Thumbtack

Their high reviews of contractors are deceptive. Most consist of people without the skills they claim to have overcharging for their services. I've tried a few and experienced damages as a result. One gentlemen installing a toilet upstairs in my house forgot to turn off the water outside and flooded my upstairs, causing water damage to my downstairs bedroom that I had to pay multiple companies to fix. That's just one example. Use at YOUR own risk! Other examples are when I hired someone to powerwash my driveway and sidewalks and he took the paint completely off my porch, didn't accomplish anything with his power washing and got mad and left when I complained! Another one is hiring someone to clean a vacant home and they show up and break my built-in microwave... I do check for insurance but these folks definitely are good at wiggling out of whatever they don't want to handle by ghosting you afterward whether they should do something or not. It's always risky to use this service because there's no way to separate the good from the bad contractors due to lots of fake reviews everywhere!

Had my kitchen back slash and floors tiled in renovation by Bruce Bissette@ http :// tack bz/2q31t. Beautiful job, efficient and fast. Top quality work.

We've used Thumbtack since about 2015. We only agreed to pay for leads we actually answered to. All of a sudden starting 2019 they automatically signed us up for some sort of a program for Tile Installation and charged close to $700 without our permission or acknowledgement. And we DON'T even do Tile Installation. By the time we've noticed these sneaky upcharges here and there its been over 3 months. When we called customer service, they ADDMITED it was their wrong doing but only reimbursed us for less then half the charges dating only 30 days back NOT what they actually STOLE from us. FRAUD, DISHONEST, SCAM is the only words we can use to describe this company! BE AWARE!

We paid over $2000 for a 6ft fence and paid additional for lattice to match a previously put up portion of fence. During some light wind the lattice all fell apart and when asked to come out and stand by their 3 year warranty the owner cussed at both my husband and I and refused to come out. These are her words below.
AS I STATED HE WAS NOT INJURED BUT HE DID GET BIT REGARDLESS ITS THE PRINCIPLE! YOU MAY KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THAT PRINCIPLES
NO ONES CRYING IM SICK OF $#*!ING TALKING TO A BRICK WALL.
THE FENCE WAS PUT UP CORRECTLY
Right Harassing cause I can keep playing along but don't think you want that so it's better you stop while your ahead what the $#*! the point in talking about something that I said NO too.

I have used thumbtack as a pro for two different home improvement companies i manage.

I have a good reputation and get plenty of jobs on other jobs websites but thumbtack is run by people who dont know how to generate leads. In fact they suck at it. Much of their revenue is made from reselling leads. No joke. Thumbtack buys a lead on facebook, then presents that lead on their news feed showing that the lead has contacted multiple contractors, often 3 or 4 at once which seems hard to believe. Multiple contractors will pay just to have a conversation with that one lead and try to win their business. I suspect many of the leads are fake, as I have offered them insanely cheap rates and not even got responses.

They allow you to take down your profile and remove it from the internet which is fair and why I respect Thumbtack.

It seems these days tech companies have low morals. What happened to the moral high ground we used to walk in the 80s and 90s. Nowhere to be seen these days as tech companies are blindly data driven and practice "get away with whatever you can" at all times.

That said, I will continue to use their service while hoping they fire the employee in charge of buying facebook ads and get a new guy or gal who can generate more leads for contractors and stop re-selling leads as their main stream of revenue.

If I could give it this review a negative star I would. This is one of the worst third parties I have ever worked with. Not only is this expensive but it's not supportive. I've spent 200 to 400 dollars on leads but haven't been hired. When ever I finally get a bite they won't either commit or pay. I've been ghosted several times and over worked with very little pay. I even had a client completely deny payment cause their supervisor wanted to change the whole design. I had spent 1 month working on a 16 by 10 ft mural.it was completed realistically. When my clients refuse payment I completely broke down. They cheated me 2000 dollars. The past month I had another client lie about what area she wanted painted she underp- me.

Now I have to take another client to court due to breach of contract and false claims. I was told to refund her money and to finish the work which was finished. My client wants free corrections even though she signed a contract stating that any changes would be charged

To all my new freelancers who uses this platform please be mindful. There are way more third parties that offer better support and cost efficient

Here's a list

Bark
Upwork
Fiver
Hirellio
Dribble
Freelancer
Instagram

I am a licensed contractor. And I was with TT for over a year. I have had many customers tell me their horror stories about other contractors recommended by TT who were not licensed and did a horrible job. I submitted suggestions after suggestions recommending they clean up their list of non licensed contractors with no results. One week I decided to take a vacation. I put our account on hold for a week. When I got back TT turned off our account and told us it was due to not getting our back ground checked. We have been with TT over a year and did or back ground check when we first signed up, not to mentin I am a California licensed contractor already back ground checked by the state and Feds. I did the back ground check again and they still have my account closed. Try to reach them by phone and they got rid of the numbers to talk with them. You can only send in emails. What a joke. A year of paying their high fees and this is were you end up. Lots of children who think they are god. Thank goodness there are other companies out there.

I have my own company and my consultants on Thumbtack as Pros
One thing I have learned Thumbtack DOES NOT PROTECT THE PROS
In a few short months this is what happened to us on Thumbtack
1.6 Bad Checks
2. One person wanted to print checks
3.2 men tried to get us in a wire fraud in the amount of $150,000.00
Which we are working with the FBI on that one

Thumbtack protect the clients but does nothing to protect the Pros after they background check me, my girls and my company
Why dont they conduct this on their clients?

I have been on their site for years, with a grit your teeth success rate. Now, I get a "client" who has never done business with us give us a 1 star review because we hadn't got his bid done yet. Thumbtack not only allowed it, but WILL NOT PICK UP THE PHONE AND THERE IS NO EMAIL COMMUNICATION AND THE ONSITE MESSAGES GOES NOWHERE. This should be criminal. Absolutely criminal. Save yourself the grief and stay away. Plus, a 2 star average? Another red flag. Thumbtack is a scam. I am suing the "client" who wasn't for defamation and I am adding Thumbtack for letting it happen. I know, good luck, but I will waste their time like they wasted mine.

I used to work with Thumbtack frequently until I discovered there was a lot of fraudulent request from pretend customers. The problem is Thumbtack has no way to determine at this point if a customer is real or fake so as business owners we keep the site going because we pay and in turn we often pay for fake customers. Thumbtack also changes everything all of the time on its business owners and doesnt notify us outright but their very sneaky so you will keep spending your money. Their latest thing is allowing fifteen businesses to bid on one customer. They used to only let five on any given bid. One week I spent $200.00 on bidding and while I would usually get at least four customers out of this I got None. I kept callling them to see what was going on with their system. It was only after I discovered by seeing something about being eight out of fifteen. I was livid! There a greedy company. Then on top of that on my recent bidding which i dont really do but out. The eight bids I did five cancelled their project supposedly. Do you think Thumbtack gave me my money back. No, they keep your money even when the project you bid on has been cancelled by the customer which is wrong.

Did you know that Thumbtack refuses to help someone who has had a fake account opened under their email address? I have been trying to get help through phone (spoiler - you can't call them even though the site give you a phone number, since you call and it makes you contact them by text or not at all, AND THEN THEY DON'T TEXT YOU BACK), chat (must have an account to log into, which you can't if someone opened a fake one under your email), or messaging (same problem). When you finally find a support email they don't publicize, and someone from support emails you back, they tell you to fix this problem BY LOGGING ONTO AN ACCOUNT THAT ISN'T YOURS ON AN APP YOU DON'T HAVE, to deactivate someone else's account that they opened using your email address. Nice job helping scammers and harassers, Thumbtack!

Decided to use Thumbtack to help find a licensed contractor to complete my home project. I trusted the site to put me in contact with reputable contractors. The site list a guarantee for up to 1 million so I felt more at ease going through their network. The pro I hired from them came out and did a terrible job. He did not follow his guides on anything. The type of wood, the paint, the pattern, or even the height. We gave him the proper instructions and he followed none. He also used material that cracked and warped and didn't even finish an entire portion of the project. After we asked him to correct he left and never came back or returned our calls. We went to the BBB and found out he isn't even licensed. So we reached out to thumbtack because they guarantee the individual is properly licensed and they told us sorry but this has nothing to do with us and good luck trying to get your money back on your own. Now we have to pay to to have the fence taken down and then rebuilt again costing us double after we already paid the thumbtack general contractor. So if you are thinking of using this website DO NOT. They do not run checks, they do not guarantee their referrals, and they do not care about you as a customer.

The leads they get are not quality leads but mostly tire kickers. There is no process to ensure the lead quality. Then they tell you it can take up to 10 quotes before you get hired. What a joke.

I needed junk removed from my backyard. I found Levi on thumbtack. He responded and followed up with me immediately. He was quick, efficient, and on time. Thanks for all hard work Levi!

We Had the pleasure to work with the owner, the ways and means on how to make our leaky roof look beautiful, and last another 30+ years. Fair pricing without all the hassle.

If you like to flush money down the toilet, I challenge you to join Thumbtack and they will help you do just that. After spending over $2,000.00 of my hard earned money, they charged me for every cheap windown shopper fake $#*! clients they could forge and even when I set my account not to accept project over 5 hours (since their fee was just killing me), they charged me under their perfect match policy. When I set my calendar as unavailable for days I had other engagements, guest what, they still charged me.

So if you like to pay for things your don't need, Thumbtack will gladly help you. If you need to talk to someone, not a chat line to be blown off or email, you will find yourself spinning in circle in their so elegantly designed $#*!ed up answering system that keeps repeating itself just to frustrate you and waste your time. I challenge you to give their customer care a call to see how much they don't care.

Lastly, remember even though you are a pro with 5 star ratings from your customers, you mean nothing to them and they will just turn to the next newbie photographer and scam, charge, repeat.

Antonio
Phoenix, Arizona

Please think about starting with Thumbtack. When I spoke with Sales, they advised me that leads are only for you, that the customer chooses you for a direct lead quote. What they don't tell you is that it's not only directed to you but however many more pros they want a quote from. This is not a direct lead then, it's a shared lead. They charge a high lead cost to all pros that are quoting, and clients don't reply on messages or calls. At this time, they charge all pro's that charge for lead, whether client replies or not. They did refund some leads after I complained but they also denied refund for the same reasons that they provided me a refund. Their accountant team has no idea of how refunds work as I preloaded $200.00 and only won 1 lead which cost me $40.00 but was charge and refunded and should have had money for leads from my pre-loaded amount, but they decided to charge my credit card anyway. I am disputing the charges with plenty of evidence. To me this is a scam to all professionals telling them one thing and doing something opposite. Don't sign up!

Trustpilot reviews
Categories
My Reviews
My Settings
Help
LOG OUT
Alternate Text
Kaylee Stefl
US
For companies
Your review counts!
You reviewed Thumbtack
Kaylee Stefl
Kaylee Stefl
1 review
1 star: Bad
Just now
Horrible app/site
Horrible app/site. Told I need 3 reviews to get listed, got 4 and still wasnt listed on any of my 3 services even with years of experience, detailed profile, pics and reviews but yet there were people listed with no reviews and unfinished profiles. Was told if i get more reviews and respond quickly I will rank higher. I got the reviews I was told to get and i cant respond when I dont get messages because im not listed! Waste of my time and effort! Glad I wasnt charged anything. I think it's a rip off to be charged to get sent a lead when that person might not even respond to you at all and how many other people are getting sent the same lead

ABSOLUTELY SCAM OF A COMPANY! DO NOT USE THEM. THEY WILL CHARGE YOUR CREDIT CARDS INDISCRIMINATELY AT ANY AMOUNT THEY WANT. SEND OUT FAKE LEADS TO MAX OUT YOUR BUDGET AND TERMINATE YOUR ACCOUNT IF YOU DISPUTE A CHARGE REGARDLESS OF HOW MANY CLIENTS YOU ALREADY PAID FOR! I ALREADY SENT OUT A REPORT THE THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF CA. AND THE BBB AND I SUGGEST EVERYONE DO
THE SAME. TERRIBLE TERRIBLE COMPANY. STAY AWAY FROM THEM.

Kathryn was not only very personable, a pleasure to work with, she is an incredible visually talented designer.We worked as a team which she preferred and re-designed and re-purposed my courtyard located on the side of my house. Kathryn always consulted and made suggestions to me before making any changes. She moved outdoor table and chairs in to a much more functioning area of the courtyard and painted all of the furniture, which was rusting, a pretty off white. She place a small decorative column as as a center piece for the rounded patio table and placed a small potted plant on to it. Then she surrounded the column with vibrant, colorful candles in little tin painted bucket-like holders. She re-organized placement of potted plants and put them in both better visual and a more flowing pathway to walk through. Along the wooden fence she hung a warm white string of lighting which added a relaxing mode. She also re-purposed some cement, mosaic tiles I had made a long time ago and had laying around, and she created a stepping stone path leading up to the front gate of the courtyard. She actually found numerous art pieces that were not being used for anything. Kathryn managed to clean them all up and displayed them my hanging them in various spaces of the surrounding wooden fence. She also found random white shells, cleaned them up and made a really pretty group display with those too. More hanging plants were added along with some tactful solar lighting and we have a very comfortable added space to spend time at our home now, thanks to Kathryn.

So when a Customer just views your quote you just paid for and they end up hiring outside of thumbtack you still lose your credits/money, WHICH THEY JUST RAISED PRICES ON! So your telling me that if 5 contractors bid a job at 18 credits per person and 1 credit cost $2 that you guys just made $36 per contractor equaling $180 off a job that NO ONE GOT? How is this good businesss? And you never saw the customer heard anything from them just a stupid eyeball icon saying they viewed you thanks for the money

Im customer and i have bad experiance with Pro. Finding thru thumbtack to do service for HVAC and Plumbing in my home. 90% from pro. Through thumbtack they are not certified doesnt have bond to protect the customer and doesnt have license register in CSLB to allow them to pefrom speciality of work. However im as customer i will never ever work with pro. Found through thumbtack abd will not recommend any one to do so. If any damage happend by subcontractor or professional to my home or your home thumbtack and pro. Wont be responsible for repair bacause they dont have bond to protect customer

Thumbtack made a ton of money last year, they are riding "the wave" and have artificially made it bigger. That wave will shortly crash in the next year. They are sending estimates to 15 people, the prices have gone up, and up and up. If you want to respond to a review you will see it but it will NOT SHOW UP. Just clear your internet's memory search your company on google, open your business on thumbtack and see for yourself. I listed only a few of the moves they have made. So why would thumbtack a company that was growing so strong be killing it's self? Well I think when the wave crashes and they killed it making $$$ they may switch to Homeguide - they are the same people, and they started that company not long ago. By the time they make the switch, they will have made millions $$$. Remember this is the same company that deleted all the reviews companies had a while back. Basically making the business start from scratch. By doing that it opened the playing field to other businesses making more money for thumbtack.