Welcome @Faith,
Thank you for sharing, and offering some guidance for others.
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One reply from hi pages showed the license on the message bit i never chose that person as, the original was supposed to be attending. Anyway it is, a, decision needs making.
I have used Hi Pages several times and have been satisfied with the work done and the attention to beginning the job as arranged. I did get contacted from the Sydney office (I am in Brisbane) by some guy who didnât seem to know what he was doing. I ignored him. I contacted the tradies suggested, got their quotes, selected one (Not necessarily the cheapest) and the job was done well, except for one. The jobs i had done include re-pointing the roof tiles, re-stumping, and house painting. For that last job, the guy turned out to be a bit slack and keen to cut çornersâ on sanding.
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and again a big scam by hi pages.
they advertise, you hire and pay and hi pages get a huge cut of what you paid.
Hipages value added? Not their problem.
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NSW and the other states and territories all regulate building work. Each does it a little differently. Roof plumbing in NSW is a recognised trade and licensed/regulated. There are exceptions as the following demonstrates,
You must have a licence before you do any residential building work in NSW, including roof plumbing, valued at more than $5000 (incl GST) in labour and materials.
Roof plumbing is any work involved in fixing, installing, renovating, altering, repairing and maintaining guttering, downpipes, roof flashing and roof coverings on any building or structure.
Does Hipages in this situation take responsibility for verifying if itâs trade listed clients have appropriate licenses and qualifications? The alternative might be to forewarn customers requesting quotes that Hipages does not take responsibility for verifying or assuring the trade qualifications of the businesses it recommends?
Iâm sure Iâm missing something here in understanding what if any value Hipages offer? Especially for the average consumer who assumes their lack of knowledge of proper trade practice and building regulations, is why they should use a service such as Hipages to deliver quotes from competent and reliable trade businesses.
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Hipages class themselves as a marketplace where it says it role is to connect homeowners with trusted tradies. In reality they may be no different to eBay, GumTree, FaceBook MarketPlace etc where they link a consumer to a seller. These other platforms allow advertisements of trade and home help services.
These other marketplaces are riddled with fraudsters and scammers, and one needs to do some basic research before handing over their hard earned cash.
Likewise, when first engaging the services of a tradie, one should ask for evidence of qualifications (e.g. State government licences or similar) and for major work, check references of past customers.
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Thereâs also the relevant state/territory Fair Trading website. In NSW at lease you can search for a business a number of different ways and find if theyâve been in breach. That said, I know that not all breaches are recorded but its a start.
If one looks to some of the lead in content from HiPages web site it appears to be promising more than just a contact in a market place. The offers include,
- Trusted tradies,
- Customer Support,
- Registered and Licensed tradies, checked and monitored,
- Peace of mind by referring to some big names as âPartnersâ
Is it worth pulling this apart? It seems to be more than a market place. Most importantly HiPages refers the tradies to you the customer. That process takes place out of sight of the consumer needing the work done. The consumer requiring the work to be done makes a final decision heavily reliant on the HiPages offers. There is one argument that HiPages is trading on taking the stress and worry out of getting reliable competent trade services.
- Is it because HiPages only offer trustworthy, reliable, competent, registered and licensed tradies?
- Is one free to take the Partners listed as an endorsement of HiPages Tradies, including by then the NSW Govt?
- Is HiPages really just another market place where itâs just as easy to pick a lemon as a rose?
When push comes to the shove, if HiPages is not accountable for what it delivers, why use it at all?
The puffery deserves a closer review as to whether it crosses the line of what the average consumer might reasonably perceive is on offer. There are reasons we have regulation of trade work. Itâs a response to the average consumer not knowing right from wrong when it comes to the job at hand. The lack of trade knowledge for the average consumer also limits the usefulness of any feedback and reviews.
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I paid the plumber over $2,000 for various work. Flushing worth $495 was never performed nor refunded, despite many many many calls, SMSs and emails that there are still amounts outstanding. What shocks me is that:
- I engaged this plumber from HiPages as I thought they had reputable system of maintaining quality suppliers. Boy was I wrong. Despite many correspondences with HiPages, this supplier still advertises on this platform, has a high rating and HiPages refuses to publish my negative comments. HiPages claims that they âensure each tradie meets our high standardsâ
- I have also contacted Victoria Building Authority many times and filled out many forms. The final result was that itâs a commercial matter and not their problem. ie this dodgy supplier remains registered to prey on other innocent consumers.
- I have also contacted Consumer Affairs Victoria. Their advice was to write to plumber reminding them of their rights or otherwise take them to VCAT. CAV refuses to contact the plumber and take action against them.
Unfortunately we are on our own
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Welcome to the Community @JayPea
I merged your post into this older one about HiPages. Using what amount to tradie booking platforms is all marketing and often no care by the platform. The tradie is at the end of the day their customer and you are the tradies customer. It would not be surprising which âhe saidâ they value more.
As posted elsewhere our licensing and supposed oversight agencies appear to be happy issuing licenses and taking renewal fees. They do not want to get involved but will if there is a failure to follow standards. That they did not want to know you fora tradie charging for work not done is unfortunately unsurprising.
Once again your experience is similar to myriad others. CAV has no enforcement powers so if a business is not interested in engaging VCAT becomes the only ânext stepâ other than walking away from your dollars as an educational experience. Many business of all types understand this and if the aggrieved does not take them to VCAT there is no downside other than their reputation - that they can often control.
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Thank you Phil. I wish Iâve known this before.
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I posted a quote request to HiPages a couple of months back. The job request was to re-batten, sark, and re-tile the roof of our house, a signifcant undertaking.
Three companies responded. Only one was a roofing company that was capable of doing the work and that could provide a quote.
The other two were painting companies. 
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Ah yes. These companies are becoming more and more prevalent.
Saw a neighbour having a roof restoration so went to get a card. No card. No company logo on ute and when I enquired about the company name it was also a painting company. 
I have two sons who work in the construction industry. One is a builder and I remember that when Labor got in some time ago, the Award became a book and no-one could work out what people should be paid. It was ok for large companies but small builders had real problems. The answer was to pay them a little bit above the Award rate and then they were out of the soup.
The next change was the requirement that the owner of the building company had to provide all their tools etc. This resulted in many smaller building companies no longer employing apprentices as it was cheaper and far more productive to just use qualified tradies.
