ThumbtackReviews 1,568

As a Top Pro for the last three years, I had many good clients with Thumbtack. Now TT has a quoting system that does not allow you to see what they are charging for the contact. I was billed $18 for a $150 dollar job! God forbid if someone ask a question like "What's next?"... boom! You get billed. I have had so many dead end leads and I have paid a ton of money for people who were fraudulent, just shopping or flakes. The words "I am being scammed" kept popping into my head as I responded to some of these queries. Many would ask one question and I would never hear from them again. But I got billed anyway by TT. Whatever Thumbtack was, they are no longer. Their reputation has gone down the toilet with this new "algorithm" that supposedly calculates prices. It is no longer a good deal for the pros and the TT management is not fixing it anytime soon. Quoter BEWARE!

I am one of the top pro on Thumbtack as heating and cooling specialist. I was not happy with their charges ( Contractors being charged extremely high each time they send a quote to a customer for any work) but I was kinda managing it and was able to establish good customer service and a review record. They made changes to charges and suppose to be better but oh my God! What a rubbery... They charged me 75$ for sending a quote to customer even though not certain that the customer is legend and customer never went beyond just sending me a text.( yes I have been charged 75$ because customer send me a message saying "he will call".)
I stopped sending quotes to customers pause all that hard work good service due charges extremely high. That also means contractors will increase their charges because Thumbtack charges more than they should.

I have told TT many times to allow homeowners the option to pay $1 to connect with a contractor. Contractors could then have the OPTION to only see the homeowners that have paid. It would screen out the unserious. Until then I am not buying more leads to nowhere.

Stop placing all the burden on the contractor to prove their worth and ask homeowners to prove their worth as well.

Until then the product is no good. I tried TT first in 2016 and found that most homeowners were unserious or had wild expectations of cost (quote: Sorry I'm looking for someone to remodel my kitchen for $500). I thought I might give it a go again in 2018 only to find that they now sell leads completely in the blind. In other words the contractor not only has no idea of the quality of the product before they buy, they now don't know what it costs. Crazy.

I wanted to warn you about a terrible experience I had with Thumbtack. Ive used them before and found a great moving company that moved us across the country. Therefore, when we were wanting a custom bookshelf made for our living room, I was excited because I thought I found a great carpenter on their site. He had almost perfect, verified reviews. He came to our house, created a prototype for our bookshelf, and we were excited to hear we would have a bookshelf made in 4 weeks. We signed a contract where we paid 70% upfront. After paying the carpenter, he stopped responding to our calls/texts/emails. We were really worried because we had paid close to $5000 and didnt know what was going on. We spoke to Thumbtack, and they told us not to worry and that 9/10 times they were able to resolve things. Thumbtack had his credit card on file and tried charging him for the full amount but could only get half of it cleared. They mailed us a check for around $2400. At this point, we heard back from the contractor and he apologized saying he had health issues. We went to his shop and saw the wood he had purchased. He assured us that it would take two weeks or so to finish it up. Afterwards we didnt hear from him again for a couple weeks and then we got a text from him saying he that he cant finish the project because his health is too bad and he would repay us the balance. After trying to get a hold of him again, we heard nothing. In the meantime, the contractor posted pictures on social media of him making a table with the wood that we presumed he purchased to make our shelves. We ceased contacting him further because he was tweeting messages that were satanic and made us feel uncomfortable. Furthermore, we saw online that he has a criminal background. We contacted Thumbtack again for their assistance, and after our case was escalated to a manager, they advised there was nothing else they could do to help. They said that its now between us and the contractor and they have no additional responsibility to us. When I asked Thumbtack does background checks, they say they ALLOW the vendor to complete one. This experience has been ridiculous and we feel beyond disappointed. We are out $2400 because we trusted Thumbtack to vet their vendors. Instead, they put a criminal on their platform and refused to take responsibility. STAY AWAY FROM THUMBTACK so you dont find yourself in a similar situation!

Today i joined a long list of longtime, high performing, legitimate, insured contractors to leave Thumbtack after multiple years. They have become a scam company... Not only have the increased bid pricing each year by almost 100%, in the last two years they have doubled the amount of contractors that can bid on a job. Therefore, to stay on as a Pro with Thumbtack, I have to pay much more for much less. Thumbtack you really disappoint me, it was once so good. Now only the dumbest and most desperate of people will bid on jobs... and thats really bad for the consumer.

I was charged $75 for quoting a $150 bid on a project with a $200 budget. They don't pre-screen these requests very well and the charge for the quote is not published anywhere, so you don't know the cost until they charge you. I was also charged $36 for a "thank you for your quote" response. Pre-screening templates need to be fixed. Not allow bogus requests. Require requestor to put up a deposit. Refund pro's contact fee if project is cancelled altogether.

Thumbtack went from a fairly straight forward and economical system for small businesses to find business leads to one where they pretty much pick your pocket. They used to tell you up front what a bid cost, and if someone looked at your bid, you were charged.

Now, they only charge you if the person making the bid contacts you, but they don't tell you how much they are charging you until AFTER they person sends you an email. I had two bids this week (the last two I will ever do!) and it cost me nearly $40.00 for people who were essentially just kicking the tires.

I'm not sure why this company got so greedy, because they are doing neither their service providers nor their customers a service by operating this way.

I worked with Thumbtack since 2010, having provided services to nearly 300 customers and receiving 130+ Positive reviews. This new system, no way I'll bid on jobs, and I can't imagine anyone else falling for the scam more than a few times, either.

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, they 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.

Their new system... charge the customers crazy amount to leads that someone responds to. This is not confirmed business just someone that responds to your lead... I see a photographer got charged $45. I got charges almost ten dollars and almost 18 dollars for two pet sitting leads... one asked me if I charged $25 for a week or pet sitting or per time... obviously not a serious lead...$25 a week of pet sitting... that one cost me almost $18. I don't know who thought up this system, but I am going to my credit card to fight the charges and quitting working with Thumbtack. This is bizarre practices... good way to lose customers...

Thumbtack will "introduce you to professionals to do your work"! Yes, they will ~
PROFESSIONAL THEIVES!
My sister referred me to a man & wife who she hired through Thumbtack to clean her house. I was always home with Angie & Jim Hammons when they came to clean but after a few months I left them for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, they stole EVERY piece of my family's inheritance throughout the house - EXPENSIVE IRREPLACEABLE ITEMS ~ so many precious pieces with extreme sentimental value - ALL MY HEIRLOOMS not to mention expensive cosmetic products that were brand new (Lancome, Profession hair products), a fit bit, and everything else they could get hold of. I'm just sick over this. Of course, Thumbtack won't take responsibility for the liability since I didn't get them directly through them. The local authorities will.

I've since done my homework that I should've done before hiring these grand larceny thieves but took for granted they were at least decent people with no criminal records. Nope! Angie Hammons spent 2 years in jail for stolen credit card and identity theft. Got out of jail & immediately hired on with Thumbtack!

Who would've thought an organization as large and well-known would not even check criminal backgrounds on the people they let in. Who would've thought Thumbtack who has a 1,000,000,000 liability wouldn't even do a background check on their own people? Would you assume the people you hire throughThumbtack were at least good, decent people?

Think again.

I've invested in leads but the sad part is that a customer can receive up to 5 pro quotes and at the end if they just decide to communicate you that they are not interested this alone will cost you the amount Thumbtack charged for the lead. They ask for up to 18 dollars for a wedding lead and you can be out of that money by the client just saying no thanks. Most times you do not get a word and just lose your money. I'm fed up and will disconnect my account for ever.

I've been a Thumbtack Pro for years. Every change they have ever made ends up costing Pros more money and is less friendly for Pros. Every time I've told them so. I've never gotten any response and they continue to make changes in the opposite direction of Pro's suggestions. If you use them do so with EXTREME CAUTION. Only choose the customers you are sure are likely to be real customers and the most likely to hire you. You will be charged it is not cheap and almost a shot in dark if you will get hired. If you have plenty of money to spend need a tax expense use them. I doubt Thumbtack reads any of these reviews or they would make more positive Pro changes back to the Pro friendly format they used to be. They are a greedy Billion Dollar privately held company.