Do any of the 'recommended tradesmen' websites really work?

[rc2011]

We've got a job for a central heating engineer. We'd prefer to give it to a local firm rather than British Gas but its quite specific so not every local plumber is going to be able to help. Has anyone used any of the 'recommended tradesmen' type websites and did they work?

Bumping because I'd like to know too!

I guess you mean 'trade body' websites, like guild of master heating repairers and so on? Haven't and wouldn't give much creedence to paid-for membership organisations like these.
I have used myworkman.co.uk - and it worked very well. You post a job on the message board and interested tradespeople contact you. It's helpful in sorting the wheat from the chaff as you have to be a little IT literate to use it as a tradesperson. The standard of their communication will give you a real sense of them as a person/contractor. Got a couple of quotes from more traditional wide-boy/tooth-sucking types before getting a good one - previous customers leave recommendations which I found to be verifiable not fake.

We've used a couple of people from the Checkatrade website and they've been pretty good. Look for tradesmen with lots of reviews as the good ones will encourage their customers to add a review.

thanks for the ideas, I'll give it a try