user recommending family and friends who are not reliable! Post Reply

[sh88]

I had a recommendation from a user on this website, for a cleaner in the area. She has recommended this person to more than just me, so I hired her to come and clean once per week. I hired this person to start today, left her in my home and said that I would be back at 4pm and there were keys to lock up if there was an emergency. Everything was fine, she had everyones numbers, a list of jobs and was happy.

I got home at 3.25, no cleaner, no note and the job unfinished. Since then I have noticed that she updated her facebook picture so I am guessing there has been no emergency and her phone is off. I have not been able to pay the lady and would like to do that at least.

After further investigating, the woman on NV who recommended her to me has also been recommending her brother for handy man work but stating she uses him herself. Which is fine, but please just be honest about it - is my thinking.

My point is, for those recommending people for jobs within peoples private homes - please just make sure that you have used them on a professional level as this is a trusted site for families to use and when things like this happens it just puts a sour taste in my mouth.

[Annabel (admin)]

Hi
Absolutely agree.

We take down a LOT of posts when people are recommending their friends/relatives and portraying themselves as customers.

There are a couple of relatively easy checks:

1. If someone joins and immediately recommends a cleaner/builder/handyman it's best to be a little suspicious. People DO make recommendations but they usually also post about other things first. I would look at the number of posts someone has made and "weight" their recommendation less if they have only posted a few times

2. If someone only EVER posts to recommend a firm then also be suspicious. You can search a users posts and if they've posted 75 times but every time it's been to say "Picasso is an amazing painter and we loved him especially my toddler who thought he was funny and incredible and my dog who normally bites strangers". When people have exceptional service they DO recommend but they tend to stop after a few weeks and move onto other subjects. It's only partners/sisters/mums/dads/brothers who will keep repeating the same recommendation posts over and over and over again whilst not posting about anything else.

If suspicious we can also cross reference a users email address/IP address in Google but that's something only I can do as the moderator.

Hope that helps!

[Vanessa12]

I have also been unfortunate enough to have had dealings with this person recommending her cleaner and handyman.
I have since learnt she does not have a cleaner the person she is recommending is a family member and the handyman is her 18 year old brother.
A friend of mine used her as a babysitter and was not happy.
Advise to anyone dealing with this girl be careful!!
I have changed my name for obvious reasons!

[Annabel (admin)]

Please can you email me her username to nappyvalleynet@btinternet.com and I'll do some digging?

Thanks

[sh88]

I did already email you about it Annabel before posting this

[Annabel (admin)]

Whoops

Thanks

[TheMagenpies]

I think I posted on your other thread about this last week (?), sh88.

Glad to see that Annabel now is on the case. As I said previously, I'm quite surprised about some of the 'open' advertising on threads on NVN anyway.

Partly because anyone can pretend to be anyone on an anonymous forum.

But partly because I think Annabel might be missing an advertising income opportunity here. Also, to charge a nominal fee for 'small advertisers' might stop some of the 'chancers'.