FAQs
| If you do not see your question here, please click on the Comments button on the left and send us your question. You may also Skype us at Findatrade or contact us at findatradeinfrance@hotmail.com on MSN Messenger General Membership/Joining Trade members Jobs Data Protection NOT GETTING OUR EMAILS? General Q. Why should I use FATIF/TUA when I have work already? A. To help secure work for the future, to get a rating that will show future clients/customers, get your name in front of a growing number of homeowners needing your services. Q. Do you use my contact information for anything else? A. No Q. Are your charges value for money? A. Our charge is a fraction of what it would cost to advertise in newspapers and magazines and there, one only gets an advert, and certainly none of the other features like searching for jobs, getting email notification of new jobs, having your details sent to people who are looking for your trade, when you join. Q. I do not have my own computer; can I telephone to add my details? A. No. This service is provided through the Internet only. Q. How do we add a link between our sites? A. Please send us details of (a link to) your site, so that we may review it for suitability. Once we have done that, we will email you with details of how to proceed. Q. What/where are your terms and conditions? A. At the bottom of every page there is a link to our T&C. Membership/Joining Q. Why is my email address mandatory? A. There are many reasons a valid email address is needed. Firstly the system uses it to notify you of joiners/jobs, validate your joining details, payments etc. but mostly it is needed because this is an Internet based system and all services are provided through the Internet. If your email address is not valid, the system will delete your record. Q. Is your payment process secure? A. The payment is secure and is processed through "WorldPay" part of the Royal Bank of Scotland. For more information on their security please visit http://www.worldpay.co.uk/about/index.php Q. Where do I get an invoice or VAT receipt? A. You will receive an email from us, usually within 2 days with a receipt attached Q. What is the security code required by WorldPay? A. To improve security most credit and debit cards have a code printed on the rear of the card, usually found above the strip where you write your signature. Most transactions require the last three digits of this number for verification purposes. Q. Do I have to give a telephone number? A. If you are a customer, the answer is yes when joining but this will never be seen by trades people unless you post a job and even then it is only necessary to have a contact email address, telephone number is optional. If you are joining as a trades person the answer is also yes. Q. I just joined as a trade but I cannot see my ad A. When you are logged in, just use the SEARCH FOR TRADES feature in MY ACCOUNT and you will be able to see your own advert Q. I just joined as a trade but I cannot search for other trades A. Because a trades person has different requirements to homeowners, you can only post your/update your details, request notification of new jobs, and search current jobs. However, as a trades person, you may also want to find another trades person/people to work on your home or for sub-contracting work you have. Simply join FREE as a customer/homeowner and you can then search all ads as well as use all the other function customer/homeowners can perform. Q. I forgot my username/password A. Go to the home page and click on the ‘forgotten username/password box. Enter your email address and we will send you an email with your log in details. You must however provide the email address you used when you joined. Trade members Q. Are the trades people on your site legally registered? A. When joining, we ask in both our terms and conditions and through the site that trades are registered and legal. We review the records of our members in order to trace anyone not legally trading. People legally trading may include others who are registered in other countries (UK removers, translators, UK estate agents for example). We do ask people to state their registration details and because some trades people are legitimately registered in other countries and others are applying for their SIRET, we decided not to make the actual number a requirement. However, as time passes (and because we do not want 'au noir' people on the site), we do check status and have already removed people who said they were applying for a SIRET number but who when given the opportunity to update their registration progress, were obviously not. In the future we will be adding an advice section for customers, regarding checking registration and insurance of all trades people they use, from this site or from wherever they find them. The Riviera Reporter has agreed to let us publish some of their articles regarding the dangers of using unregistered, illegal and uninsured trades people. Q. Can you recommend a trade? A. No. We are an independent operation and wish to retain our impartiality. We help French and English-speaking homeowners find French and/or English-speaking quality trades people. We also help those trades people to find work and get a recommendation. We do one thing only: Help bring together trades people and homeowners, we do not: - o Sell anything o Rent properties o Give news bulletins o Weather forecasts o Tourists info o Dating service etc We are also not a construction, building or any other type of company looking for work. We are a community of French and English people working together, supported (but not financially assisted) by a Major French Travel company Q. Can I advertise my trade in your job section? A. No, this section is for jobs only and will only ever be seen by trades people, not customers, who do not have access to this area of the system. Q. I cannot find the trade I am looking for in my area. A. Try neighbouring areas, especially if you are near a boundary. If you can still not find anyone, ask the system to notify you when that trade joins in your area. Click on ‘Change notification settings’ in my account Q. I contacted one of your trades but there was no answer/no reply A. We often find that when contacting people in these days of SPAM (un-requested email) your message can often not get through the filters put on by either the Internet service provider or the addressee themselves. If possible see if they have a telephone number and try calling them. We cannot imagine why a trades person would want to ignore the very request they have asked to receive, so give them the benefit of the doubt and keep trying. As the database grows, you will have more choice. Q. Is there a shortage of roofers, plumbers or other trades in a particular area? A. That will depend on the area. Go to the home page of the site and under the non-members area at the bottom, try a search by clicking on 'How many Trades people in my area'? You can then check to see how many of a particular trade there are in each region and department. Please remember, these are only those registered on our site. Q. Is it only building trades that you offer? A. No. We do include many other trades and services. We want to focus purely on trades and services and nothing else like (selling homes, tourism, letting holiday homes, and others) and we envisage the list of service/trade categories growing as demand rises. If you think yours is not really covered and you want to join, suggest a generic one that we can add and we will as long as it is generic enough for others to use too. Q. Can I offer more than one trade in the same advert/listing? A. Yes you may select as many trades as you offer for the same fee (no extra charge). Q. I am just starting my business (or thinking of starting one). How do I find out if it is worth it in a particular area? A. Go to the home page of the site and under the non-members area at the bottom, try a search by clicking on ‘How many jobs in my area’ to see how many jobs are currently posted for your trades. Remember by joining, your details will be sent to all members who have asked to be notified when someone offering your trade(s) joins. Q. Why can I not get details of your trades people? A. In order to access their details, you must first join as a customer (free). Go to the home page; click on join and then select the join as a customer option. Q. I asked to be notified about trades joining but I have never received any notifications A. Please check to make sure your ‘trades notification settings’ have been activated. Log in, and in ‘my account, select change notification settings and ensure you have selected at least one trade. Or Please check to see if you have not told us your region and department. In order for this feature to work, (because when a trade joins, we only inform customers if the trade joins in their area), just log in ( www.findatradeinfrance.com ), go to 'My Account' and select 'Change Personal Details' and there you will be able to tell us the region and department you are in.. Of course it is also possible that to date no trades that your are looking for have joined in your area. Q. I contacted one of your trades but they said they were too busy A. Obviously they have found that the site works. As long as they were not rude, look out for the ratings they get from their plethora of customers and try them next time. If they were less than polite, cross them off your list and remember that as the database grows, so will your choice. Jobs Q. I received a job notification but cannot find the job posted A. Please check to make sure that you have searched all areas that your business covers. It is possible you have selected areas in which you provide your service by mistake and therefore you will be notified about jobs posted in that area. Log in and in ‘My Account’, click on ‘change coverage area’ to check which areas you have previously defined. Q. Why can I not get details of the jobs? A. You must have joined as a trades person, with a current (un-expired) membership before you can view the details of any job posted. Q. Why is my job still on the site? A. We have no way of knowing when a job has been completed. It is therefore your responsibility to remove jobs from the site when they have been taken/completed. It would help us tremendously if at the same time you rated the work for others to see. Q. I asked to be notified about jobs posted but I have never received any notifications A. Please check to make sure your ‘job notification settings’ have been activated. Log in, and in ‘my account, select change notification settings. Of course it is possible that to date no jobs have been posted for your trade in your area. Data Protection Q. What are my rights under the data protection act and How do I see what information you hold about me/us? A. In accordance with the data protection act 1998 you have the right to access, modify, or delete the information related to you. This can be done at any time on this site by just logging in and using the MY ACCOUNT facility. All data held by us is data you entered. The Data Protection Act 1998 sets out eight rules that data controllers must follow for protecting personal information - these are known as the eight principles. The eight principles Personal data must be: 1. Processed fairly and lawfully. 2. Processed only for one or more specified and lawful purpose. 3. Adequate, relevant and not excessive for those purposes. 4. Accurate and kept up-to-date - data subjects have the right to have inaccurate personal data corrected or destroyed if the personal information is inaccurate to any matter of fact. 5. Kept for no longer than is necessary for the purposes it is being processed. 6. Processed in line with the rights of individuals - this includes the right to be informed of all the information held about them, to prevent processing of their personal information for marketing purposes, and to compensation if they can prove they have been damaged by a data controller's non-compliance with the Act. 7. Secured against accidental loss, destruction or damage and against unauthorised or unlawful processing - this applies to you even if your business uses a third party to process personal information on your behalf. 8. Not transferred to countries outside the European Economic Area (the EU plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) that do not have adequate protection for individual's personal information, unless a condition from Schedule four of the Act can be met. NOT GETTING OUR EMAILS? Many Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are blocking more and more emails from genuine businesses. If you are expecting emails from us please check 1. Your deleted/trash/spam boxes on your email software (Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird etc...) 2. Your email via your ISP - for example Orange and Wanadoo have web mail where you can log in and they they store emails they consider to be spam |