Service NOT Seeking.com.au

Yes, it is definitely time to talk about the website tool - ServiceSeeking.com.au.

In my previous blog post about my landscaping adventures, I mentioned in passing about my mixed experience with ServiceSeeking.com.au. I first used them in 2011 to find a cleaner, which was a bust. Five years later, I needed to find a plasterer for the new house in association with some modifications to the house outside of Plantation Homes' scope. I turned to the site hoping that they have improved and quality checked their guys better. I have to say I got lucky with the plasterers, who were on their way home and responded to the job within 5 minutes of my posting. They made it out to the house an hour later and completed the job that night (it took 4 hours). I was reasonably happy with the fruits of their labour, so all good there.

Encouraged, I next posted my landscaping job on the website (my experience documented in a previous blog post). Angered by the run around I received, I got in touch with ServiceSeeking.com.au via their online Customer Service Representative to find out more about their processes, and whether there were any feedback loops (e.g. the website audited the tradies they registered and offered).

Below is the full transcript of our exchange with name of the very nice and lovely Customer Service Rep removed.

--Start of transcript--

Rep: Hello. How may I help you?

Me: In the past, my experience with ServiceSeeking has been very positive. Lately, I have two jobs where one had 1 interest shown, which is not enough for a comparison. The most surprising is the other job (landscaping) where multiple landscapers got in touch, came and looked at the job, promised quotes and have never bothered to actually send anything. I have chased up and given them more than enough time. But they don't seem interested and are just stringing people along
I am desperate to get people to come and quote so we can get the job done

Rep: Hi [my name removed]! I see this is the account you have with us?

Me: Yes

Rep: Let me pull up your account then. Is this for the window tinting job you 've posted?

Me: That would be great. Also, it seems like the jobs close themselves after a period of time, whether they are done or not. Both the window tinting job and the landscaping job

Rep: I see. Let me check on further now. Kindly hold on for a sec please.

Me: no worries

Rep: Its indicated here that both jobs are going ahead [my name has been removed]. Have you chosen a business/es to do the jobs then?

Me: As my opening messages have indicated to you, I am unable to find a landscaping willing to provide quotation even though two of them have come out to see the job personally

Rep: I apologise for this [my name has been removed]. Yes, you are correct in stating this earlier on.

Me: I have called and emailed and texted. They keep promising to send it through
Nothing has been done. I am wondering as to the vetting process you have for these contractors, or whether there is any communication ServiceSeeking can have with them? I am getting so frustrated I am about to stop using the site and leave negative reviews on my experience

Rep: I do understand you, [my name has been removed]. The best thing to do right now, since its been taking a lot of time waiting, is to repost the job on our site. And put in all the details of this jobs so that business may be alerted of the job scope and you are able to generate new ones too.
We do have a lot of businesses that are able to do the job for you but it may be that there have been reasons why they didn't or weren't able to get back.

Me: So basically there is nothing you can do to tell these businesses to live up to their promise of delivering a quote. Instead, you would like me to spend yet more time re-posting the job, and wait for more people to come and see the site and promise to quote, only for nothing to happen? There is absolutely no avenue that you can pursue to improve this situation?

Rep: For the window tinting job, since it was just posted yesterday, it could be good to wait up for the quotes. But the landscaping job would be good to re-post. We will take note of this feedback and bring it to our Support Team so that account managers can also be informed. The listing of those businesses who quoted you are with us and trust we will take notice of this too. So sorry about that. I am having some issues right now with the link and I see it posted 25 August yet. And no quotes on the job page. The landscaping job on the other hand, was posted 2 months ago. :-(

Me: Yes, more than sufficient time on both jobs

Rep: Yes, more than sufficient time indeed. Kindly [my name has been removed], try to repost the jobs on our site and all on all details. I will inform the account managers of these businesses that quoted you for the meantime.

Me: Well Rep, thank you for the advice and you have been lovely from a customer service point of view. However, I am extremely disappointed in the level of support ServiceSeeking is prepared to provide customers. It seems keeping the tradies happy is more important. My reviews of this service will reflect the no support and unwillingness of this business to follow through on their tradie's commitments. The building industry boom will end soon, and I hope the tradies that screw people out of their time will get go out of business. It is simply disgusting how they treat people.

Rep: I do see your point here, [my name has been removed]. And I thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. Some of our businesses indeed must be upgraded on their dealings with customers and I will definitely bring this feedback to our Support Team. You may also opt to contact these businesses and simply ask them if they are still interested otherwise, moving forwards, would be good to repost the job on our site and hopefully this time, it be good.

Me: I have contacted those businesses individually, multiple times. I have texts in writing to prove they keep promising it. "It simply slipped my mind" only works the first 3 times you use it.

--end transcript--

I will re-iterate, the Customer Service Rep was as helpful as should could be and pleasant to deal with. ServiceSeeking.com.au, if you are reading this - you can look up which rep dealt with me and give the lady a raise!!

I have stopped using ServiceSeeking.com.au now that I have ascertained that the tradies actually pay to be on the site. This makes them the website's customers as well as us. There isn't really a vetting process on the quality of the tradies on the website and certainly no recourse or rating system for users peer to peer, which makes the website even less useful than Yellowpages.com.au. I guess it is back to good ol' who you know or hitting the good yellow "book" hard.

Downfall of the Boom

The Housing Boom is a great and wondrous thing for many Australians who have built their wealth on the property market, while it is a great stress to many people that can never hope to afford to have a property to call their own.

My husband and I count ourselves as extremely lucky to have circumstances align in a way that - combined with hard work, made building our own home possible, even if we did have to move in the middle of nowhere to do it. No, building your own property is mostly a positive thing, however, unless you are very handy and have heaps of time up your sleeves to do things for yourself like the landscaping, lighting, and water/shed installation - your next priority would be running around like a mad chicken getting quotes from respective tradies to get things done.

I say priority - especially when it comes to landscaping, because we initially thought landscaping was something we could put off until the 6 months mark after house handover and moving in. To clarify, we are indoor people, so I thought my priorities leaned more towards doing more for the inside than out.

We have a beautiful fur family member named Lupin (who we love more than anything), who made landscaping an immediate need, being an indoor/outdoors dog.

All good, no biggy. In the past, I have relied on ServiceSeeking.com.au with very mixed results and thought I'd give them a go now. I listed details of my job and waited for some expression of interest and got 7. Fab! This was going to be easy. I texted / called / emailed all seven and...

Got 2 responses.

The others did not even bother to response further saying they are now busy, despite initially expressing interest in my job.

I soldiered on with the two that did respond:

1. Jim's Diggers (Aspley, QLD)
2. Pride Structural Landscaping & Concreting (Pimpama, QLD)

Pride Structural Landscaping after some text backwards and forwards trying to find a time for him to quote, advised that he has just landed a big job and was no longer interested.

Rxxx from Jim's Diggers did ACTUALLY made it out to the property (an all too rare occurrence) and totally charmed the socks off my dog and myself, promising the world (landscaping-wise) starting from when he would get a quote to us (he promised it within 2 days). The two days became a week, and then three weeks. Every time I called him, he was in his car and he couldn't emailed it to me, but "It is totally done, it just completely slipped my mind" (word for word his excuse every single time).

Needless to say, I stopped chasing the quote and calling him.

Next I turned to Yellowpages.com.au and started indiscriminately texting and calling to try and get Landscapers around us to come and even quote the job. Results:

7 landscapers contacted

1 landscaper willing to quote

Jxx Axxxxx from Plant A Garden came out and said the job was "simple" and talked my socks off (more than 30 minutes walking around the yard talking). Again he promised to send through a quote within a week and never did.

I will get to writing about my interactions with ServiceSeeking.com.au on this in another blog post. But the short of it is - the current housing boom has tradies feeling invincible - flooded with work and spoiled for choice. They jerk people around and wasting people's time in the process. 

Yes, I didn't expect it to be all smooth sailing, building a house and finishing off things around the house, however, the level of irresponsibility from tradies definitely leaves much to be desired including common courtesy, honesty and professionalism.