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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 have been with Thumbtack for a while now and I am finally giving up. They 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.
Date of experience: October 27, 2017
Chris is very repectful and honest on jobs he did for us... could not of asked for a better person to work with. Hope and best wishes john
Date of experience: August 6, 2015
I've been with Thumbtack since 2011. I helped build this company.
They helped me build my business. I am the Kansas City Dog Whisperer. I
Have been a Thumbtack Pro for several years. I have been hired nearly
200 times. That is over now. At one time it worked well for me. Buy 2
Credits... make a bid. If I got the job great. If not, no great loss. It
Was worth $2.37 to get my name in front of someone. Not any more. Now
It may cost me $100 or more to get one $300 job. That won't work. The
Requests began drying up right around March or April 2018. I made
Adjustments and tried to continue but it ain't working for me anymore.
They are more interested in ripping off pros now than helping them build
And maintain a business. I would never recommend them to a small
Startup now. I refuse to pay for contacts for 'looky loos' that are just
Shopping and wasting my time and money. I'm
Keeping my profile up but I have added a paragraph asking potential
Clients to contact me directly and stating I will no longer respond to
Requests for bids if they contact me through Thumbtack as Thumbtack will
Charge me whether I'm hired or not and that I can no longer afford
Their fees. Basically Thumbtack has tanked my business to a large
Extent. Luckily I have built a great reputation and have over 130
Verified 5-star reviews online and no negative ones. So my run with
Thumbtack is over. Thumbtack... you have some filthy money grubbing
Scumbags running your company now! I wish I could tell you what I really
Think of you! Thanks for nothing.
UPDATE! After reading more reviews of Thumbtack I now think they have stolen several hundred dollars from me by posing as potential clients so they could solicit a response from me and charge my credit card. The only way to prevent this theft was to delete my Thumbtack profile permanently.
Date of experience: October 14, 2018
When I first started using Thumbtack 2 years ago I did well having twenty 5 star reviews, tons of testimonial videos/pics, faster response time, longest in business etc.
The service more than paid for itself and I recommended them to every business owner I knew.
As the amount of pros has dramatically increased the lead base has not. Even though my stats out shined the competition in all depts. The lead response came to a complete halt over a year ago.
Thumbtack keeps saying lower the price even more which I did and still no response. If everyone has to drop prices to a ridiculous level to compete than it's better to go with Groupon at no up front cost.
The problem is the core structure of the company itself. It makes it's money only from the pros. There are 56 pros in my area doing what I do now and only a one lead average per day. Do the math.
Thumbtack benefits every time a pro sends a $3 quote. Of course they want more pros to sign up. Each potential client gets to benefit from a myriad of rock bottom prices but the pros who actually support the company have an even lower likelihood of getting a legit lead with every new pro who signs up.
I came to realize the problem is not prices but a lack of leads for the amount of ever increasing pros. In other words the more money Thumbtack makes the less money the paying pro makes. Their success guarantees your failure.
A once legit service has become a scam. Imagine paying for a dating site that has 50 men for every woman. The men don't know signing on that there is only one woman. What's worse is the men pay for the service while the woman pays nothing. In my book this qualifies as a scam.
Date of experience: September 25, 2017
Bad experiences always with Thumbtack contractors
More than $3000 for 3 rooms in tiny condo! Would not have minded if they did a good job (Painting by Don, Traverse City, MI
Date of experience: June 17, 2022
I had to replace my garage door and controls, a master garage doors send a this guy, I'm very happy with he's job.
Date of experience: May 3, 2016
Biggest scam I've ever met they are rip offs they delete your account after it take your money and don't tell you why
Date of experience: January 13, 2018
Melissa does really nice color and styles. She has a great personality and you will love what she can do with your hair.
Date of experience: March 3, 2017
THEY ARE THE WORST LEAD PROVIDER. THEY CHARGE TO MUCH PER LEAD AND YOU HARDLY GET REAL JOBS. FOR CUSTOMERS,THE ONLY PROS ARE START UP COMPANIES THAT ARENT VERY PROFESSIONAL OR EXPERIENCED
Date of experience: June 5, 2023
I'm a contractor with impeccable reviews and Thumbtack single-handedly ruined my business. Now I'm suing them.
Date of experience: September 5, 2023
For pros, if thumbtack has your C. C. on file, watch out for unauthorized charges.
Their leads are crap and it is a waste of time and money.
Date of experience: May 3, 2020
I think reading by Jessica was great and she is a wonderful person with a good spirit thank you so mush I owe all my happiness to you
Date of experience: October 4, 2014
After over a year as a Thumbtack Pro I had 46 customers and was still at 5 stars because I take pride in my work... I had 3 customers in one month that left me bad reviews, they all had striking similarities: the customers tried to renegotiate my hourly mid project, when unable to lower my rate, they all rushed the job, they all were from Iran or India and they all later left me bad reviews, and these were all honest similarities... the last customer got frustrated and claimed water damage from a baseboard install 2.5 weeks earlier... she filed a claim with thumbtack with zero evidence of water damage and then left me a bad review threatened to sue me... nobody called me on thumbtack... but they deactivated my account... later I spoke with Ashley in some marketplace integrity department, she treated me as a number... not a person, she admitted to me as we talked that she had zero evidence of water damage... she and I reviewed the entire text chain showing my professionalism from start to finish. But my account was still deactivated because I was "unprofessional" and would not work with the customer even though I had nothing to work with, she offered nobody any proof of any damage, so how am I to rectify this?... later Ashley said I was a racist because I used the words India and Iran... so if I had 3 customers from Kansas who left me a bad review under other similar conditions, would I be racist against people from Kansas?... so as of now I cannot reach anyone at thumbtack to re open my account and I have several paid for quotes I am trying to follow up on... while my account is deactivated for no real tangible reason other than I used two adjectives that someone did not like... and after 300 hours in the field, with perfect customer responses, and after paying over $400 for all the quotes to get any business I find I am banished as a low life I am thumbtack's customer here and I needed help. Nobody called me, but one customer with a fake damage claim got me booted from Thumbtack...
Date of experience: April 12, 2017
First off the ghost request everyone talks about here is true. I spent over $400 a month with them had 60 5 star reviews in there site and had a 4.9 rating out of 5 which is the top pro status. Out of no where they cancelled my profile and refused to tell me why. They said it was against their policy and this came after I point out that they allow blatant lies on their pros profiles and after I pointed this out, my account was deactivated. My experience with support is laughable at best. There is no human contact numbers only text messages. No refunds on bids even if customer cancels job or never hires anyone. The cost is applied to the pros by a customer opening a quote... no contact has to be made only that the customer opens the quote and that's $6.68 out of your pocket. Now if 5 people which is usual bid on the request that's $33.40 they make per quote even if none of you get hired. The say they are only a introductory site and that happens when customer opens the quote. They REQUIRE YOUR DEBIT/CREDITCARD NUMBER AND DEDUCT EVERY TRANSACTION AND YOU HAVE NO PAPER TRAIL FOR WHO OR WHAT THE MONEY WAS REMOVED FOR CONCERNING THE CUSTOMERS NAME YOU QUOTED ON WHICH LEAVES THEM OPEN TO CHARGING YOU FOR QUOTES THAT NO P. O. Or memo was used to verify. Only charge charge charge... RACKET AT BEST
Tip for consumers:
Read and trust me I have included pictures for verification.
Date of experience: December 26, 2017
I first used Thumbtack several years ago. At that time, to send a quote to a customer you had to purchase credits, typically cost anywhere from 3-7 credits (which were around $1.67 each) to quote jobs in my industry (cleaning). Each quote was sent to the customer's provided email address & I (the pro) would get an email notifying me when they viewed the quote. I got many customers & pretty much was able to grow my business using this site.
I didn't useThumbtack for a long time until recently. I sent 32 quotes in the last month. NOT ONE response from potential customers. So I wanted to see what was going on. Long story short... I'm quite sure none of those 32 people ever even knew I sent them a quote. You see, the only time the customer gets anything from Thumbtack in their email is if it's from "pros they've reached out to." People will normally reach out to the companies that are featured at the very top of the List of Pros. Because really, who is going to scroll through pages & pages of companies? No one. The way you get your company listed at the top? PAY THEM.
I challenge you to make another profile, use a different email address & make a request. Then quote the job like you normally would. (Make sure you don't click on your company's "reach out to this company") After you've sent the quote like you always do, try to find that quote. As if you're just a regular customer who wants to find a professional, find the quote. Spoiler alert, it's at least 5 clicks & you have to know exactly what you're looking for. The average user is not going to have a clue.
Thumbtack makes it PURPOSELY difficult for any customer to even realize they've been quoted on these jobs. The way to get the customer to know you is to "promote" your business, ie PAY them money to get to the top of the list so they will email the customer directly on your behalf. And if you don't? The customer NEVER sees your quote.
SCREW Thumbtack.
Date of experience: June 6, 2019
I am a Realtor at and Elevated Realty did our Photo Shoot and Virtual Tour pf Our Personal Home. They Did a Great Job and Their Drone Work is Fantastic!
Date of experience: June 28, 2020
I will never use Thumbtack for anything ever again and I hope none of its current users have to go through what we did. I assumed that Thumbtack. Com only posted reputable contractors so I hired one ( TnJ Home Improvements -JACOB L. DOSHER) that had glowing references posted by Thumbtack to do some miscellaneous home jobs. I later found out that not only was the supposed "contractor" not reputable, he did not have a contractors license and he also had a criminal record. When I complained to the Thumbtack Customer Service Department, they actually protected the Company rather than myself and refused to release his address to me after he completely abandoned the job at our home. We currently have filed a case against this company with Magistrates court, LLR Board of Residential Contractors and and are in the process of filing a fraud case. This company was complete fraud and the owner was a conn man. I don't wish this experience on anyone. If Thumbtack had any accountability in checking the contractors that they post, this entire scenario could have been prevented. I have also since found out that JACOB L DOSHER has been all over South Carolina & North Carolina with his scams. Currently he is around the gulf coast of Florida area, near St Petersburg. I hope this information will help someone else.
Date of experience: March 9, 2016
I hired Valerie and Jerry from Tender Deep Cleaning Service to clean my apartment a couple of days ago. I am glad to say that they did a wonderful job cleaning my medium sized apartment! First off, my carpet was horrendous before they came to clean it. I knew that it was filthy before I even moved into the place however, I didn't know it doesn't look so bad until I saw how fresh/new it looked after they cleaned it. I don't know what they did but honestly they worked a miracle on my grey carpet. I was finally able to see that my carpet actually has a nice shade to it. It's just been dirty this whole time. I also had bedbugs in my master bedroom, however after they steamed the carpet in there I have not had one single bedbug bite. The second area they cleaned was my bathroom and I wanted special emphasis placed on the tile in my tub and the floor due to the mold and mildew on both areas. After they finished doing whatever it is they do, my tub tile no longer had that mildew in the cracks. Also I found out that my tub tile is actually a pretty pink color and not a rusty red. Also, the floor no longer looked muddy and the whole bathroom smelled way better than when I first moved into my apartment. They also cleaned the walls above my tub area which had some kind of green fungus on them and that disappeared as well after they were done. I really just want to compliment them on the quality of their work and the kindness they exhibit in their attitudes. I live in a poor area and no one else would come clean for me, however Mrs. Valerie and her husband were willing to come clean my apartment and I thank them very much! Thank you again and when I can afford their service again I will be hiring them to come clean.
Date of experience: October 3, 2015
I'm constantly getting asked to submit a quote but I never get a solid lead. Waist of my time and credits to respond to these fake requests.
Date of experience: September 10, 2015
It is a big time waster. I am really mad at how badly they are set up. As a pro it sends you a lot of requests that are not relevant
Date of experience: September 14, 2018
I joined Thumbtack as a contractor in the early stages and they actually did a good job at first. I spent thousands of dollars on quotes and made my money back the first year. I then noticed the second year there was a dramatic drop on results and quickly discovered a ton of fake job requests coming up. I can't help but to think these were generated by Thumbtack because they continued to happen over and over again.
I would call and get the credits I spent refunded but what about all of the people that didn't realize that a large amount of the requests were fake? I also noticed an increase in the number of people that would request service and then look at the quote and never respond (by looking at the quote that qualified it as a good request and you were billed). Why would somebody interested in having work done never reply back to the contractors? I actually called, when they had support you could call into, and the Thumbtack customer support people would tell me that these people requesting a quote didn't respond to anybody, hmm.
Needless to say I stopped while I was ahead, luckily I had a good run while they were legit.
I feel bad for the contractors that get into it now, odds are against them making money from it.
Note, I did very well with reviews that first year and made money from it, all of my reviews were 5 star reviews and things were good at first.
I think most of the reviews I see on sitejabber that are good are from consumers and not contractors, seems like the contractor reviews are mostly bad.
You would think that Thumbtack would make it so contractors and consumers are happy with the website, that is why I think that they are actually allowing this to happen on purpose because that is how they make money or they are actually doing it to make money.
Sad, this could have been a really good setup for everybody.
If you are a contractor stay away from Thumbtack or you will get stuck.
Date of experience: March 22, 2017
Thumbtack will charge your quotes from unverified customers. Save your time and money from using Thumbtack.
Date of experience: June 8, 2021
Lon, we're sad to hear that you feel this way. Our team is always working to verify requests as they come in to be sure we're providing you with quality leads. While we may not be able to guarantee that you'll win every lead, we can help you to see a great return on your investment. Please feel free to reach out to us over one of our social media channels if you ever have a question about a lead and we'll be happy to look into it with you. We wish you all the best and hope to hear from you in the future.
He did a great job! He was here on 9-7-18. I would highly recommend him. Besides he's a very nice gentleman, with great people skills. Too!
Date of experience: September 7, 2018
I have never been treated so poorly as a contractor in 20 yrs of my work! I had a 5 star profile with 12 reviews total! Thumbtack also explained that I'd have their top support staff helping me along the way to better assist me! I had a nonnegative comments! All were 5 star but 3 of them were 4, all were very good reviews and this is from my heart! I put my heart in my business and my work! It show's! I had a nasty homeowner rip me off and gave me a 1 star and said things thst i would never do in a million yrs and if I did, I'd have a history of it! But I don't have a history of it and thumbtack thought it would professional to allow this review to stay on my profile while it was a flat out lie and even makes thumbtack look bad! But, their support team is uneducated in marketing and customer relations! They said it will show my professionalism to allow me to show how I handle the situation! But this is nothing anybody wants, is a person lying and staying these horrific things and to just treat me like I'm some sign at run down gas station with graffiti on it! This is not professional support! They can't even explain in detail how they make their decision because I believe the support staff is ran by the owner and he is nothing close to professional, whom ever this person or people may be! I got hired every 3 out of 5 jobs and this is the review I have for them! This is very telling for anybody who cares about their reputation! Thumbtack will try to destroy it! They also sold me $50 pack of leads worth $300 but they were old leads and I'm not the only contractor with this type of story about thumbtack! I gave their support team criticism and got kicked off site! So this tells me they can't deal with being treated the same way, they treat others! Pathetic!
Tip for consumers:
Thumbtack sold me a package $300 of leads for $50 good deal? Wrong! They were old leads they wanted to use up! They waist time money and reputation!
Products used:
Project leads
Date of experience: April 23, 2022
We're sorry to hear about your experience on Thumbtack. We have a strict Content and Review Policy that you can review here: https://help.thumbtack.com/article/content-and-review-policy. It's important to us that we maintain and protect the integrity of the platform, that's why we don't edit or alter consumer's reviews. If a review violates the policy we shared above, it will be reviewed and removed by our team. Your customers have the opportunity to edit their review once, if the experience has changed or you two have worked together to sort out any miscommunications or less than great experiences. We appreciate you sharing feedback about this policy and your experience. If you have outstanding questions about your account status, please reach out to us directly so that we may look further into this for you.
After several years of being a contractor listed on thumbtack. This is my opinion!
Their pricing schedule is all screwed up! They charge 4 credits or roughly 10.00 for a sub premium lead. By that i mean you pay 10.00 for a lead that does not include any contact info for the potential customer... No email, no phone number. Just a name and a genral area. Also the cost of the lead is not in anyway equal to the amount you could hope to make on the job. For example they charge 4 credits(approx 10.00) for a lead ( installing a tv on wall with no inwall wire concealment) that at best is going to pay 55 to 79.00 but then the charge 2 credits for a lead (complete electrical rewire) that has the potential to pay thousands of dollars.
I will also add that i get replies to only about 1 in ten leads purchased.
At one time thumbtack was a usefull tool in your tool box. That no longer is true. There price increase is designed to get the most out of the most popular services. Instead of being designed to get the most out of the most costly services.
If i could give advice to those in charge at thumbtack... It would be... to take some time a actually make some phone calls to your contractors and ask ( personaly) what they think about " cost of lead vs price quoted". I think they would be surprized.
To sum it up... Thumbtack is trying to get premium lead prices for refferal leads (leads where you pay. And they pass on your info). It is for that reason than i have greatly reduced the number of leads i bid on.
If i could give advice to contractors thinking about using thumbtack. It would be. Don't waste your money.
Date of experience: July 6, 2016
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 Angus, please report your concerns here: https://help.thumbtack.com/report-a-concern. Our Trust and Safety Team will review your report and follow up with you directly within 2-3 business days, to help you receive a resolution.