With more and more people setting up their own business and online marking playing a big roll in nearly every single UK business, large or small we ask the question, Is social media the best way the find trustworthy tradesmen these days? Or to be more politically correct and not upset any of those easily offended liberal snowflakes, who may come across this article, Is social media the best way the find trustworthy trades people? Well it is certainly the easiest way, but it’s not necessarily the best way.
It’s a fact people have become very lazy these days, true, it did all begin with the emergence of the internet which I’m not denying was a very good invention by Mr Berners-Lee back in 1983 and does benefit the world a great deal, it’s not all about porn you know!
Before the internet came along and changed the way people did everyday things, if you had a leak in your bathroom for example or your central heating boiler was on the blink and you needed to find a local plumber or heating engineer you either called up directory enquiries – who basically looked in the phone book for you, yes, that’s all they did, it was very low tech in those days – or you reached for your copy of the phonebook, or Yellow Pages in fact you did this for any product, service or tradesman you needed or wanted, your TV reception was bad or you wanted more channels so you looked up a local and accredited TV and Satellite engineer in your local area, you had an upcoming holiday booked and were a little worried about security so you again rang up directory enquiries or reached for your copy of the Yellow Pages or Thomason local directory and thumbed through to the burglar alarm installer or CCTV installer section and rang up the ad or the listing that caught you eye.
It was a safer time, with less rogue traders and scammers trying to steal your money
Because of the basic way things worked in these bygone times there where less opportunities for rogue traders and scammers to take advantage of people. A rogue trader couldn’t run an advertisement full of lies in the Phonebook or in the Yellow Pages because after ripping of a number of victims the authorities would be made aware and action would be taken to stop the individual or the company trading or taking on any new work.
Remember, in those days things like telephone numbers where in print and once a directory like the Yellow Pages was published that was it, so if a business or tradesmen was constantly ripping off customers or operating illegally, lets say a rogue plumber was working with gas appliances without the correct credentials, back then it was a Corgi Registration, now it is known as being Gas Safe or a rogue waste removal company was collecting your waste and then simply fly tipping it rather then taking it to an official waste and recycling site the police could be called in, then the courts could be informed if it was a repeat offender and the phone company could then be instructed by the courts to disconnect the telephone number and no more rogue trader.
This did happen, but i didn’t happen a great deal because the rogue traders where left out of pocket and in court, easily identified and made to pay for their crimes against society, nowadays its a whole different story.
The modern rogue trader has much easier time thanks to modern inventions like the internet and social media.
Modern technology and the internet revolution has been a wonderful thing and has enriched many lives across the world and in my option the internet has been one of the most pivotal and life changing inventions of the 20th century , I’m sure most people will agree, unfortunately it has made it much easier for the rogue traders, the scammers and the conmen to operate too, who are now able to hide behind fake identities online and run their unscrupulous businesses using cheap replaceable mobile phones and free untraceable email addresses and with so call community website such as Facebook helping to facilitate their business endeavour’s it’s no wonder that their are now more rogue traders than there are genuine ones operating online.
So is social media the best way the find trustworthy tradesmen?
Definitely not! Facebook pages and groups are the rogue trader’s hangout spots, they will lie in wait on local find a tradesman and recommendation groups waiting for someone to post that they are looking for a local plumber, a heating engineer, a CCTV Installer, a roofer, a painter and decorator, a locksmith and then they’ll pounce on the post using a number of fake profiles to recommend themselves.
Once one of these rogue traders has ripped off a number of people then its time for a name change, a new Facebook page, a new email address and a new mobile phone number. Total cost, around £20 for a new throw away mobile phone and new sim card.
