This was sent in by email in response to what we said about being asked to pay for your own materials:-

"I thought I would bring something to your attention regarding some potentially misleading information on your website. In the part where you warn customers to be suspicious "If your artisan asks you to buy the materials yourself", I feel it is only fair to point out that this is legal practice if the artisan is registered under the "micro-entreprise" system as an "artisan"(and not as a "commercant" or "artisan/commercant"). He may then only charge for his services ("prestation service") and the customer must pay direct to the suppliers for any materials. Under this regime, he is not able to charge VAT.

I feel it should also be pointed out that some of the sites you recommend for verifying SIRET numbers have incomplete data, which could penalise genuine artisans unfairly.

Les Echos website is the only one with anything resembling a comprehensive description of our business, and even then has some important omissions (such as the fact that I'm a conjointe in the entreprise)."