
Thumbtack Reviews
- We require contact information to ensure our reviewers are real.
- Our moderators read all reviews to verify quality and helpfulness.
- We use intelligent software that helps us maintain the integrity of reviews.
About Thumbtack
Thumbtack is a platform that connects you with a variety of home care professionals, including for home projects, lawn and landscaping, massages, dog training and a variety of other services. Thumbtack helps you compare options, read reviews and see pricing. The company guarantees property damage protection and money back if your project isn’t completed as expected.
Thumbtack Reviews
Filter by Rating
- (71)
- (9)
- (11)
- (49)
- (1,184)
Popular Mentions
- 4,880,395 reviews on ConsumerAffairs are verified.
- We require contact information to ensure our reviewers are real.
- We use intelligent software that helps us maintain the integrity of reviews.
- Our moderators read all reviews to verify quality and helpfulness.
Top reviews
- Top reviews
- Recent
- Oldest
- Most helpful
A link has directed you to this review. Its location on this page may change next time you visit.
- 4,880,395 reviews on ConsumerAffairs are verified.
- We require contact information to ensure our reviewers are real.
- We use intelligent software that helps us maintain the integrity of reviews.
- Our moderators read all reviews to verify quality and helpfulness.
Reviewed July 20, 2019
If a so called customer responds even "no thank you" you're charged as a lead! They will never refused you anything. Been Thumbtack for 6 months and results are really bad. You get cheap customers that don't want to pay for quality work (if any customers at all). I keep getting charged for dead leads and in a month I may get 2 real customers after sending out about 50 quotes and as I said, I keep getting charged for dead leads. Stay away from these crooks by all means!!
Reviewed July 18, 2019
This website does not check background or if these company people advertising has proper license to work on home. I contacting Eaj Welding to do some railing on my home. Look up this company and called Maryland Home Commission. This business is not license and bonded and nothing. This not a a legit business. They emailed me and told me they check and take the proper steps who they allow to post. This definitely nowhere near close to Angie's List who definitely take the proper steps. Stay away from Thumbtack and Eaj Welding. They use felony workers.
Reviewed July 17, 2019
I recently purchased a house and contacted a painter through Thumbtack to paint the exterior of my house. This was my first experience with Thumbtack and most likely my last. Unfortunately, the person who painted the house did not complete the job and has refused to communicate with me about the problem. I reached out to Thumbtack, especially the Marketplace Support and Safety Team - to try and resolve this dispute. They basically wasted my time for a few weeks and then ended it by basically saying, "We weren’t there so we can’t resolve it." Disappointed with the lack of support and protection they provide for the client and I’m assuming the contractors as well. Very disappointed with Thumbtack and will go back to using word of mouth for any future contractors.
Reviewed July 15, 2019
I started using Thumbtack about 3 months ago and within 2 days had a very good lead that led to a good job. Since then, no customers except very small jobs have contacted me directly. All have been under the "jobs" tab, and supposedly all have contacted other pros! In 3 months I've only been hired 4 times but have paid over 550.00 for leads, they charge anywhere between 35.00 and 75.00 per lead, and to them, even if a customer tells you, "Thanks but no thanks," that's a lead! Any customer that even says thank you for submitting a quote, you get charged for!!!
They say the charges are based on the size of the job. But as I said, the first lead led to a great job of over 3,000 and I was charged 36.00. Just the other day there was a job for small amount of work, I quoted 350.00 and was charged 60.00, so where's the rhyme or reason? Plus, when you text Thumbtack to let them know a customer cancelled job or was just fishing prices, they do nothing. I switched my debit card for a different card last week and tried to pay a 36.00 balance with Thumbtack, got a message there was a problem. Called my bank, they said Thumbtack was trying to submit for payment on a blank amount so card wouldn't of worked.
When I retexted Thumbtack I was informed by a very sarcastic and rude CS agent that unless I provide the receptor codes (???) then nothing could be done. What the heck are these codes and how is it my job to do theirs??? Anyway, it finally was fixed after 4 days of my account being inactive and no customers seeing my company.. When you have a balance there are bunches of exact match jobs. When you have no balance you might see 1 or two a week. It's such a scam!!!
Reviewed July 12, 2019
I have listed my profession as a dog trainer. It keeps changing it to a dog walker. Can't seem to hold/save the changes. Also can't get my service area put in correctly. It keeps widening it out. No Tech support.
Reviewed July 12, 2019
This service used to be amazing. It helped me to initially build my business providing many leads per week. They would present a limited number of professionals so as to not overwhelm the customer and provide more of an opportunity for service providers to bid on a lead if it looked good. If you had a "deadbeat" lead that never communicated with you they were great about refunding the fee. Now they changed everything. Not only have fees increased by almost 150%, you now have all of these additional hoops you have to jump through to market yourself; turning on "boosting". Worst of all, they arbitrarily show EVERY provider at the same time not ranked in any particular order which, anyone who knows anything about SEO will tell you is ridiculous.
The most egregious violation is that they have potential leads inquire with CANNED RESPONSES. So now what happens is, a customer spams 10-15 service providers and thumbtack charges EACH provider for the same lead even if the customer NEVER CHOOSES ONE. So they make a massive amount off each lead irregardless of whether the service providers land a job. They used to get paid once you chose to bid. Now you are automatically billed and the quality of leads has gone down the drain. Everyone just window shops at the service providers expense.
If you go on their forums everyone is super mad at them and have voiced massive disappointment with the new system. They completely ignore it and respond with corporate speak or redirect you to generic tutorials on improving your profile. This for profiles that are maxed out on their own "good profile" measurement tool. Sad to see this happen, but it seems like it's par for the course with the corruption and censorship we are seeing from silicon valley these days. Sad.
Reviewed July 11, 2019
I’m a small business owner, and have been with Thumbtack since December 2018. Their charges are ridiculous. They charge far too much per lead. They do not provide you leads within your criteria. I’m always getting leads 100 plus miles away. They are very scandalous as I’ve had several messages in my inbox from leads I paid for. I went from seven messages to three messages. And they cannot explain why!!!! They have given me a lead for free stating I was a good customer of theirs and then charge me $26. After that when I contacted them they would not refund me the money. They have very very very poor business ethics. They are very sneaky and you have to watch every dollar if you decide to work with Thumbtack! Keep in mind every customer that contacts a pro each and everyone of those pros are charge from Thumbtack. Thumbtack is making billions. I’m very very shocked this company is still in business.
Reviewed July 11, 2019
This company doesn't even have a phone line for a simple support. Registered with them several years ago to find out that the service is designed for idiots that would pay for something that will most likely never work. You have to buy their leads regardless you will be hired or not!!! My card was charged 4 times for leads that I never accepted. Did not even use their services for a long time! Be aware!!!
Reviewed July 9, 2019
I am a general contractor and set up an account years ago. I was content with the service then. I would get emails and reply to the person that needed work done, I was charged a fair price. Then things changed. The customers started contacting me through Thumbtack and I was getting charged 60.00 every time without my knowledge. After 2 charges I had to call and spend a lot of time on the phone and the only resolution was that they would only give me a credit back on my credit card for one of the charges, and they did.
I tried to cancel that part of the service but 2 weeks later I was charge another 60.00 so I called the same day of the charge to get a refund. They said they will reverse the charges, one week later no credit on my credit card. Called again. They said they don't give cash refunds. They would only credit my account and not my credit card. So the long story short they charged 180.00 without my consent and only gave me a refund for 60.00. Very poor customer service for the construction industry. They charge unnecessarily and don't give refunds. I had to cancel my account. Beware! They don't deserve any stars.
Reviewed July 9, 2019
I was at one point one of their highest rated. But started figuring out they're sending unlicensed people to jobs they claim are licensed. They RIP off contractors and lie to homeowners while making millions.

Reviewed July 2, 2019
Very bad company. Priority is get your credit card and tatatatatatat. They say too many things but the truth is get your money. Excuses every time. They supposed to collect my money if the customer reply but they collect the money anyway.
Reviewed June 29, 2019
I have been e-mailing back and forth with Maribel's House Maid service for a couple of weeks now. Our appointment was for 3:00, it is 4:40 and no one has shown up. It is a big disappointment as I was trying to help my daughter and son-in-law in the midst of some health crisis and she is there now trying to clean. I would NOT recommend Maribel's. Thumbtack site was easy to use and I would use this site again, maybe.
Reviewed June 29, 2019
I was so fortunate to be referred to Sosa’s Landscaping in San Mateo, CA. They are beyond fabulous — responsive, professional, knowledgeable and of the highest quality of work. I highly recommend Sosa’s and Thumbtack for implementing the original connection.
Reviewed June 21, 2019
I signed up as a small business, and was automatically set up to be charged for leads. Thumbtack chose the leads and automatically matched them, according to their criteria. Then, they charged me, as much as $30PER LEAD! The icing on the cake is that all the leads were 30 miles or more outside of our service area. Plus, the budget I set up for weekly payments was completely ignored. I have been a business owner for 10 plus years, and highly discourage any other businesses to use this service. The company is not accredited for a reason. It is dishonest and unfair, and small businesses will do better advertising on their own.
Reviewed June 20, 2019
My experience with Thumbtack has for the most part been negative. Save the individual I hired to repair my split-rail fence, every other "pro" I hired has either been incompetent or a rip-off. I contracted an individual to restain and reseal the exterior of my home. In order to get the job, he lowballed the project by using an inferior product as well as putting only one thin coat of stain on the home. Within three years, I was having to do the project again as well as repairing some of the wood that apparently the painter had missed and had rotted. When I began experiencing problems with the work he had "not" done, I tried calling him only to find that his number was no longer in service. I also hired another individual to hang some window shades for me. He advertised that he charged just $50 an hour. He was here for an hour and a half and then had the nerve to hand me a bill for $123 claiming he had been here for two and a quarter hours.
I argued with him and showed him the exact time I had written down that he had arrived and the time he completed the work. I ended up paying him for two hours just to get him out of my house, but I would have been far better off hiring Lowe's to do the job because he did not install the shades properly. Lowe's would have come out free and taken the proper measurements before installing the shades. My advice to you is to find out who has been in business like forever and who has gotten nothing short of stellar reviews before hiring anybody that these people recommend. It doesn't stop there either. I have had others come out to give me quotes on other jobs and had the nerve to park their trucks on my lawn putting deep ruts in the grass. I even hired some people who did tree work for me who damaged my lawn and threw debris onto my neighbors' property. Do not go through Thumbtack. They are nothing short of a crapshoot.
Reviewed June 17, 2019
I have work with Thumbtack for several years and they have gotten worse with prices. You get charge 7-30 a quote and if a customer pick 5 people at 25 dollars 1 cleaner only get pick and Thumbtack get 125 and 4 of us are out of 25 dollars. I have been doing g quote and would spend 70 dollars and not get one job. They are getting rich off of us. And the last problem I have is I said let me try them again after not being on for a month or two. I paid yet another bill for 68.00 with no job from that either when I get an email that they deactivated my account saying I am Affiliated with another account which was my ex boyfriend and I telling them I have nothing to do with that account and they want activate my account back until he paid his balance. I just so done with this company. They are bad news.
Reviewed June 17, 2019
Thumbtack actually allows fake reviews for pros and allows reviews by fake reviewers to be posted. Avoid using this app. You will be scammed. Unprofessional. Rude, unethical some of the words to this describe this service.
Reviewed June 16, 2019
I am a highly trained videographer/editor and have worked on many professional projects including jobs for Sony. I downloaded Thumbtack to try to make some extra money on the side for a couple weeks before a big work trip, and did about four jobs that ranged from sketchy to semi-professional. I'm talking kids who used their parent's account wanting to make a music video. The last straw for me on this app was someone contacting me to film a video in my city, then telling me that they in fact were in a completely different state, netting me a loss of 20 dollars from just talking to him - Thumbtack's brilliant system to make themselves lots of money off the backs of their pros.
This petty person then left me a one star review which destroyed my previously 5 star rating, so I contacted Thumbtack to have them take the review down because it was slanderous. Thumbtack responded by telling me that "it's a part of business to get bad reviews" and basically telling me I just had to take it, like it was my fault that someone hired me to work in a city they weren't in then slandered me. SKETCHY APP people. Though you can make money on this thing, it's a huge headache.
Reviewed June 11, 2019
I’ve tried to use Thumbtack twice now, however both times I’ve been charged for receiving leads yet as soon they charge my credit card the lead goes dead and I’m out $20-$80 with nothing to show for it.
Reviewed June 9, 2019
Left a deposit of $300 to set up account. Scheduled the intro phone call for the following week. That weekend I found thousands of 1 star reviews. Called Monday to cancel the set up call. Asked for refund. Over the next month requested a refund 4 more times. They won’t refund the money or return calls or emails. They just keep sending me surveys asking if I’m satisfied.
Reviewed June 7, 2019
I defy anyone who does business with Thumbtack to explain their billing process. What is the method they use to charge a “pro” for referring a prospective customer to that pro? It seems to change from day to day. I have done business with Thumbtack for approximately four years and have found that they are always reluctant to answer direct questions. Yet, they want access to your bank account so that they may deduct their commissions. I have had all 5 star reviews, yet my account was just deactivated for the second time and I have yet to get a definitive answer about the reason why. They claim that I have been “linked to another account” which is absolutely untrue. My advice to anyone who is seeking a partnership with an online company.... go elsewhere. There must be more reputable companies that one can deal with. I intend to find out. Good luck to all entrepreneurs!
Reviewed June 1, 2019
Had a difficult time getting a Landscaper to do a SOD installation on my lawn. All of them are either too busy or lack a professional attitude to respond. Some of them do respond saying they are busy but most of them do not. The most frustrating thing is that those who respond initially take a very long time to actually do the work or come down to site to actually evaluate the condition of your lawn in order to give you a professional opinion on how to fix your lawn. Go look elsewhere or do the work yourself which I did. It was hard but I did the work myself.
Reviewed May 27, 2019
As a contractor, using this site is an exercise in being fleeced as it is a gamble as to if the person contacting you for service is someone who is highly motivated to hire or just a person who has a passing desire for understanding the price of something like picking up a lamp at a yard sale. 1 in ten leads come to a satisfactory resolution. The remaining 9 of 10 leads result in hundreds of dollars spent dealing with people who are fishing for some kind of super bargain from a licensed contractor. I don't know if the people looking to hire understand that when we the prospective hiree answer the lead we are charged money for the privilege. It seems that the entire site is designed to make Thumbtack money off the backs and willingness of optimistic workers. This site may work for people who have one simple product they sell but not for a contractor whose final product is as variable as a new home to the fixing of a sprinkler head.
Reviewed May 24, 2019
Thumbtack used my credit card for charges that were unauthorized on, at least, several occasions. When calling them to complain as well as request refund for charges I did not solicit and/or authorize, their representatives only 'stone wall" me by stating they do not give refunds and that I and/or my former office employee, set up the account to have the 'automatic" use my credit card if they refer a potential client. I never have solicited the referral, I have never even looked at/screen the referral. They send me "you paid for this referral' and contact the customer.
One the last occasion; I got very upset when informed [in my words], "Too bad. We don't give refunds. Your profile is set up to automatic charge you if the customer looks at your profile that is set up with Thumbtack. When, in fact, our company nor I have ever agreed to and/or authorized any payments unless we have [or I have] looked at the customer's information, sent that customer information and photos. It is ONLY upon the customer calling me or sending me a reply, that I have agreed to pay. That is: the customer has looked at what I sent; then contact me via my reply to their inquiry.
To be told, '...too bad..." is just one of Thumbtacks' 'off shore' contact company's personnel. I have not cancelled my account but disputing said charges as well as filing a complaint to the BBB here in Seattle and filing a complaint with the Consumer's Affairs, Attorney Generals office, State of Washington. In summary, its not the $75 or less charge, it is the unauthorized usage of my CC as well as being told... "Too bad... We don't give refunds..."
Reviewed May 19, 2019
I have for over 4 yrs used Thumbtack on and off and was as careful as can be. Yes I was scammed by 1 contractor (no state license/no reg business/no insurance) but Thumbtack claims they check, every contractor is legit, which is bs. What can go wrong re housekeeping? For starters all are high-priced as I will explain further. For starters 90% aren't available in your area even though they clearly ask you what zip code are you in, but sending you people from an hr away, that's 1 turn off. Since when is a housekeeper that will be doing light housekeeping deserve 30 plus an hr? Do you get paid that on your reg job and want to get paid in cash. Once they are by you and you watch them in your home and you possibly want them back bi monthly the tune changes once they leave. They will NOT return a call or come back. You will need to start your search again.
My last exp pertained to one whose actual picture was being blocked, as otherwise you really have no idea who you are inviting into your home to clean and going thru everywhere in your apt. I felt slightly comfortable and I casually told her, "As you're coming at or after 1 pm I'll even prepare some food for you." Well this woman who has a blocked picture never responded back on the day we made up for her to come. No text, no calls, until I left her. Thank god for the internet so I'll be posting a review.
Within 5 min my acct was closed by Thumbtack as this newbie client learnt the tricks of this business and based on just hearsay, no proof whatsoever except the text of communication between herself and I, closed me down. Bottomline Thumbtack isn't the only game in town. I had 3 strikeouts with their housekeepers who charge you more that a dr's visit. I have literally found from other sites so many that want to work with you on your days and hrs and time and all so far return and do a very nice job. And the same exact questions I ask them to see if I can trust a stranger in my apt. Re prices, what a huge diff. Thank you Thumbtack for showing me the door as it was the best thing.
Reviewed May 19, 2019
Don’t hire Eric **, landscaper with Thumbtack. Eric comes across as a nice, genuine guy. He doesn’t follow the contract and takes short cuts. I hired him to sod my lawn. The contract stated he would rototill and spread loam. Instead he just laid the sod over grass. Also he way over orders sod driving up the price and leaving with sod I have no use for that is just going to die. As will the sod Eric laid over existing grass. DO NOT HIRE!
Reviewed May 18, 2019
My mom hired someone through Thumbtack to help me write a resume. The pro recycled the one we sent her, had horrible communication and then demanded payment. She threatened and then acted on reporting us to Thumbtack after we informed her that her work was not satisfactory and that she was to-date not contacting the right email. Thumbtack informed me because I wasn't a verified account holder (my mom hired her from her account) that not only could I not leave a review but that there wasn't anything I could do.
The customer service rep informed me he would send me a link so I could forward the email exchange to help avoid my mom getting hit with any negativity to her account and I still have never received one. This website has a review system set-up they claim is to reduce "fake reviews" however I strongly believe that what they are doing instead is trying to secure clients who pay their fees by keeping their "reviews" high. If you scroll through any of the suggested pros they all have extremely high ratings. Will never use Thumbtack again.
Reviewed May 17, 2019
Thumbtack has gone down the drain. It used to be a great company where I offered my services to the public. I believe it was sold, because there were so many negative changes all of a sudden a few months ago. Their pricing went crazy and customer service went down the tubes. So, after years of using Thumbtack, I sadly cut way back. Yesterday I got a message saying I had an interested customer, which was surprising because as I said, I hadn't participated on the site. I called Thumbtack and ended up in the Philippines, where they managed, I later discovered, to mess up the email address on my account. When giving info, Filipinos have a bad habit of going 'uh huh' every couple seconds, so despite several tries he apparently still didn't hear it right.
Luckily I got an email wanting me to verify that I changed my email address so I called and straightened it out. That's when it came to my attention that Thumbtack no longer serves customers from their office in CA, it has farmed everything to the Philippines. Greed, greed, greed. I ended the call by telling the agent that they were being used for cheap labor, that they should get together and go on strike, to insist they are paid what the company would pay if they used Americans for their jobs. I hate greed, and now I dislike Thumbtack to the MAX. With regards to the original reason I called, it never got resolved.
Reviewed May 15, 2019
This woman was going through my drawers and stealing all sorts of things. Do not use Thumbtack. They don't check out their companies. I saw she had an arrest record by Googling her name. I regret ever using Thumbtack.
Reviewed May 13, 2019
I’m a general contractor looking to get a business off the ground so I decided to give Thumbtack a try. My experience has been the same as all the others. Total RIP-OFF!!!! I was charged $120.00 for two leads and I never even spoke to anybody!! If you're reading this save your money. Total scam!!! Something has to be done to get this scam off the net!
Reviewed May 13, 2019
I signed up for Thumbtack about 8 months ago before I was truly ready for the work. Initially had a steady flow of leads that I had to turn down, so I put my account on hold and came back 2 months ago. Went through my entire profile to optimize and increase chances of showing up in searches. Not a single lead has come through and I have the same settings as before (just different profile and a bigger variety of offerings). Thumbtack support says nothing is wrong and all the settings are right. So basically, it's not worth signing up for. No returns.
Reviewed May 11, 2019
I signed up for Thumbtack to promote my massage therapy business. The only "leads" I've received are from people asking me things that are listed on my profile, such as: rates, hours, location. It's infuriating and frustrating to have to pay Thumbtack for this. They take your money if anyone simply asks a question. SCAM!!!
Reviewed May 10, 2019
The company does not disclose fees they charge for leads. I was using this site to get some work on the side which I didn't get hired for and I was charged $75 fee for one lead, then $60 for another. Keep in mind, I wasn't hired for either of these gigs. these are just examples. Beware that you will not know what fees you will have to pay because they do not disclose them!!! This company does things in an unethical manner and should not be in business. I contacted them for a refund and was dismissed because according to them, the service they provide is leads. Whether you get hired or not, that is basically your problem but you still have to pay Thumbtack. What a load of crock!!!! I have never heard of such a thing and a civil action suit against this company is called for.
Reviewed May 10, 2019
Thumbtack will take your money for fake leads and customer service will never give your money back, disgusting way of doing business. And now they overcharging for leads like homeadvisor but they send it to 15 different contractors!?!? They will keep bugging you with leads out of the state or 5 hours away from your location its ** leads also. Make no sense who will travel to another state to paint a small bathroom its **. Save your money and time and stay away.
Reviewed May 8, 2019
They have become greed driven and non productive on helping the very people that pay them. We have worked are self to the ground to get business and they take our money and do not produce. It's shameful.
Reviewed May 8, 2019
My Moving Company has had a Thumbtack since 2009; way before it was ‘a thing’. The price points kept rising to the equivalent of Google AdWords, and the customer support for a Pro is completely non-existent. Of the over 130 4 & 5 Star reviews we’ve amassed over the years, it only took one negative review for Thumbtack to drop us as a customer! There goes the 167 positive reviews we worked so hard to achieve and the thousands of dollars we’ve spent on ‘bidding’ on their jobs in the Moving industry. If you're even thinking of doing business with this company, do company & yourself a favor and go to Google AdWords directly. Award for the WORST return on investment goes to Thumbtack.
Reviewed May 7, 2019
Thumbtack will get money from you one way or the other. They remind me of street scammers that would tell you the job is already yours, they will send you a message saying the customer has already chosen you, all you need to do is to contact that customer. As soon as you do you pay for the lead. The lead information is really limited. Only after you pay you get to talk to the customer and realize that your services are not exactly what he is looking for or not in the right location. I'd give 0 stars if I could!
Reviewed May 6, 2019
I hired Maid in the Carolinas and at first everything was OK but then there was a problem with showing up on time and their being on "vacation" and then showing up with various "other" people who were supposed to be experience cleaners. Then they started leaving as soon as they could get out of here to get to other "appointments". They "cleaned" my house in 1/3 of the time of ALL past cleaners. Then they just did not show up. Then they did not call to tell me why they did not show up. Then they did not answer their phone. This is not someone I would ever use again or come close to recommending.
Reviewed May 3, 2019
Bad experience after 4 years. I'm upset with the Thumbtack because they just do not care about the contractors when the contractors pay the leads and their salary. Also blocked me when a client Mario ** called them to block my account when this person [AIR FORCE] threatened me telling me that I would shoot myself in the head. I made the report to the local police. They also sent leads that I was not looking for and in the period that blocked me they sent many. Is frustrating that they act so I leave this review to realize what this company does: only take money from contractors but does not have professionals to solve A problem. Now I work for another company that has excellent customer service.
Reviewed May 2, 2019
So, I'm convinced that these leads are bogus leads from Thumbtack and they charge you a ridiculously amount of money to potentially have someone contact you. If the app is as reliable as it says it is, then there'd be way more success stories then people who are all saying the same thing. Do NOT USE Thumbtack Pro.
Hi Jonathan,
Thanks for sharing your feedback.
We understand how frustrating it can be when leads don’t convert as expected. While we can’t guarantee every lead will result in a job, we’re continually working to improve lead quality and ensure pros have a better experience. Input like yours helps guide these improvements.
Reviewed April 30, 2019
Asked highly rated, and supposedly background checked lady house cleaning for interview. After she left I realized my meds for back pain (surgery) were missing. Won’t let another “Thumbtack rated” person in my house again.
Reviewed April 25, 2019
I had joined Thumbtack as a pro in 2017. First of all the leads never got back to us. Secondly, they charged us and said was a credit. Then started charging 100% more for bogus leads and never credited. This is a major scam. I have had thousands of dollars taken from my account and only had 8 jobs. RIP OFF.
Reviewed April 25, 2019
I joined as a pro provider of a few different in demand services I excel at. I mean I'm really really undeniably good at to the point that I put my competition out of business simply because of my impeccable quality, honesty, and genuine natural abilities to perform almost any task or job I take on to the best of my or anyone else's ability to do whatever it is I put my mind and body to do such as every construction trade there ever thought of being and ten more you never heard of residential or commercial and my customer service skills and business ethics are unrivaled by a million degrees of any measure, the world over and as soon as I signed up with my pertinent poop I started getting interested customers even before posting any pictures of my work, my experience or even posting a selfie.
They started feeding me leads I couldn't take nor could I even speak or contact with any kind of person or post my contact info or get info for any customer. Thumbtack started charging my card. With most sites you pay for leads when the customer is satisfied and the work is complete, and the customer has paid the site or you personally, right? Well these crooks bill you if you as a pro, click on any service request posted by any user or customer requesting info as vague as what's your availability, or if what you clicked on was a service request in your list of your services that you offer or within your filters.
So after getting charged for leads that never even replied to my offers or confirmation that yes I do that or bids or if someone clicked my profile as a handyman and asked me do you do x y and z and all I said was, "Yes I can do that. Here's my number, and never got a response." After that I got charged exorbitant amounts of up to $12.50 for a lead to a job that I would never be hired for never did and no customer had paid me for, but charged 12.50 for the lead simply because it was for a skill or service that I could do and was listed as one of my skills I COULD provide if actually hired and paid for completing to the satisfaction of the customer.
I answered many request leads, but was not hired by anyone did no work for anyone nor did I get paid by anyone. All I was doing was paying Thumbtack to receive these teaser leads that never amounted to JACK **! Nothing, zip, zero, nadda and within 2 hours of joining thumbtack, I was demanding not to be billed and to be cancelled as a member and to unsubscribe me and forget they ever heard of me to which they responded with a phone call asking me why I quit and what could they do to keep me on, to which I replied to a real person on the phone in plain English "my account's overdrawn because of your billing policy of charging for leads that never resulted in a paid job but only sucked my account dry before I could ever get a paying gigs so just cancel me. Don't bill me for any leads cuz I didn't get any jobs and forget you ever heard of me and I thought that was that. I was done.
I told their living breathing person to cancel don't bill and unsubscribe me and forget you ever heard of me and refund any charges to my account if you have billed me because that's not right to charge for a dead end lead that never turned into a paying job. Period, end of story, or so you and I and the world would assume, right? NOPE uhuh... Two weeks later I get an email saying hey you were billed this and got a discount on this lead because of this and request your customers to write a review of your company and basically we booty banged you for your cocktail fruit that you never bought never opened never ate or digested but it's your cocktail FRUIT! And we think it's ok that we can just take whatever we want from you for any or no reason at all and we can just say you got leads and never have to prove you did or we didn't and thanks a lot for all your money there **, how's that sound there stupid!?
Ya and then when you threaten to sue us we're gonna say after reviewing your profile you don't fit in with our idea of a perfect butt to booty bang and we're going to remove you because of some ** we're not even going to attempt to allege or hafta prove to anyone ever and you should just uh take it again that way, right in your **, and could you spread your cheeks wide for us, we mean wide, and right now if you know what's good for US? Thanks a bunch there dummy. Now we got a million unsuspecting booties to bang so go ** yourself now, k?
Ya it all happened exactly like that so I guess I gotta sue their crooked thieving ** in court in a class action, so who's with me? You can email me at ** if they screwed you too. Let's get these criminals and kick their ** at doing things the legal way, of which they have absolutely no clue. We should call them 50 times a day and write a million worse reviews than this one, if it's at all possible to beat this smart bomb right here. Do not ever give these people your card info and if you're in Utah where their headquarters is, I'll give you 50 bucks to hold em until I get there. Most blatant acts of ** and thieving ** I have ever experienced!
See you in court where I'll finally be close enough to see the whites of your eyes you thieving **. THAT IS ALL! Go get em! And get em good with a real slimebag injury lawyer on contingency in a class action. Do it for all of the people that won't so there's more money for us who will and who will win. God bless you all. Post this review. It has no cuss words. If you don't post it you are as guilty as the dunces at Thumbtack and very UNAMERICAN. I AM A U.S.MARINE AND I WILL FIGHT THIS UNTIL I'M DEAD. OORAH!
Reviewed April 24, 2019
Seeking a mason to repair my chimney, I submitted a request to Thumbtack to put me in contact with contractors who would be interested in the job. I assumed anyone responding would be thoroughly qualified by thumbtack. I was mistaken. The mason I chose “New England masonry” requested a deposit of $1250 which I paid, and that's where the project ended. My repeated attempts to contact them were unanswered. My complaint is with “thumbtack“ who claimed no responsibility for incomplete work. I feel they are totally responsible for allowing this contractor to recruit customers through their website. And they should refund my deposit in full. Be sure to read the fine print with these referral companies or be prepared to be abandoned when problems arise.
Reviewed April 23, 2019
I am convinced that most of the leads we pay for are from fake accounts so Thumbtack can earn money. 9 out of 10 requests I get from leads that are supposedly serious, don't even reply to a simple hello after they just requested my availability. AND most of them are well outside my travel radius. I was charged for 2 this week for jobs on the other side of the county. When I went back into my account, Thumbtack set my travel preference for the entire county! I have had to adjust that over five times in 6 months already. I am done with Thumbtack!!!
Reviewed April 23, 2019
I use this app in order to grow up my business but they sent leads to high price that just for accept the job even if the customer doesn’t accept the estimate they charge you. In many cases you accept the lead and the customer never answer you and they charge you again. Really this is a very disappointed experience with Thumbtack. When you chat with a representative is like a machine every time the same answer. This week I spent more than 120$ and never get hired. I do not recommend this app to anyone, do not waste your very hard earned money in this scam app.
Reviewed April 22, 2019
YOU CANNOT TRUST THE REVIEWS ON THUMBTACK... Hired a landscaping source from Thumbtack and - wanting to help a friendly young man expand his new business - I left a good review after our early and brief experience, when Daniel **/Harvest Garden filled our garden with instant impact. But by the next Spring, EVERYTHING was either a wildly overgrown mess or dead, and Daniel stopped returning my emails and calls. He also caused irreparable damage to our C/A compressor (which then needed to be replaced). The entire experience was a waste of time, money and goodwill. Thumbtack refused to remove my (good) review even after I described my miserable experience to administrators. I didn't ask to re-write a poor review; I asked only that they remove my ultimate inaccurate review. They refused. YOU CANNOT TRUST THE REVIEWS ON THUMBTACK.
Reviewed April 21, 2019
I stopped using the site because it no longer helps me get legitimate leads for my business. Thumbtack was once legit, but thanks to the awful greed-driven changes implemented in 2018 this site just doesn't work for me at all anymore. Basically, it has become a complete waste of my money.
Reviewed April 18, 2019
I was made aware to day that your budget for the system is set to weekly, i was under the impression the budget was for monthly. Sadly to say I discovered this 6 months after the wondering where my money was going. The leads are poor at best, people looking for a general contractor were asking for drywall repair, fixing railings and every other odd job other than GC type work. The company refuses to credit us any money back and we are no longer advertising with them. Out of the Proposed 62 leads at $60 each we did not find one client the needed our services. We are a 5 star company that is trying to be apart of these new streams of business. Beware of what you are signing up for with Thumbtack. Bad leads for an online form.
Reviewed April 18, 2019
Technician said he could download files off a hard drive. I gave him my old laptop and a new high-capacity flashdrive in a totebag. The project dragged on for weeks, with him continually either ignoring my polite texts or coming up with excuses about how he had run into "some problems" or was consulting with some other IT guys or had to purchase something to finish the project. Four months later, I finally told him to keep the advance I gave him (!) for his time and just send me back the tote bag. He agreed to but never did. I tried to get info from Thumbtack about whether they vet their so- "professionals" and they ignored the question. Even though I hired a computer technician through them once before and was satisfied, I won't use them again. 50/50 is not okay.
Reviewed April 11, 2019
Thumbtack is an awful company. I never post reviews but this place has robbed me of $1500 in 3 months. They force you to have a credit card on file then all of a sudden you will get these "supposed" leads from random people that myself and many others think are fake. You have no choice but to get charged up to $85 even if you decline it. I've called and wrote them numerous times. There needs to be a class action suit brought against them.
Reviewed April 11, 2019
When I joined Thumbtack it was a good useful service for contractors, I built a nice list of 5 star reviews and provided great service to the customers that used me. They have since changed their payment requirements from service providers and have taken quite a bit of money from me with NOT ONE secured job, they are charging crazy amounts of money for I believe fake leads. They charge when an email is sent, not when a contract is signed or job secured. Total rip off, I wasn't also told by customer service that they are giving 30 contractors names out on every lead that comes in from potential clients. WTF. I rarely search past the first page of Google when doing a search. Beware.
Reviewed April 10, 2019
In searching for Contractors on THUMBTACK, I found a KNOWN CONTRACTOR who posted phoney reviews just to advertise his Company. The Contractors are not screened. They are allowed to use the site to list services in hopes that a prospective Customer will not check them out and simply believe the bogus reviews posted. This company is a Internet listing service for Contractors. Not in business to serve CUSTOMERS. The Contractor I have information on was once on HomeAdvisor, but had to shut down the listing on that site due to problems with breaching contracts. Please check out any Contractor listed on THUMBTACK with the BBB. You will quickly find out the real purpose of the site is to scam customers.
Reviewed April 9, 2019
I have been scammed from Thumbtack. This is the worst company ever. They take money before you can respond and book the job. They have took over $100 in two days just to respond to the potential clients. Then when I don't have the gig, it's wasted money down the drained. This company is a joke and need to be shut down ASAP.
Reviewed April 8, 2019
I have just read about every review on this site and I can say that I agree with each and every one of the reviews. Thumbtack companies practices is deplorable. If you see a request from a potential client, and you respond, good. When that potential client responds, not good. You the Pro are charged a great deal of money for that client respond. That's not good.
Most of the leads on their site are not properly vetted, and the potential client has no clue of what they want. I tend to think that the request are a hoax in order to gain money from the Pros. If two and three Pros receive a response from the client, each pro has to pay for that response. Thumbtack is milking money from the Pros. The Pros should not be charge for a response from a seeker. That's gouging.
Thumbtack also suggest you put money in a reserve account and let the fees come off of that account. That reserve account can be eaten up within one week with the seeker responses. That's not a good option. Again, price gouging by Thumbtack. Again, Pros should not be charged. After all, they are Pros. The seeker should be charged.
Thumbtacks business practices appear to be underhanded. Their module is unethical. Thumbtack is not good for those who are serious about their business. Rating them with 1-star is being lenient. I have express my concerns to Thumbtack via phone and email only to fall on deaf ears from the company. Thumbtack should be shut down until they develop better business practices.
Reviewed April 8, 2019
Based on published contractor information I hired James ** to replace a roof. His company not only did shoddy work, but failed to tarp an entire roof, causing extensive damage to ceilings, electrical, floors, walls, appliances. When called THUMBTACK at first pretended to work with all parties - in reality they coached the contractor. Stated I "had" to go to arbitration - with their paid arbitrator and that "mull and voided" the damage warranty they plaster all over their site.
THUMBTACK takes money from providers to falsely promote and represent credentials and reputation that are false. They bait and switch consumers with "warranty" then fail to hold contractors to any standard. THUMBTACK fails to vet featured service providers even those with multiple state criminal records, such as the above provider (with multiple aliases) - a simple process to put into place to protect consumers and hold service providers to minimal consumer standard. Use Angie's List or Home Advisor - or your local Lowe's. These people lied as well as the service provider who caused $15,000 damage, while taking $10,000 of my money - I'm a senior, fixed income and furious.
Reviewed April 2, 2019
So many changes have happened in Thumbtack the past year. First they raised the cost of using their site so much that I was suddenly paying hundreds of dollars per month. Then they changed it to 'pay when you send a quote- EVEN IF YOU DON'T BOOK THE GIG.' I had to raise my hourly rate to try to make up for the changes, but now I'm not getting customers! On top of that, I discovered multiple glitches on their phone app. I emailed customer service multiple times only to be told over and over again 'please send screenshots.' I sent them so many times I felt I wasn't interacting with a real person.
Reviewed April 1, 2019
I used Jeremy ** for two years to do my taxes. My status changed because we moved out of an apartment and into a home. After paying this man I did a follow up on my address because it changed, I am to receive a refund. He got all of W2 and new home information. All our w2 have new address and he was aware we purchased a home. Well he sent tax return in with wrong address and blamed it on us. He Dumped problem in our laps. Because the IRS will send my refund to old address. He refitting fix the problem that he created by rushing through my tax return and not taking his time to be sure he made no mistakes. He does not stand by his work or his word.
Reviewed April 1, 2019
I own a handyman service and have been with Thumbtack for 2 years. They recently changed their policy to charging you a few dollars per lead to now upwards of $75 for leads that never pan out. I have come to the conclusion that the leads are false just so they can charge you money. They will not give you any leads unless you agree to be charged a certain amount, $75 being the very least that you can agree to. Do not use this company. They drained my bank account and their customer service is horrible. The only reason I gave them one star is so I can move forward with leaving this review. They deserve zero stars and they also deserve a class action lawsuit.
Reviewed March 28, 2019
We used to love working with Thumbtack. We were top pros. Then they started constantly changing things. Every time they changed things up all they did was screw things up. Now when they send us a request that they say the customer requested us personally. Us and 5 other pros they want like $38.71 for us to respond. We did it a couple of times but just lost our money. So now when a customer sends a request I decline them and tell them that it costs too much to respond.
Today I received a message from a customer that I had declined their request and was unable to respond to the customer. When I called Thumbtack they told me it was a technical problem and that they were looking into it. They sent an e-mail on our behalf telling the customer that there was a technical issue. Then I found out that when you decline a request because you feel it is too expensive they are sending a message to the customer the you don't have any availability that we are too busy to respond. So they are lying to people and being deceptive. I am done with this company.
Reviewed March 27, 2019
Our company has been doing business with Thumbtack for about 1 1/2 years. Suddenly they told us that our account was deactivated because it was "linked" to another company and we don't meet their "high standards." What? After emailing, texting and calling several times, we have received nothing but canned answers and absolutely no explanation as to what they are talking about. After reading many of Thumbtack's 429 negative reviews online at the Better Business Bureau, we can see that they are doing this to many companies. Many of them have been greatly hurt by this action. Luckily we are not being hurt financially, but it is not right to impugn someone's character and tarnish their reputation without an explanation.
Reviewed March 22, 2019
I am about to delete my account with them. Now they are charging you for consumers who choose you! Seriously this outfit is a joke, we have only ever paid money out for nothing in return. Do not use them, complete waste of time. They are the ones making money not you!
Reviewed March 20, 2019
Thumbtack overcharged me for a some leads and they can't refund when the charges are over 30 days. It is their fault. They should not have limitations, they are ripping off service providers with many charges.
Reviewed March 19, 2019
I have only been using Thumbtack for a few months but find myself in the same situation as most of the reviews I have read on here. I keep getting charged over and over for leads supposedly from people looking to have work done. When I respond to their request I never get a response from them. Be Careful if you decide to use this service.
Reviewed March 19, 2019
I just deleted my account from their site. They were charging me for sending emails to which we never got replies. I was coming in half the budget amount, was local to the customers, gave our site with nothing but 5 star reviews and they would either not respond at all or I would have it showing the reviewed but never replied. Most of the high dollar cost were for graphic design where we are at $35.00 an hour, and my graphic artist has drawings in the local museum for Pete's sake, so talent is not the issue. Most places charge double that rate and take twice as long as she does. Then for the embroidery needs they were charging me half of what the order would normally cost someone. All I would ever get is request for 1 to 3 pieces with a name or something simple where we only charge $6.50 per item and we still did not get replies. Just constant charges to my credit card. This place is a scam in my opinion.
Reviewed March 16, 2019
I was trying to get a massage. I did NOT want any weird massages or anything not on the up and up. I explained this to a Massage therapist and explained this to Thumbtack. And they blocked me. I spoke with customer service and showed them my emails and they still blocked me. I reached out to the owners and the board and they just blew me off and thought I was lying. UNBELIEVABLE IS ALL I CAN SAY!!
Reviewed March 16, 2019
I was using Thumbtack for last 3 years until 2018 when they jacked up the prices on the leads, for example to bid on job lead that was before $4. Now they are charging $46 and that multiplies by 4 pro company's that do bid on the project. It ends up to be a good money maker (Scam) by Thumbtack, and plus on top of that with more than half of leads are fake. This needs to stop we are getting scammed by Thumbtack...
Reviewed March 14, 2019
This business is completely unethical. I just had an issue resulting in $3K worth of property damage as a result of a thumbtack professional I hired in July 2018. After extensively reviewing their terms and conditions, exclusions and limitations I decided I met all the criteria and was good to proceed with my claim. Then I get an e-mail staying that the Thumbtack guarantee is null after 6-months from the date of completion. That is BS because nowhere on their exclusion and limitations did it mention.
After asking the representative to call me directly and show me in the contract where it says that I was given the run around. I received an second e-mail saying the same thing. I decided to double check the limitations and exclusions and conveniently enough it shows up as the LAST item on the list. That is total **. The Thumbtack group just added a new line item in order to avoid paying for damages. Talk about extreme unethical business practice. If anyone else can give insight to this or has come across this issue please chime in.
Reviewed March 14, 2019
I agree with all the other business owners. I was actively a client of Thumbtack for over 5 years. In the last 2 years they changes their format and started charging exorbitant amounts for extremely unqualified leads that never respond. Such a high amount of leads that don't interact that it triggers suspicion when you have laid out over $$$$$ during the time and not one client added. They also allow people who just message you to review your services which can lead to competition sabotage and some weird 1 star reviews from random strangers who don't even know you.
SO your reputation takes a huge hit by this and they don't care-- even when you repeatedly explain that you don't know this person. My profile is down and I had over 30 5 star reviews from the 50+ hires. Their business model reeks of corporate greed and the results will be you are charges large amounts of money for nothing. STAY AWAY, IT IS A SCAM and you're better off going to other referral sites.
Reviewed March 7, 2019
Thumbtack sends you fake clients that you end up paying for. You try to chat with this client with no reply. Money down the drain. Stay away. Once you get ahold of them they will not give you your money back.
Reviewed March 6, 2019
Was trying to sign up and ask some questions - this is not easy to do. Forget about finding any information about the success of anyone on the site - I would say save your money. I could not access anything, who are these people, where are they out of? What are some compelling reasons to sign up? Is there any kind of warranted or implied agreement? Why do the developers at Thumbtack think that their clients are there to be robbed? Poorly executed, confusing, redundant, poor graphics, and no help desk.
Reviewed March 5, 2019
I have been hiring lead generation companies for a decade. It’s frustrating and there is no guarantee of success. I have never paid a worse company with the worst customer service ever. First the leads are dubious at best. I would get an email that I was the only pro contacted; answer in one minute that I could be there ANY TIME AND FOR FREE and time and time again got no response - ok. 3 -5 responses out of 100 opportunities offering free immediate service with no obligation. The support is a joke where they throw one full after another at you to start over with no reference as to why has transpired in previous calls. They accuse you of being the problem “well you know we can’t control if customers call back”, “so you’re mad because you don’t get more calls?”.
It’s endless and pointless. The system is not reliable or stable as they are down a lot. In my case they were giving the customers who wanted to respond an email that was missing a letter so I responded to 63 leads at least that had no chance of ever getting to me. My fault? They would not listen as I spent hours on support at a time over two months. Each time they claimed they had no knowledge of previous calls and texts so they wanted to start over accusing me and giving me standard lines – It’s insanity! Always pushing for me to spend more or bashing my effort. I had a friend try To hire me as a test and I never even came up as an option in a dozen attempts. He lives next door!
The “leads” and opportunities are constantly cancelling (s) through Thumbtack and I am convinced many of them are contrived to look like they are generating leads. Now keep in mind I have used Google, Angie’s List, HomeAdvisor and many more services di. I am not a disgruntled rookie. These guys suck! Good way to go bankrupt and waste time. The end result after sending close to 100 responses in record time after notified by Thumbtack that someone was needing service AND OFFERING IMMEDIATE SERVICE OR ANYTIME THEY CHOSE. I got 3 jobs and only 6 return emails out 100 opportunities. Thanks Thumbtack! Very cheap shoppers at that.
They charged me randomly in a manner that makes no sense at all. Wayyy too much time wasted answering inquiries and getting treated like an idiot by their horrible Service Agents. In my industry this service is the worst I have ever seen by a mile. I gave them months of my time and effort and even tried to let them Fix the problems technical and otherwise. I truly suspect they are Cheating and churning bogus leads because I could do better knocking on doors or calling random people on the phone than their “leads” and “opportunities” from people supposedly needing my service. Bad bad bad.
Reviewed March 5, 2019
I've been using Thumbtack for many years. We're a top pro. The highest listed in our area and have many many reviews which earned us a 5 star rating. When we first began Thumbtack was making us some really good money. Each lead cost around $8 and we were hired about 20% of the time. Very nice ROI. BUT RECENTLY, it has changed a lot. Let me break it down.
They used to show you when clients viewed your quotes. Not anymore. They used to refund your money if a client never viewed or responded to a quote. Not anymore. The best reviewed and responsive pros used to top the search results. Not anymore. They used to tell you how much you're going to pay BEFORE you quote someone. Not anymore. And many other important but more complicated changes that grind my gears, like how their budgets work. And how being promoted is a sham...etc.
They tell me these are "requests from their pros". How dumb do they think we are. And at the same time that all these tools to manage our effectiveness and money management are disappearing their prices are rising, for us 463% (yeah, I did the math over a large test period). It's damn near scandalous. I've tried getting info from their support team, and solutions to some of the "technical issues" they say my account is having which is costing me more money. But it's really just them blowing smoke up my... Honestly, we're done.
Reviewed March 1, 2019
I have been Thumbtack for over 5 years. I have weathered they constant changes, been there thru their growing pains. The bigger they get, the less they care about their Pros. They are always changing the rules of the game without telling anyone. Latest installment is they changed it so that as a Pro you can no longer see if your quote has been seen by the customer. That ability has always been there, as a Pro, you want and need to know your quotes are being reviewed. I just finished a chat session with them were I was told this was requested by the Pros and Thumbtack supports it to further promote Pros being in contact with the customers. I call B.S. What Pro or customer wants to nag or be nagged. I always follow up with my quotes but only once unless it is in response to their questions. This process has worked out just fine for me, customers have appreciated it.
It looks like this new change is designed to have everyone “Promoted” on their site, where you do not get to choose what quotes you want to submit, they decide for you. And of course with that goes expenses that you did not plan on. Those additional expenses add up very fast, as I did try it for a month. My “quotes” cost me $780, of which most I would never have quoted on (video recording a wedding in a hot air balloon). This is another feature that Thumbtack said Pros requested. Yea, right!!! I have never come close to that high a bill in any other month over the 5 years. Since I opted out of that, I now fall into the group of quotes that may or may not be seen.
Reviewed Feb. 27, 2019
I’ve started a profile on Thumbtack. Right away I was charged $55. I called them. They said, "Anytime a client reaches out to you, you have to pay for the lead". I told them the person never responded. They said it happens sometimes. Well I quit having them promote my business. I started deciding the jobs I will want to do. I responded to 18 leads. Not one responded. I called them and they said that my profile isn’t in the promoted section anymore so clients won’t respond. I said, "So you're telling me the only way my profile is visible is if I let you dictate my leads so that you can charge me when someone sends me a message". She said, "We value contractors that let us promote their business". I told them to cancel my profile. Straight Scam. I’ve been charged over $275 and not one job I went and gave them an estimate. Someone needs to investigate this site. I guarantee that they are making fake leads to generate money. #Followthemoney.
Reviewed Feb. 19, 2019
I have spent years building my presence and profile with Thumbtack. I used to pay around $8.00 per lead then saw that I was charged $86.00 for my last lead. This is a very deceptive practice as they have made it so difficult to understand their new system. I would never pay 10x the original cost and didn't know I was going to be charged such an outrageous price! Customer service told me that I would receive better and "more qualified" leads. Simply not true. Absolute lie. The leads are no better than before. Please look into this fraud company and help all of us who have been scammed.
Reviewed Feb. 17, 2019
I am a “pro” for Upholstery on Thumbtack. A year ago my leads cost around $3.50 per lead. I could afford to bid on jobs at large hoping to land 1 or 2 every so often. In a year my lead cost went up to $15-$20 PER LEAD and I never got photos with the request. So if I responded asking for photos I would be spending $20 whether they respond or not. It has become a total rip-off and instead of growing my business it has hurt me financially instead. I’ve made several comments to them regarding the problem. They do respond but just with spinning wheels. I’m done. I deactivated and deleted. Get it together Thumbtack. You are not a good partnership for small business.
Reviewed Feb. 17, 2019
I am an editor and writer and have been a Thumbtack pro since 2014. For several years running I have been a "top pro" with a five-star rating and dozens of glowing reviews. In years past, I would typically spend $300 on Thumbtack leads to generate $5,000 in income. They have changed their system so that if you opt to be "promoted" they automatically match you with a client and charge you. In the past two months I've already spent $300 on Thumbtack and gotten almost no work. I'm coming to suspect that many of the leads are fake, because most of the clients don't respond back to me after I contact them.
If you don't opt to be promoted you don't get any job leads. I have numerous horror stories about these so-called clients. Yesterday, a man claiming to be a screenplay writer said he'd only pay me on spec, if he got a contract for his screenplay, which might have been dozens of hours of work for me, he'd give me a percentage. I asked Thumbtack for a refund. They declined. Thumbtack itself is becoming a scam to soak professionals. I'm considering pursuing a lawsuit against the company.
Reviewed Feb. 17, 2019
It’s been my experience that 90% of the leads you pay for either cancel the project or the so called "customer" never responds AND YOU HAVE NO WAY TO REACH them, much less get an address to give them a bid. And then these joke customer service people have the audacity to tell me if my profile was better I’ll have more success, and refund me nothing. BOTTOM LINE FACTS - last 15 leads I paid $85 each for... 4 customers communicated and I gave them estimates, 1 signed. They are outright frauds. RUN AWAY! If you don’t believe me keep reading reviews. I’ll probably file a small claims case just so they have to waste money on an attorney. Licensed roofer/contractor in Florida.
Reviewed Feb. 16, 2019
I've been a wedding videographer for over 13 years. As some may know, the major wedding directories are theKnot and WeddingWire. So I mainly advertise with them, but I noticed Thumbtack would come up on the first page thru Google searches, so I decided to give Thumbtack a try. Thumbtack automatically charges vendors if the vendor has "Promoted" enabled AND the customer is a "match" to the vendor's preferences. From Thumbtack website: "You pay automatically for leads that match your preferences, whether you reply or not."
I recently noticed I was sent a lead that did NOT match my preference. A bride looking for 8 hours of video coverage with a budget lower than $1000. For those hours, the estimated work would be $1320. However, Thumbtack somehow matched this lead to me and automatically charged me $46.00. I spent close to 1 hour with their support and they went around in circles giving all kind of dumb excuses. They are trained to avoid at all costs to refund your money. Google should not list Thumbtack as part of their search results. They are scammers!
Reviewed Feb. 16, 2019
Don't plan on building your business reputation on this website. As soon as you get established with reviews they will delete your account and tell you they currently do not advertise for your business category anymore. It happened to me. I have had my business with them since 2011 (that is 8 years). I had 10 - 5 star reviews and they just threw them out and deleted my account. I even paid for a criminal background check to just have my account deleted. They are a horrible business.
Reviewed Feb. 14, 2019
Thumbtack is sucks as a service more look like a fraud. I had construction services on their platform, and they keep charged me for leads, and not all customers actually hired me. But Thumbtack charged me all the time and refuse refund my money when customers cancel project. I never get job from them and spend more than $100. I don't think so it's fair. They should refund money when Pro doesn't get work. Thumbtack service sucks. I better do business with Yelp. ** Thumbtack.
Reviewed Feb. 11, 2019
FAST FENCES INC. He did a contract to do the fence and paint and post caps. He build the fence but never came to paint and fence or bring the caps. We pay them in full. But was our fault to give all the money. Do not trust them.
Reviewed Feb. 6, 2019
They have stolen so much money from my company by providing fake leads and not validating them. They have deactivated my account and stolen my money and hard earned reviews. They are scammers and are racist.
Reviewed Feb. 6, 2019
We used Thumbtack to find a contractor to build a deck on the back of our home. They called and made an appointment with us. They looked professional with a professional name on the truck. They said they were local. They beat our lowest estimate by not much but enough to believe them. They ask for a little money down to get started then they disappeared. No one has ever heard of these contractors or their company. Checked 5 states to see if anyone heard of the band of thieves but with no success. Never ever use this company to help you find anyone! They don't screen their contractors at all. The contractors are suppose to be local my **. Thumbtack are in California and I'm in Indiana How ** dumb am I? I didn't give them much thank God but it still sucks. Use HomeAdvisor!
Reviewed Feb. 3, 2019
Used Thumbtack for the last MANY years. In the beginning it was great. I built a great list of clients using Thumbtack. The current changes that were made IN 2018 are not Pro-friendly. The price per lead has increased and when you don't bid enough or spend enough money with them your account is deactivated. If you are a new business owner trying to get established this service may be for you. However if you are established find other ways to promote your business. Thumbtack you dropped the ball. I'm willing to join all class action suits against this company for misleading its pros, not doing background checks, price gauging, unethical practices!
Hi Robert,
We hear your concerns about pricing, account management, and changes to the platform over the years. We know it’s frustrating when updates feel less supportive of established professionals. Feedback like yours helps us reevaluate how we can better serve both new and long-standing pros.
Reviewed Feb. 2, 2019
Contracted and confirmed date, time and price - "CHORE CATCHERS" NEVER SHOWED!! Called back next day. Apologized. Promised would be there next day, no show, no call and when I contacted Thumbtack they said "there must of been a reason???"
Reviewed Feb. 2, 2019
I used Thumbtack for the last 6 years. In the beginning it was great. I built a great list of clients using Thumbtack. The current changes that were made are not Pro-friendly. The price per lead has increased and when you don't bid enough or spend enough money with them your account is deactivated. If you are a new business owner trying to get established this service may be for you. However if you are established find other ways to promote your business. Thumbtack you dropped the ball.
Reviewed Jan. 30, 2019
Beware of their customers such as Perry with Carolinas Exteriors! I needed a new roof on a rental property I have. Being a single mother I did not know of who to go to so found a bidding site where professionals bid against each other fir the job. I landed with Carolinas Exteriors based out of Mill Spring, NC who bidder a total of $3500 cash ($500 less than the other 2 companies). In his quote he was to remove the old shingles and replace with new ones, also changing out all the boots to the exhaust outlets.
2 weeks late starting the job...he comes out with one other helper and removed the shingles right down to the bare wooden roof panels. He then put the tar paper and left for two days. The tar paper half blew off and exposed my roof to non stop rain (the week prior to Christmas). I had water damage inside the structure and the master bathroom flooded. After calling him...he came back out to complete the job. The tenants said that he arrived with a trailer full of loose non packaged shingles (leftover material from his previous jobs) and started putting them on the roof.
After the job was done I went up on the roof to find at least 3 different shades /colors of shingle with different brands. The roof looks absolutely terrible and is mismatched and patched. He also never replaced any of the boots (as stated) on the roof. The business owner came up with excuse after excuse why it is like that, trying to pull the wool over my eyes. I am a single female who feels I was taken advantage of. After numerous text messages trying to resolve the issue, he said it is what it is and would not refund or compensate me for anything.
I have all his texts and his bid of $3500 CASH. This man and company rates themselves as professional. Thumbtack is the agency he bids with and the agency allows you to enter references about them. After research I know of 3 customers who gave him 1 star and a bad review -these were deleted from his profile so all customers see is 5 star reviews on this guy. I would love to be compensated my $ 3500, but most of all -I want to get word out there of his work so he does not do this to more people! Putting used and leftover mismatched shingles on someone’s roof is unacceptable. He took my money and ran... Please help expose this company. Carolinas Exteriors. Phone: (828) 767-1086. Web: carolinasroofingandwindows.com/.
Reviewed Jan. 30, 2019
When hiring from Thumbtack.com Where is YOUR money being spent. If you intend to use this service (which sadly was my favorite place to turn to when I had a slow day to fill) then please know that Thumbtack is charging me over $22.00 for your name; a gigantic greedy jump from the 3 to 5 dollars that they used to charge me. I try my best to keep my pricing fair and justified. TT.COM USED To be a unique, fair minded, customer oriented (on both sides contractor and consumer), and by far The best solution to putting qualified professionals together with folks in need of a contractor.
Unfortunately now Greed is their new God and you and I will never meet unless you find and call me directly. I'm not saying that You are not worth $22.00+ to me! I am not going to jam my customers to feed this greed. ThumbTack.Com Stopped thinking about their real job which was to simply introduce us. "Pay To Get Listed" HomeAdvisor, Angie's List and now thumbtack.com type sites are a dime a dozen. I would question the vendors who have to and are willing to pay the absurd amounts these sites ask them to pay. Why are these vendors so desperate? I have one possible and probable answer; they are not good at what they do. I'm glad thumbtack.com is doing so well for themselves; unfortunately it was at the expense of ALL our common interests including their own. WORCESTER ELECTRICIAN Douglas **. MASTER ELECTRICIAN Serving Boston, Metro West and Worcester Ma Since 1987.
Reviewed Jan. 30, 2019
Was a Thumbtack Pro since 11/17. Became a Top Pro only to have them deactivate my account after they charged me over $100 for fake leads. 95% of the time these supposed customers don’t even respond. If you are a small business do not get involved with Thumbtack. I can go on and on about different negative things they have done. Thumbtack is trash. They even keep 1 bad review out of 31 on the top of my reviews even though I had 20+ since then and it was from someone I never did business with. I repeat they feed you fake customers and charge you for nothing!
Reviewed Jan. 29, 2019
I used Thumbtack for a couple years until they deactivated my account due to no fault of mine. Their explanation was that I was linked to another Thumbtack business who had a unpaid balance. I work solo so this was not the facts and sadly I could no longer use my account and my reputation that I had built up. They said until the linked Person pays the account, I can't use my account or start a new one. No Thanks! Thumbtack has their wires crossed and it's affecting their own business! They need to get their crap straight!!! I will not return! I recommend not using them!
Reviewed Jan. 28, 2019
I am a hypnotherapist and a top pro. Up until mid-2018 I received 90% of my business on Thumbtack. I went from, at the highest, 17 leads per month to zero. 17 leads for me is excellent for my profession since I converted almost all of them to actual jobs. As of today January 28, 2019 I've received no viable leads since Oct 2018. I've talked to Thumbtack at least 15 times. I found one CS agent who made some suggestions but it didn't help. Let me say I would pay any amount of money for true leads since clients usually come see me more than 6 times and I get referrals from those clients. I use Thumbtack because Yelp is too expensive. I've signed up for other therapy generated leads but their sites aren't as popular as TT and the leads are very few.
Right now I am going to post negative reviews for TT everywhere I can so I can try and get TT to listen. I have done this for other businesses and it has been very productive. I suggest that others do the same. Just as a side comment… TT took my Top Pro status away because I haven't converted any jobs. Funny that they take away leads and penalize me for their mismanagement.
Reviewed Jan. 25, 2019
Thumbtack sucks big time! Shout-out to all freelancers - DO NOT FALL FOR THUMBTACK PREDATORY PRACTICES! I have been Thumbtack Pro for a couple of years. After trying to compete with overseas talent - meaning not getting any jobs, I decided to change my email preferences with Thumbtack. I chose to not receive any notifications. The moment I did that they started to charge me for "automated promotion od my business" - never sending me any info about those charges. I never knew about the "auto promotion", never send any quotes and never got any jobs.
Now, a couple of months later, when I discovered those charges, they refuse to refund the money the charged without my consent. Even the money that was charged less than 30 days ago (which according to their refund policy should be refundable without questions). Thumbtack management are predators preying on vulnerable small business owners, who cannot afford legal representation. Product or service mentioned: Thumbtack Leads. The reason of review: unauthorized payments for non-delivered leads. Monetary Loss: $245. Preferred solution: Full refund. I didn't like: Predatory practices, Scammed me out of 245 dollars, Misleading policies.
Reviewed Jan. 24, 2019
Do NOT and I repeat do NOT use this company. They are ripping vendors off. Now paying for leads only. I didn't mind when paying for an actual bid but it has changed. Please - it will end up costing you a fortune.
Reviewed Jan. 24, 2019
If the agreement states that you fund your account to get leads, therefore, no funding, no leads. I could not even send out a quote to a client because it bounce back to my payment page to add funds to my account. Then, a lead happens to slip through asking me a question "what's my next step" that is not even a service request question. Yet, Thumbtack charged my card which didn't go through because I had no funds on it, yet, I still owe them money. To make matters worse, the so-called customer requested all the services which took the estimate to a high cost. No one deep cleans their homes weekly even with pets!
Thumbtack realize that after a week with 2 leads, which notifications came to my phone 2-3 hours after, I should be happy to load money back on my account. I never got any clients! I paid for those and was okay with it, because they seemed to be legit customers enquiring. I tried to load a minimum amount of $35, but it would not process unless I add the $60 they suggested to send me leads. YOU CANNOT FORCE MONEY OUT OF PEOPLE'S HANDS. We should be allowed to add any amount of funds we can afford and deal with the number of leads we paid for. Zero to one, if that's the case. This is very unethical! And the support team has no leniency towards this situation.
If the question from the client was about my service, then I would say, "Okay, I'm gonna lose that one because I did not fund my account." But this wired question came in on my inbox to lure me to respond and be billed. As a matter of fact, even if I didn't respond, the fact that a "customer" sent me a message, I'm gonna be billed. Even if the question is irrelevant! Thumbtack has some shady things going on and scamming people and I'm done!!
Reviewed Jan. 23, 2019
I have been a pro on Thumbtack for 6 years now. They have been going through a lot of changes. I have spent a lot of time complaining to them about what is unfair. I have spent a lot of money with them. They match me with customers outside of my service area, charge me for it even if their customer had to no idea that I am not from their area and was looking for someone closer.
I have no recourse. I pay for responses and I get no information on the customer even though they have mine. Pros are not protected on Thumbtack. For example, A user made an appointment with me and canceled after the 24 hour period they agreed to, and I invoiced them for the late cancellation... They were able to open a dispute with Thumbtack and they froze my account when no charges were made nor was my side of the story taken into account. Where is my recourse? I am the paying customer THUMBTACK! Don't forget that the pros pay for Thumbtack services. You should treat the PROS with priority. I used to like THUMBTACK but now you just want to make money off the pros and treat us poorly. Do better.
Reviewed Jan. 23, 2019
Thumbtack used to be great—now, not so much. The new trend is for them to charge pros for “leads” when a customer submits *any* response to a pro. We have paid HUNDREDS of dollars for “leads” to simply send a message to say “thanks for the quick response, but we hired elsewhere...” Yes, Thumbtack charges at times upwards of $25 just for a consumer to send a message to a pro stating that they have terminated the lead. Thumbtack has answered my complaint to this by basically stating that they charge for ANY contact from a “lead” to a pro, no matter what the content. Bottom line: They’ve gotten greedy and refuse to educate consumers that the service is *not* free as advertised, but instead they are charging someone, even if no real service is rendered. They should be investigated for fraud.
Reviewed Jan. 22, 2019
I used to love Thumbtack. I got very good at what the market would bear and got lots of business at a reasonable cost. Now after all the changes it cost about 500% more and no guarantee you will get the business anyway. To anyone thinking about staying on Thumbtack open your eyes. I turned off all instant match notifications after I was charged for a whats your availability contact the customer never responded to. When I see any and all appliance repair quotes having at a least minimum of 3 and sometimes up to 8 instant quotes I know that is a sham. I just got an email yesterday that I am again a top pro. Whee! Closing my account today!
Reviewed Jan. 21, 2019
As a pro I do not recommend them. Avoid at all cost. I called before signing up for this service to clarify a few things, and was told I only pay for leads I responded to. This was not case at all. 4 days into service I was charged 40 for a lead that I did not respond to, after 2 and half hours on hold I was told my advanced setting were wrong but they were not. They did not credit me the lead money back even though I was told they had good customer service and could correct these things easily.
Reviewed Jan. 20, 2019
They stoled 2 unauthorized payments from my credit card. Do not respond to a lead because they will charge you. The customer seeking services may not even select you and they do not know that the professional is being charged for the lead... Thumbtack steal your money just in case you're going to respond to lead. I reported them to the credit card holder PayPal and then I deactivated my account and I received an error message that there is an internet connection issue. #Scam
Reviewed Jan. 19, 2019
Thumbtack has confusing practices for the customer looking for work, which benefits them and makes the pros pay for it. If I get chosen as the pro the client wants to deal with and charged more for that and then you send the client more pros to quote the job. How is that fair to the pro? They have made so many changes that they don’t even know how to keep up with them. Any questions you have about their pricing or practices get the generic, "We appreciate all feedback and take your concerns seriously". They don’t.
Reviewed Jan. 18, 2019
I wrote up a long request and sent them to pros, just to find out that Thumbtack does not actually send them the message, but a crafted version of what they think you want. This was a HUGE waste of my time. I will never go to them again.
Reviewed Jan. 18, 2019
I am so sick of Thumbtack. I have several sites and I am trying to download pictures on both sites but the same picture keeps coming up. My customers can't understand what's going on. I keep receiving price quotes for services that I do not do. They tell me they will take care of the problem but it still goes on. I get 9 request for something that I have no interest in and 1 price quote for a service that I do have. They tell you one thing and do nothing to solve the problem. They need to be shut down.
Reviewed Jan. 17, 2019
Thumbtack will direct people to your page who have no interest in following up on the lead. They will then allow other pros to reach out with a quote after you have already been charged. They then prompt customers to ask those pros questions, which counts as a lead so they have to pay Thumbtack as well. I have tried Thumbtack for 3 weeks. So far my profile has gotten over 1000 views and about 10 leads which has cost me about $300 to date. This has resulted in $0 business. Terrible business model for pros. Great money making tactic for Thumbtack.
Reviewed Jan. 15, 2019
Thumbtack is a dishonest company. The way they calculate the lead price is based on the boxes the potential client selects. In one instance, a user selected in their request that they are interested in a projector, screen and sound system but in their comments they write explicitly that they are only interested in a sound system. The cost for this lead was quite expensive but I figured Thumbtack would adjust the fee once I made them aware of this. Thumbtack refused to adjust the price of the lead despite me pointing this out to them. The cost of the lead was over 25% of the potential profit and Thumbtack couldn't care less. Their employees are not empowered to do anything. Despite expressing my frustration and how I would no longer be using the platform the Thumbtack employee was powerless to adjust the fee or offer any type of compensation.
Reviewed Jan. 14, 2019
It used to be a good site to get leads at a reasonable price but since they changed their system prices are almost triple of what it used to be and still after paying as much as $32 I was still getting tire kickers. I'm done with them. It is not what it used to be. I hope that they realize that they will lose a lot of pros looking for leads before it is too late.
Reviewed Jan. 13, 2019
Since Thumbtack implemented their new system, they charge for leads in advance without even offering the business to review the prospective client's needs. In addition, their lead fee is not disclosed until it's too late. At a minimum, the fees are more than triple what they were with the old system. The premise upon which Thumbtack's system operates has absolutely nothing to do with providing qualified leads. I was a user of the old system, which provided some value. That was due to the fact that I was able to read about the prospective client's needs and gear my communication to them based on how I could help them. This is no longer possible. So, in a nutshell, Thumbtack offers no value for at least triple the price. If you have a business of any kind looking to increase your client list, go elsewhere.
Reviewed Jan. 11, 2019
I have been using Thumbtack Pro for years and it was an excellent service when I first started. Recent changes have made it untenable to use. They now require you to pay for lead before you can even read it to see if you want it and to top it off they don’t tell you how much it’s going to cost you. So to recap - they want you to pay for lead before you read it and they’re not gonna tell you how much it’s going to cost you.
Reviewed Jan. 10, 2019
As so many other ripped off contractors have already expressed do not use this service!!! I cannot emphasize enough how corrupt and disrespectful their practices have become. I had over 50 reviews and was one of their top window installers in my area. They use to provide a decent service that was affordable and useful for contractors. Then as we see in society so often they sold out to greed around January of 2018 and completely changed their program and raised their prices through the roof. They have no true customer service anymore and you cannot get a hold of a manager at all!!
So disgusted I spent three years developing a excellent profile to just then have some greedy, sick executive decide to rip off the people that helped them get started. I have over 30 years experience in my field and have never written a review like this before. But these people are not just greedy they are performing illegal acts and must be stopped!! I am with all the other hard working contractors who had excellent ratings who want these people to be held accountable to ripping off the very people that paid their bills. They need to be shut down!!! Don't spend a dime with these crooks.
Reviewed Jan. 10, 2019
I have used Thumbtack a few times. The first 2 times were fine. I found a great lawn service. Recently I have tried to find plumbers, carpenters, and electricians on Thumbtack. All easy jobs. I'm still waiting to hear back from all of them, although of course by now I have managed to find tradespeople on my own. It started out as such a good concept. Matching tradespeople with homeowners. What happened?
Reviewed Jan. 9, 2019
Thumbtack customer support has openly admitted to me that they send a Thumbtack message under a customer name like "John do wants to know when you are available". As an honest businessman I reply immediately and get charged for the "lead" and never hear another word from the customer. They say it's "their research that shows it's a way to entice the customer to communicate" when it's really just a way to charge my credit card. Contractor beware! You may get one real customer for every 10 fake leads generated by Thumbtack. What started my investigation is when a customer that I responded to wrote back saying, "I never asked you for availability, I hired another contractor 2 weeks ago!"
Reviewed Jan. 8, 2019
This company has absolutely terrible customer service and no loyalty to their contractors. I requested a quote from a specific professional contractor that I had used before and before he could respond Thumbtack gave my name and email out to other pros and had them inundate me with random offers. When I contacted Thumbtack and confronted them on releasing my email they lied about their actions. Not a company I will ever trust.
Reviewed Jan. 7, 2019
I have been with Thumbtack for almost a year and at first I was very happy with their service, they seemed to have a better way to treat professionals than HomeAdvisor or Angie's List. The new changes that they introduced during November 2018 were terrible. Now they charge you for every first message if you have your so-called "promote on", but keep in mind the "message" is not a real inquiry from a customer. The customer submits a request for a project and TT on his/her behalf is messaging every professional in the area that has "promote on"-this is a complete scam, I will join any class action lawsuit if there will be the case in the future.
Reviewed Jan. 6, 2019
I've been with TT for almost 2 yrs and their treatment towards pros had gone from great to horrible! When I first started, I would be charged anywhere from $6 to $14 for a bid which was very sustainable for a small business owner as myself. Within the last 5-6 months, they have totally got rid of that and now they're charging a percentage more or less for what they call leads and soon as the customer reaches out to you which is BS. The majority of customers are skilled in the searching process and they are now ready to even commit and they're still contacting other pros and outside of Thumbtack. So as a pro, you're going to incur needless charges and the job is not even guaranteed.
To add insult to injury, you use to be able to contact support and you to get to speak to someone in the US, now when you call for support 9 out of 10 times you going to get someone outside of the country. This has Been proven to be difficult because a vast majority of the time the person you're talking to don't understand the rules and regulations and the process of being an electrical contractor in the United States. Has nothing to do with being racist or anything like that.
Reviewed Jan. 5, 2019
I was with Thumbtack for over 5 years and my DJ service was hired more than 200 times through Thumbtack. We were always listed as one of their Top Pros with a 5 Star rating (a rating I worked very hard to achieve and took great pride in). They went from being a very good source of fairly priced leads to being a terrible source of overpriced leads, almost overnight. They also put into practice a number of policies that made no sense whatsoever. Their business model is not one that any pro should get involved with. A year or two ago I would have had nothing but nice things to say about Thumbtack. Now their chief objective seems to be taking money from professionals.
Reviewed Jan. 4, 2019
When I started using Thumbtack three years ago I spent between $5-$15 per customer contact. Which was fine. I could bid on a lot and have plenty of opportunity. I bid one job this week and it’s not even a guarantee that I will get it and the cost was $45 which of course I didn’t know prior to them charging me. I got a job promote lead for 250 of wrought iron fence. The cost to respond to the customer is $75. This is way too much for a job I may or may not even get. I’m rated a top pro and have over 50 reviews and a solid 5 star rating. This company has gone from ok to terrible. They are crooks. The customers just don’t understand this as there is no fee for them but I’m seriously paying enough each month to keep their lights on. If you're thinking about using it now don’t. I would say back in the day it was great but they have gotten greedy. I’m contacting a lawyer. I see class action lawsuit coming.
Reviewed Jan. 3, 2019
With the new "Lead Job promo" they decided that there was a match and just charged me $51.00 out of nowhere, and they send a false message to the customer without my permission. This is their new approach to stealing money out of professionals and we do not have any chance to stop that. I contacted Customer support and their reply is, "It shows here you promoted your Software Development service - https://www.thumbtack.com/services. When you promote your service, you're automatically charged for contacts from customers whose project details match your preferences." But, I could not get them to see that there are hundreds of categories in Software and does not mean they can just promote me for what they feel like! This is a new internet scam and needs to be stopped!
Reviewed Jan. 3, 2019
To all Contractors thinking about TT...STAY AWAY. I have been with TT for 3 years. I have 54 REVIEWS, an overall rating of 4.7 as of today, Jan 02, 2019. TT has changed their model to a "Promote Your Business." The catch is a smoke screen - they are going to charge you UPFRONT - they claim you will get 20% each lead. Scam is this - 20% of what??? How do WE KNOW the price upfront??? We don't. ADVANTAGE TO TT??? Big time. Next, how do I know how many other pros are getting contacted??? Not sustainable... Before they had to make QUICK and FAST changes to keep the $$$ coming in, they stated to the pros that this was a way to only attract serious and truly interested customers.
Here is what has happened to me since they made these changes. PLEASE READ ALL so you can know what it was like BEFORE these changes and why I was so successful. Please understand that I am a design-build contractor so it was VERY IMPORTANT FOR ME TO BE ABLE TO SCREEN THE LEADS. After the switch to Promote Your Business (keep in mind I can no longer screen the leads) I noticed immediate dead leads right from the get go. 11 leads over a ten day period. 1 seriously wanted someone to come pour a 6X4 concrete slab. 1 wanted flowers by their porch and around the trees - too small. 1 wanted 4000 work but had a budget of 1000. 2 Indians, both nice houses in nice neighborhoods, but they will NEVER PAY the professional prices. Awesome people - their cultures. They are just taught to never pay full price for anything - except college for their kids and cars!!!
5 leads - NO CONTACT EVER MADE. 1 job sold - OH YEAH. They called me 2 days before XMAS and cancelled (I promise on everything I have I told my wife that I knew they were going to cancel...just a feeling that I had. Their house was a complete ** hole too - huge red flag!!!). These 5 other leads I know that 3 were fake leads. I ran a cross reference for the Appraisal District with LAST NAMES provided and only 2 showed up. OUTRIGHT FRAUD and getting away with it??? At least for now.
So, as stated, I lost my ability to be able to screen my leads. Honestly, I NEVER had a problem with deal leads, or tire-kickers. Here is why. I got so good at my screening process I would only go to "potential tire-kickers" leads if they were in an area I already had an appt set. Yes, I know it seems a lil crazy but as small business I have to operate as efficiently as possible. I was so used to purchasing leads as they came in based on my SETTING, what I knew worked and what did not and I was happy with Thumbtack. I then discovered they NO LONGER allow us PROs to call in their main number. They will only allow you to either use TEXT and CHAT support. Hey Thumbtack, are you getting so many complaints that you can not keep the phone lines open??? I blew through $862 on those 11 leads. Yup, seriously was $862 and NOT ONE JOB SOLD.
So Thumbtack, you are totally forcing your LOYAL PROs to leave your site, your complaints even on the Thumbtack Community forum page are seriously being posted like "by the minute". Your complaints online, especially the last 3 months are also at an all time high. If the NEW AND IMPROVED SYSTEM can not work for established contractors with a lot of reviews, top notch profile pages, and ANSWERS the leads as they come in, replies as quick to customers, and really works hard to make it work in general...then how in the hell do you expect to FRAUD all the newbie contractors that come to your site looking for work?
You know that "us" small biz people can be stubborn, and not always understanding what hard work it takes to build a profile and get lots of reviews. However, some of us contractors GET IT... Yes we are Savvy and we work hard and we know what it takes. THUMBTACK - you're screwing over a lot of people and you know it. You got with your best and brightest IT guys, all the Engineers and you all had to find a way to get more $$$ upfront, as your company owes A LOT OF $$$ TO INVESTORS...so with all your PROs walking away you're screwing yourself if you think that cheating and scamming and posting fake leads is going to last.
Reviewed Jan. 3, 2019
DO NOT use Thumbtack. It's a scam, plain and simple. I do not mind paying for leads, but you cannot ethically charge $51 to basically say hello to a lead. They are stealing money from people and as a small business, you do not need to waste your money on these scam artists.
Reviewed Dec. 31, 2018
If you are a contractor don’t use the services of Thumbtack, because you pay for false leads, just a note from a consumer that will never contact you back again, you never get a good email, no phone number, no contact information. The only thing will be a note or basic information for the type of service and they will get a high amount of money for maybe an small job, normally about a 20% to 30% of the job, if you are lucky to get in touch with any consumer that may not exist. THUMBTACK IS A RIP OFF.
Reviewed Dec. 30, 2018
I would agree with most of these one star reviews on Thumbtack from this site. I have reported them to the Florida Attorney General. They changed their terms of service recently and are defrauding Pros who were successfully using their service in the past. They need to be investigated and am willing to join any class action suit against them.
Like so many other reviews, this former user of the service confirms that what WAS good is no more. Thumbtack's greed, which the company attempts to disguise as a marketing system in favor of its clients, has literally turned off so many people and the ultimate value provided no longer exists. The company no longer serves as a lead generator. It has simply become a fee collector that no longer promotes freedom of expression to prospective customers. From another reviewer who echoes the experience of Hundreds of pros.
Stay far away as possible. Thumbtack use to be a good website to help match professionals with customers and then they changed everything. They are scamming pros with fake leads charging ridiculous amounts even for customers who are just curious about a quote and they have a strict no refund policy. That's right. Let me break it down. They get someone on the inside to post a job. Let's say example paint interior and exterior of home. Well that person picks out specific contractors they would like to work with for Thumbtack. The more the better.
So let's say 10 pros are picked. Well Thumbtack claims the customer would like to work directly with you and only you. Do you accept or decline? Just when you may think you landed a job and accept the other 9 pros also accept and charges $80 each which equals $800 right in Thumbtack's pocket which the entire time the customer is either affiliated with Thumbtack or could just be a curious customer looking for some prices. Either way only person that wins at the end is the scammers.
Reviewed Dec. 28, 2018
We have been with TT for about 5 years. They have modified their system strategy multiple times to the worse. Before the leads were about 5-10$ with a pool of 5 pros competing with each other, now they cost 25-60$ and you are competing with around 15 pros. This obviously decreases the chance of you getting hired, plus every single pro who is not hired end up paying their ridiculous cost. This is not counting their fake leads that are not even screened to the public nor investigated by any agency for fraud. TT found a way to steal from people and nobody has done anything to regulate this non-transparent strategy they have.
STAY AWAY... If you use this people for business you are agreeing with their policy and statements they have created to support their dark stealing strategy but most important you will lose big amounts of money in no time. As soon as I saw their new system update about a year ago, we stopped bidding, now we just watch and pass every single request and see where they are going with their scam strategy. We feel bad for the Pros because there is so many people struggling out there who depends on money to survive in this economy and this company is just putting them in a worst position. There is no benefit, only a loss!!! Remember that before you begin quoting.
Reviewed Dec. 22, 2018
Their system is terrible. You can only lose money here. One lead is $10. For just somebody replied you maybe for fun. I didn’t see this before. They’re saying you limit of week price that you need to choose. Somebody just ask me how much my service cost. That’s it and I paid $10.
Reviewed Dec. 20, 2018
I had Thumbtack attempt to withdraw 10K from my wife's credit card because it happened to be a card they had on file. They eventually got $1500, because I did not respond to a dispute that they attempted to notify my about through an email that I had used previously, but had discontinued after giving them a good email. With the help of my lawyer, I got my money back. These people are total sharks.
Reviewed Dec. 18, 2018
I've used Thumbtack for years. I have spent tens of thousands of dollars with them and have been hired hundreds of times and have hundreds of 5-star reviews. I am a "top-pro" in Atlanta. At one time, you paid when a potential customer requested your service and you reviewed their request and responded with all the information that you wanted the customer to have. If the customer did not view the quote, they refunded the cost after 2 days. The cost per lead at that time was about $5 for me. The cost varied, but you knew what you were paying before you responded, then they billed you at the end of the week.
Now, they "instant match" you with your clients. From the customer's perspective, this is probably a good thing, but from a pro perspective, it sucks. First of all, you can't send a message that makes you stand out. You get their generic response. Secondly, the cost is now about $50 per lead (I'm sure it varies by industry, but that is what I'm paying). They justify this by claiming that they don't charge you unless a potential client contacts you, but they encourage the client to contact everyone in town by giving them an option to say "sounds good, what's next." They do show how many people each lead contacts. Many contact 4-5 pros with that nonsense and unsurprisingly, very few actually show up. My standard fee is $299, so $50 fake leads are absolutely ridiculous. Oh, and they now charge your card the second that the system automatically responds to the client. If you have a limited number of transactions with your bank, it will be a problem.
Reviewed Dec. 18, 2018
I am one of the Top Pros on TT. I have used them for over a year now. Recently they changed their system to let customers find you. I have been charged several hundred dollars due to this change and every single customer that "found me" and I responded to conveniently "cancelled" their project after TT collected their fee. Most of these jobs charged me $75 each. I am in favor of entering a class action lawsuit to shut this company down along with any other companies like it. They have already been sued once before for the same practice and evidently didn't learn anything from it. They are common thieves and I will be in touch with the BBB.
Reviewed Dec. 16, 2018
My company has been a "PRO" for years with Thumbtack and consumers must know that they charge us for every request for an estimate. That is fine but please note that they auto generate responses and We have to pay for all of those...even if you do not reply to us, the contractor! It's a TOTAL sham and a windfall for Thumbtack! This just happened recently. They did have a great system before but we believe that the influx of competition they are desperate and have quit working with their deceptive practices! Do NOT use Thumbtack EVER!!
Reviewed Dec. 15, 2018
Please contact me on **. We need this investigated. This is money we lost. It's not just a matter of filing a complaint, but getting our money back. This is a scam. How can one continue to pay for leads, false leads and get no work? This is not possible. We need this investigated.
Reviewed Dec. 13, 2018
This is complete sham of a company. Literally ANYONE can submit a potential job, and if you as a professional would like to send a bid, you have TO PAY! If said customer even acknowledges your bid? That money you paid is JUST GONE. I tried asking if I could be refunded for the jobs that I never got, but MY MONEY WAS TAKEN for, and nope. They just send you a very scripted message with a bunch of ** links.
Reviewed Dec. 13, 2018
Thumbtack was providing good service at first, then failed. I was making money and satisfied with Thumbtack. My new customers were well filtered and presented to me so I could make a good decision about whether to pursue them. The first clue for me was that their direct telephone customer service was excellent, then it stopped. I mean, it ceased to be, it was a dead parrot. Starting this past October of 2018, the number of leads began to dwindle. This past three months I have only received three compared to 25 or so per month from last year. My income is way down, I am struggling to find other marketing ideas I can pursue.
Here's an opinion based on no factual evidence: Something went wrong with Thumbtack this past summer. They are scrambling to extract money from their vendor base. That's me. Their new search-engine based selling tool for vendors they presented to us a few months ago was a last-ditch effort to fend off the impending collapse of the company and get the last dollar they can from companies like mine. Here's what I know for a fact: I have no leads and no work. I'm done with Thumbtack.
Reviewed Dec. 11, 2018
I own a small engineering and land surveying business and am always looking for ways to generate more leads and revenue. I came across Thumbtack several years ago and during the first year or so everything was fine. I spent a minimal amount of money per lead and actually landed a several jobs that I might not have otherwise had the opportunity to bid on.
That was then. This is now. For the last year or so I have received an increasing amount of leads. However, the number of real leads remains the same and the increased volume are scam leads. How do I know this you ask? Well, the leads are very generic about what they are looking for. I then respond with the exact same questions to each generic lead and guess what? I receive the exact same response from the potential "lead". EVERY TIME. And what is worse - I get charged for that bogus response. I have cancelled and no longer use their service, but other contractors beware. Don't throw your money down the drain.
Reviewed Dec. 10, 2018
These ** are scammers. If you value your money then stay away. They have found a legal way of stealing money from you. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Run run run... It used to be a good service with decent rates. I don’t know who came up with the idea for the new system they have. They must be crucified. It’s basically the worse system ever. STAY AWAY!!!
Reviewed Dec. 7, 2018
Like so many other reviews, this former user of the service confirms that what WAS good is no more. Thumbtack's greed, which the company attempts to disguise as a marketing system in favor of its clients, has literally turned off so many people and the ultimate value provided no longer exists. The company no longer serves as a lead generator. It has simply become a fee collector that no longer promotes freedom of expression to prospective customers.
Reviewed Dec. 7, 2018
Horrible experience!! They just ripping off the pros without any sense. They charge huge amount of money for nothing. I have sent the quote to the customer and he replied that he is going to pick another vendor and Thumbtack still charged me $34 for this, his for his reply!!! It’s ridiculous!! We started using Thumbtack a year ago and it was ok in the beginning, because at least they charged a little and you could bid, and you could get the jobs, but right now they are charging a lot of money for nothing. So unfair. Stay away from this company!
Reviewed Dec. 7, 2018
I used Thumbtack for a plumbing project. They recommended a contractor which I gave the job to. The contractor said he fixed it but ultimately it was not fixed and did a terrible job. I tried to reach out to the contractor to have him come back to fix it and he was unresponsive. I then reached out to Thumbtack who was of no help and claims they can't do anything. Thumbtack doesn't screen any of their contractors or have any way to protect its customers. I have no idea why anyone would use Thumbtack as you're better off using Yelp or the Yellow Pages. Unfortunately, I had to learn this the hard way and I hope someone can benefit from reading my review.
Reviewed Dec. 6, 2018
Like so many other pros who have used Thumbtack over the years, it was a decent lead generation company. Over the last month they have made several changes and now directly feed you bogus leads which you are instantly charged for. They now say they are a MARKETING tool and not lead generation! They promote the competition on your dime. For example, I made a customer account to see what it looks like from a customers perspective. I requested services directly from my company.
After I sent a message from the customers account, MY company was BILLED IMMEDIATELY even without looking at the message. As the customer I was then given the contact information for 15 OTHER companies via my customer Thumbtack profile to whom I SHOULD ALSO CONTACT! As well as a direct email with... wait for it... a list of 100 OTHER companies "that I should contact". But was NEVER given the contact information for MY company (original company I DIRECTLY reached out to)! With that being said, if they are a "Marketing Tool" why are they promoting other business and not my own at my expense? Is that not a conflict of interest??? From one Professional Contractor to another STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM THIS POS company!!! Unless they revert back to the original way of operating!!!
Reviewed Dec. 6, 2018
Stay far away as possible. Thumbtack use to be a good website to help match professionals with customers and then they changed everything. They are scamming pros with fake leads charging ridiculous amounts even for customers who are just curious about a quote and they have a strict no refund policy. That's right. Let me break it down. They get someone on the inside to post a job. Let's say example paint interior and exterior of home. Well that person picks out specific contractors they would like to work with for Thumbtack. The more the better.
So let's say 10 pros are picked. Well Thumbtack claims the customer would like to work directly with you and only you. Do you accept or decline? Just when you may think you landed a job and accept the other 9 pros also accept and charges $80 each which equals $800 right in Thumbtack's pocket which the entire time the customer is either affiliated with Thumbtack or could just be a curious customer looking for some prices. Either way only person that wins at the end is the scammers.
Reviewed Dec. 5, 2018
Alright where do I start, TT is just flat out scandalous, ripoff, lying wanna be company just stealing like big banks, for doing nothing. So many fake jobs being sent out to pros. It is beyond something to just let it happen. I quit TT for good now. No point when you can’t make a living and I was the only pool guy around, so no one else put in for bids on my jobs. Oh well hope your fake company goes to hell soon. People dropping off left and right. Let’s get together and sue the pants off of TT, class action lawsuit, that will be heard. Then they have to decide to go bankrupt or burn it all before going to FEDERAL COURT in front of the world to be torn to pieces and us pros get our money back that TT stole. Come on people. Let’s unite as one.
Reviewed Dec. 5, 2018
So I fired my secretary that ran up a bunch of charges only after I fired her using her old email. My Thumbtack account was current but they shut me off and said that I owe them money? So the money I had in my account was taken for a basement finishing job??? I never even heard from anyone except them saying someone was interested. No contact was ever made by any homeowner. I wasted hundreds of dollars with this scam of a service. They are certainly a scam and take advantage of contractors.
Reviewed Dec. 2, 2018
Watch out pros!! Thumbtack will rip you off!!! They start out low but they raise prices for leads. And they got fake clients will send you message and they charge you $75 per message. You don’t even have no conversation with clients!!! I think those who send me messages was fake Clients!!! I been charged over $500!!! Watch out these scams!!!
Reviewed Dec. 2, 2018
This company promised me the world and delivered nothing!! As a vendor I am so very disappointed. They have some new system in place where you can no longer bid on a job or interact with the customer. The worst most cunning crafty company I have ever worked with.
Reviewed Dec. 1, 2018
Thumbtack had a mission to match people up with local pros. You could go to Thumbtack for almost anything from childcare to home repairs, to tango lessons. Pros paid for leads. Thumbtack limited the number of pros that could respond to any lead so if you set a decent price and offered a decent service you had a good shot at the job. First you had to pay for any lead you responded to but the prices were fair so even if you didn't get a job, you might come out ahead. Then you had to pay a higher price but only if you got a response, even if the response didn't lead to a job. Not so great, but I still could get by.
Then a few weeks ago they changed the system. Now you have to agree to be "instantly matched" to jobs that might not work for you and might not respond to you. The business I built up primarily using them for leads is gone. After a few days of losing money and not getting any gigs, I gave up. The system no longer favors the best pros -- the ones with good reviews, offering the best service. It now favors those willing to pay Thumbtack an enormous amount of money for the slim chance of getting a gig -- even one that is too far away to travel to, or isn't exactly your area of expertise. This isn't about improving customer experience or making it easier for pros to connect with customers. It's corporate greed.
Reviewed Dec. 1, 2018
Thumbtack was a great service for contractors when they first started. It was a so refreshing after HomeAdvisor. Now, they are the worst and most expensive and the worst source of customers for professionals. When I first started and a few months later they raised their prices, they were swearing on the phone they would never raise the price again. Since then, the prices more than tripled and continue to go up. This company is most unpredictable I've ever dealt with in my entire life. You cannot rely on them at all because they bring new changes almost every day. Shame! Stay away from Thumbtack or you will be broke before long.
Reviewed Nov. 27, 2018
Attention Roofing Contractors among others. Please read as the information that you will see below is the problem that you will encounter when working with THUMBTACK now. Thumbtack used to be a VERY VALUABLE SITE for all of us contractors and I was a very LOYAL CONTRACTOR to them spending up to $500 per month. Every single time a lead for a roofing repair job or for a new installation was coming to me, I responded within 2-3 minutes almost all their leads as I wanted to keep very busy in the Houston, TX area. When I started in 2017 the price for a ROOFING REPAIR was $8 and change and the price for a NEW ROOF INSTALLATION was $16 dollars and change sharing this same lead with 5 other contractors.
Now, they have come up with a new model of not charging you every single time that you quote or estimate a job but unfortunately not only they have raised the price of a ROOFING REPAIR to $23 dollars and the price for a NEW ROOF INSTALLATION to up to $75 dollars. On top of this now they are RE-SELLING the same lead to up to 15 contractors placing so much competition on you that it is almost impossible to get 2-3 jobs per week. I have written to them in numerous times, have spoken to some of their representative and managers and NOBODY is doing ANYTHING to change their GREEDY policies.
In other words, what is happening now is that THUMBTACK resells to up to 15 possible Contractors a lead that may only cost them $10 each and profit a HUGE AMOUNT OF MONEY from all those contractors that will not get the job. The Homeowner and property owner is very happy too as Thumbtack is referring tons of contractors for them to get a good price and us the CONTRACTORS that have to spend gas to get to the place, bring our business cards and brochures to inform homeowners, arrive on time under weather and traffic conditions, can't even get an answer from the Homeowner since he will not make a final decision as of to hire you since he has so many other Contractors coming to see them.
It is very disappointing to see that a company that was truly working with us to help our businesses is now the MOST GREEDY company out there not only charging high prices but also bringing you TONS OF COMPETITION for you to deal with when they are sitting in an air conditioned office and us are risking our lives to provide an estimate on a roof.
Plain and simple, this is the story of what is happening to this company now. I just hope that perhaps someone in this company can understand that in order to have a long lasting relationship with small and medium size contractors who have smaller marketing budgets, they have to make it where it is good and considerate for both parties and not for only them. VERY DISAPPOINTED AT THIS COMPANY.
Reviewed Nov. 27, 2018
I contracted with Jack Sims of Sims Wood Works to build me a table for my foyer. He contacted me promptly, gave me a design and price quickly. He built my table and has delivered it. I love it. It is just what I wanted. He did a great job. Would definitely use him again.
Reviewed Nov. 26, 2018
I took private hip-hop lesson with Darren since April 2018 until October 2018, I wanted to learn hip-hop so I could perform at my 60th birthday party, at first I was scared, but he helped me feel relaxed and comfortable to start from the beginning hip hop moves. As time went on, I got more confident and could learn new steps more easily and not get tired as I did when I first started, in the end of my classes. I was able to accomplish what I wanted and performed at my 60th birthday party, and everyone loved what we had choreographed together, I highly recommend him for anyone who wants to learn hip-hop.
Reviewed Nov. 26, 2018
I called Thumbtack customer service to tell them their cleaning service on their website had stolen over $500 from my home. Also $1500 jewelry. They did nothing! They just read a typical sympathy form letter telling me how sorry they were but did not attempt to help me with a reimbursement. Just told me to follow up with a police report. Apparently I was the 2nd victim with Jessica ** of TRIPLE J cleaning . The police promised to investigate her. But Thumbtack could not promise me to remove this THIEF from their company. They suggested I write a negative review about Triple J Cleaning, but she knows where I live and don't want to be stalked by this criminal.
Reviewed Nov. 24, 2018
In years past, Thumbtack was somewhat successful in generating clients for you if you put in the work but not anymore. Now Thumbtack has gone up on their prices 400% in the last 2 years and changed their model so that if a prospect emails you with an insignificant question, BAM, you're hit with $80 charge. Thumbtack is in control of how much they charge you per person so you never know how much is coming out of your bank account. You used to be able to but credits and now they require your payment information so, BAM they can suck the money out of your account. They have it where you can set a limit on how much is taken from your account but the minimum is $300 a month.
Thumbtack also offers automatic quotes to prospects which means when a prospect asked for a quote, Thumbtack sends them 15 quotes which most are automatic and most of those have the same exact generic message which Thumbtack wrote. I wanted a customized quote but you only have a couple of minutes before the prospect closes because generic quotes were sent to the prospect so 15 quotes are reached quickly. A money maker for Thumbtack because if you don't get hired, you are still available for Thumbtack to hit you up again.
To me, their clients are the only ones NOT protected. Isn't it suppose to be the other way around? People looking for services pay nothing unless they hire someone which is very low percentage compared to everyone that ask for quotes. Thumbtack reaps most of the cash rewards because they charge a very high price when their clients are "contacted" by the prospect for ANY reason. Clients are left vulnerable and targeted. It is set up so that Thumbtack could, if they wanted, get a bunch of people to ask for quotes, then get those same people to ask a stupid question and when the Thumbtack client answers, Thumbtack charges their client and the prospect is never heard from again.
Thumbtack uses reviews and number of times hired, so the prospects feel they have some history that can count if they do hire someone off of Thumbtack but both reviews and number of times hires is so easy to manipulate. You can literally add reviews yourself and, though you will be charged, you could pose as a prospect, and go on and click "hired" yourself. My advice is DON'T hire Thumbtack.
Reviewed Nov. 23, 2018
A pro responded to me with a high quote. I told him he was too high. He told me I should hire Guatemalans if I wanted cheap labor. I posted a review and wrote the racist comment. So they deactivated my account. What a joke. They protect their clients even though they are racist.
Reviewed Nov. 19, 2018
I notice that most of the reviews here are from service providers who are charged hefty amounts for leads on jobs that they often don't get. I never knew that the providers were charged such high rates for me just responding to the Thumbtack suggestion list of providers. It seems that many professionals have abandoned the site and justifiably so. The over-charging of qualified contractors has left those seeking assistance with home projects dismal short lists of providers as it seems many qualified providers have left Thumbtack.
Knowing that there is a charge for responding to my inquiry and that these charges add up my account for the fact that the few times I have received quotes they were inflated to noncompetitive rates. Each time I ended up using a contractor I found using an online search or by word of mouth recommendations. It seems that Thumbtack's greed serves no one but Thumbtack.
Reviewed Nov. 17, 2018
Thumbtack take your money even if the person response in one word. They do not follow up and make sure customers pay, and their customer service could not be more rude. I called about someone contacting me for a job 85 miles away and I set my limit to 45. They would not refund the $25 I got charged for the person contacting me. This mistake was their fault. I would never have quoted a job that far away for $100. I would lose money. Customer service was rude, blamed me, and didn’t give me my money back. My only advice to people about to use Thumbtack is don’t.
Reviewed Nov. 17, 2018
Nick scheduled his start time at 8-8:30 am 11/15/2018. The job was to remove a tub & wall, then move washer/dryer, build new wall & install a water softener system & reverse osmosis system. He did not show up. I texted him at 9 am asking him if he was lost. (We are on a mountain outside of a small town.) He texted that his alarm didn't go off. He was running late. He'd be here around 12 noon. He got here around 12:15 pm. He still didn't have a written contract and never gave me one. He wrote a list of materials that he would need. He said he would need 600 for materials. I gave him the cash and he did give me a receipt. I did call the store, since my family does business there and was just told he spent $329.61 total for materials. Wow, Nick owes me money $270.39!!!
Some helpers (A man named Jeremy? And a woman named Sara) had showed up around 1:30 to start the tear out and kept working til Nick returned at around 4:45 pm. He had apparently stopped at McDonald's and bought food for all 3. They took a break & then Jeremy & Sarah left. (Also left a garbage bag with trash from McDonald's on the middle of my driveway. Nick came in and started working on the water softener for installation, said there were no instructions. I looked them up on the internet and showed him. He then went into the kitchen & started to install the under the sink reverse osmosis system. He was getting frustrated and said he would be back to finish Friday, 11/16/2018. I asked him if he would pick up a part to connect to the refrigerator & I would reimburse him. He kept getting texts & calls. It was approximately 6:30 by this time.
He sat at my dining table and asked if I could give him another 600 so he could stay at a motel in town. I said, "Why would you need that much?" He didn't explain & stated that he knew I had stated earlier that I wouldn't pay the rest until he completed the job. Gave me a lost boy look and I gave in, giving him another (manipulation) 600 dollars. I didn't really look at the receipt until he didn't show up Friday 11/16/2018. I don't know what this meant, $600.00 paid Bathroom Labor. Then skipped a line $600.00 remaining balance as of 11/15/18, he signed. He wanted to be here at 9:30 am. And it would be around 5 more hours to complete the job. He also said the helper would pick up the part at the Home Depot in Russellville, AR.
After he left, I found that the tub faucet (it was left for next day to convert the washer) was leaking. I couldn't get any water to come out of the kitchen sink. I tried to sop up the leaky faucet, but it got worse. So I shut off the water. I texted Nick and he called back stating that he thought it was only a drip and the kitchen faucet must have been shut off by his helper. (It wasn't connected properly & the faucet in the kitchen leaked, too.)
Friday, no Nick, no helper at the time HE designated, 9:30 am. At 11 am, I texted him. No response. I called him at 11:30 and got voice mail. I blocked my number and called at 12:26. He did answer and said he was going to pick up Jeremy and be here at 1:20 pm. No one showed up and no one called me back. I get no response from texts or calls. Last text was at 4:56 pm asking him to please call with an explanation. No RESPONSE. REALLY FED UP!!! I WILL NEVER USE THIS SERVICE AGAIN. YOU SENT A RIP OFF ARTIST!!!
Nick left a mess and didn't bother to contact me. He owes me $870.39 because he did not finish the job and left a huge mess! Now I have to find someone to complete. I have 3 kids & I am not able to use my washer and dryer. This person needs to be prosecuted. I will contact an attorney, the AG, The BBB & report this all over. You will pay, Nick!!! I WOULD NEVER HIRE YOU AGAIN BECAUSE YOU HAVE POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE AND POOR SKILLS AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED.
Reviewed Nov. 16, 2018
Thumbtack use to charge at most 12.00 per contact made. No big deal I thought. So I tried Thumbtack Pro, set my limit by 45.00 for 1-3 contacts. I received one contact and they took 45.00. The largest fraud to date. When I went inactive for a month all of the sudden I was getting notifications via email that miraculously people in my local area were needing my service. Mind you before when I was active for 3 months I had maybe 1 in my local area. Fraud and fake contacts I truly believe.
Reviewed Nov. 16, 2018
If you are just starting out and want to make minimum wage, then join Thumbtack. But if you are a real pro, a waste of money. It is set up for people to price shop you looking for the lowest price, and they have no responsibility whatsoever. So Thumbtack sends the Pro (15 Pros to be exact get the name which is way too much and just confuses the customers) to a customer that is most of the time just shopping around or in some cases not even real (the spelling sent of some names and times sent). 3 am in the morning is actually comical, (the algorithm must not follow time stamps and running out of names). And when sent to the Pro, automatically charged.
Thumbtack stated to us no charge unless we reach out to the customer after they sent us an interested in your services. We never reached out to any and still were charged. They claimed I set up the "promote my company" to show our services which we did with the agreement of they changed their system to the Pro only being charged if we make contact. Not the case. Very dishonest on how they handle this. They are making a great deal of money right now acting as if they want to help Pros but not happening. Make as much as possible until it either becomes a class action or government agency steps in and says enough. Sorry, we ever joined. Lesson learned.
Reviewed Nov. 16, 2018
Using Thumbtack posted I posted my project, repair a portion of my concrete driveway. A company advertising as Affordable Concrete Repair responded to my post. I hired these two guys after an onsite visit and discussion of price. Terrible decision, total ripoff. They worked for like 3 days filling in a crack and resurfacing about a 15 foot section of the driveway. Within 2 days of when they left the crack started to re-appear and has only grown ever since. The top coat has started to crack and flake away. When I contacted the "leader" about the crack he stated they had seen it and would be back next week, of course that never happened. A written guarantee was worthless. Charlie ** is the name, company cannot be found. STAY AWAY, CROOKS.
Reviewed Nov. 15, 2018
I have been using Thumbtack for about a year with my current catering company and have deactivated my account today due to outrageous costs being charged to my credit card without a clear explanation. Thumbtack charges you when a potential client makes contact and sends a message. This message could only say hi & I am being charged over $40? Something doesn't add up here. Not to mention, how am I able to verify this is a real person contacting me and not a bot from Thumbtack making them money with fake job postings? Most quotes I send out go unanswered and there is no phone number or email for me to contact this alleged real person. The whole set up seems one-sided now that I take a step back and realize the cons outweigh the pros for this service.
Reviewed Nov. 15, 2018
It is a scam designed to make them money a few leads a lot of fake ones. I talked to customer service. They don't respond. Could care less. And would not refund any money. I did read the reviews before signing up and should have listened.
Reviewed Nov. 13, 2018
As a Home Improvement contractor of 53 years I agree with all the Pros complaints in the reviews posted. I have documented these issues for a long time and I believe most of these client calls are a scam for Thumbtack to financially benefit. I closed my account with them because they refused a refund and validate the client's identity. I was charged for clients who didn't provide proper information to submit a quote as is requested by Thumbtack and or did not respond to my request for information sufficient to submit a quote. I told this to Thumbtack numerous times but they never responded.
In the beginning I saw a lot of Pros responding but when the platform changed there were no longer any pros responding to client requests, I have tracked over 90 Pro request a week. I intend to file a complaint as a consumer with the New York State Attorney Generals Office of consumer services. Thumbtack is a Interstate business and as such must conform to the US Commercial Code. In brief "receiving a paid lead with no response from client with information sufficient to quote does not full fill a contract. The cost of the lead is only valid if you are able to submit a quote". I have told Thumbtack they should only charge the fee for leads if you meet with the client and or able to submit a quote. Once again no response, I would suggest the Pros work with their bank to reverse these unwarranted charges if possible and or contact their local Consumer Protection Offices.
Reviewed Nov. 13, 2018
Wow, just wow. You can clearly see in the top blue line. "Congrats, no need to quote! Jenna ** has already selected you from a list of pros. Reply to seal the deal." You can clearly see a $2600 price point. The second screenshot shows in the line messages, "We are fun! Pick us!" When I reached out to this client it told me I was going to be charged almost $45. Fortunately, I had hit my weekly budget, but I did not know at the time. So, I reached out to the client. I wrote up a nice intro full of congratulations regarding her engagement and thanking her for her interest.
I stated that I would need a little more info before I could draw up a contract. Her response was, "I have never heard of a DJ that costs more than $650. Thanks but that is just way out of our budget." I was frustrated and I wrote back. "Thanks, I just paid $45 for the privilege for this exchange. Next time you ask for an interaction know that the DJ is being charged." She then wrote back, "I didn't ask you to contact me. You reached out to me." We went back and forth a little more, but we remained polite. She then posted a 1 star review to my page and cut and pasted snippets of our conversation creating a narrative that was not the truth.
I contacted Thumbtack and asked for the only 1 star review I have ever received in 2.5 years to be removed. I showed them the evidence of our conversation and demonstrated with facts that what this client wrote was untruthful. Thumbtack refused to remove the review because it was about how the client "feel" regardless of the truth. The other issue is that the client didn't understand she reached out to me. The messages I received from Thumbtack would indicate that I have a person who has been looking at my page. They are aware of the price I see on the screenshot above. If I reply at this time it's a turnkey deal. The truth is anything but that. In the end, after spending nearly 5 hours dealing with customer service, I was forced delete my account.
Reviewed Nov. 13, 2018
Joe at All Solar was very honest and helpful. I spoke to three other vendors but without meeting anyone face to face. I felt All Solar cared and felt it was about his pride in his service and not just about getting a job. I am a small business owner and was extremely happy and satisfied with the excellent service I received. I will recommend him in a heartbeat and plan on using him to install a system on my other home. Thank you Joe for your honesty and hard work, you not only represented Thumbtack well but yourself also.
Reviewed Nov. 12, 2018
I have responded to quotes several times, people pretend to be interested and ask questions already in the quote provided. Then don't respond, but I got billed. The system is designed for the app holder to make money.
Reviewed Nov. 6, 2018
This platform is terrible. I, as a pro, working here for more than 2 years. I am paying more than %70 of my income for quotes. Their customer service sucks. They do not pay attention to the pros. I really disappointed with them and will find another fairer platform.
Reviewed Nov. 2, 2018
It started off ok, then it became a money hungry site. I deleted my credit card until Thumbtack stops sucking money out our bank accounts every time a potential or fake client sends us a message. It's hard to determine who is fake and who is real. Thumbtack has lost its professionalism.
Reviewed Nov. 2, 2018
I signed onto thumbtack only to see that now you get charged an outrageous amount each bid. I had 18.37 credit on my account from previous bidding jobs that I asked to be refunded as I do not want to partake in this new required protocol. They flat out refused to refund my own money!!! STAY AWAY FROM THUMBTACK AS A PRO... DO NOT USE!!! SCAM.
Reviewed Oct. 31, 2018
They sent me what they call leads and they charged them to me every time, a so called lead sent me a message $14.00 to read 6 words "Do you work on water heaters". You have to be joking. That's more than a dollar a word. They should spend their time investigating whether the lead is serious about a service job and not just trying to trouble the problem themselves. The service is inadequate for both customers and service men.
Reviewed Oct. 29, 2018
I am a general contractor in Orange County CA, who specialize in Interior remodeling and additions. I set up a Thumbtack pro account as a participating verified contractor, purchased leads for 13 months, spending approx $12k with TT. During that period I contracted 13 remodeling projects, receiving 10 verified 5 and 4 star reviews posted on TT. I had one problem client whose complaint to TT was not contractually accurate or enforceable, however TT insisted I participate in "solutions arbitration" due to the complaint from my customer. It's worth noting the "customer" did not pay TT and I did, over $12k, not a single complaint with 12 clients out of 13. TT would not listen, they fore you into "arbitration" even though they are not qualified to arbitrate a Construction contract/dispute as they are a Marketing company.
As a Licensed CA General Contractor I answer to the CA Contractors State License Board, I informed TT if the customer had a legitimate grievance they should file a complaint with the CSLB, I would respond, if required by the CSLB attend an arbitration hearing. TT did not support my company, did not recognize their paralegal was not qualified to arbitrate anything, since I said "no" to their arbitration demand, as it was legally binding, they removed my account, reviews, destroying all contacts recently engaged and paid for, no refund from TT either for the leads I lost after paying for them the last month. Do not get involved with TT, IF A LAWYER READS THIS CONTACT ME AS I AM INTERESTED IN FILING A LAWSUIT AGAINST TT FOR UNFAIR BUSINESS PRACTICES.
Reviewed Oct. 26, 2018
The pro that contacted me through Thumbtack proceeded to inform me that regardless of anything he did to my house or didn't do I would need to pull permits before he could even touch my house due to it being flooded by Harvey. My home was not that damaged by Harvey - it did not qualify and I was not asking the contractor to alter or change anything that wasn't pre-existing in my home. None of that denotes needing to pull a permit before even starting so he bold-faced lied to me multiple times and never got back to me with his quote. Guess he figured out I knew he was lying. That was the only professional that contacted me through Thumbtack.
Reviewed Oct. 24, 2018
I’ve been using Thumbtack as a “Top Pro” for a few years now. I was getting pretty decent jobs but now that they changed the way you bid and get charged everything has changed. I’m paying $60-70.00 a bid to never get hired because someone says, “I’ll call you tomorrow.” Plus, now you don’t even know how much you will be charged until it comes out of your bank account. The company has become money hungry and I’m not going to work with them anymore. Talk about a scam to small businesses.
Reviewed Oct. 22, 2018
I used Thumbtack starting in 2013 and it was really good, so good I was actually the top pro for audio/video installations in the Houston, TX market which was incredible for me being a small business. But as Thumbtack grew they started really making hard for pros. For instance it used to be just 5 pros able to hide now it's like 15 or 20 allowed to bid (so they can make more money) next they are charging 20.00 for a 50.00 TV mounting job so once I pay gas, helper, and myself I actually lose money but Thumbtack makes their money. To bid on a TV mount job used to cost 3.33. Well I haven't used Thumbtack for over a year and a half they have become worse than HomeAdvisor. They just got way to greedy and it's a damn shame because I believe they have stopped growing and actually (hopefully) been losing a lot of pros due to their greed and unrealistic business model.
Reviewed Oct. 21, 2018
Thumbtack was expensive enough before they changed horses: you paid to quote and despite having over 25 years experience in video production we only got two smallish jobs over a long period. THEN, they set it up so you pay even more on the extremely flimsy promise that a client might be interested. They literally sold a bill of goods to everyone by saying you don't pay for quotes anymore. In fact, you pay if the client has the slightest interest but does not hire you. In the end you pay more for far less. And, you cannot complain beyond a local manager who admits they have no power to do anything anyway. It's like having a garage sale and every time someone passes by the sale and says "THAT'S AN INTERESTING CHAIR YOU HAVE FOR SALE" you pay them whether or not they buy it!
Reviewed Oct. 19, 2018
Do NOT use Thumbtack for your business. We have been with them for almost 2 years. We began by paying for the credits, then they added Instant Match and we went with that option. They sent quotes and you were only charged if you engaged in a conversation with the customer. It worked great until a few months ago. Because it was working well, I trusted them. BAD decision on my part. We had a request yesterday for an event that we needed to decline because we are booked. When I went to decline, a message popped up telling me that we had already been charged. This prompted me to do a complete analysis of our account. I stopped counting at 27 customers that we had been charged for, but never had any contact with.
As I looked closer, I could tell a difference in these requests. They would say scripted things like, "Are you available on my date?", "Does the photo booth require an attendant?" "I'd love to chat, when are you available?". This would be followed up by texts every few minutes from Thumbtack telling us to get back with the customer, in order to keep our rating. I am quite sure that these are coming straight from Thumbtack in order to charge us. Not one customer ever got back with us. I spoke with Chris in Customer Service and he confirmed that there had been a change, but couldn't give me a date.
We were not made aware of any change. Thumbtack should be ashamed of stealing money from their customers. They had a great system going, but obviously they were too greedy. I defended them to my husband, who is my business partner, but he was SO right. They have robbed us of several hundred dollars. I repeat, DO NOT use them if you are a business! There is one star because a star rating was required. My actual review is -10!
Reviewed Oct. 18, 2018
I definitely think that Thumbtack is a big fraud right now. Instead to bring jobs it makes me financial broken! With their crazy policies they can charge you for fake requests, wrong requests (through fake clients). Even you don't answer a request they charge you a lot of money. It is very difficult to reach the customer service (sitting in India of course). It’s a bad thing. I will report it to BBB for sure.
Reviewed Oct. 18, 2018
One star is even too much, but you have to rate something to leave a review here. I think it’s ridiculous that they charge you so much to send a quote and then you never book the job! I’m a face painter and they talked me into doing “instant match” to book jobs which automatically charges you every time the site sends a quote on your behalf. They were charging my credit card over $100 a month for jobs that I never got. When I’d call to complain, they said they only charge for what sounds like will be a promising booking??!! Such BS!
I honestly think they have someone trolling cause today I got a request that someone is interested in me face painting at their party... 450 miles away! So if I respond to the request, they will charge me some crazy price like $20.23! The funny thing... another request was sent from the SAME NAME, same number of people to be face painted... Only this request was only 12 miles away. What are the chances that there are 2 “Jennifer **” needing face painting for the same number of kids on the same date, same time... just different cities? They are ripping people off BIG TIME!!!
Reviewed Oct. 16, 2018
In October 2018 Thumbtack changed how they operate. They back you into a corner to get promoted and you have to turn on your instant match. Someone will see you (if it is not a troll working with or for Thumbtack) and select your profile to send them information. You as the vendor can then accept and response, explain your services and fees and try to get the job, or decline the request because after reviewing the information you are just not comfortable bidding on it. Either way if you ACCEPT or DECLINE Thumbtack charges you a fee. So anyone at any time can click your profile, with a fake job request and you have to pay for it. As I explained to them, The Vendor needs some right of passage! The system they have set up leaves none in place, the vendor's money is always in jeopardy.
Reviewed Oct. 14, 2018
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.
Reviewed Oct. 14, 2018
I joined in 2017 as a PRO service provider as a graphic designer. I won most jobs I bid on. It was working great. Then, Thumbtack changed the system by switching to matching customers with pros. Never got another job. I believe most of the jobs are fake or pure fraud. I know other pros that use Thumbtack. They have had the exact same experience. Thumbtack may have been a legit service at one time but now it's a total fraud.
Reviewed Oct. 11, 2018
My name is Michael and I own a local plumbing company in the central Texas area. We had Thumbtack blowing up our phones trying to sell us on being one of their vendors. I was really hesitant at first but after talking it over with my wife we decided to try it out. We had this sleaze ball named Seth ** who was calling us trying to get our credit card to get money out of us. He told us that Thumbtack was in the process of fixing their issues to be a more professional medium between homeowners and professional service providers (ie Angie's List, HomeAdvisor etc). They said that they were weeding out all the non licensed, non professional service providers and that they were going to be a better generator of leads. Unfortunately against my better judgement and intuition I believed them. Huge mistake.
After giving Seth my credit card info so they could ‘credit’ money to my account he passed us off to Monica **, this is where the huge issues began happening. She was supposed to be our contact person for Thumbtack and basically facilitate this transition of the old ** Thumbtack to the new and improved one. We had an initial phone call with her to go over a few things, they told us the phone call would only take 30 minutes, Monica kept us on the phone for 1 1/2hrs!! Absolutely ridiculous, thanks Monica, it’s not like we have a business to run or anything! Just keep on yakking away. I should’ve seen right then and there that there were going to be issues. Still, I tried to be fair and give them a shot. Anyways after a few weeks of giving Thumbtack our best efforts to make it work and trying different tactics that have all worked for us on Facebook, Google, Angie’s List and HomeAdvisor, nothing seemed to be working.
The Thumbtack lead quality is just not there, it turned out to be a huge waste of time & money for my business. I tried to contact our middle person, Monica to address the fact that their ** leads weren’t worth a damn and that I wanted all my money back that I had used to credit my account. Of course as soon as I wanted my money back and wanted help in addressing my issues Monica turned into a ghost. She disappeared and was nowhere around for help. She has completely ignored my emails and phone calls for several days now. This type of behavior is so disgustingly unprofessional and rude. I don’t understand how any of these people got their jobs in the first place. It seems to be a trend with Thumbtack, nothing but garbage and the absolute worst employees. Piss poor customer service and zero communication skills. These people are not professionals and do not act with integrity, they are all a group of thieves.
Thumbtack is a corrupt and thieving organization and I don’t suspect that they will be in business for too much longer. It wasn’t until all these problems started happening that I went onto Google and saw all the hundreds and hundreds of other bad reviews that people have been leaving for Thumbtack. They have a 1 out of 5 star rating out of almost one thousand individual reviews. That’s amazing, they’ve really hit a new all time low. What a corrupt ** of an organization Thumbtack is, and ALL of their employees that I’ve ever had the misfortune of dealing with are 100 percent reflective of that original assessment.
I really really hope someone in charge over there at Thumbtack reads this and reaches out too me regarding this issue. The primary reason that I am sharing this review is because as soon as I wanted my money back they completely disappear on me and no longer respond to my phone calls or emails. What an absolute joke these people are, I can’t say enough bad, nasty stuff about them. If you are a business owner who is a licensed professional in any of the trades, I would highly recommend that you steer clear of Thumbtack and people like Seth & especially Monica. They will take your money gladly but completely disappear when you need help or want your money back.
Reviewed Oct. 11, 2018
Reviewed Oct. 10, 2018
I live in a three level townhome. It's just a normal sized townhome with one gutter in the front and one in the back. I asked for quotes for gutter cleaning. Nothing needs fixed. I just need the leaves to be removed like I do every three months which usually costs less than $90. I received a ton of quotes within thirty minutes. They were just blurting out these high amounts (as high as $700 but most around $350) and when I would bring it to their attention that the price was too high they would offer something lower. Thumbtack is for scam artists.
Reviewed Oct. 6, 2018
I am a photographer and videographer that started using Thumbtack to get work in 2015. Went fine for 2 years. Then right after I purchased credits to bid jobs, they completely changed the way it worked. Charged 5 times more, stopped using credits, and more. When I contacted them for a refund, they stated that they "don't give refunds." VERY dishonest. Do NOT give them your business. If you are seeking a wedding photographer, and go to Thumbtack for a bid, they are charging each person as much as a 100 dollars to reply...guess where that money gets tacked on?
Reviewed Oct. 4, 2018
I run my own CAD design business that encompasses many different disciplines including mechanical, piping design, swimming pool design, interior design, architectural design, 3D modeling, renderings, etc. So I can't really lock down exactly everything I do in one simple description or standard profile. I've been in business 3 years now, and I signed up on Thumbtack pretty much right at the start. I listed off the many different things I do to try and relate how Thumbtack works, or is supposed to work rather. I had to set up alerts for the various forms of jobs I do, so I would get notifications for when a job is posted that may, and I say MAY, fit my criteria. So I would get notifications for 3D modeling, interior design, architectural, etc.
When I first started on Thumbtack, the system used to be set up to where you would spend X amount of money to buy credit packs that you would then use to bid on the job. Some jobs would cost maybe 5 credits while others 10, and so on. How much was each of those credits worth? Well you never really knew since the price varied depending on how many credits you actually buy.
Also at this time, only 5 Pros were able to bid on any given job before it gets locked. That could happen in under a minute. So you would have to be constantly waiting and ready to read a possible brief description and decide whether you want to spend the credits in a short amount of time before being able to really think things through. With that being said, I did manage to get maybe 10 clients, of which half I still have as clients for multiple repeat jobs, even though they were only looking for 1 time jobs when they posted. I have several reviews and a 5 star rating.
They have since changed that system. Now instead of buying credits, you pay only if a potential customer contacts you. Since this system had come along, I haven't gotten a single client. It has just cost me money. Their policy now is that if the customer responds to your quote in ANY way other than an instant "No thank you", you get charged. How much do you get charged? Well that depends. Depends on what? I don't know. I spent 20 minutes on the phone with someone in customer service that couldn't tell exactly how they decide what to charge you.
I found this out after I saw that I was billed $50.94 for something that happened a month ago. This apparently from a job posting where I sent my information to a possible client, who responded back with 1 sentence saying she was interested in hearing an idea I had to save her money. I tried responding back to her and there was zero communication after that one sentence. Yet Thumbtack thought that 1 sentence was worthy of charging me $51. It also must be said that I think 15 other people bid on this job and the no one was ever shown as hired through Thumbtack, nor was the job canceled. Assuming that this person contacted all 15 of those businesses that bid on the job, Thumbtack managed to steal a collective $764.10 from these people. I use steal very literally since that is exactly what this company is doing.
The customer service agent then tried to justify this by saying that they are now a marketing company. Except they aren't a marketing company. A marketing company actually takes the time to promote the people that pay them for their service. This company just has potential customers barely fill out a minimalistic form (that has been requested several times to be updated so we as pros can know exactly what the customer is needing and whether it would be a fit for us, which they have failed to do for years) and then show it to you as a match. If you choose to then try and bid and are contacted back in anyway, they steal a ridiculous amount of money from you. This is what they consider is marketing.
If you are a professional looking to find new clients, DO NOT use this service in any way. They rob you of your money for something that you can find just as easily for free on Craigslist or any other job site for free. This company is a complete scam, will take just take your money and you will receive nothing from it. I have my credit card company fighting this above mentioned transaction as I type this. I'm now moving on to the BBB to inform them of this company as well.
Reviewed Oct. 3, 2018
Thumbtack is using an unorthodox method of charging for their services. It is equally unclear what they bill you for. As a professional musician, it is my experience that all other online booking services do not charge until the booking is complete. In other words the booking has been confirmed between the client and the vendor. Plus, a deposit has been paid to the vendor. Thumbtack, however charges for communication between clients and providers. I was charged for a booking that never happened; never took place. This method of charging is a new procedure that is unlike their old procedure--leading to this surprise billing they placed on my credit card on file with them.
I will not do any business with Thumbtack until they change this greedy, dishonest, unprofessional way of billing vendors when the vendor received absolutely no booking with the client whatsoever. This is not a good business practice or model at all. There are other companies that do not charge their vendors until after the vendor has received a confirmed booking and even a deposit. Who does Thumbtack think they are? They either need to change their ways of doing business, or they need to be put out of business. They are cheating many small vendors out of their money. In effect, stealing from vendors. If they want to charge a one time fee upfront once a year like the other companies that I do business with, that is fine. But as of right now they are nickel and diming a person to death. And we as a vendor receive nothing but a bill from Thumbtack.
Reviewed Oct. 1, 2018
Andres and his father are wonderful communicators. Their care and quality of work is high. Their workers are efficient and clean up was excellent. I have no hesitation in recommending their service. Quote came in the morning and the work was completed that same afternoon. Can't beat that!
Reviewed Sept. 30, 2018
I'm in the computer repair business and I signed up as a pro on Thumbtack in mid 2013. I joined just to give it a shot and to make some extra money. Most of my business comes via word of mouth and from people searching on Google. I did well with Thumbtack from 2013 - late 2017. I was hired over 160 times and I had a 4.8 star rating with over 70 reviews. I would buy 30 credits every two months or so and I was getting about 3 jobs a month pretty consistently. In late 2017 I started getting emails about instant match and I read up on how it worked. I didn't like it so I never enabled it.
For my line of work I need to personally view the request and decide if I want to quote on the job and if I want to charge by the hour or flat rate. I didn't want Thumbtack forcing me to flat rate everything and making decisions for me on what to quote on. So I stuck with the old system, it worked well for me. I noticed around March of 2018 fewer and fewer requests were coming in, to the point where there were zero requests coming in. I thought this was very odd. I suspected pros who had instant match enabled were getting preferential treatment and getting the requests because the timing of all this coincided with the rollout of instant match.
I called a few times to ask them about this and they assured me that wasn't the case but couldn't tell me why after 5 years the requests suddenly dried up. Something stunk. I was told by a Thumbtack CS rep. on the phone in early 2018 about the new "pay if contacted" system that is now currently in place. I told him back then, several months before it was implemented, that it sounded like a train wreck. I went through a list of reasons as to why I thought that. I recall him even saying, and I'm paraphrasing, "pros may have sticker shock when we roll this out". Guess what? It's here and it's a train wreck and the pros have sticker shock.
On the old system most quotes in my field of work were 2 credits. So if I recall correctly I was paying $3.34 per quote. If I got the job, great, if I didn't it was $3.34 out of my pocket and the customer still had my contact information. Now for the same range of jobs I need to pay $7.79 to upwards of $35 per quote if somebody decides to "contact me" i.e... send me a message to ask a question or just waste my time, or call me, even if I don't pick up the phone and they never talk to me or they don't leave a voicemail. Keep in mind I may only make $60 on some jobs, IF I GET THE JOB, so $7.79 - $40 per "contact" is large chunk of change to me, it quickly adds up, especially if I don't get hired. If I were doing mostly $500 jobs I wouldn't feel it as much. I simply can't afford to be charged those rates.
One last thing, somebody else mentioned that Thumbtack sent a response to a client on the pro's behalf. I had this happen to me about a month ago. I got what I thought was a message from a possible client via the Thumbtack phone app saying they were interested in hiring me and wanted to know how to proceed. There was something weird about it and I held off responding. I later checked my account on my computer and I didn't see this message. What I saw was a message from Thumbtack saying something like "so and so checked your profile out, send them a message". Then I saw a message sent to that person from my account that I never sent.
I called them up and I was like, "WTF is going on?" The person on the phone started babbling about their automated response system or some ridiculous thing and I was charged .79 cents. It was an automated message Thumbtack sent out on my behalf. I told him to refund the amount and that I don't want them to ever send a message to somebody on my behalf ever again. Basically they were trying to force an interaction between myself and somebody who happened to look at my profile. That person never really contacted me. Something very strange is going on with this company and I will no longer be dealing with them. It really is a shame because I had a very good run with them when things were simple. I buy credits, I decide who I want to send a quote to, if they view my quote, the credits are deducted. Straightforward, it worked well. I have to hand it to them, they tanked their entire company within a year. Way to go.
Reviewed Sept. 30, 2018
I recently signed up my business through Thumbtack and was billed a $39 annual charge that I was not informed of and also sent a quote, received a short response and was billed $31.82 just for the response. I personally think that’s a rip off being billed before even getting the job. They are all about the money.
Reviewed Sept. 28, 2018
Like all the other people are saying, Something is not right here. There are too many problems to name. This Site is doing more harm than good in the world and something needs to happen. Where are the FTC or the BBB on this? Thumbtack is stealing from people and hurting a ton of businesses. We received a request for Home cleaning and the quote cost was for $23+. The customer contacted all 15 pros and never hired anyone of the 15 for the job by the way. So Thumbtack made nearly 400 dollars off of 15 different persons and no job was ever completed at all. Somebody needs to investigate. Now and not later. Change needs to happen Now.
Reviewed Sept. 28, 2018
I spoke with the accounting department at Thumbtack today regarding my service plan after looking at funds being drawn from my bank for their service. I notice that the amount was different every time when I respond to a potential client. I have a business providing background checks and of course our rates are the same no matter where clients are calling from.
Well after talking with Thumbtack accounting this is what he explained to me. I was being charged more depending on 3 criteria, 1. Location: If a client is from out of state Thumbtack charges you more. 2. Demographics: Depending on how many other Professional's in your area Thumback will charge you more. In other words, the more businesses in your area with similar services Thumbtack will charge your more. If there are fewer similar business they still charge you the same rate! So here's the catch, the more similar businesses on Thumbtack the higher the rate and the more money Thumbtack make. 3. Thumbtack was charging me an average of $11.13 per message even if a customer just wanted to know what my rates were. That's $11.13 per message people not new clients. Hell I can do that with email for free!
Thumbtack is like Attorneys, they take your money just if someone has a question. Most customers on Thumbtack are just "inquiring" about service, that doesn't mean they will hire you. I was paying Thumbtack an average of $80 a week just answer questions. Thumbtack will not share this information unless you look up how much your fees will be beforehand. They're like Insurance companies, they'll take your money but it will be guarantee results if anything will happen. I'm surprised they are still in business. Don't waste your money on this company!
Reviewed Sept. 28, 2018
I hired a "Pro" through Thumbtack. The "Pro" turned out to be a scam artist who would take your deposit and disappear. Thumbtack does not check their pros and it is easy to for scammers to create fake positive reviews. Myself and another consumer posted a review on the "Pro" within minutes of each other, victims of the same scam. Thumbtack removed the"Pro" and the reviews, effectively hiding the evidence that it is happening there. Thumbtack is very effective at bringing consumers to scammers.
Reviewed Sept. 25, 2018
I second everything that other Pros are saying in these reviews. Being charged for being "hired" even though you haven't spoken with that person let alone been hired. I got a refund when that happened but they took months. I get very few usable leads and the last straw for me was when I turned on Instant Match and got charged all kinds of money for being "properly introduced" to a potential client. That equated to the person viewing my profile, even if I wasn't interested in them and never contacted them via the Thumbtack chat service. If I had actually quoted the person personally that would be one thing but when I'm dismissing most of these referrals and not making any contact I don't know why I'm being charged (they tried to explain but I am not satisfied with their response).
Also, as others have said, their pricing doesn't seem to have any rhyme or reason other than you tell them how much you're willing to spend for leads per month and they try to make sure they find a way to charge you that. Even when you aren't getting good leads or aren't making contact with the people. I think I've gotten a total of two clients the entire time I've been on Thumbtack (several years). Stay away. Pay for Google ads, Facebook ads, word of mouth, etc.
Reviewed Sept. 24, 2018
I have periodically used Thumbtack as a Pro for 2 years. I recently responded to a request and received a $42 charge for following up a lead. The previous charge was $10.02. Responding to a lead does not guarantee the job. So, they how many times do they benefit from pros responding to the same job and receiving $42 each time. I asked them to justify the exorbitant increase and all I received was a robotic text response. Please as a Pro, stay away from this company and App. It is a total rip off and scam.
Reviewed Sept. 23, 2018
I requested contractors who can do bathroom remodeling and Thumbtack responded to my request recommending contractors. Little did I know that Thumbtack does not do background check on contractors. I was so unfortunate to pick a contractor recommended by Thumbtack (i.e., SJM Remodeling - Steve ** contractor) who is a total scam. The contractor gave a quote and asked for deposit before job even started. Trusting that Thumbtack would have screened all their recommended contractors, I agreed to the deposit. But contractor kept giving excuses why he could not start job as scheduled and now would not even return the deposit. Both Thumbtack and SJM Remodeling are total scam...
Reviewed Sept. 21, 2018
Marked as hired. So the new policy is that you don't pay unless you're contacted or marked as hired. Well I just got marked as hired yet there was no communication at all after I sent the quote. So I was charged 13.50 for this bogus lead. I called customer service who refused to refund my money but would instead keep it and give me a one time courtesy credit. What??!! I smell something fraudulent here.
Reviewed Sept. 21, 2018
I used Thumbtack in 2016 and did receive a few staging jobs. I paid almost a thousand dollars in 2017 and 2018 and feel that none of the leads were credible. I do not think this is a legit service only a money making machine with no way for advertisers to make any money. They charge $45 if someone emails or calls you. It is very suspicious. I included my price for home staging in my emails. I got calls from the ‘supposed’ client asking the price. Immediately after Thumbtack charged me $45.00. I am going to report them to the Better Business Bureau and the Attorney General. This business is a scam.
Reviewed Sept. 21, 2018
Thumbtack's pricing is out of whack! They have lost touch with reality. I am a DJ/Singer and they have now changed their pricing plan to where the cost per lead has gone through the roof! A potential client ask me a question and I was charged $30 for the lead. If I was hired, I wouldn't have a problem paying the $30... but for a lead??? I also question the validity of these so called leads. I will guarantee that some of the leads are generated by Thumbtack and are BS. I gave them a second chance and they changed the pricing again, making it not affordable and basically screwing pros over. Extremely disgusted.
Reviewed Sept. 20, 2018
I have been a pro with them for years and generated a lot of income in the past... then they came out with a new system where the pro pays when they are contacted. My success rate drop beyond measure. I swear it is Thumbtack sending us messages just to increase their bottom line! They need the have a verification process on their customers, just like they do with the Pro's, so the Pro's know they are dealing with legit customers. There is no need for a customer to get 15 Pro's contacting them; and the customer reaches out to 10 or more of the Pro with a 'What's Next?' bot reply. Each charging the pro a fee meaning Thumbtack is then making more than the pro on the job.
I smell a class action lawsuit in the making. What an easy way for a company to make money... just charge all of their pro's for a contact. Have 10-12 people sit in the back room and say 'What's next?'... and not a single reply after when the Pro takes the time to respond as they just paid 30-70 for the message. Brilliant until they are caught. Bet they will be losing a lot of Pro's in the coming months.
Reviewed Sept. 20, 2018
They increased their rates by 500% or more - Their service is a joke. They have been making more and more changes which always result in way more money for them and totally screws their pros. They encourage customers to generate as much income for them as possible and don't care that it wastes their subscribers time AND cost us a TON of money with no return whatsoever. Don't get sucked into their terrible pricing model.
Reviewed Sept. 20, 2018
I used to love Thumbtack. 2 companies I have worked for used Thumbtack and my old construction company did as well. I started a new construction company and set everything up earlier in 2018, right when Thumbtack started changing from a credits to its new way of charging the pros. First few bids go through no problem, few jobs, everything's good. Then I get a $75 dollar charge for a bathroom remodel because the customer asked "Do you have any references". I responded within minutes that I do and I have several reviews on Thumbtack, Facebook, Google and give many more. The customer never read my response, never responded or did anything on Thumbtack again. I sent the "needs more information" bid because all it was saying was bathroom remodel. No price ranges or anything were offered, no details as to the remodeling or timeline.
I have experience this problem with a different better known lead provider and didn't want to have 10 of these "responses" hit me on the same day so I stopped sending any bids. I wait several weeks (to make sure nothing updated with the customer I never got to talk to) and contacted Thumbtack. When this happens with other lead services normally they will try to work with me and maybe credit some of the charge back if I can show there was not enough contact to have either myself or the customer make any decisions or chances to bid. But Thumbtack says there is nothing they can do and I have to pay the $75 dollars if I want to continue using Thumbtack.
I pointed out that there was no indication of a price range for the lead itself when I sent this, like there currently is. I pointed out that the customer didn't read the message or log back into thumbtack after sending me the 5 word email. They just repeated they can't do anything about it. My advice is to stay away, if you budget for any leads go somewhere else.
Reviewed Sept. 19, 2018
So I have tried your instant matching and gotten nothing. I have sent responses to people that asked if I was available saying yes I am. Yet still no business. Every time I respond to a request I pay 45 to 70 dollars and get no business? This use to be a lead generating service and I would get a certain amount of business based on how many quotes I submitted that ran around 4 to 8 dollars a quote. I thought that was a little high but ok. But now I get almost no leads and when I get one it cost a huge price yes to answer the question Are you available. It is ridiculous and I am guess there needs to be a class action lawsuit.
Reviewed Sept. 19, 2018
I have been a Thumbtack Pro for about a year. They used to charge you only when you landed a job. Now it's when you're contacted. So you could be contacted, be charged $75.00, even if you do not land the contract. So if 5 contractors reply, and the customer contacts 4 of them, Thumbtack gets $300 whether the consumer hires one of them or not. It's crooked business... Please as a pro, DO NOT use this app. As a consumer, go to other sources to find contractors for your projects.
Thumbtack Company Information
- Company Name:
- Thumbtack
- Year Founded:
- 2009
- Address:
- 360 9th Avenue
- City:
- San Francisco
- State/Province:
- CA
- Postal Code:
- 94103
- Country:
- United States
- Website:
- www.thumbtack.com

