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Thumbtack generates numerous accounts to send false leads (potential customers) to the "pros." With each generated account, they send one "lead" to five pros. Each pro is charged $30 or more for each "lead," which I have experienced and observed, multiple times, every day I was a member of the platform. Shameful, deceptive and unethical practices. Customer service is poor, nearly non-existent. And, don't expect any refunds...you won't get any.
Date of experience: July 14, 2023
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Thumbtack has a rating of 1.6 stars from 1,566 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers complaining about Thumbtack most frequently mention customer service, credit card, and phone number problems. Thumbtack ranks 99th among Local Reviews sites.
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Cut the grass, pulled weeds, finished with mulch all in 30 min! Did a fantastic job! Thank you Roberto Lopez from Lopez Landscaping and tree Services. *******226
Don't bother working with them! They are useless and using bots and not qualified leads that request a job and want to pay 50 bucks while some projects are minimum $500-750. No customer service total bs and you will lose loads of money on "leads" as they call them but it's just fake accounts that show some sort of activity.
Samuel Nunes did a great job repairing, restoring and creating the front stairs of my house that were originally made of cobblestone and brick when the house was built about 1914. Sam was able to repoint the cobblestone and replaced the bricks that had come loose and broken (brownstone style stairs). Samuel then created beautiful brick steps (entirely replacing the steps that had been there) that had multiple people stop by commenting on the beautiful job and how creatively it was done. I would highly recommend Samuel Nunes. The job was done in the time specified. Samuel was also able to recommend other professionals he works with for additional jobs on the property that need to be done, i. E., fence installation.
Date of experience: September 10, 2016
I had someone submit a FAKE request, with a fake phone number and had to pay for this lead! The number was fake, and the person was from another pro company and after they submitted the request they could then write a FAKE review and thumbtack clearly sees that the information they entered is all fake but yet they do not want to remove the request, review and will not refund me what i paid! They are thieves!
Date of experience: March 31, 2022
My husband and I had Firefighters For Hire finish off our basement, installing a full bathroom, a media room, an office, and a full kitchen, and they did an outstanding job. They also installed tile in our den, painted all of our interior walls on the main level and basement, installed a gorgeous backsplash in our kitchen on the main level, installed tile in our Master bedroom upstairs, and totally redid our entire master bathroom. They were professional, and made sure the job was done correctly. These folks do not take short cuts or do "Band-Aid" fixes, but if you want the job done correctly for a reasonable price, they are the best!
Date of experience: January 12, 2017
I would recommend Dan with my eyes closed, he's professional, courteous, friendly and tells u the truth. He's also very prompt and answer's all ur questions cause he has the experience. I wish I could give him 10 stars. THANKS DAN. GOD BLESS YOU.
Date of experience: May 19, 2020
I am a handyman on thumbtack, they changed there pricing structure so you are forced to take bookings at the customer request, but i believe that they trick the customers into booking so they charge you triple the cost of your past lead fees. Before if you miss a lead you can absorb the cost, now your average cost is $36 per lead, no more $9, $10 leads, they tripled the cost. Today alone they gouge me for $283 in leads, one person only booked me, yet she would not even answer the phone, nor text, nor any response, that lead cost $69, now i have to beg for my refund which takes 2-3 days, but they take 5.
Today alone i paid in fees $283 with no sales to show for it.
In the beginning it was great, the lead prices were fair, you can absorb losing leads, but not anymore, in the last two weeks they stole money, overbooked when i would get a lead for a full day, they would still book within the time frame, be it so i could have shut the service down, but sometimes your so busy with trying to help customers that you might not turn off phone. God forbid you leave it on at night, then the customers never respond but you pay for it.
I don't understand why these lead companys get so greedy, shut out the little guy and force them to work for nothing.
Leads work, its nice when a company provides them, its unfortunate when they change to force you to do a service that does not work for you in regards to the booking service.
Date of experience: January 3, 2024
Hope you never have a problem because their customer service department is essentially non existent. As a freelance business that provides a service, I enjoyed this company years back. These days they charge outrageous prices for leads and then when the customer mis-post services rjay they are looking for, Thumbtack will still take your money. They won't respond back to your issues BUT when you contact your credit card company to dispute a charge, they're real quick to say you're in the wrong and that they deserved the money… for doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! No longer using them. Beware!
Tip for consumers:
Just don’t. Save yourself the trouble
Products used:
Lead generator
Date of experience: October 24, 2022
Hi Lacy, we're sorry to hear your experience on Thumbtack changed, thank you for taking the time to share this feedback. If you have questions about our Refund Policy and which leads are eligible for refunds, check out our Help Center here: https://help.thumbtack.com/article/refund-policy. If you have additional, specific feedback to share about the types of leads you're seeing and lead cost, please email us at support@thumbtack.com so that we can get your feedback to the right teams.
I am a Pro on Thumbtack and it charge hefty price for every job lead, for example, on a wedding photography work the potential customer pay range is $700- $1000, Thumbtack charge $80, it is not a big deal if it ended up landing this job, or even if I did not land the job, at least it is a real job out there. Too often I found it is a scammer, or people who never intend to use thumbtack to find a pro, or nutty people who think they deserve and entitle everything free for them. I ended losing the money twice as much as I earned from Thumbtack, If thumbtack is not doing something substantial, I do not see it too far away for Thumbtack belly up
Products used:
Refund to Pro for your fake lead !!!
Date of experience: December 21, 2022
Do NOT use this site. As a customer or a pro, it is just horrible and filled with bugs and overpriced generalized leads. There is now way to contact direct and chat service seems to be a foreign country. Highy recommend AVOIDING this site
Date of experience: April 12, 2019
Dont waste your time, save your hard earned money dont waste your time, save your hard earned money dont waste your time, save your hard earned money dont waste your time, save your hard earned moneydont waste your time, save your hard earned money dont waste your time, save your hard earned moneydont waste your time, save your hard earned money dont waste your time, save your hard earned moneydont waste your time, save your hard earned money dont waste your time, save your hard earned money
Date of experience: February 22, 2018
I kept getting cold calls and answered. It was Thumbtack sales trying to sell me a service and I told them I am not interested as I don't subscribe to paying to use online platforms seeing as I have tons of reviews and use multiple platforms therefore I don't need to chase work. They told me I wouldn't be charged, sent a disclaimer to sign via email that I signed and I was charged 300 dollars. I was told they were giving 100 dollars to the top performers to use on the site to bid or use towards job leads. I called back and they said they'd deactivate my account and that would stop the charge. Apparently that didn't work. Now I am trying to talk to sales and they aren't helpful. They are trying to avoid refunding me. Really frustrating and aside from the sales department the company isn't o bad. I won't use their services after this ordeal.
Date of experience: December 27, 2018
They charged me $10 for 2quotes that were identical in size and the 3rd one was $28 same size job they are scamming bug time and now no telephone support huge rip off im done canceled the credit card on file and will not be using them again sorry this is crazy as hell
Date of experience: May 10, 2018
I am a pro on thumbtack
I am a pro on thumbtack, in the beginning leads were great with a 90percent close rate. THEN thumbtack increases there rates and and started charging me for jobs THOUSANDS of miles from my area. They said I had REMOTE work turned on. Which I didn't. After emailing support MANY times for refunds. Get the same Form letter response. As a pro. I'm losing faith in this site... they bill me for bogus leads then won't refund the bogus leads costs... they use to be good then got GREEDY.
Date of experience: August 11, 2020
Worst customer support ever
I am waiting for 23 minutes, no one answering no one picking up my call
What are you doing there? Just collect our money without any answers?
Date of experience: January 10, 2023
Sarah is the most unprofessional freelancer on Thumbtack. Her website is linked here:
https://sarahkooiker.com/
Sarah scheduled a telephone meeting and was a no-show. I wrote a review to express my unfavorable experience with her. Sarah called me crying hysterically and pleaded with me for a second chance by offering to help me get the project done for free in exchange for removing the terrible review. I told Sarah that I will pay her for the job.
Sarah offered to start the job next Tuesday. Unfortunately, Sarah backed out of the business deal and I lost the client. I am working hard to salvage the relationship with the client.
I believe her prior good reviews on Thumbtack aren't credible. Stay away from working with Sarah.
Tip for consumers:
Stay away from Thumbtack
Products used:
I hired another freelancer
Date of experience: May 26, 2021
Called Gary and he responded almost at once. He came to our Condo and gave me a quote. I accepted and he and his employee started pressure washing the small Patio and driveway they both look great after they finnished. I'll call when the "stay at home" is over and have him do the windows both in and out. Bob and Mary Hammar
Date of experience: April 20, 2020
I am a housekeeper and was encouraged to sign up with Thumbtack. DON'T DO IT! I got one lead out of 77 that actually responded and pinned out, even though everyone knows that some people just will not reply to your messages on these Sites Thumbtack will bill you for EVERY Lead that fits your profile even if there is no correspondence between the pro and the alleged Client. I wasted a whole monthly budget on them, safe yourself some money, don't sign up.
Date of experience: October 2, 2019
I was just charged over $235 for 3 identical leads that were scams. Similar names of a potential customers asking for an estimate for our services with the EXACT same phone number, same scope of work and add-on services, same replies thorugh the messanger on the website and the person sent the same broken English texts to our business phone asking us to follow up with someone via email.
Thumbtack refused to refund but also only gave a credit for 2 out of the 3 scam leads which is to be used on future lead fees ONLY and the 3rd scam lead was refused even a credit which was $89!
Most likely there is someone working for Thumbtack creating this scam leads to generate revenue for the company since they state they do not give refunds but only credits which is money they get to keep anyway going towards future lead fees.
Date of experience: January 6, 2023
All Thumbtack ppl care is our $$$ for the fake requests generated by their own team. Who in his right mind would send a request for a fitness session for next month at 4am in the morning. And I keep receiving 5-6 suspiciously similar requests for services every hour. They all look the same and all the customers' names on these requests are more than weird (Rotonda E. Or Baldetta S. Or Reuana M. Or Alsiano D. Etc.) 100% SCAM!
Date of experience: October 30, 2015
I have recently been extremely disappointed with Thumbtack, which I used consistently and happily for the past two years. This has been my primary means of attracting new clients to my tutoring and editing business. It has enabled me to consistently attract a full time amount of freelance work.
Very suddenly, my profile stopped showing up in search results, despite my being a top pro with a platinum status, having 23 five star reviews, and a perfect response record. I have reached out to customer service multiple times. In one week, I dropped from 860 listing views to 40.
I was told that "this just happens sometimes," and "it's part of the analytics," but that there was also nothing I could do to improve my situation aside from reaching out to potential customer's directly.
I called customer service four different times and received four different responses. I was told by two representatives that they would connect me with a supervisor which never happened. I was told that this "isn't a tech issues" while also being told that I had done everything "perfectly" on my end and that my situation - no longer showing up in search results - was very puzzling.
I used to frequently recommend Thumbtack to friends and family. I will not be recommending Thumbtack any longer. I am absolutely infuriated and will be searching for a different platform on which to advertise my business moving forward.
Date of experience: June 25, 2021
Lauren, we know this can be a frustrating situation and we apologize for any confusion that's happened along the way. We'd love to take the opportunity to chat with you further to see what we can find on our end that may help. We'd welcome you to contact us via one of our social media channels and we can dive in with you to get this figured out. We appreciate all your hard work in the past and your consistent effort to excel on Thumbtack. We hope to hear from you soon so we can get to the bottom of this.
I have a painting business in Adairsville Ga. I have been on Thumbtack for several months, HOW STUPID AM I? Your lucky to get 1 job a month. I get several request a day and respond to almost every one. The way it works is when you get a request it costs you to reply and in my line of work you need to look at the job on order to give a proper quote and when the customer views your quote you loose your money, I might have one person a month actually respond with an address or phone #. They are 3 men who own this company in San Francisco and they don't have a phone # to reach them. I wish the BBB would investigate them because I fell they are sending out fake requests or they are viewing them their self or just flat out making the requests up. I know whoever is doing this is getting rich just off myself alone. If anyone wants to call me about this, feel free to do so, *******714.
Date of experience: August 9, 2016
BalanceLife360 and Pauline Baylock have given me the confidence to manage my weight and maintain a healthy eating lifestyle. My new lifestyle and eating healthy is now who I am.
Pauline Baylock has encouraged me to become stronger both mentally and physically, providing support, advice, and motivation. Most importantly she believes in me. She challenges me to try new and the unfamiliar.
Together with BalanceLife360 and Pauline Baylock, I believe, stay strong, and become my own empowering inspiration.
Date of experience: January 4, 2016
Please don't spend any money on this. You will not receive any leads from it. You are better off investing somewhere else. PLEASE BELIEVE ME - If you look at ALL of their public pages -they have removed the reviews sections - because they are not HELPFUL.
There customer service was also a disaster - but you can always give them a try and see for yourself - I don't normally leave negative reviews- I just don't have time for that. But I think this is worth letting people know about it. I'm not sure if it is based on fake profiles, but we did not receive ONE lead from 20 quotes we sent out.
Date of experience: April 6, 2016
They way thumbtack Conduct business its Discusting. I found out today that when you get a direct lead you and 5 other company get charged for the same lead and then you book the job but you get to the customer home and you fiend out there is onther company working on the job. So how is it fair for the us pros. They give the customer the options of booking more than one company at the same time but they won't hold the customer responsible to pay for our service fee. So they met only charge us for the same lead 5 times. And when you ask for a refund they only refund you leads and not money never heard of that before.
Date of experience: March 8, 2022
Thanks for taking the time to share your experience feedback surrounding leads and refunds. We're sorry to hear Thumbtack may not have been what you expected for your business, we'd like to turn around your experience however we can. While we can't guarantee jobs, our support team is here to help you set your profile up for success, so that you can be competitive and win more jobs. Check out this page in our Help Center: https://help.thumbtack.com/pros/topic-profile-and-reviews-lh-pro and don't hesitate to reach out to us directly for additional support and resources.
Hi I'm pro with thumbtack, I work with them around 3y.It was not bad to start with them compare to Very expensive Home advisor. Now! They make some changes with leads. Before we got more chances to get some job, the send 5 leads to 1 costumer around ($20) per leads, not bed to take the job for that money. Now they send 10 to 15 leads to 1 costumer,! I'm not was even review by costumer. So Im losing more money end more. Don't have any job anymore. Im in progress to find something different.
Date of experience: December 7, 2017
Thumbtack is a technology leader building the modern home management platform. Through the Thumbtack app, people can effortlessly care for their homes — confidently knowing what to do, when to do it, and who to hire. Bringing the $500 billion home services industry online, Thumbtack empowers millions of people to fix, maintain, and improve their most valuable asset. The company’s investors include Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global Management, Javelin Venture Partners, Baillie Gifford, and Capital G, among others.
Hi Hannah, we're sorry to hear about your experience. Maintaining and protecting the integrity of the site, and customer leads, is very important to us. We'd be glad to look over the lead, review, and refund request you mentioned. Please send us a direct message on social media for direct assistance.