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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.
Customer service is virtually non-existent, prices are highly inflated, and your time and money spent with Thumbtack.com is ultimately wasted. This company lacks integrity. Just one example: If a competitor contacts you to find out what your prices are, you instantly get charged a lead fee which can be $10 or higher. Thumbtack should be rubbed off the map and banned by search engines.
Tip for consumers:
Be prepared to be charged for false leads.
Products used:
Lead service
Date of experience: April 29, 2022
The clients on this sight are price hounds, and don't want quality work, they'll keep withdrawing and re-submitting requests tile they find some unlicensed, untrained, inexperienced side gig hustler to do the job for the price of lunch at McDonald's instead of paying a real professional. I suggested to thumbtack several times to also charge the potential client credits as well to filter out the frivolous inquiries.
Date of experience: April 6, 2016
Thumbtack is a waste of money for professionals looking to get leads. Leads are well over $150, and Thumbtack has done no sort of filtering at all. Some common issues:
1.) Clients are window shopping and not serious
2.) Fake information, wrong city locations, wrong contact information
3.) Clients don't even bother responding
4.) Very bad customer service. (almost impossible to get a refund on these bad leads)
As a 1 person firm, I need to value every dollar that I spend, I do not appreciate their opaque business policies and predatory pricing towards Pros on their website. Spend your hard earned money elsewhere!
Date of experience: April 19, 2023
Been a pro for 2 years. Thumbtack is a ferocious greedy business, that will help you get going when times are good. But as the economy slows down while expenses continue to rise, your competitors get frustrated they're not getting leads and start looking at their competitors. Then your competitors send fake leads themselves thinking if they send enough, you won't be able to afford staying on thumbtack.
Thumbtack is well aware of this practice and somehow claims that by asking customers for a phone number, and not even verifying the number, the leads are DEFINITELY real, even though in reality, they're just competitors. They don't care though since they have your credit card and will charge it at their own discretion.
When times are good, thumbtack gives new pros a chance. But when times get hard, so does affording to use it for leads.
Date of experience: June 27, 2023
As a pro they charge for leads even when I block days off as unavailable. Many leads are unresponsive when quoted, and the percentage of these are massively dis proportionate to other marketing for ready to hire platforms. I personally know my competitors and they say the same thing. Very suspect to me. Dont think you will be refunded anything, you will receive a credit for yet another "lead" that in my experience does not materialize.
Should a customer use this service, be aware that every pro you chose to quote a job pays for this "lead" and more than likely charge more since you've used this service than if you spent a few minutes and called direct for comparison shopping.
Date of experience: August 11, 2020
I joined tt about a year ago with high hopes of making new business connections. What I found was about %2 return in my $ investment. This site is great for consumers. However they knowingly represent customers and ignore input from service providers. Half of thier "requests" are fake. Out of a few hundred dollars I bought in points I may have broke even. I almost never get even a call back for more info on requests. Let alone a chance to work for customers. It's a great Racket for the owners of this company to prey on honest small business owners
Date of experience: February 20, 2016
I contacted Thumbtack early Friday morning. I received 5 quotes back within 10 minutes. One of those who made contact was David Spinks, who indicated he would be available later around noon, following a previous appointment. We agreed on that time. He arrived on time, was courteous, professional, and thorough. He completed the job quickly. His quoted price was firm. I would definitely hire him again when and if he need arises.
Date of experience: July 7, 2018
Their new policy completely changed the business model as to how you as a professional get and pay for leads.
They hit my debit card four times this month for over $400.00 and out of 4 I didn't have a valid lead.
Date of experience: August 29, 2018
Met Jonathan and Lily yesterday for the first time and I was impressed with the fine, through quality of their work. Just as important is the fact that I felt extremely comfortable having them in my home. They're hard working, highly efficient and I feel so lucky to have found them - (there have been more than a few disappointments) that we're now signed up for recurring appointments and I'll be looking forward to their house cleaning visits instead of dreading them.
Date of experience: December 16, 2015
Awful company. They treat their pros who pay them thousands of dollars like dirt. What they do is they will freeze your account, cutting off your income stream at a moments notice, in order to strong arm you into breaking your policies and settle disputes you have with them. It's extortion.
Date of experience: August 13, 2021
Hi Cole, thanks for sharing this feedback with our team. We know it can be very frustrating to have your account placed on hold. When a customer concern is brought to our attention, it's important that we help both parties work out a resolution. We do contact pros a few times before placing their account on hold, and as soon as we can confirm they're working through concerns with us, we remove the hold. If you're still running into any issues with your account, please reach out to us directly or through any social media channel, so that we can take a look at your account and help.
I was looking for a handyman. I have several rentals and needed one or 2 handymen to take care of my properties. When you go in and type what you want you do get responses but I think are automatic. I think the people that go on thumbtack can't get any other work. It's obvious that they don't vet the people which would help out a great deal. I actually met up with one contractor and he seemed ok but when I called his references they said he doesn't complete his work. Also, the first time I tried to call/text him, his phone was disconnected.
I'll never use them again.
Date of experience: February 9, 2017
I cant say enough good things about this company. The cost was reasonable and the job was done swiftly as promised. They did a totally professional job, working long hours to complete my project. When finished they cleaned up after themselves and left me with a beautiful backyard. Since moving to GA 4 years ago, I have struggled to find honest, professional workers for my many projects so finding Victors Landscapes and Tree Service has been an absolute blessing. Could not be happier with the job they have done and look forward to our next project!
Date of experience: February 2, 2017
They were amazing! I needed emergency assistance with my roof being replaced they came in with an awesome price did the work very quickly and ensured all was cleaned up! Excellent company I highly recommend them!
Date of experience: June 6, 2016
Asked for quotes on carpet installation. Talked to 3 vendors. Decided on local guy who shall remain nameless. All seemed great till communication stopped, was very detailed about what I wanted in Thumbtack request and when he came to house and he told me no problem and he had all these connections he had for great carpet pricing, etc. we even discussed future work I wanted done! Then had trouble getting return calls, a contract, then no calls returned at all! Been 6 weeks since last contact and in meantime I went with someone not on Thumbtack and walls are painted, carpet is done and I'm happy as hell it turned out this way. HE will get more work in spring from me and family members! You get what you pay for and not every responding vendor is NOT who he seems to be. No offense to the honest ones!
Date of experience: August 18, 2015
Thumbtack went from a fairly straight forward and economical system for small businesses to find business leads to one where they pretty much pick your pocket. They used to tell you up front what a bid cost, and if someone looked at your bid, you were charged.
Now, they only charge you if the person making the bid contacts you, but they don't tell you how much they are charging you until AFTER they person sends you an email. I had two bids this week (the last two I will ever do!) and it cost me nearly $40.00 for people who were essentially just kicking the tires.
I'm not sure why this company got so greedy, because they are doing neither their service providers nor their customers a service by operating this way.
I worked with Thumbtack since 2010, having provided services to nearly 300 customers and receiving 130+ Positive reviews. This new system, no way I'll bid on jobs, and I can't imagine anyone else falling for the scam more than a few times, either.
Date of experience: April 18, 2018
Google there reviews, 1 star is very accurate. They steal your money daily. Do not send clients all the information. Get clients to ask you basic questions about services already send and listed just to charge you $50+ dollars per day. SAD
Date of experience: October 8, 2018
Basically they rob every pro that gives them money. When they deliver a bad lead their response is "oh you paid for it already sorry"
I did notice they sold out to a bunch of investment groups. What's that mean? Well it means they don't care about anything BUT MONEY. And honestly it all started making sense. Their customers are not the pro's. They use the general public to rack up all of the fake calls, shopping calls, sometimes the people have no idea how you got there number: thumbtack is garbage and I can't wait to see them fall
Date of experience: June 2, 2023
This company is a complete scam based out of India so you can't file a lawsuit even if you wanted to. They send out fake leads costing small businesses hundreds weekly from bots that never even read your response or respond themselves.
Date of experience: January 27, 2022
Hi Kevin, we're sorry to hear you didn't have a good experience. Thumbtack is based in the United States, and it's important to us that pros receive quality leads and interested customers. If you ever have concerns about the legitimacy of a lead, please report them to us here: https://help.thumbtack.com/report-a-concern so that we can look further into it. Please reach out to us directly if there's anything we can do to help.
I am a small business owner, and I have no issue paying for leads, however I was being $20 + per lead for customers that were in California and other places, I am based in Tennessee. I literally never recieved a single reply from any customers, after spending $50 on 2 direct leads and countless opportunities where I reached out to customers. I think this might work for handyman or someone doing some kind of side hustle, without a legit "business". But as a business owner, your money is better spent boosting ads on google/socials/etc.
Tip for consumers:
do not waste your money.
Products used:
Paid for " leads" that never lead anywhere , didnt recieve a single reply.
Date of experience: April 12, 2023
I did not use thumbtack to find our new permanent tree contractor Top Notch Tree Experts. But I surly will be using your site to find any services I'll ever need in the future. Brian and his crew amazingly removed 19 of the. Largest oaks and maples in our area all the trees were inaccessible by bucket trucks it didn't hinder how.he approached the removals and I've never seen anyone so confident in the air in my life. Great job Top Notch Tree Experts and you have one check of a pro on your site thumbtack. New customer from today forward
Date of experience: September 4, 2016
This company is a joke. They make money off of businesses by providing a website in which consumers, some possibly serious but most not and just window shopping, can request quotes from a business for the type of service they need. Here's where the problem come in. The business have to purchase tokens in order to submit a request with the average for each token being $1.37 each and the average quote costing 5 tokens for consumers you are likely never to hear from. My company who has over 60 5 star ratings on two different websites quoted a price less than 2/3 less than my cities average prices and received no response. Apparently, I am not the only one concerned about if the quoted submitted are fake. If this company would require both consumer and business pay to submit it would be more beneficial for both parties to show their level of commitment.
Date of experience: November 30, 2015
I've used Thumbtack for almost 5 years. It helped me build my business I. The beginning, I won't lie. Now, however, I am charged up to $47 for each lead, even if the lead never follows up or is requesting a ridiculously low price. In addition, I agree with the hundreds, if not thousands, of people regarding fake leads. I've gotten random messages from leads that are WORD FOR WORD identical to each other, and of course, after the first message silence from the other end of these "leads".
Thumbtack is making me broke with all this crap. There needs to be an internal investigation in my honest opinion.
Date of experience: September 6, 2018
I'm a contractor that now uses there service for leads, I started to use them to generate jobs in between my bigger projects. Now they keep me so busy I have to hire on 2 more full-time employees! Thank you thumbtack!
Date of experience: May 5, 2015
Thumbtack was great then started changing everything and went down hill quickly they charge you for quotes I haven't been contacted by customers and they keep charging me they are a rip offs just like all the other companys like this
Date of experience: March 6, 2018
I contacted pastor Bob Thurman via thumb tack over 2 weeks ago, to perform a quick, simple wedding ceremony at our home in Burlington NC. I told him we wanted to get married at 0700 hrs, a sunrise wedding. This gentleman was at our home at 10 til 7:00, ready to go, and it was 13 degrees! Lol! He brought 2 wedding vow types, which really impressed us both. He drove approx 1 1/2 hrs one way to perform our service! We very highly recommend Bob to anyone else that might need his services!
Date of experience: February 15, 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.
We're sorry to hear you feel that way about your experience on Thumbtack. We will pass along your feedback about lead pricing to our team. We want to wish you the best of luck as you move forward.