Do Not Trust Service Seeking - Do Your Own Research

LLeighO on 08/05/2017 - 21:45

We have been badly burnt from using Service Seeking. Unfortunately, we used this service to find a landscaper and the tradesperson has left us out of pocket around $7,500. We can't get our deposits back - with a lot of work never finished and the work that was completed - was done wrong and needs to be redone.
The landscaper admits responsibility but tells us he spent our deposits on other things and has no money left now.

The really disappointing part is that we found out recently that service seeking had received a number of complaints prior to us regarding this tradesperson but was still promoting him on their website. The other complaints also involved him taking deposits and never completing work - then refusing to repay deposits. When we raised this directly with Service Seeking - they said they need court evidence before taking any action as they are paid by the tradespeople not customers - so they are not quick to take action on complaints.

We also found out that this tradesperson changed his trading name (not his ABN) because he was getting a bad reputation through taking peoples money. Service Seeking was aware of this and once again they continued to promote him.

So beware - there could easily be lots and lots of dodgy tradespeople on service seeking as they will certainly not take action quickly.

We have been in contact with service seeking and they take no responsibility and have basically told us too bad. It actually took four phone calls and two emails to actually talk to someone regarding this matter. They kept saying 'we will call you back' and never calling me back - shows how much they care about complaints.

Also don't be fooled upfront as the tradesperson we hired seemed really good at the start - professional invoices and formal works schedule. He wasn't the cheapest at all but seemed really efficient which is why we picked him. But it started to go badly as soon as we paid deposits.

We will never use Service Seeking again - would have got the same quality of tradespeople from Gumtree but at least with Gumtree they don't purport to be 'vetting' the tradespeople

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Comments

  • salekhard on 08/05/2017 - 21:57
    +6

    I would be taking him to small claims court. If he has admitted responsbility, it should be easy for a judgement against him. And thus you have a shot at recovering some of your lost money.

    • LeighO on 09/05/2017 - 18:59

      Yes am in the process of that (court date later this month) but given he says he has no money and we know of previous cases against him that are still waiting to get their money back from him despite them winning at court……not holding my breath

  • gevidian on 08/05/2017 - 22:01
    +1

    Should not have paid deposits and should have paid in stages upon completions. Glad you joined to share.

    • LeighO on 09/05/2017 - 19:01

      Yes I learnt this the hard way. I have tradie friends who have been burnt by clients before so have never previously had a problem paying deposits upfront and was sympathetic to tradies having to cover material etc

      But will never do that again.

  • [Deactivated] on 08/05/2017 - 22:40
    -1

    Thanks for your input.
    Are people forgetting what the yellow pages are for?
    Are people also forgetting how to use google?
    90% of the time you'll find much more reputable services using the 2 methods above.

  • PJC on 08/05/2017 - 23:08
    +7

    I'm sorry this happened to you. Name and shame! Welcome to OzBargain.

    • [Deactivated] on 08/05/2017 - 23:15
      -8

      Don't be horrible to the business
      xx

      • PJC on 08/05/2017 - 23:44
        +3

        Money was taken.

        • [Deactivated] on 08/05/2017 - 23:47
          +4

          Ok name and shame xx

        • altomic on 09/05/2017 - 10:18
          +3

          @tuzii: OP won't be back. this is a review.com.au complaint. i.e. poster- 1 review

    • LeighO on 09/05/2017 - 19:03
      +1

      Will be - but giving the legal system a chance before I start naming the tradesperson directly.

      • PJC on 09/05/2017 - 19:58

        Fair enough.

  • altomic on 09/05/2017 - 10:17
    +2

    thanks for joining 12 hours and 33 minutes ago. posting this post 4 minutes later (you are a fast typist!!!) and then immediately logging off.

  • mshanann on 09/05/2017 - 21:04

    That sucks.

    I've used Service Seeking to find a sparky, and he was awesome.

    https://www.serviceseeking.com.au/profile/118222-powered-by-…

    For $7,500 of work, I'd be wanting references first hand from friends/family etc before using the said person.

  • [Deactivated] on 10/05/2017 - 12:00

    Used to be a regular user of service seeking but recently discovered their "$1000 job cover" is utter BS so don't think you're in any way safe if the tradie screws up the job or screws you over.

    Have not used them since.

  • Sydneyguy177 on 11/10/2017 - 08:56

    I agree!!! I hired a cleaner. He had top reviews quoted me a good price.
    Job not completed. He promised bond return or free re clean. It never happened. He is deregistered with ASIC so I can’t take his company to court. Service seeking aren’t helping. Worse yet my 1 star review was “changed” to a 5 star review dodgy site stay away do research don’t trust service seeking.

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