Phoebe G.

I have hired 2 lawn maintenance services within the past year in the Tampa Bay area, through Thumbtack.com (Thornley's Affordable Home Service and All Around Lawn Maintenance).

Both proved to be extremely unreliable and highly unprofessional characters.

Josh Thornley of Thornley's Affordable Home Service, seemed trustworthy and did a thorough job on my lawn during the first, and only 2 other times he decided to keep his word and take care of my lawn. However, it didn't take long before he showed his true colors.

Although I told him I was on a fixed income and would only be contacting him as needed, instead of weekly or bi-weekly, the last time I dealt with him, he chose to text me between 11pm - 11:40pm of all times, asking if I needed my lawn done. He was almost begging.

After I approved his visit, he didn't get back to me until the following morning, saying he would come by that afternoon. Sounded great to me. The whole afternoon passed and I never heard from him. I had to text him twice, to find out if he still planned on coming, and if not, I told him he needed to let me know. At the end of the day, he finally responded with, "No, I can be there tomorrow if that's okay." I told him this was not okay, and made him aware that I ended up wasting my entire day waiting for him to show up.

After telling him I no longer wanted to do business with him, he apologized and kept texting me, trying to win back my business. He even offered to do my lawn for free!

Still, I stuck to my guns and unhired him via text, as well as, on Thumbtack. I wanted him to know that his unprofessional behavior was totally unacceptable and I was definitely done.

More recently, I dealt with Dustin Quigley of All Around Lawn Maintenance. I also explained to him that I was on a fixed income, and would contact him as needed. I even told him how the last person treated me. He assured me he was different and asked me to text him whenever I needed lawn maintenance.

He was very talkative (too talkative at times), friendly and seemingly, willing to assist. He did a decent job when he came.

I felt as if we built a good rapport, so I was confident that he would be a keeper. Once again, I was wrong.

He showed up at least 2 or 3 times as promised, and since the lawn had not been growing during the winter months (figuring he was aware of this himself, specializing in lawn care), I contacted him recently. Last week to be exact.

I was courteous enough to apologize for the length of time I had not reached out to him, and asked him to come by and take care of my lawn. I also asked him how much he would charge to do a little extra work such as; raking leaves, cutting limbs and bushes.

The whole day passed without a response. I gave him the benefit of the doubt, and chalked it up to him being busy. So, I texted him again the next morning, asking if he received my text and to let me know whether or not he was still interested in doing business. The whole morning went by, into the afternoon. No response.

He pretty much ignored and wrote me off without warning or cause.

From there, I decided to unhire him on Thumbtack. Then I texted him, making him aware that I am convinced he doesn't want my business and I will look elsewhere. I never received so much as, "I'm sorry." He basically proved himself as a COWARD!

In the beginning of my dealings with both of those individuals, they urged me to give them good reviews on Thumbtack. Who does that?! That within itself should have told me something was not right with them.

Unfortunately, I fell for their lies, and gave them 5 stars and excellent feedback.

Until they BS someone else, everyone will believe they are legitimate business persons who are 100% worth their time and money!

That in turn, makes Thumbtack seem upstanding as well.

Now, I can't even undo those good reviews to let everyone know how disgusted I am with these clowns. Thumbtack doesn't provide that option for some strange reason.

Word of advice, if you need to hire someone to do big or small jobs around your home, DO NOT USE THUMBTACK.COM!

Sometimes, we get what we pay for.

Go online and search for reputable companies/establishments in your area, with real credentials, websites and actual business cards to hand out upon their arrival, that specialize in the projects you need assistance with. A regular handy man is not going to be reliable in the long run.

TAKE IT FROM SOMEONE THAT HAS BEEN BURNED TWICE BY THUMBTACK AND THEIR UNPROFESSIONALS!

I recently closed my account with Glassdoor after noticing several of my reviews, which were completely honest, got mysteriously deleted. Go figure.

There was no profanity/vulgarity or names of persons that treated me unfairly at these organizations. Not just as an employee, but as an applicant/job seeker.

This leads me to believe that Glassdoor is working together with these organizations to delete truthful reviews and keep the false ones, in order to make themselves seem upstanding.

In other words, these companies are most likely paying or threatening Glassdoor to remove the honest reviews.

I emailed Glassdoor directly, letting them know how upset I was that they decided to delete my reviews, not long after they had approved them to be posted.

Two of their so-called Team Members emailed stating the following:

(First Person)

"Hello,

Thank-you for giving us a chance to address your concerns. Glassdoor does not allow companies to pick and choose which reviews they want posted on their profile, not even for monetary compensation. The only reasons a review will not be approved or is removed from the site is if the member decides to delete their account or review, or if the review does not meet our Community Guidelines <http://help.glassdoor.com/article/Community-Guidelines/en_US>.

Once you choose to delete your user account, all contributions you have made in the past will be removed as well. These contributions cannot be retrieved after you delete your account. In addition, the email address associated with your deleted user account cannot be used again on our site to create a new account, and the deleted account cannot be reactivated. You may create a new account with Glassdoor using a different email address.

Please let me know if you have any questions."

Kindly,
Pam
Glassdoor Content & Community Team

(Here's her second response after I told her I deleted my account because my reviews were approved, then removed while the acct. Was still active)

"Hello,

I am sorry we disagree on this matter. Glassdoor does run periodic sweeps of data in an effort to maintain the integrity of the community. If we find content that should not have been posted due to a violation of our guidelines <http :// help. Glassdoor. Com/article/Community-Guidelines/en_US>, we will remove it. We allow our users the opportunity to modify their content and resubmit for approval.

Again I apologize for the misunderstanding. Please let me know if you have any additional questions."

Warmly,
Pam
Glassdoor Content & Community Team

(Second Person)

"Thank you for your email. There are a number of reasons that a review may be removed from the website:
If a member edits or deletes their review
If a member deletes their account
If the posting violates our Community Guidelines
Unfortunately, due to anonymity concerns, I cannot discuss specific details regarding certain reviews are removed.

Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns."

Regards,
Seth
Glassdoor Content & Community Team

As you can see, both said a whole lot of NOTHING!

Allow me to translate:

We at Glassdoor.com are looking out for ourselves, and the organizations that pay and/or threaten us in order to have these negative reviews removed.

Regards,
Seth & Pam
Glassdoor Content & Community Team