Builders Recommendations (or are they?)

[Ruskin]

We need a builder to come and quote - doesn't everybody at one time or another?

But when you read forum recommendations I do wonder if they're genuine or whether a relative has written the glowing praise in much the same way as you read on Amazon reviews. The paragraphs are packed with perfect sentences which in many cases, I'm sure are by real satisfied customers. It's just that they read as if they're not.

I might be paranoid and so, wrong - but that's just my suspicion. One ought to visit recent jobs they've done then go and speak to the owners about their experience, also knocking on doors where there's an ongoing project but it would be so good to bypass the time-wasting.

[Sean Of Dulwich]

your not paranoid

[Administrator]

A good thing to do is click on the name of the person recommending, then you can click on the link to see all their posts. If all they do is recommend one company please report one of the posts so we can investigate it. If something seems suspicious for other reasons then report that too, feel free to send me a private message if that's easier.

There are fake reviews on here but we can't be sure which ones are fake so we do need help from users to let us know.

Some companies do ask for recommendations on the forum, personally I have received invoices from good companies that say "please recommend us on the East Dulwich Forum", which is fine however it does mean new users sign up and recommend companies which others may see as dubious.

So use common sense, get three quotes and like you say speak to customers and inspect work done, it's not time-wasting, it's doing the ground work to get honest workers. If you cut corners and simply use someone because of a single recommendation by someone random you'll get monkeys, or whatever the phrase is.