Thumbtack

These folk present them selves as generating customers. I was charged $26 for one quote. The customer chose another provider. I've spend nearly$100 and I have one customer that has not paid me yet. I am doing better on Craigslist.

I spoke with customer service and all they could do was blame me. I get better value with the local paper, craigslist and word of mouth.

There are just a lot of "shoppers" who click off all the providers of service look at the quotes, Many never ask additional questions.

Mostly all of the Requests are Scams. I got into a argument with a off site client, which probably was a thumbtack employee posing as a Client. He argued my quote of 299 with a certificate of insurance in NYC for 2 men-2 hours was too much. He said he got the job done for $29. Really? This is the type of guy they let smear my company. The only jobs that are probably real are the ones it costs the most credits to bid on. Stay away from the Labor jobs, and junk removal Jobs. Anyone can smear your business if you don't let them bully you. You will be held hostage. Its ok, I will build a web site that will put thumbtack out of business.

I am a service provider. When I started using Thumbtack in December 2016 I had a 50% success rate. But shortly after that they tweaked the forms and everything went downhill. Since then it seems like 90% of the requests are fake. About 90% of the projects I have bid on were never awarded to anyone. They were either fake jobs posted by Thumbtack employees or jobs posted by tire-kickers or bots. I have put in over 50 bids in the last 2 months and have not even received a response of any kind. I think most of the projects in my field are bogus. Thumbtack is running some sort of scam. Each of those bids cost me approx. $13-14 each. They are thieves. There needs to be a class action suit. If we band together we can get our money back.

The main issue with thumbtack, is that for vendors - it's a price game. Whoever gives the lowest price, wins the bet. Thumbtack does not ask people to even prove that they are professionals, therefore puts both, the consumer and provider, at risk. I am a professional photographer and I had a potential client ask if I will match a quote from thumbtack (6 hours coverage, 2 photographers for $250), which is absolutely crazy. Then she was upset because 2 "professionals" from thumbtack shot her wedding with their PHONES. Thumbtack is not a service that helps you find professionals, it's the same thing as looking for someone to do the job on Craigslist. No licenses, no contracts, no background checks - just a price bidding war with a bunch hobbyists.

They change quote costs and methods of quoting too often (every 3-6 months). It has become so costly and unfair, I don't use it at all anymore. EVEN though I have over 50 "5-Star" reviews. It is very sad

I have used them for a number of years... worked great until earlier this year. They made a bunch of changes, and cost of acquisition has more than quadrupled. They make MAJOR Changes every 3 or 4 months and just when you have figured out how to maybe make it work, they change everything again... We have moved on from them, I would suggest finding a different lead company so that the work you put into it is not in vain. Great idea for a lead company, abysmal management.

This site is a great idea and, during the promo period, it seems like a good value for "pros" to source leads. But after a short time, they suddenly exponentially jack up the prices to send quotes. You could spend $12-15 sending a blind quote for a job that pays maybe $100, if you even get hired. Unless you get lucky or really get up to speed with the system quickly, you could easily spend more money pitching quotes, than revenue your receive from maybe getting hired.

Several years ago I used Thumbtack several times. Good results. In the last 2 years, they have gone down the toilet. Two people I tried to hire contacted me once quickly and disappeared. Did not call me back or show up at scheduled times. Waiting and repeated messages and they were gone. Like Craigslist scammer. Really screwed me up. There is no way to contact the company. If you are one of those unfortunate people who lost, broke, or don't have the ability to text on your phone, you have no options. There are no consequence to these "professionals."

This is a total rip off and scam. Skirting towards illegal. Contractors pay for any communication and most communication is just asking a question or the customer was not serious and just getting names. No proof, but it feels like many request are not real, almost made up request to get money from you. I also find that customers on this site want something done for little to no money.

I have used thumbtack twice and been so disappointed.
We hired movers from here. On the day of my move i confirmed with the mover if he is coming and he confirmed. 30 min before the schedule time also he confirmed but did not show up and switched off his phone... thumbtack does not filter scammers or verify the businesses... its an unreliable source. Do not recommend using it ever

Holy crap did this company get greedy. Been a pro for 2 years. THe quotes are now anywhere from 20 to $50. Prior to their new policy, i was paying $3.33 per quote. They tricked me by using a pre determined budget, something I set through a different service called "instant match". They used that budget for their new "pay per contact" billing method. I did not approve of this, they simply did it. Whatever you set your budget at, they will take the full amount, the charges are flagrant and arbitrary with no science to them. Apparently they simply take what your budget allows. You can also be charged for 30 days after you send a quote in the event that a customer just happens to contact you. So be very careful how many quotes you send out because at any point if somebody messages you, you will be charged. I'm told, they are working out the growing pains, in the meantime they are literally robbing people. Stay far away and deactivate your account!

I have hired many contractors off Thumbtack for small jobs and was so pleased, I searched for a bath remodel contractor through Thumbtack. A COMPLETE DISASTER! The "5 star" company was a nightmare. Had to fire them and hire legit contractors to complete the work. Lost thousands of dollars. When asked if they vetted this pro…short answer is NO. "Pros" pay Thumbtack so they really don't care who is on their site. They don't make sure they are licensed. Their "mediation service" is non existent …. Like getting your toddler to ask the contractor to give your money back. Pathetic. Don't use this service for major work. Ask a friend. Ask your neighbor. DO NOT ASK THUMBTACK.

It is like putting your money in a bag with a big hole. Be aware. At First. They send you a lot of requests. It is kind of scary and unreasonable like they generate those leads there is is no way to be real. But still I gave it a try and started spending money to get some clients. My quotes are viewed from anonymous people where I got charged. One client booked and never showed up. One called by mistake. All that I got charged... Unbelievable. I spent more than $400 in a month with people playing around. Save your money and run...

If you have no jobs at all and don't mind getting paid like less than 50 what you normally charge. Then this may work for you. It's super competitive and extremely hard to get jobs if you don't price it super low. A lot of fake and non serious lead which I can tell as well. Don't waste time with that.

It seemed like a good deal that you pay for leads rather than traditional advertising where much of money used is ignored or glazed over. But it isn't a good deal at all.

They find new ways to "find" you leads and to charge you. However you get so little business from it. The cost per lead starts to add up, especially when so few actually start to follow through. But even that doesn't mean new business or clients.

I've had a number of people mark me as hired but never even communicated with me and of course they never actually hired me. I've had others actually schedule appointments then cancel at the last minute. Like a doctor, alternative healers cannot work off of clients cancelling a scheduled appointment within just a couple of hours.

I'm now convinced Thumbtack hires people to create fake accounts to act as leads just to charge their pros and then never give those pros any actual new business at all.

Years ago this used to be a legitimate lead generating platform, but now I am convinced that 90% of the leads are fake.Potential customers used to be real leads, but not anymore. I have had so many leads that say they only picked me, yet when I contact them it's a bad number, or they never respond. However, I am charged for each of these bogus leads.
Save your money and don't waste your time on Thumbtack!

If I could rate Zero I would... Beware...!
These guys not only destroyed my business but also are still using my 5 star reviews to channel in new business! Stealing any future business I should be getting! Somebody needs to stop them and sue the $#*! out of them! I promise you! If you use them you will 100% regret it just read the reviews
Both sides Sketchy contractors now and they have $#*!ty and fake leads

I am a studio photographer who has used Thumbtack for some time now to bid on photography jobs. Thumbtack lies about screening their job postings, as numerous ones never receive job status updates, quite possibly indicating the postings are bogus.

Thumbtack charges service providers for bids on the job request listed on their website. There is no better way to explain Thumbtack's ethically-challenged operations as the refuse to refund bid credits for job cancelled, deleted by Thumbtack or completed outside of their service.

Thumbtack's customer service is extremely bad and I can not stress any more then to never use their service. Thumbtack is in existence simply to gather revenue even by not providing the service the advertise.

Service providers should avoid them at all cost.

THUMBTACK GONE BAD

1. Tripled the cost of leads. Terrible!
2. Introduced "Instant Match" that doesn't allow the Pro to see the specific details of the job, and then decide to pass or buy the lead. Not cool!
3. Now want our budget upfront. Intrusive!
4. Has terrible customer service. Horrible!
5. Only gives Pros an credit for future leads if customer doesn't respond to the Pros reply. Thieves!

Thumbtack will provide you with leads. But I even if you cannot take the job, they charge you. If you try to reach a living body by phone, expect 0 response. If you email with questions expect NO response. You'd be better off tacking you resume to telephone poles at least you know your bank account is safe. Their business model is self enrichment not customer or client support.

I started with Thumbtack as a pro dog trainer over 4 years ago. The cost of leads were about $7 per lead and refunded if there was zero response from potential lead. Here we are 4 years later, cost is now $14- 17.50 per lead! Lots of non serious leads, some shopping for a friend or even shopping for dog trainers before they acquire a dog. Many don't want to spend $$. No responses is common. You pay equal amounts for leads with zero contact info, so you are forced to use the Thumbtack platform- no phone or email. Competition sites. Bark.com per lead around $11-13 and you get a phone number and email address. Advertising and lead referral costs money, but seems throwing nearly $20 per lead is crazy! The people don't know they charge the pros... so they will even relist and keep costing pros money. Basic idea good but vast improvements could help this lead platform have better value.

They make you pay for credits per customer looking at your quote, even if the customer doesn't hire any professional from the site. This means people can simply be price shopping or even be another professional scouting rates of other professionals and this costs your money. This site never generated a dime of business for me. Then, they refused to refund my money when I did not agree with how they were doing business.

This past 2 weeks I paid about $500 to thumbtack and got only one real job out of them. All the other leads seam fake because for one reason or the other the customers ask one question, thumbtack charges and then nobody gets back to you. I have call thumbtack customer service and they don't want to give me no refunds. Im in the painting business and they charged me $50 because someone made an on-site quote request and after 2 hours they cancelled. I think they have someone write fake requests just so they can charge the pros.