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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.
I do not recommend using this Thumbtack service at all! Stay away from it, it is completely unreliable; Several of the companies are the same people with different names. They are unreliable, not dependable; and a complete waste of my time! The first company I hired to clean my house did not show up 4 times. I fired them after giving them so many chances, they would send a message one minute prior telling me they could not come to clean and had to keep rescheduling. Then recently I hired another company. The first day they were 6 and half hours late! You would think I would not use them again. They did not do a bad job, and believe in giving second chances. I tried again, and they were scheduled to come for the 2nd cleaning. I confirmed the date and time 4 days in advance via phone call and text. They did NOT SHOW, they apologized and offered another time, Again they simply did not call, did not message and did not come! I will never ever use THUMBTACK FOR ANY SERVICE EVER AGAIN, furthermore there is no where on the site to write a review, there is no phone number to call! They are the worst company and they have the worst company's listed, they have no screening process at all- Horrible!
Tip for consumers:
Do not use this service at all! It is the worst
Date of experience: March 16, 2017
Thumbtack, is an unscroupoluos cash cow who does not care about their professionals.
I have dealt with thumbtack for about three years on and off. Each time I went back, I thought things would be different.So every year when I deactivate my account, I no longer have access to print out my receipts. So, trying to reach someone(person) is a total NIGHTMARE! I have never been so frustrated in my life dealing with cuisomer service. My experience as if I were dealing with thumbtack so far has been unscrupulous. The last draw is when I actually called a *******769 number and to my surprise someone answered, but quickly told me that he would transfer me over to someone who could help me. Well back to the recording and the unreachable.They finaly responded with someone overseas. The young lady genuinely wanted to help me, but it was clear to me, when I got off the phone with her, I could not retrieve my information from the app. My last client with Thumbtack cost me $128, because, for some reason, since the client checked monthly, which is all they solely rely upon. Which turned out to be a mistake, because the client did not click monthly. So needless to say the job cost $150. So, I lost 100%.
Anyhow the biggest issue that I have is that thwy do not care about their contractors and professionals, people can write anything they like about us, and they erase our response, and tell us that they cannot take down the cusomer review. All I can say is unscrupulous.
Date of experience: October 16, 2023
Excellent job very detail oriented and meticulous work! Very pleased with the services will highly recommend them to everyone!
Date of experience: April 11, 2016
The site is useless if the only professional they refer you to does not reply. Better off using Google.
Date of experience: May 15, 2020
I am throughly convinced that thumbtack is a scam. I posted a review before and a rep from the company contacted me stating they 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.
Date of experience: November 6, 2015
I have been successfully growing my business via Thumbtack. I also use it to find professionals (repair, legal.etc)
Date of experience: September 16, 2015
I petitioned to have people come remove trees, another for electrical work and another for lawn and flower bed work.
Here is the culmination of what transpired...
1. First contractor was 2x the price of who I hired on the outside to do tree work. I hired my own at 1/2 the price.
2. Second contractor was to come and do an estimate. He sent a sub contractor out who rolled my lawn when I was not home and left a bill in my he mailbox. When I called the contractor I was told that he was to come out and estimate it. He wrecked my lawn to the tune of over $2k. I called thumbtack and was told that their "1 million dollar guarantee did not cover lawns." What a crock of $#*!!
The police were called, a report was filed and the two contractors are not allowed within 1000 feet of my property.
3. Contractor came out to give me an estimate to repair a fence and fix the yard work that the previous contractor $#*!ed up. This contractor asked me for 50% up front to whom I said "not gonna happen, I give you my money and you skip." I signed the contract on March 31st and it's one excuse after another and as of today it's still not completed." In the words of our president..."YOUR FIRED!"
2 police reports are now on file for scams... run away RUN FARRRRR AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY!
Date of experience: May 14, 2017
Sent a project to five "Pros" and never heard back from a single one. I won't be using this app any longer. It's a joke.
Date of experience: April 3, 2020
Hired them to do deep cleaning, I wish I could post pictures to show you how terrible they did, I barely heard the water run. Would NEVER use them or refer them to anyone.
Date of experience: July 27, 2016
Thumbtack sucks I was running a great honest low income DJ business until they suspended my account for my age although everything I handle for my age is proper and legal.
Tip for consumers:
Dont use thumbtack they suspend accounts for age and even nothing sometimes
Date of experience: July 18, 2016
The typicla Thumbtack user is looking for cheap, really cheap, por help. The "pros" are mostly wannabes who are willing to work cheap.
For tighteabs and amateurs who are looking for beer money.
Date of experience: February 22, 2018
Kelly did awesome job. She was flexible with our time changes.Her attention to detail was really impressive.
Date of experience: January 14, 2017
I would like to refer the services of Sharif Stephenson.
He is an awesome instructor, pushing us to reach our goaland very committed.
I´m impressed!
Date of experience: March 1, 2017
WASTED MONEY- don't screen job posts. I joined pro as an architect- people just wanted free advice
Thunbtack was totally unresponsive and just kept charging me. BS! DO NOT USE THUMBTACK
Date of experience: August 17, 2021
DO NOT USE! At first I wasn't going to leave a review because I thought it couldn't be that bad... it is THAT BAD. All they do is take all of your money and you probably will get like one job and that one job you get depending on how long you've been on this app probably won't make up for the money you've spent. Then they ask for you to get reviews for your profile I got honest reviews from costumers I've worked with in the past and they've deleted them... every single time! And then they put on there to add more reviews. I can't even. Point being if you like losing money COOL get on this app. If you like making money stay away! You'll end up paying them more than you make :/ side note WHY ISNT THERE A WAY TO LEAVE NO STARS! I'd feel better if I could leave no or negative stars for them #TRASH #RUN #DONOTUSE
Date of experience: December 27, 2019
We have a cleaning business and decided to use Thumbtack, but it's been the worse experience. We decided to do a search of the customer before going into their homes and boy oh boy was I glad we did. We came across a customer who has an extensive criminal history, who's known to commit robbery and we warned Thumbtack about this customer and their response was very lax and they didn't take it serious. At that moment, we knew to come off the site and use another platform. Thumbtack doesn't care about our needs, they are just focused on the high fees they charge. Note to any business who chooses to use them, DO YOUR RESEARCH ON THE CUSTOMER BEFORE ENTERING THEIR HOME! They won't do it for you. Thank God we are smart enough to do so... b/c we may not have made it out alive yesterday. THUMBTACK IS THE WORSE! RUN FAR AWAY FROM THEM!
Not only that, I requested my money back for this particular lead and they said they found nothing wrong with the lead so I wouldn't be able to get a refund. I'm telling you all... please do your research before hiring a business or taking on a customer. The fact that this guy was able to sign up and hire people is insane. Thumbtack just doesn't care. I guess they will when (god forbid) something happens to someone. Thumbtack sucks!
Date of experience: July 2, 2019
We love JaniKnights! They do excellent work, are on time, have a multitude of options. Damon and his crew are top notch!
Date of experience: February 14, 2017
Star Catering provides an opportunity for a beautiful, tasty and elegant dining experience. They are reasonable and ameniable to all requests.
Date of experience: January 2, 2017
Friendly and thorough. Cant wait for them to clean again. Would defiantly recomenned! They know how to deal with dog hair.
Date of experience: January 29, 2017
Thumbtack steals small amounts of money by sending worthless leads that they call "exact matches" even though they are anything but (a request for $150 wedding photography disguised as a request for nature photography) and by creating a system that groups vastly differently priced services together. The later resulting in you paying for worthless leads with no budget seeking your most expensive service because it's lumped in with inexpensive services in order for Thumbtack to take as much money from you as possible.
Because they only charge you small amounts of money and refuse to refund you most business owners will feel duped but not be able to do anything. These amounts are too small to spend time in small claims court for when you're busy running your business. This, in my opinion, is part of their plan to defraud and steal from as many small businesses as possible. That's just not right and I want to put an end to it.
I'm looking for others who have been defrauded by Thumbtack and who would like to initial a class action lawsuit. The goals of this would be for all of us who've been victims of Thumbtack.com to be paid back the money they stole from us and to see that they are either shut down or drastically change their business model. If you're interested please reach out to me through my website. Also please call the district attorney's office in San Francisco and report Thumbtack as thieves.
My name is Don Orkoskey, I'm the owner of WDO Photography located in Pittsburgh, PA. I signed up for Thumbtack as I assume many of you did, to increase my business and because they dominate search results. While clients I've talked to say they find thumbtack sleazy and deceptive and avoid using them being listed on their site does improve your SEO. What I found is that the amount of money they will steal from you does not make it in any way worth it.
Tip for consumers:
Don't sign up for thumbtack. If you already have turn off their lead referral and run away. If they've already stolen money from you reach out to me so we can start working on a class action lawsuit together. Their days of stealing from small businesses is going to come to an end.
Products used:
photography business listing, beware - they will send you misleading or fake leads and will NOT refund you.
Date of experience: July 17, 2022
Hi Don, thanks for taking the time to share your experience. It's important to us that we help business owners find quality leads and showcase their hard work on Thumbtack, we're sorry to hear that the platform didn't work for your business. We do offer refunds for leads that don't work out for several different reasons, you can review our full Refund Policy here: https://help.thumbtack.com/article/how-to-request-a-refund. It sounds like you might've already worked with a specialist from our support team, but if there's anything we can do to turn around your experience, please send us a direct message via social media (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter) or an email to support@thumbtack.com so that we can get in touch with you directly. We work hard to ensure the leads on Thumbtack are legitimate, if you come across a suspicious lead or you're concerned about the legitimacy of a lead, please always let us know here: https://help.thumbtack.com/report-a-concern. We want to wish you well as you move forward and hope that through implemented feedback and improvements, we can improve your experience as well.
Thumbtack is a fairly big scam for contractors, for the simple reason that "clients" aren't required to make any financial commitment in order to post, so most requests are from people who never had any serious intention of hiring in the first place. They're "playing the field."
Yes, I have gained a couple of clients. Was it worth the money? Probably not, unless they really do remain very long-term clients. Here's what happens with Thumbtack:
1. You see a request and quote on it, which costs you.
2. Nothing happens. The client views your request, so you are out the cost. But they never act on it.
3. You are contacted by a scammer who claims all the other contractors are offering half the price (why don't you just take that offer, you think to yourself). When you contact Thumbtack, they claim you don't really know it's a scam.
4. If you're in the massage business, you get lots of explicit requests for sex. Thumbtack refuses to handle this one, and doesn't allow you to report them for what they are unless to you pay Thumbtack to send a quote, then report it as a scam.
How do I know the vast majority of clients never hire? Thumbtack sends a report on how you compare to other pros each week. If I actually got hired, which is very rare, I always, without any exception, have a better hire rate than every other pro. Meaning, getting hired once is the exception, not the rule. Oddly, after I posted this review I never got another one.
If Thumbtack starts charging clients to post a request, then it might be worth the money. Until then, I'd say don't waste your money. The only real reason for using the site is their SEO - I had one client who searched for my service, and the Thumbtack site actually came up as one of the top pages. So she placed a request and is now a consistent client. But this was kind of a one-off.
Date of experience: March 25, 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 Mark, we're sorry to learn about your experience this way. We understand it can be frustrating to pay for leads that aren't interested, which is why we encourage pros to submit refund requests in these instances. Please feel free to learn more here: https://help.thumbtack.com/pros/topic-cost-and-payments-lh-pro/subtopic-refunds-lh.