms at 14 days is because it is extremely difficult for us to keep track of when the job finishes. We simply don't have the resources to monitor when every person start and finish work they've won through the site.

If you choose to advertise in your local newspaper or if you buy a slot in the phone book (which is so called "upfront payment" advertising), you are never guaranteed that this will generate any work for you. At least, our service guarantees that you have work ahead of you when we invoice you.

Please keep in mind that all the money that we generate from the success fees are ploughed straight back in to marketing and PR to create more work for YOU! We rely on the success fees so that we don't have to charge membership or lead fees.

MyBuilder is by far the fairest system for tradesmen in the UK and we're only asking for your cooperation, otherwise we'll disappear!

How does the feedback system work?

Genuine feedback has two important elements: the past and the future. Before customers decide who to hire, they look at your past feedback. After they hire you and the work is finished, they will add to that feedback, in either a positive or negative way. This future feedback rewards excellent service and punishes bad work. You have a strong incentive to do your best and get great feedback, which increases your chances of getting more work (and being able to charge more for it), and getting more good feedback. You can get this virtuous circle started remarkably quickly through MyBuilder. And because we can give you access to ever larger numbers of customers as we grow, you'll be able to generate more income and have more job security than was previously possible. Growing your business just got a lot easier!

How do I get my first feedback?

We have 2 different types of feedback - client references and transactional feedback. The transactional feedback can only be left when a genuine job has gone out to tender and a genuine quote has been accepted through the website. References were designed to give you a head start on your feedback score, and are manually checked by us in our London office. The references need to be actual clients (we will verify this); you can submit them when you register or afterwards when you login.

I placed a bid on a job that has now ended, how do I know if I was successful?

If you win a job on the site, you will be notified via e-mail as soon as your bid was accepted. If you weren't successful you will be notified as well.

Are the quotes to include both materials and labour?

In the job description, it should say whether the customer wants you to supply the materials or not, or if they don't mind either way. Just make sure your quote reflects their preference and that you've entered the correct amount for both labour and materials.

Is the success fee for both labour and materials?

We need to take a success fee that relates to the value of work done through our site. We do that so that we don't have to charge for registration, or on a per lead basis, which we think is unfair. MyBuilder was founded by a tradesman who knows what it's like to pay for advertising and get absolutely nothing in return.

In principle, it would be great if we could charge of percentage of labour cost only. However, to make that work for us as a business, we would have to bill at a higher percentage. We have also found that the quotes submitted through our site often don't reflect the true breakdown of labour and materials. We would likely suffer substantially if we did that, though we are always open to talking about revenue models and ideas for the site.

As long as you are aware of the fee upfront, we hope that you can arrange your quotes so that you have the appropriate margin built in. At the end of the day, we have to operate commercially, and we feel that we offer much better value for money than any of our competitors.

I saw a job on the site with a really unrealistic bid, where do you stand on that?

We try to read every job that's posted and every quote that's submitted. If we find anything inappropriate we remove it and contact the person who posted it. In the rare occasions where a bid looks outrageous, sometimes it ends up being a typo or a missing full stop between pounds and pence!

Why can't I include my contact details on the public parts of the website?

We have a policy of exchanging contact details when both parties agree- safely and securely. The last thing we want is for you to post your details on public view and get unsolicited calls or spam email. We take your identity seriously, and want you to have a safe experience on our site.

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