Thumbtack

THIS IS ME TRYING TO COMMUNICATE WITH A DUMMY AT THUMBTACK:

John: Hi, my name is John, thanks for reaching out.
John: hello there. Let me check on your concern. One moment please.

Me: Been out for a while, now back and went to thumbtack and seen your asking 20 to 50 credits per job? Please tell me this is an error... or are you gauging us?

John: I see. I'll be glad to those credits for you. Let me just pull up your account.

Me: EXAMPLE:
John: I have checked the requests that you've been receiving and the number of credits required are correct. The number of credits are based on how big the project is.

Me: Dan M. Los Angeles, CA 90029 4/5 quotes sent 0h 04m avg pro response time Free to send quote! You'll use 56 credits if Dan responds. Thats over $100.!

John: That's a new feature on our website called Customer Contact. Customer Contact lets you send quotes for free and only use credits when you hear from interested customers who have received your quote and contacted or hired you.

Me: Very BAD, BAD idea... BIG, VERY BIG marketing error. I'm OUT.! And will give your company BAD reviews and BAD social media if you keep on Gauging us workers. This may be your downfall... please forward this to corp mgt.

John: We create new features on our website to help pros like you become successful in your business. Look at it this way, in the old system, you have to pay even if you just sent a quote regardless if the customer views it or not. With the new system, the only time that you will be charged is when you hear from interested customers who have received your quote and contacted or hired you.

John: Now, the credits required per project are based on several factors such as the size of the project, the demand and the category of the request that your bidding for.

Me: and how do you verify if customer has contacted me?

John: Once a customer views your quote and communicated with you through our messenger or marked you as hired.

Me: What you are saying is not clear to me. Is it when the client views the quote or hires me?

John: When we describe a customer contacting you, we mean any time a customer takes the next step after viewing your quote. This includes sending a message, scheduling time to talk or meet, making a phone call or marking you as hired.

Me: you said: John: Once a customer views your quote and communicated with you. So if a client reads my quote but does not contact me there is no charging me credits?

John: Sorry if it wasn't clear, what I was trying to say was if a customer took the next step after viewing your quote and communicated with. That's the time you will be charged.
Me: Please be specific... so what you are saying is if a customer contacts me just to ask me a question there is NO CHARGE. Is this correct?

John: Yes. You shouldn't be charged if the customer only views your quote but did not initiate any communication with you.

Me: That's not my question.! Please read and anwser Yes or NO What is it that you don't understand my question is simple.!

John: I apologize if I misread your question. If that's the scenario then you will be charged since the customer showed interest and asked questions about your services.

Me: Communicating with you was an ORDEAL I am making a copy of all of this and sending to Corp Mgt.

I am throughly convinced that thumbtack is a scam. I posted a review before and a rep from the company contacted me stating Thumbtack wanted to speak with me and help me get business. I replied and made a suggestion about changing the pay structure to keep business owners from being ripped off. I even paid for the background check which is supposed to let potential customers know you are legit. Then all of a sudden, I got 2 calls from bids submitted. What was weird about the " customers" is that they requested services in cities near by me but the called from several states away. I. e., I'm in GA but they were in Texas, but we're gonna be in GA to get married. Not saying this doesn't happen, but after the initial call, no further contact was achieved. And I bid well below the asking price for the jobs because I signed on as a customer looking for the service I offer and discovered that they don't let the customer name their exact budget. It starts off at a certain amount which is above what most people in my area are willing to pay. I suggested to them that they change that aspect of the pricing and let the customer input their own budget instead of selecting a range so that the business will know if they want to bid for the business or not. If the customer has a $200 budget but the lowest range is 400-500, you'll put in a bid and once they view it, your money is lost and you won't get the business because you are above their budget. Do I wanna do provide my service for $200? No. But I also don't wanna waste money bidding on jobs for people with budgets below the minimum they are allowed to select. I will use only gig salad from now on because you only pay them if you book a gig through their site. But be careful there as well because like all the other sites, they want you to pay to have a "featured spot". I will leave a review of them after I've tried it for a couple of months. I feel better about using them because I personally know someone that used them and got business.

This is an update to my original review. I have an outstanding balance from quote refunds that were never responded to, under the old quoting rules. I wrote to Thumbtack and requested a refund of my outstanding account balance to my card. Here is their response:

"Thanks for your prompt response. We're really sorry for the confusion and the inconvenience it caused by the updates and changes regarding on our pricing. First off, I'd like to let you know that we do not process cash refund. Anything refundable will go back to your Thumbtack account."
---------Sooooo, in other words, Thumbtack says Thumbtack will keep the money that I paid for a quote not answered, even if I were to close out my account. In other words, too bad, I'm hosed?" -Is this a matter that should be reported to the Federal Trade Commission? Feedback from any pros in similar position is welcome.

I've been a professional on Thumbtack for 5 yrs now. Part of my service includes giving online piano/theory/composition lessons to students coast to coast, so I don't limit my quoting to just my home area. Obviously then my rates are location-dependent; for instance, a 60 min lsn in Manhattan will be a different cost than a 60 min lesson in Chanute, KS. Also, if the request was to teach multiple people in the family, I could meet there needs better by suggesting the right length of lesson and give them my family discount. Before, up til April 2018 I could address every quote with a customized message and tell them exactly what they needed to know, and how I could help them with the specific discounts/scholarship, and we wouldn't waste time going back and forth with unnecessary requests for more information. We just hit the ground running, and I could give them a rate that is normally charged in their geographic region. BUT, now in what's most likely an effort to save Thumbtack money, they require that you simply hold out your generic information and pitch; ABSOLUTELY NOTHING SPECIFIC THAT WILL HELP THE CUSTOMER BECOME HAPPILY INVOLVED IN MY SERVICE. I get a box where I'm supposed to fill in the rate. Well, Thumbtack, teaching student-specific lessons with unique needs in almost every case is DIFFERENT from someone to unclog your toilet. I explained in great detail my (and others who teach online coast to coast) situation and how they're doing the Customer a disservice (and eroding their rep in the process), but I'm sure they're not going to bring that choice back. I know that for teaching music lessons, the quote cost structure is going to change soon, i. E. increase a lot. My advice to professionals looking to advertise their services? STAY AWAY! USE ANY OF A MULTITUDE OF STILL FREE QUOTING SERVICES!

I am copying my email to Thumbtack Suport which has been ignored as well as the phone conversation. I would recommend that no one ever use this service EVER! Especially ALL TASK SERVICES! Crooks! I have 6 witnesses.

Thumbtack support,

Thumbtack also just dumped things from my draws into boxes, all mix and no labels so I had to open every box to know where it went. I've moved 17 times and it by far the worst experience I've had. Steven Hendrix

On Sun, Feb 14,2021 at 12:51 PM Steve Hendrix <*******@gmail.com> wrote:

Thumbtack Management,

I called *******809 and spoke with Skyler (on Feb 4th) about the very big problem I had with "All Task Services" located in Kansas City and I have not received a response that she promised and I am going to file a complaint against your company with BBB and on your website and every other media I can find! Another Thumbtack Pro recommended using your service. This was to load a two bedroom apartment, I provided all the blankets, wrap (was not used), tape, straps (which they packed and did not use!) and boxes.
This was the location of my apartment and where the truck was located. They were late and they went to lunch for an hour and took 2 days costing me a hotel and charged me $ 950.00! For a 2 bedroom apartment!
Here is a summary of the furniture: Picture not wrapped damaged (This is an original painting) corners were dinged
Handmade Amish Chest not properly wrapped and scratched.
Amish Handmade Dresser scratched not properly wrapped and hardware missing.
200 year old drop leaf table not properly wrapped and scratched. Chairs also scratched.
Stanley Printer stand scratched and missing cord organizer and file support.
Handmade Amish bed, pins broken on bot headboard and footboard out and hardware missing.
His is what the truck looked like fully loaded... They used small orange strapps they had but only wanted to use 2. I sent this to the Pro that set me up with your service to show him how bad it was and he tried to talk to the owner Darren of All Task Services but the owner did not want to listen to him and they got into an argument. You can see that nothing was wrapped and there is left over blankets still in the bag.
You provided/promoted a Non Licensed Mover as represented on your website
They did not have the proper moving equipment and told after they put the stuff in my truck that they were not movers but Hot Tub installers.
They overcharged me!
The packing was totally unacceptable
Some broken glassware
They stole the items below:
M18 Lithium-Ion Cordless 1/2 in. Hammer Drill Driver Kit with(2) 1.5Ah Batteries, Charger and Hard Case https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwaukee-M18-Fuel-18-Volt-Lithium-Ion-Brushless-Cor...⇄ /> Klein Tools:
#1 Phillips Cushion-Grip screwdriver, 3-Inch (76 mm) round-shank (603-3)
#2 Phillips Cushion-Grip screwdriver, 4-Inch (102 mm) round-shank (603-4)
1/4-Inch (6 mm) cabinet-tip Cushion-Grip screwdriver - 4-Inch (102 mm) heavy-duty round-shank (605-4)
1/4-Inch (6 mm) cabinet-tip Cushion-Grip screwdriver - 6-Inch (152 mm) heavy-duty round-shank (605-6)
Wire stripper/cutter - 10-18 AWG solid wire (11045)
8-Inch (203 mm) High-leverage diagonal-cutting pliers - angled head (D248-8)
8-Inch (203 mm) Heavy-duty long-nose, side-cutting pliers (D203-8)
High-leverage side-cutting pliers - fish tape pulling (D213-9NETP)
Pump pliers with 1-3/4-Inch (44 mm) jaw capacity (D502-10)
All of my Canned food...
I had to leave and go to Atlanta for training on Monday and will be here for another week so I may find more things missing or damaged when I get back to Smyrna.

I have 6 witnesses and demand resolution. I asked Darren (the owner of ALL TASK SERVICES)<*******@gmail. Com> *******185 to give me a business card and a receipt. He said he did not have a business card but promised to send me a receipt but he never emailed me a receipt!

This guy is a crook and you are promoting him. Is that how you keep a "good" reputation? Also not following up on my call is unacceptable. Tried to call All Task Services to complain about what happened but they did not answer my call so I had to text them and they blocked me! See screen shot:

I am a long time Thumbtack Pro (I have a Photo booth business in the Pacific Northwest). In fact, I have been considered a "Top Pro" by Thumbtack because I have over 60 5-star reviews and have been hired about 130 times on Thumbtack over the last few years. I have a love/hate relationship with them. Right now, I am seething with their new pricing structure for Pros.

I have made a lot of money on Thumbtack and I will defend that Thumbtack are not a scam. In fact, I have had three new bookings in the last two weeks.

Last fall, they went to an optional structure called "Instant Match". I could quote for a job and if the customer was interested, they would contact me. The price for such a contact was about $15 to $25. Over about a six week period, I spent about $150 and received no bookings. At the same time, Thumbtack allowed a handful customer requests a week on a pay to quote basis. The cost for those ranged from about $3 to $15. I would not quote on anything over $6. Over the last 6 months or so, I booked about a dozen jobs. All was going great. I was still picking off jobs in my own clever manner.

In the last three weeks, Thumbtack has taken all of those jobs and placed them into a similar pricing structure to "Instant Match". I can quote for free, but if a customer contacts me, I automatically pay about $15 to $25. Honestly, if it puts me in legitimate competition for a booking I am pleased to pay that from time to time even if I don't get the job.

Last week, I was contacted twice with an Instant reply available to the customer.

"Are you available on my date"?

I dutifully answered even though I would not have thrown my quote into the ring if I was already booked on that date.

Neither of those customers ever responded. One of them cost me $27.

There is a big difference between those and the conversations I have and the customers don't like that I don't produce the photo strips that are so popular in the business.

I reported those two incidents to Thumbtack customer service and the final response I received was this.

Hi GAP,

Charges are based on the very first contact from the customer, and if the very first contact shows interest in getting the job done, you will be charged.

Both Leon and Unique's first message shows interest in getting the job done. They are asking a relevant question that show they are trying to get the job done.

Conner
The Thumbtack Support Team

Thumbtack has really turned an ugly corner with their pricing and refund policies. The only way that we as Pros can effect change is get the word out to both Pros and customers. At every turn, I am writing about this to affect change in Thumbtack. I feel sorry for the kids that have to respond to these customer service issues, but please, let them hear about every one so they can affect change within the company. Thumbtack have clearly placed the value of a dollar over the Pros that are for all practical purposes, their partners.

Gregg A. Pohll
GAP Photography
Olympia, Washington

This referral site is tricky to use, and Thumbtack change things up so often that your investment of time and money may be wasted if one of their changes makes it impractical for you. I don't recommend it. It took months and lots of money to get our first online client there, despite often having a waiting list locally. Once we did, we got regular business, but we ended up taking two customers who attempted to defraud us and lost money on both accounts. Thumbtack could have been helpful but wasn't.

They really don't have any screening mechanism or accountability for customers or for reviews. So, be very careful about accepting clients via Thumbtack. They don't have anyone who seems to have a clue about how small businesses really work and will just read scripts to you if you try to discuss how one of their many changes or an existing feature is impacting your business. They think it's a matter of just telling you how their software works and don't understand the business process.

After we lost money on two fraudulent customers for larger contracts, we decided to take our account off Thumbtack and close our page. We were assured that when people searched of us and our business, there would be no connection to Thumbtack. Instead, people who search for my personal name and the name of my company land on a Thumbtack page that makes it appear as though my account was removed for some negative reason and as though I've gone out of business. They then invite the visitor to find my competitors through Thumbtack.

So, despite all the money I paid to Thumbtack in the process of connecting with customers, they have now repaid me by giving people who are searching specifically for me and my business the idea that I'm a bad risk and out of business anyway. While the page doesn't technically say that, every customer who has told me about landing on that page has said that was their impression.

So, if you don't want your future potential customers to think you were kicked off Thumbtack and went out of business, be careful about creating an account on Thumbtack in the first place. The way they've changed things, it's really far too expensive to use, at least in my business. We get much more business from free methods than we ever got from Thumbtack, though that may not be true for you. Check out what people find when they search for me now:

I've been working with Thumbtack as a Pro for almost a year now. I was actually satisfied with this service until Thumbtack decided to change their system, "to better serve us and get us hired more frequently" they say. After being charged exorbitant amounts for being contacted by a client, it is more than obvious, that this wasn't exactly their motif.
Thumbtack's new system is unethical and unclear, it totally lacks transparency and is designed to "get you" by surprise. Their costumer service don't even understand how it works, they all give you contradicting information between each other and with what is written in some part of FAQs on the website. I even noticed that they changed the answers in those FAQs without notifying the professionals! A month ago it said that the average cost for a quote is $6, now that I read it's $12+! When I talk to costumer service to ask how they decide what to charge in each specific case, they say, it depends on value of quote and interest of costumer. How do they intuitively determine the real interest of the costumer, it remains a mystery to me. Under this information, I sent a quote of $50 last week, the client contacts me and asks how the session works, I answer. Never heard back from her (which is ok), but, the cost for a $50 quote? $35! How does that has any relation with value of job and interest of client? After loosing my patience texting with costumer service and they giving again some other contradicting information, I decide to call. The lady that answers says that somewhere there, written under FAQs, if I press here, and then go here and then enter here... is written that that's how it is! Can you see what a scam this is? I made sure, some weeks ago, to understand how this new system works, and read everything there and watched the videos, this information never appeared! On March I sent a quote of $80 and the cost for it was $17.53, it got me by surprise, since again, it didn't say anywhere how much it was going to cost ( I was used to pay $1.63 for sending a quote), anyway I letted it go, never imagining that the next quote will cost like 70% of the service!
I hope I'm explaining my case eloquently and I am making my point here. I have tried to be as reasonable and understanding as possible, but I (and the entrepreneurs I exposed this case to) can't make sense of this: charge of $35 for a $50 quote? Without absolute transparency and congruence, you're not really providing any service to independent professionals, you're simply taking advantage of them. I am closing my accounts and DO NOT recommend anyone to do business with them.

I have lost well over 100 credits with Thumbtack Pro. I spent over an hour with a Thumbtack representative and I asked question after question before signing up and purchasing this large credit package. Thumbtack pro works by generating quotes and you get charged if the potential client responds... Well I have gotten charged for quotes where the client has responded: "Thank You", "What's included", "Are you available on a different date" and other random one liners that have lead to no where!

BEFORE I signed up with pro I asked a million questions. I was told there is a refund process for such above responses... but when I called to get refunds I was told something else and I was not refunded.

I had a conversation Thumbtack on May 18th that I would be refunded for 4 quotes. But he said try to reach out to the clients again because there was still time to book the gigs and he said to call back if nothing happened. I called back and I was told Thumbtack were not refundable quotes per their guidelines (which by the way are not on any public site per Supervisor Kayla).

Supervisor Kayla also reached out to the person who said he was going to refund me the 4 quotes. Kayla put me on hold, had the person listen to the conversation, because apparently they record all the conversations, and within a few minutes she told me the guy listened to the conversation and he did not say he would refund me anything. First of all that is a lie, secondly I don't know how he listened to a 30 minute conversation within a few minutes. I have the call log and time length of the call. She also laughed when I asked if I could listen to the call for proof!

Unless you have a super unique business I would not use Thumbtack especially Thumbtack Pro. Thumbtack is getting rich on the Pros when customers are only shopping around.

Not to mention, You have no phone number email address no concrete proof that the quotes are from real people and not computer generated.

The potential clients are just looking for prices to plan their events, not to hire from Thumbtack, sad:(

If you feel ripped off I encourage you to take the time to leave a review.

I originally had 96 reviews and Thumbtack took away 56 reviews and told me it was for the better for their new policy revisions now I am left with only 40... All my time and effort/investment went out the door.

I've been using the service for over 16 months and they frankly don't care about how much effort and time you put into your thumbtack profile or the service whatsoever. I asked Matt (thumbtack team member) what about all the time and effort I put into reviews and he put in a nice way (too bad) and I would have to deal with it because of their "research" it makes sense to delete non "thumbtack" branded reviews. I escalated to speak with their manager Shane and he gave me the same run around and that they would make no exception to let me keep all my old reviews. Of course they don't care... they are not the one's who put their sweat and precious time to pursue all the reviews I have obtained on my thumbtack profile.

Quite frankly I wouldn't be surprised if some of the thumbtack team has NEVER RAN ON THE BUSINESS END so they probably can't relate how much time and effort it takes to grow and maintain your own business.

They don't have any empathy or sympathy whatsoever. I should have never ask my customers to put their review on their site, they're gone and NO CUSTOMER IS GOING TO PUT A SECOND REVIEW FOR YOU PEROID its pestering them and annoying for ANYONE. They wouldn't make any exception to keep my old reviews and told me to basically "DEAL WITH IT"

Again... I have used the site for 16 months and this is how they treat even their most veteran users... what a disappointment.

Bottom line, they really don't care whether your brand new or have been with them since they've begun they just want your money and lack ANY consideration for your business whatsoever.

Of course they don't give two cents worth of care, they're not the one's who invested their time and energy to establish and grow mine or your business!

Now there are a few individuals who have provided me excellent quality services such as Alex Piacquad who has done an exceptional job, however there are a couple bad apples in the company that are making this a very SOUR EXPERIENCE!

Imagine you had $96 dollars and someone took $56 dollars away from you and you're left with $40 and they said "Deal with it its just the way it is"... enough said...

My name is Robert, and I have been using Thumbtack.com for leads in the home improvement industry. I have been using them for about 3 months now, and I have had no return on my lead investments. I have a good profile built there, according to their standards, and the correspondence from potential customers is extremely low. There is zero accountability for the customer to commit. Up to 5 service pros at a time send bids to potential customers. The leads are very vague, and customers appear to be "kicking tires" most of the time, instead of looking for a service Thumbtack will actually use. There are those that have had a very good experience through Thumbtack, and good for them. I, unfortunately am not one of the privileged in that category. I have spent about $300 in 3 months, and have not landed a single job from them. I do not think it is a scam, but I also think that there is absolutely no qualifying to the type of lead I pay for. I recommend that Thumbtack refund any leads that are not hired out. That would at least keep money in the bid pool for the actual true lead that seems to come 1 out of 50.

8/13/15 - I would like to make an amendment to my previous comments about Thumbtack.com. As with alot of things in business, success takes time. My opinion of Thumbtack has changed to the degree that I would like to move my rating from 2 stars to 3 stars. Although there is still alot of potential customers that simply want a big something for nothing, there are also more true leads present than I first had estimated. Perhaps the time of year, the type of lead, or simply coincidence led me to a negative experience when first using Thumbtack. I have landed a number of jobs, collected 9 reviews, and have replaced my lead money and pulled a profit. Although Thumbtack services to the potential customer, and the service professional pays the price, time has proven to make Thumbtack.com a useful tool for "fill in" jobs between my larger contracts. If you are planning to use Thumbtack.com as advertisement, and for new job leads as a service professional, then let me give one piece of advice. Only spend on leads what you can afford to lose with no expectation of a return. Eventually a job will land and a review will be placed. Do not compromise your integrity by trying to lowball to get the job, as that process has proven to be ineffective. It just takes time for that one job to land to get the ball rolling, and many months later I am categorized by Thumbtack as the 3rd best contractor in the greater Bessemer, AL area. So if you choose to go the way of Thumbtack, or a similar lead based site, be prepared for it to take time to get established, and be familiar to it's users.

I hired a company "LATTA PAINT AND FLOOR" in the Birmingham, Alabama area for paint work in a house I had just purchased at the time. When Kristian Latta (owner) came out to my home, he sat on my sofa after painting for a few minutes. At this time, my 18 pound dog jumped up on the ottoman in front of him. He then reached his hand as far back as he could and struck her on her rear, causing her to fly from the ottoman and crash into the sofa head first. He then made a repulsive comment about what he had done that I can't post here out of concern that the review will be removed. Because of what had happened, and how unstable he clearly is, I posted my 1 star review, and waited a year later until I moved out (and he didn't have my address) to post the text on my review. I recently was randomly thinking about my awful experience over this previous weekend, and decided to look up, "LATTA PAINT AND FLOOR" on Thumbtack, and found that the text of my review had been removed. I immediately called Thumbtack on Saturday 05/16/2020, and was advised by an automated system that Thumbtack were closed on the weekends. I called them back first thing this morning, and was advised by rep Samantha that because the text was posted after the initial one star review was posted, the review team automatically comes in and removes the text from the review. It should be noted that I had also spoken to reps at Thumbtack about this incident prior to the phone call this morning, and AT NO TIME did anyone ever say I had a, "Time Limit" to post the text on a review. I then demanded to speak to a supervisor. A supervisor named Alan came onto the phone. You could tell in his voice that he didn't care one bit about the situation. At one point he said that his hands were tied, and that there was nothing he could do. He was very heartless about the whole thing. THIS COMPANY WILL DO WHATEVER THEY CAN TO KEEP MAKING MONEY. THIS EVEN INCLUDES PROTECTING ANIMAL ABUSERS WHO CALL THEMSELVES, "PROS". I would strongly recommend that you find other avenues for hiring true professionals to come into your home and perform services. Especially if you care about your loved ones. It's obvious that this company connects people with the worst of the worst of companies.

I worked for Thumbtack, right at the VERY beginning when leads were completely free, and it was absolutely wonderful! I LOVED Thumbtack and was getting hired a LOT. Then, gradually, bit by bit, Thumbtack started to change. The charges were reasonable at first, and they also had this thing whereby if the person ONLY asked for a quote from "you", you got the lead for free.

Someone has been playing around with the system BIG time. You know what they say: if it's not broken, don't try to fix it. As time went on, the categories changed, too, and I found myself being placed into categories that didn't really accurately reflect what I do. My complaints fell on completely deaf ears. I am an ordained Spiritualist Minister, with all of the rights and privileges granted to any Minister of any other recognized religion; I'm not a "fortune teller" (shudder: HATE that expression), even though Spiritualists have the belief of the ability to communicate with people who have crossed over, but I'm not a traditional, Christian, minister either!

Then, we have the public's mindset of "let me book the person who is the cheapest, and who will work for almost free". These are the exact same people after the event who are complaining that the person/entity doesn't know what they are doing!

If you check my reviews, on Thumbtack AND other sites, you will see that they show 5 stars for the most part. That's because I have integrity. No, I'm not the cheapest, but my pricing is on the low end of average for New York City.

Now, I rarely (if ever) use Thumbtack for anything, even though I won an award for "Best Of", back in 2013 I think it was :). I think it's a shame because if it continues to make everything "all about the money" it will gradually wear itself out and down, as do most people/companies who start to believe their own publicity. I mean, Angie's List is free and there are a host of other choices for workers now.

All that being said, Thumbtack gave me a start. At the time I was using Thumbtack, I was just transitioning from a full time corporate job to this work, my passion. For that I will be forever grateful. These days, I get referrals from my early Thumbtack leads and honestly, word of mouth is still King!

Gradually the pricing has gone up and the quality has gone way down. I just simply got sick and tired of quoting for things and spending my good money on leads that went absolutely nowhere. It seems to be the same story for most.

Many of the complaints about Thumbtack comes from people who hire professionals. This review is from the professional's viewpoint and it might shed some light on why there are so many unhappy customers.

While Thumbtack has great potential for helping professional service providers find new customers, after using their service for about a year and spending several hundred dollars on leads, I have decided it's just not worth it.

THE PREMISE

You want to expand your business and Thumbtack offers a "free" website and dashboard where you can set up a profile, a mini-website, etc. and show potential customers what you can do for them.

Thumbtack will send you quote requests from potential customers then you and four other pros can respond with quotes.

The potential customer can review the quotes, contact the pro or pros and ask questions about the quote and then make a decision about which pro to work with.

Sounds great, but here are the problems.

PROBLEM 1 - Poor Quality Quote Requests

While the interface is nice and they are working to improve the quoting process, about one third of the requests I have received no real useful information for professionals to actually quote on the project.

For example: After paying to respond to a request, I usually email a brief note to the potential client with a few basic questions like, "what is the size of the postcard you need designed?" or "how many do you need printed?" or "How many products will your ecommerce website have"and 90% of the time the potential client never responds, though they do open and read the quote message that I send.

It is obvious that there is no screening of the quote requests other than the form field have a check box or default response.

I can choose not to respond at all, and do choose to ignore a lot of the quotes, so I'm only losing my time spent reading through the emails.

However, because the quantity of incomplete quote requests is so high, the quote requests that are detailed get snapped up in less than a couple of minutes typically.

In some cases where I have been able to talk to potential customer, there is no written information and the customer will give different information to each pro they talk to, so the quotes the customer ends up with is all apples to oranges.

PROBLEM 2 - People Requesting A Service

I realize that many people are using Thumbtack who have never purchased services before and they just don't realize why the information is important, but one would think that Thumbtack would be capable of putting in a screening filter so that quote requests lacking any real information would be filtered out or sent back to the requestor for more information. Not so, that I can see.

If I were hiring someone to do something for me, I would want the pro to know as much as they could so they could give me a fair price.

I can only assume that some people requesting quotes are:

- Too lazy to complete the forms,
- Reading on a third grade level
- Purposely being vague so as to get more out of the pro
- Totally clueless as to what they need

What I have attempted to communicate with Thumbtack over the last 12 months or so is that their various quote request forms were to general and not adequate in terms of information needed to give an estimate, let alone an actual quote.

ABOUT THUMBTACK CUSTOMER SERVICE

While Thumbtack does have a help center where there are articles and some videos, if you have an issue or a question and you want to email them, you are limited to a Twitter response--just a few sentences,

By making it hard for professionals to give useful, detailed feedback it is clear to me they are not really interested in hearing detailed feedback or actual suggestions that could help them improve the service for both vendors and for end customers.

TOTAL DISCLOSURE

Last year, when I first started using the service I did get one response from customer service regarding an issue with quotes being sent, but with potential customers never reading or responding to the quotes. Thumbtack does have refund policy in the case where the quote recipient does not open a quote.

I did win one project for a client that totaled about $1,500. However, I have spent around $250 on credits to purchase leads and probably 30 + hours responding to quote requests and following up on quotes. My ROInot even a break even when I consider my hourly rate and time spent on quotes that went nowhere, not to mention the time spent setting up my profile (and the endless questions Thumbtack asks), mini-website and asking clients to post testimonials on Thumbtack.

HOW CAN THUMBTACK BE IMPROVED?

1) Screen all quote requests and reject or send back incomplete requests.

2) Allow a quality rating of the customer and their quotes by the pro. If I could rate each quote I see in terms of good to bad information and rate the customer in terms of whether they respond to a quote or not, this would be helpful to other pros considering working with a particular customer. Ebay has a 2-way rating system and it is easy for both the buyer and seller to see each others ratings.

3) Offer a "Window Shopping" version where uninformed customers can submit requests that are free for Thumbtack to respond to or where the customer pays a small fee to get educated. These would be for the, "I don't know what I want but I want to talk to someone first. Pros that respond to these type of requests could be given credits for purchasing quotes.

4) Require customers respond to each and every quote they get from professionals even if it's just a short note to say, "hey, your price was higher than everyone else," or "I really want to work with someone locally."

5) Offer a concierge service for professionals so pros can know that Thumbtack actually cares about pros and so Thumbtack can get better feedback on what needs to be changed. My bank and grocery store surveys me regularly.

6) Act like a real company. Publish a phone number and an address. I have both on my website and if anyone has a complaint about my company, I want to know.

7) Statistics. Thumbtack should have a ROI (return on investment) graph or analytics that shows pros what quotes get read, for how long, how much time the pro spends responding to quotes and tracks won projects.

CAN YOU MAKE MONEY WITH THUMBTACK?

Maybe. Getting a project and making a profit are two different things.

Be prepared to spend both money and time/effort. Keep a time log of all your Thumbtack activities to track your time.

If you have a low frustration level and don't mind working with a faceless company, that has no known address or phone number, and limited customer service, give it a shot.

If however, you value your time and you are looking for a real return on investment, you might want to look elsewhere.

THE THUMBTACK DASHBOARD

The dashboard Thumbtack provides is one of the best I have ever used. Its organized and it shows incoming quote requests and quotes that are in process.

The quote window is a split window with the quote request on the left and templates for replying on the right. In Safari on my iMac, the right side scroll bar doesnt work, but it works in Chrome so its a minor irritation.

After submitting a quote, you can follow up through Thumbtack to email privately with the customer as well as upload files so your conversations are captured until you are able to win the job and contact the customer directly.

In the dashboard you can select the different types of services you provide so you can receive only a few per day or many depending on how many different services you offer.

A good strategy is to save your different quotes with a different name or description so you can quickly respond to a quote request using a template, then just change the price or other details as needed.

COST OF QUOTES

Thumbtack uses a sliding scale for leads which appears to be based on the project budget, but many quote requests dont have a budget.

Quote requests for me cost between 3 and 14 credits typically, and a credit costs $1.67 but you can get a discount when buying large blocks of credits.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I am a professional graphic designer and website designer. I have worked with five or six lead providers over the past 10 years. The best I worked with was QuoteCatcher, which is not around anymore. They actually talked to each lead to confirm they were a real business and shared each lead with five vendors, but even with personal screening a few bad leads slipped through.

The cost with QuoteCatcher was $25 per lead. My closing rate was 20% but only about 50% of the leads were people ready to buy so there was some wasted time on quotes and followup only to discover the lead was actually a startup and not an established business.

However, one of the leads from QuoteCatcher turned into a regular client with significant ongoing work for about a year. This is an exception, not the norm.

Thumbtack appears to get leads from internet searches. While there is some screening by the customer who is looking for a service, the Thumbtack website is relying on what the customer enters on a form and the process cant distinguish between real businesses and people who have a real need and those who are window shopping or just trying to get information.

Many requests are from individuals with unrealistic expectations. I want a logo, business cards, a brochure designed and printed, and a 20 page website and the budget will be under $500.

My advice is to start slow and be selective about the leads you respond to. If you are getting too many leads, change your settings so you get a slower flow otherwise youll be going back and forth all day and getting your real work done.

ACTUAL QUOTE REQUEST EXAMPLE:

This is what I call an incomplete quote requesttheres just not enough information for me to quote or estimate.

Service needed
Print (e.g., cards, posters, signs, artwork), Logo / branding, Web / digital art

Type of organization
Business or nonprofit

Project scope
One-time project

Budget
Not sure yet

Additional description
(Intentionally left blank)

Printing services needed?
Yes, I would like help with printing

Printing service details
(Intentionally left blank)

When
I'm flexible

Where
Frisco, TX 75035

Travel prefs
Professionals may travel to my address
I will travel to the pro up to 25 miles
This can be done over the phone or internet

Here is an example of a more complete quote request:

Business size
Small (fewer than 10 employees)

Social media goals
Increase user engagement, Gain visibility and brand recognition, Improve search ranking, Other (Introduce two new important products - achieve max engagement and conversion for purposes of investor presentation)

Social media channels
Facebook, Linkedin, Youtube, Other (Pinterest, Instagram)

Monthly estimated marketing campaign budget
Less than $500

When
As soon as possible

Where
Francestown, NH 03043

Travel prefs
Professionals may travel to my address
I will travel to the pro
This can be done over the phone or internet

Greetings all,

Notice a common thread in these reviews? Thumbtack has managed to accumulate many great Contractors and Service Providers. On the other hand, from their perspective, Thumbtack has changed their pricing to basically screw them out of money. The scheme is described below.

There is a "No Refund" policy that extends beyond their service. Let me explain. If you buy a lead and it turns sour, no refund. Maybe it can be argued, maybe not. Fair enough, probably. But as a Service provider you are required to put money up front for potential leads that you may wish to purchase. Because you will have no idea what a lead will cost, after a lead purchase you will have money left in your account. That's the money that I am here to address. That left-over money is non-refundable! A scheme and nothing less. With this money you haven't purchased anything, you haven't received anything and yet Thumbtack will not give it back to you. This must be illegal in some way.

Now the scheme even goes deeper. There are many aspects to Construction. Many trades. Example, Electrical, Plumbing, house remodel, construction contractor, remodel contractor, flooring etc. on and on. They have managed to break down every industry into micro parts. Now for example if you have a cleaning company but you also do window cleaning. Or if you are a General contractor but you also do drywall, or flooring, etc. So here is the scheme. When you put up money for a lead that you have no idea what it is going to cost. Then you authorize purchase of the lead that is costly, $5o is common, well since you had no idea what the lead will cost until after you have put money into your account, as explained before, you have money left over, as explained before, but this money cannot be used for another category! You must put money into every category that that you wish to buy leads on! There will always be money left over in every category that you have interest in, myself over fifteen. Money they keep, they collect interest on etc.

I wish to join a class action suit against them, if anyone knows of one going on. In the meantime, the $500+ I was paying before for leads when they did business honestly, I am now banking in a savings until I save enough for retainer with a very high-end Law firm.

Angry is one word, but more like disgusted, betrayed, continually raped (they are big and cannot be stopped).

This last note is for Thumbtack, keep in mind evil will be exposed and punished in the end.

There is a "No Refund" policy that expends beyond their service. Let me explain. If you buy a lead and it turns sour, no refund. Maybe it can be argued, maybe not. Fair enough, probably. But as a Service provider you are required to put money up front for potential leads that you may wish to purchase. Because you will have no idea what a lead will cost, after a lead purchase you will have money left in your account. That's the money that I am here to address. That left over money is non-refundable! A scheme and nothing less. With this money you haven't purchased anything, you haven't received anything and yet they will not give it back to you. This must be illegal in some way.

Now the scheme even goes deeper. There are many aspects to Construction. Many trades. Example, Electrical, Plumbing, house remodel, construction contractor, remodel contractor, flooring etc.on and on. They have managed to break down every industry into micro parts. Now for example if you have a cleaning company but you also do window cleaning. Or if you are a General contractor but you also do drywall, or flooring,, etc. So here is the scheme. When you put up money for a lead that you have no idea what it is going to cost.

I love how there isn't any place to review this stupid company.

Thumbtack is a total and complete rip off to professionals. Please do not sign up to be a professional on this site. You will lose more money than you make.

Here's what's wrong with this company:

First of all when a pro signs up with thumbtack Thumbtack are told you get a refund if a customer doesn't look at your quote within 48 hours. The problem with that is the customer requests a quote from pros, the customer looks at them and never hire a professional. They never had the intention to hire a professional. Most of the customers are on Thumbtack just getting free quotes from professionals and never hire anyone. For all we know it could be someone that Thumbtack hires to sign up as a customer and look at pros quotes but never get back to them. That seems like a full proof way to get money from professionals.

Here are a couple things Thumbtack SHOULD do but won't because they are complete scammers:

1. Thumbtack should, at the very least, tell customers the professional is paying to quote them. I did a test run and signed up for Thumbtack as a customer looking for a quote and NO WHERE did it tell the me that the professional will be paying to send you a quote. (I didn't view the quotes sent me to me because I'm not that kind of person). Therefore, all of the customers that sign up with thumbtack have NO IDEA we are putting money out there. At least let them know before sending us a request so if they have some morals they can hold off on requesting a quote until they are truly ready to hire someone.

2. If the customer is actually SERIOUS and ready to hire a pro, they should put some of their money into their request. That will tell the pros that the customer is actually serious if they are willing to pay for a quote. Then, when they actually hire a pro off Thumbtack they will get their money back.

3. THUMBTACK should be the one to follow up with the customer. I'm sure Thumbtack has data that tells them which customer hired someone and which customer is leaving pros in the dust. If Thumbtack contacted the customer, pros can find out why the customer did not hire any of the pros that quoted them or maybe help them make the right decision.

4. Thumbtack should refund a pro's money even if the customer looks at the quote and never answers within 48 hours. Thumbtack should refund a pro's money if the customer hires someone other than themselves. That way the refunded money can be used for another quote in the future. It all sounds like Thumbtack doesn't actually want to help out professionals, but to take everyone's money.

Please change the unfair ways toward professionals and maybe more professionals will sign up for Thumbtack or maybe you will get less reviews like this one.

Thumbtack refused to help me, and, Thumbtack haven't proven a single thing... like even a stamped IP address to show at least it wasn't a Thumbtack employee making up fake contacts; tactics to make money I get it; Papa needs a new pairs of shoes; it doesn't mean stealing the shoes though. The double dipping, and potentially triple dipping on these "potential" customers. You consider a dropdown answer from a customer, a legitimate response?; I call it a lazy, and not serious customer! As an American citizen, I have the right to know exactly where my money is! You cannot show me behind the window?; even though it's my money behind the window? Get Outta here!

I asked one of the managers there to pretend for a second that I was auditing them, if I could have a rundown of my money. After a lengthy conversation, i was able to muster this out of them; but nothing that says at all where my money goes. Take a gander.

1. the service category,
2. Value or size of the job,
3. Length or duration it takes to complete the project,
4. Location,
5. Demand,
6. The competition in your market and
7. Customer's interest or response

Jean (Thumbtack Employee): You do have a good suggestion about the run down and this is definitely something we can look into adding in your dashboards so you can check how the cost is being charged.

Me: Netflix is $9.99 a month, nothing hidden, the most successful business in the world, they hide nothing, and it's straightforward $9.99 a month

Jean: Thanks for the honest feedback Jeff. This is noted and I'll be personally raising this to the management so we can work on your request regarding the run down. I just won't be able to provide a timetable on when this will be added to your dashboard, but I'll definitely work on it for you.

That is awesome, but where is my money lol, not to mention the 1000's of other Thumbtack Pros you threw one for. Oh wait, I did see a shiny new commercial on primetime television.

I have exhausted myself trying to respond to these postings and have no response at all on several of those and to the one's I got some feedback — Thumbtack were equally annoying. Firstly, the scope of the project is never correctly represented. The wild ass guess way of working does not apply to my line of work where a lot of the tools of my trade have to be rented based on the demands of the project. As a video production and creative agency, we cannot always staff the experts needed for the wide variety of jobs we are capable of handling. So for each job we scope out the requirement and then go about tailoring a budget that including hiring the right professionals at varying levels of skill and renting out equipment for the length of time required to complete the gig. Thumbtack posts do not provide enough information to help assess any of these parameters to be able to quote a reasonable and fair price that will be in the ballpark of what the final cost should be. Also, as the review below states, I am very suspicious that the site is engaging in fake posts just to have its subscribers spend all their coins and become desperate to buy more coins because just as you end up low, they'll send you gigs that look like a perfect match and will require you to purchase more coins, usually 10 times the value [coins required to respond] of the post you are looking to respond to.

I have had no success with this service and highly recommend saving your time, energy, and money – so you may wisely invest it in the real work on real relationship that are always the only way to get good and lasting clients through personal referrals.

Here's a review I found elsewhere that says it all:

We did not submit our company for membership. From our "profile" it is obvious that they just called our office and used the first name of the person that answered the phone.
She must have given them our email address also. We are a licensed contractor, but they do not check that out at all, so it is a bad service for the consumer. They have almost 250 Better Business complaints. From a company standpoint, here is how it works.
You pay them money upfront and get "coins" to spend. They send out a request for service to all companies in your specialty. The request just says from Mark L. In (town) to paint a 2500 sq ft house.
Up to 5 companies can pay "coins" to bid on the job. You have no idea what to really charge for the job, because you have no chance to go see it. So 5 companies have paid Thumbtack for the opportunity to bid sight unseen. The consumer is sent all the bids, and maybe or maybe not chooses one of them, even though all 5 have paid for the lead.
And best of all, if you read complaints from service providers, they say that a lot of the "leads" seem to be worded exactly the same and seem to come from Thumbtack employees.
One provider said he paid in excess of $1,300 for leads over about 3 months and got one job for $400. Both service providers and consumers should stay away from this company!

When Thumbtack was just becoming known a few years back there were approx 5 pros for every lead.
Because we hustled to be the best we received a fair share of business which made them a worthy investment at $3 per quote.
Fast forward two years and the leads have not increased yet the pro population has exploded to at last count 64 pros per lead in my area alone.

We stopped receiving even simple responses to quotes quite some time ago and found out it was because the few leads there are get inundated with quotes at lowball prices.

Thumbtack makes it's money from pros sending quotes out yet even the best qualified and lowest priced pros don't stand a chance against 63 other lowballing pros for the same lead.

TT claims Thumbtack limit quotes to 5 per lead which I know is a flat out lie because my neighbor signed up as a customer and received over 40 bids within days on a job.

Even if I hadn't known this then simply do the math. 64+ pros in an area are paying $3 per quote to compete for the same lead yet TT supposedly only picks 5 out of the 64 to allow to send quotes?
Right!
How do they choose who gets to quote or who doesn't?
The claim is absurd. This would mean 59 pros who paid for block credits aren't even being exposed to what few leads come in. No matter how you slice it the math doesn't add up.

The worst part of all of this is TT promises the moon and deliberately does not let the new pros signing up know what they are up against because then obviously nobody in his right mind would sign up.

As Thumbtack income from pros increases the pros themselves make even less because the odds get even worse with every new pro joining.

They remind me of a multi level marketing pyramid scam where you made money back when they first started but now nobody but the owners make $ as it's grown.

It's simple. A bigger Thumbtack equals more pro competition, more income from pros but a zero increase in leads.
If you are in an unusual high demand specialty type business with little competition then you can get some business from TT but otherwise you are simply throwing your time and money away just to make Thumbtack richer.

Thumbtack certified and verified this business. JNVIS roofing company's owner seems to be a very decent guy, I like him. I was ready to hire him until I looked him up on DPOR and he is not registered as a licensed contractor in Virginia or anywhere. For those of you who don't know, DPOR is the governing body of Virginia Department of Professional and Organizational Regulations. I posit the questionb to him as why he wasn't licensed and he never answered me. I double checked with DPOR and Thumbtack could not find him either. I asked him for his license and insurance several times and he never produced them. So buyers beware since Thumbtack and others are verifying him as one of the top roofers in this area, certified and verified by who? I guess Thumbtack is still just trying to make money and /or get a lawsuit against them because they recommended someone to me 4 years ago and I did not do my due diligence and he still has 4500 ( Bruce Ross DMV Roofing and his sister Brittany they're just thieves) of my money and he was listed on Thumbtack HomeAdvisor and including Google. However, I can't seem to find this company on Google either but Thumbtack says he's one of the top rated here but we do know you can buy some people to write reviews right there are legit scam artists. JNVIS doesn't have a website but he is on Facebook, that alone should give you pause, who isn't on FB? What happens if he falls off your roof or one of his workers are injured who is liable? I'll let you unpack that question while I provide you a few answers. No matter how nice a contractor is: In the State of Virginia this applies to all contractors...
Only a licensed general contractor can undertake major projects where construction permits are available... A large number of works can be done by licensed general contractors. It may include earth movement, transportation, power, supports, framing or roofing. But contractors in fact can not always work on it all. And some license only go up to $10,000 so make sure they're able to work on your project, THUMBTACK isn't for sure.
SF
Just looking out-

I am a working DJ in the Denver market, DJMatau.com. This is my story...

http://prntscr.com/lhwrqp
http://prntscr.com/lhws0n
Wow, just wow. I received the top screenshot from Thumbtack. You can clearly see in the top blue line
"Congrats, no need to quote!
Jenna O. Has already selected you from a list of pros. Reply to seal the deal."
You can clearly see a $2600 price point.
The second screen shot shows in the line messages
"We are fun! Pick us!"
When I reached out to this client it told me I was going to be charged almost $45. Fortunately, I had hit my weekly budget, but I did not know at the time.
So, I reached out to the client. I wrote up a nice intro full of congratulations regarding her engagement and thanking her for her interest. I stated that I would need a little more info before I could draw up a contract.
Her response was,
"I have never heard of a DJ that costs more than $650. Thanks but that is just way out of our budget"
I was frustrated and I wrote back.
"Thanks, I just paid $45 for the privilege for this exchange. Next time you ask for an interaction know that the DJ is being charged. "
She then wrote back I didn't ask you to contact me. You reached out to me. We went back and forth a little more, but we remained polite. She then posted a 1 star review to my page and cut and pasted snippets of our conversation creating a narrative that was not the truth.
I contacted Thumbtack and asked for the only 1 star review I have ever received in 2.5 years to be removed. I showed them the evidence of our conversation and demonstrated with facts that what this client wrote was untruthful. Thumbtack refused to remove the review because it was about how the client "feel" regardless of the truth.
The other issue is that the client didn't understand she reached out to me. The messages I received from Thumbtack would indicate that I have a person who has been looking at my page. Thumbtack are aware of the price you can see on the screenshot above. If I reply at this time it's a turn key deal. The truth is anything but that.
In the end, after spending nearly 5 hours dealing with customer service, I was forced delete my account.

We have been doing business with Thumbtack for over a year. We are a 5 star company with over 170 customer reviews. Thumbtack had sent me a email requesting that we do a back round check. I do not check my emails on a daily basis because I do work in the field but had no problem submitting a back round check. I did not find out that Thumbtack were wanting a back round check until I went into my Thumbtack account and they had deactivated my account. I called Thumbtack to ask them why and they said that we were randomly selected to do a back round check. Now mind you we have been doing business for over a year with them and had not had to submit back round check. So they explained that they had sent me a email and I had not responded so I went in while on the phone and submitted the back round form. They told me that it would stay deactivated until they received it back. Just days before this they took over $300 for leads that I can not get to. We also received a text from them saying that someone wanted to hire us but when we went in to except the booking request it wouldn't allow us because of the account being deactivated. I called Thumbtack the next day to ask about refund of my money for the leads and to see if there was anyway that they could expedite my back round check. At this time I was told that they had received mine but that they now needed my husbands ok no problem went in while on the phone and submitted it. The lady told me that she would call me back to see if they could turn account on since back rounds were submitted and about refund. I gave the lady 24 hrs to contact me back and of course with no return call I had to call them. I speak to a man named Brian he tells me that yes they have back round but that it could take up to 7-14 days for the back round to come back and that it is there policy to keep it deactivated until they come back. I asked for a refund of my money they can plainly see by going into my account that people are trying to hire me. I was told that I had to wait for back round to come back and then we could possibly talk about refund. Point being is I am a 5 star company who has been doing business with them for over a year with no back round check. I have submitted the forms (we don't have a back round) they have took my money but don't want to turn my account back on.

Have to agree with the majority of contributors here... When you sign up and look at the number of "leads" sent to you on your cellphone doesn't seem possible that one vendor can generate so much legitimate work... Anyone reasonably intelligent would doubt that there's tons of jobs coming in everyday just for the taking... because there aren't... lol. There might be a few real jobs there but the rest...

I got a lead for a wedding and at the time thought i was the only that would be responding (0 pros contacted) first mistake...

The supposed wedding... Nadine Kh^%$$... was supposed to be 5 days later... Wow... most important date in most people's lives and this one is booking a photographer in the middle of August 5 days before... the date was set in the request according... a Saturday in August...

I get a "response" later --" What is your availability? " Ok... And what is that supposed to mean? Thumbtack mean when am I available to shoot? So that they can get married according to my schedule? Or when am i available to chat? But they dont' specify that at all..."What is my availability" ----four words from someone who is supposedly getting married in less than a week... For this garbage I got charged $32... I sent a message asking to clarify..."What do you mean... availability to chat? Availability to shoot? Availability for what? No response... Waited another day asked if they're still looking - no response...
There are legit leads and there is pure garbage... Phony leads...
They tell me to keep on them... keep messaging "them". I said listen... haha... I wasn't born yesterday...
Use at your own peril and watch your pennies...

I believe that some folks might actually make some money on Ttack... depending on the area of expertise AND number of reviews... Some folks might have 70 -200 reviews... because they got on when the company was new... good... If you dont have a ton of reviews - good luck getting anything... You're just throwing your money away... Maybe after 10 years and paying a lot of fees that never pay off you might get some reviews... But during that time you'll be losing money unless you're real lucky...
Watch your back...

So I have been a customer of Thumbtack for almost three years with my home appliance repair business. Today I received an email stating my account has been suspended. That is after almost 3 years of paying $300 - $500 a month with them.
The drama started when I received a 1 star review on my profile. Mind you, I had 100 reviews of which 95% were 5 star, 4% were 4 star, and 1% were 1 star. When I received the one star review the Thumbtack market place trust and safety team contacted me by email about the review asking for any and all documentation I had about the job in question. I ignored the request as Thumbtack is a lead generation service I PAY for and not a partner in my business. Thumbtack do not have the right to ask for nor expect to see my private business records and it would be negligent of me to release them to Thumbtack in violation of my customers expectation of privacy.
That didn't seem to matter to the geniuses at Thumbtack though. After ignoring their first email they sent me a second to INSTRUCT me to comply with their demand. They stated I had 24 hours to comply or they would "reevaluate" my account. So I responded to the email. I told them that I would in no way comply with their demand and that they were way over stepping their lane as I payed them for one thing - lead generation. I told them that once they sent me a lead and I payed for it that lead became MY customer not theirs and they are not entitled to any information between me and my customer in any form.
They then sent me another email stating that I had agreed to their "terms of service" which I guess they believe trumps the law and ethical practices of business in regards to the handling of customers private transaction information. I again stated that I could not and would not comply with their demands.
Today I received an email stating that my account has been suspended until I comply with their demands. How stupid are these guys at Thumbtack? Do they think that I only have one lead generation service? Do they think that they can arbitrarily position themselves into my business as if they have a stake in my company? Do they think I require THEM to conduct my business? They seem to have forgotten who their customers are. I payed them for a lead generation service. That makes me their customer. How do they treat their customers who will not let them entangle themselves in areas they don't belong? They get rid of them. They shut off their account and hide from them. They make demands they know can't be given in to and then stamp their feet like children when confronted.
Don't use Thumbtack. I have just lost 3 years of time, money, and reviews because they think they should be able to give orders to their customers as if they are employees. I do not work for you Thumbtack, you work for me. When you remember that you might stop getting these negative reviews about your service.
I am seriously thinking about getting my lawyer to review this as this has cost me a lot of time, energy, and now reputation and loss of income. Judging by the reviews on this site I'm sure there are plenty of people ready to do a class action.

Ok i "signed up" which is the first red flag for a company. (NOT APPLYING) i was supposedly working for Thumbtack asked personal information but no social security was needed? Then after i read all of the reviews after having my doubts, I also saw the negative things. I understand if you pay them a cut to find you jobs to do. But you should not have to give up your own money every time they have a lead for you. How about pulling out a percentage of the pay? They are stealing from small businesses and hard workers? I only realized after reading reviews so I went to my email I realized that the quotes did seem fake (made up by people at the company so u will pay to bid on your job, no info about the person asking for the work request.) Looking at what time I was receiving these "job offers" on all of the emails I've received JUST IN ONE DAY. THEY SHOULD SLOW DOWN THE FAKE REQUEST BECAUSE ITS GETTING OBVIOUS.

(before reading the emails I would like to say I once worked at a gym where if someone did not pay their memberships, workers of the gym would make commission by simply getting any declined card to pay, the small charges the company gives makes commission for the employee. We would send out emails and phone calls starting at 7 am.)

These are job request emails I received only in my zipcode that you BID on to have the OPPORTUNITY for the "person requesting" to either chose or deny you for the job YOU PAY TO BID ON against"competition" (online independent contractors.)
You are not contacted if the job you pay and bid on does not follow through.

EMAILS FROM Monday (changed last name initial to protect the clients):
"Glenda V" (50% off)7:24am {of what exactly} doesn't state what is 50% off?
"Mandi C." 7:29am 5mins apart
"Jamie J" 7:44am 15 mins apart
"Alycea N." 7:56am 11 mins apart
"CJ V." 8:21am
"Kyle I". 8:42am 21mins apart
"Cynthia J." 8:47am 5mis apart
"Dorsey T " 10:06am
"Wendy K" 11:54am
"Molly O" 12:55pm 1 hour and 1min apart
"D. N. 1:22pm
"Craig N." 2:31pm 1 hour and 9 mins apart
Maria S. 4:00 pm 1 hour and 29
Dorsey 4:07 7 mins
Mark V. 4:18 11 mins
Angie I. 5:03 45 mins apart
Jaya I. 5:50 47mins apart
Wendy K. 6:55 1 hour 5 mins
Molly O. 7:56 1 hour and 1 min
Adrianna Q 8:57 1 hour and 1 min
Lilach R. 9:08 11 mins
Miranda (75% off) 9:37 15 mins

THIS MANY EVERY DAY.
Now at first i was excited and motivated!
Though there seems to be some sort of number pattern for the timing (intervals of 5,7 and 11&/or1), names seem to be getting stranger, and there is no way i can keep getting these many requests LITERALLY on a daily basis, at least not in the city i live in. Also a funny coincidence if these are fake profiles contacting me that the same amount of 1 star ratings on this website (around 300) is the same amount of 5 star ratings (around 300)

We have sent over 300 quotes, and we only obtained two DJ bookings for our troubles. It's a huge waste of money, as most people really aren't even interested in hiring.

We had perfect feedback from past customers we booked outside of Thumbtack on our profile. Someone I am quite confident is a former employee we terminated for dishonesty and unreliability has gone on a vendetta to discredit us. Thumbtack customer service does not care to protect pros from false reviews. This individual sent us a reply to our Instant Match quote.
See screenshot of the interaction here: https://imgur.com/4Izbzqt
I offered them a discount below the InstantMatch quoted amount, which didn't take into account Thumbtack selected a low-demand date. They accused me of being a liar and using bait and switch pricing tactics. I attempted to explain to this individual many ways that banquet halls have the same discount protocol of offering a lower rate for off-peak dates, and there was no bait and switch by offering a discount BELOW the initial automatic quote Thumbtack sent. They proceeded to be rude and call me names. I explained I did not wish to do business with them due to their rude behavior. I never hired them. I never collected a deposit. I never even got a valid phone number or email address from this individual. They falsely marked me as hired so they could leave me a 1 star review for their event which is not until NEXT NOVEMBER.

According to the terms of use link Thumbtack support sent me, they are in violation of more than 1 criteria. Yet Thumbtack support insists they cannot remove the review, as it describes legitimate interaction by a customer. I again reiterate they were never a customer, and we go in circles. When I requested a manager, they informed me none was available and they would reach out to me. A manager never contacted me back. I continued going back and forth with their incompetent support team.

Thumbtack will take your money as a pro but not have your back when a lead attempts to take advantage of you.

I have been with TT, (Thumbtack) Since 2013. I have over 400 new hires, and another 100 repeats from those 400. I estimate that I have spent between $5,500 and $6,300 to bid on something like 2,200 jobs.

The basic premise: I pay to bid on the job. If I win the job, it does not matter if I invoice one dollar, or one million dollars. I keep 100% of my invoice. If I pay to bid, and do not get hired, then I am usually out of luck. That bid fee might be credited to my account. But it will not be refunded.

Five years ago (2015-2016), I would have been happy to meet the CEO, shake his hand, pat him on the back, and buy him a drink at the bar. Today, were I to meet Marco Z, I might just throw a punch.

I am the Administrator of a Facebook group (unofficial and uncensored) of TT Pro's that numbers around 2,000
I communicate with a fair number of unhappy TT Pro's from many different job categories: We have in our group: Officiants, Videographers, Photographers, all sorts of trades people, Cleaners, Chefs, Piano Tuners, Welders, Bartenders, Makeup Artists, Dog Walkers, Home Inspectors, Computer Repair guys, Exterminators, Magicians, Balloon artists, Resume Writers, and so on.

Instead of improving the quality of the leads by asking the Job-Posters specific questions: TT has chosen to let the leads be very vague, and then automatically charge Pro's for the lead. Pro's who choose to opt out, and not participate in the Auto-Charge programs (the name changes every so often. First Thumbtack called it Instant Match, then they called it Promote, and now they are calling the auto-charge program Targeting)... are punished. The opt-out Pro's Profiles are displayed far less often to anyone browsing the list of Pro's. In case I was not clear: Pro's who do not participate in the Auto-Charge program are punished.

Management is: Clueless, out-of-touch, unrealistic, in terms of what we Pro's need. Roughly $400 million in Venture Capital funding (not revenue, check out the WikiPedia article) has kept TT afloat. TT employees are paid well, and have very lavish benefits, and corporate perks. But the VC funding has created this Marie Antoinette or 'Emporer Has No Clothes' mindset. A common complaint by almost all Pro's is that TT management only pretends to listen, and not really listen. Common sense suggestions are ignored all the time. The website has endless bugs. The "gifts" for being a Top Pro are actually insulting. Plastic pens, key fobs, decals. I spend thousands of dollars, and your 'thank you' gift is a plastic pen or a decal? Seriously?

We recently installed a new deck. I submitted a request for a quote through Thumbtack for deck staining and power washing. Before committing, I requested proof of business insurance. He stated he had insurance and would send a copy of the policy to me.

I noticed the insurance policy wasn't restricted down for editing. This prompted me to e-mail the agent, Jason Ayers, the insurance docs to verify proof of insurance. In the meantime, I began researching him by typing in his address listed on the policy and his name. Other businesses came up but nothing came up under the business name he was going by with Thumbtack. In addition, the quote he sent me had another business name listed as well.

I questioned him about the previous businesses and he claimed he had recently parted ways with his business partner and had started a new business on his own. When I questioned him about how long he had been in business for himself, because he looked young, he tried to put my mind at ease by scanning a copy of his driver's license through Thumbtack. Thumbtack only showed him in their system since July 2020. Big mistake on his part. I never asked for it. I told him the insurance doc was alterable, possibly the agent had forgotten to lock it down, and I was needing to verify it prior to hiring him. He stated he would have his agent call me the next morning.
In the meantime, I found this Yelp review for one of the prior businesses. The review stated the owners' employees had stolen over $10k in possessions from the home during a bathroom remodel: yelp.com/biz/mck-contrac… (MCK Contractors). I also verified the authenticity of the previous Yelp complaint with Lee's Summit police department. I spoke to Sgt. Chris Depue. I sent over the driver's license. Thumbtack stated they had investigated and the case is now closed.

I made a follow-up call to the agent because I had not heard back from him. He stated the insurance docs were forged, the owner had not had insurance with them since 2018 and had canceled insurance because the owner stated he was out of business. I told him that I wouldn't hire him because of the insurance docs being forged. He claimed his business partner had given him a copy of the policy, he had paid his business partner money for the policy, and his business partner must have taken off with the money. I suppose this could be a true story, the stories don't really line up... but there is more.

I did a search on the owner through this website with the county: jococourts.org. A name similar to his popped up. I then followed a name change that was done under civil and typed it in. Criminal charges popped up. I was able to match it to his date of birth on his driver's license.

My neighbor thought I should file a police report because of the forgery, but apparently the agent needs to do that for himself since it was his name that was forged. The police told me this when they arrived at my residence this evening. They recommended giving what I had to Olathe Chamber of Commerce and the BBB. Thumbtack is investigating, but they obviously didn't perform a criminal background check as advertised on the contractor's page.

I filed a BBB report against Thumbtack and an Attorney General's report with the state of California immediately. I filed another with with the AG of KS and also an FTC report. The business listed through Thumbtack is under Patriot Powerwashing Pros. The invoice is listed under Patriot Deck and Fence in Lee's Summit. MCK Contractors is also on Thumbtack. The owner's name in Ben McKeag.

The responses I have received so far from Thumbtack have been terrible. Their first reply to the BBB was the issue was between the contractor and myself. The problem is they clearly advertised on the contractor's page that he passed their background check. They also have a page that states their background check includes criminal. They obviously didn't check it adequately, because they should have been able to glean the same information I had at my fingertips within minutes.

When I responded back that their excuse was unacceptable, citing again the advertisement on the contractor's page, as well as their guarantee of up to $1000 if a customer is unhappy with the transaction, they told me to talk to the person who is handling my complaint with Thumbtack, a person whose name has never been provided and who has never once contacted me.

Most importantly, despite filing the complaint with Thumbtack two weeks ago, filing the BBB report, and filing the AG's report with the state of CA, and supplying them with all the pertinent information over the phone (and, through their messaging system with the contractor), they have yet to deactivate the contractor's account. A week later, it was still showing he was actively logging in (a customer can tell when a contractor was last logged in by minutes or hours). The last time I checked, it no longer shows the last time he was on the account, but it still allows me to message him. This means they have not closed his account. I have also talked to other residents in the area through Nextdoor that have suffered financial loss because of Thumbtack's negligence, but the incidents are with other contractors. Some of them have stated there have been criminal background check problems as well.

I have been with Thumbtack for a while now and I am finally giving up. Thumbtack made it worse with showing us now how much each quote cost that we are sending in and yes they claim to only charge your card if the customer responds and that is not true. They still will charge you. To be honest spending over $15 to send a quote and not guaranteed of the customer will contact you or not is very frustrating. I wish Thumbtack would be shut down at times or they change their practices. We should not be paying to send quotes and then get no response at all. Just a email when they look at it and sometimes that is wrong. They will also say someone looked at your quote and they really didn't. I have caught this at least ten times already with customers who have told me they never looked at our quote. They just did a search on Google and found us anyways without the help of Thumbtack.

I wish people would see they are scamming a nation and taking from those who want to be private contractors. They need Jesus in their lives. That's how bad this company is. They never resolve any issues so you will get screwed whether you are a customer or a pro because I needed to hire someone to do some work for us and let me tell you if you get screwed call them to get your money back then that's it. You were flat out ROBBED in your own home. It is very frightening and scary that there is a system like this to steal from innocent people who have families to support. Oh and any updates they make they never tell you in their terms and conditions. They state they are required to tell us in email but for the past two years I have never seen a email with updated changes.

People stop being cheap and use Google instead of Thumbtack. You will be screwed both pros and customers. Look at all these reviews. They are clearly true and warning America of this scam Thumbtack has run and claiming they help change lives but they really don't. If you read this then that means you should take this warning seriously. I didn't and still decided to do business with them and look where it got us. On here leaving a review about the hell we went through and how it really took a toll on my family and our finances. Robbing us constantly and providing us with false hope.

Thumbtack

Past-
1. Treated Pros great because Thumbtack needed to do so in order for us to help build their brand through credibility.
2. They had a 5 bid limit.
3. They sold us their leads for a fair and reasonable fee.
4. Top Pros were doing great by using TT to build their business at the same time as TT. We were in this together.

FAST FORWARD

Present-
1. They have had hundreds and hundreds of Pro complaints about the exact same issues for well over a year, and yet have not changed the system back. Why? Because it's working for them. If it wasn't, they would have changed it back ASAP. TT as we know, likes to make changes.
2. They tripled the bid limit for contractors. Why? Because it increases their profits per lead. It's just that simple.
3. They tripled the cost of selling their leads to Pros. Why? Because it increases their profits per lead. It's just that simple.
4. Previous TT Pros have expressed their frustration and concerns over and over, but yet no change back to the previous model. Why? Because the new model benefits TT by allowing new Pros to participate. TT has a better retention of new Pros because they are willing to pay TT $ for leads up front in order to "skip the line" in front of older Pros that used to land most of the work due to their built up profiles that TT constantly encouraged in the past.

Bottom line-

TT is an for profit business, and will therefore do that which increase their profits. Nothing wrong with that. BUT, the aggressive increase in the cost of leads, the aggressive increase in bidding limits, the aggressive promote and instant match to sell their leads to Pros has obviously had a negative effect to the long term Pros that have been around for years. We've expressed our concerns over and over, to only be responded to with scripted replies that TT cares about its Pros and wants/likes the feedback. Well, so far, it appears the feedback is being met with strong resistance. Why? Again, it's because they found a formula that is beneficial to them in terms of profits.

I honestly believe that TT profits were being held back by the old Pros. Why? Because they had great profiles and ratings which held back new Pros from landing the jobs. The new Pros would become discouraged and go elsewhere. Now, with the Promote and Instant match they can, and do, have an equal playing field if they are willing to pay triple the cost for the leads upfront. IF old Pros pause the "promote" feature, then they will still be charged for the "instant match" feature if that day is open on your calendar. I have considered filling up my calendar just to prevent being charged up front for a lead that I haven't even had the chance to evaluate. If you pause your services, and eliminate your budget you will still get leads, but they are worthless in my experience. As you stop spending money with TT, and not respond to the few leads you do get, your ratings will begin to drop along with the leads you recieve. Bottom line, it's become a pay up front lead generation service as opposed to pay once you've received the lead and can decide to pay or not pay.

If I had a large demographic of customers that were all voicing their concerns about the same issues I would be in trouble... unless I was wanting to get rid of those customers for newer, higher paying customers that were beating down my door. How do I deal with the older customers that are all singing the same tune? I respond with concern and pleasant replies while knowing they will eventually go elsewhere and my reputation/ratings won't be negatively impacted.

That's my take... Cue the Admin mods to respond that they are glad I shared my view, they are sorry for my situation, and they will pass on my concerns to management that has heard the concerns over and over again for far too long.

It's really simple... TT is aggressive with changes without notifying the Pros. Why not change the system back to what it was for 30-90 days and see what the Pro responses are? It's because the old system wasn't nearly as profitable, and the old Pros are being replaced by new blood. The new Pros will eventually realize it's not cost effective even though they are finally landing some of the jobs. Just a matter of time. TT, you pulled the rug out from under your old Pros that helped you build your business. If you woke up one day and your business expenses tripled, you'd know exactly how we feel.

Feel free to copy and past this post.

MY OFFERING
Let me be specific: I am an ACADEMIC TUTOR. Once I get engaged with a student, and it is going well, I tend to meet with that student on a weekly basis for MONTHS, even YEARS. And then I work with their younger siblings and friends. All this work for the initial "Three Dollars" when I first respond.

THUMBTACK LEADS
So, if I have to reply to 15 leads, even 30+ leads, to get a match with a student, the cost to me is wholly paid for after 3-4 sessions. The remainder -- and I mean 20-50-100 more sessions with the student -- is gravy. I will also note that the leads in my area are so prolific that I have greatly reined in the radius that I work in. From 20 miles to 5 miles; and only certain age groups. I now engage colleagues to take on certain students so that I can stay focused on the most interesting / rewarding jobs and their results.

THE COMPETITION
It helps that there are not many tutors in my area who offer what I teach, at the level that I teach it. I also offer to travel to the students' homes, which makes my service attractive. I do charge for mileage... and the parents gladly pay it. Additionally, I have good rapport with the students, and Thumbtack make significant improvements in their studies, and their parents post good reviews.

THUMBTACK ISN'T...
I also understand that Thumbtack is only a connecting service. They are not the contractors, etc. As far as my experience, they do not referee complaints about the actual services rendered. Not everyone will be happy that Thumbtack limits its engagement to, say, making sure the website works, or helping me connect with a client whose request has expired, for example. But Thumbtack has worked for me as the ONLY ON-LINE LEAD SOURCE for my tutoring business since 2013.

RECOMMENDATIONS:
At first I replied to lots of requests. Then, as I watched the details more closely, I started to filter out the jobs that might put a strain on me, my time, my resources. It was tempting to answer all the calls, but many did not respond at all (and I got a refund), and others were not a good match -- and that was a sunk cost. I looked at my price per hour, and gave myself a limit of how much I would spend on leads. It started slow, but because the work is on-going, the income has flourished -- with no additional payments to the lead-generator whatsoever. I suggest you figure out what marketable skill you have that a client would like to receive on a repeating basis, and start the motor that way.

Whatever your decision, Best of Luck!