Bark

Used this company and although they put me in touch with a trades person, this person was a scam artist (didn't do the job that was quoted, but aggressively took the money). I contact bark and was sent a link to a fair trade website: a polite not our problem'. Think twice before using - or you'll be throwing your money away!

Before this was posted, we did contact bark.com who used a very similar stock phrased email as their reply below. We have already given the name of traders. Still nothing. This company do not vet their contractors - they will literally recommend any scam artist... where will this stop: once someone is raped or murdered?! They have also removed our verified negative review on their website; and have subsequently removed my negative reviews of Bark.com on other websites, as it was my partner's email address that was used to find the so called professionals'. This company is a genuine scam. Use one of the more reputable companies like mybuilder.com.

Bark.com - yes they are complete dogs!

SCAM ALERT! Their staff deleted my profile which I have never requested and that's after I purchased basic pro account with active credits still available. I tried to contacted them but I don't get any response for several days now. I don't know how I can get my money back since I cannot get into my account at all. It's a dangerous business method to take your money and they shut down your profile afterwards. I did not violated any of their rules, in fact I just recently sign up and purchased 100 credits for $160 to contact some prospective clients but no positive response yet. DO NOT FALL INTO THEIR TRAPS!

Not only do they have stuff for my dog thay helped me with dog walking service an cleaning service to if you don't buy at least give there web site a look I think you will be happy you did

I see that Bark stuck their standard response in the comments so just so that we are completely clear:
1) They did not reach out or respond to my complaint until I left my negative review on here and on Trustpilot. I responded to them when they replied to me.
2) They did not credit me as promised under the 'Get hired' guarantee.
3) I did make an additional purchase so that I used up all of my credits which then made me eligible, but did not have any credits refunded to my account.
4) They did eventually refund the money that they took from my account without permission and blamed me for the problem.
5) They stated that the leads are qualified. What this means is that anyone can fill in the boxes on a multiple choice form and submit. There is no verification or validation of their answers and so I stand by my comment.
6) They will send you a message to state that someone is very interested in speaking to you. You will spend more credits contacting them only to be asked by a very upset woman how you managed to get hold of her contact details when all she did was look at my profile.
7) I am convinced that this site is a total waste of money for anyone other than plumbers and builders and I recommend if you are a professional services business you go elsewhere.
8) If you look at the positive reviews you will see after a short time that they are all very similar in the words and language used.
A big mistake to get involved with this company.

See photo below*

Bark started delivering leads to the contact form of my website in April 2019. So it tweaked my interest then as a potential to gain new clients. I'm a personal trainer.

The first thing I noticed about Bark was how easy it was to buy credits, it seems that they have enabled this feature quite nicely, not to mention the automatic top-up function.

My issue with Bark is there is no filtering of genuine leads from fakes &/or scammers. In the photo below, I received a lead from a client in my locality - however, once I purchased the lead for 11 credits, it turned out that a) the phone number wasn't even in my country b) the email address looks suspect. But I only discovered this upon purchase of the lead. So this was a fake lead that my business incurred a cost on. How Bark can facilitate this is in my opinion, disgraceful.

This has happened to me more than once, and I have complained to Bark each time. This experience questions the integrity of the operation and most online businesses i use would have this problem sorted at the front end.

This creates a situation where it is impossible to discern a genuine from a fake lead. So of the 25 or so leads I have contacted, I've managed to convert 5 into sales with the majority not returning my contact even though they request my services specifically. This is way below what I actually do day to day, where I'll close about 75% to long-term contracts.

None of it makes sense to me. So, once my last 12 credits expire, I will no longer use Bark, nor, will I recommend it to anyone.

As a new startup, I am new to these types of companies I offer Life coaching. The company delivers with leads in an endless stream of leads. What they don't say we do not screen who posts as a customer. I saw one lead the contact number so Bogus 555-5555 they went even creative about it. The problem is you have to buy the lead to see the number. Some of the leads you get say the number is verified. I have seen a lot of poor reviews posted. They continue to charge your card to top your credits without asking or informing you. They offer a hiring guarantee " get hired in x or your credits back" I was sent 147 leads in one day. Because I don't have trust in what I might be buying I can't trust the lead no trust in the company so I don't buy it. Where is my ROI? Spend 133.00 cad for 80 credit tokens. Only to find out the Lead is completely Bogus. Bark needs to clean up their screening. I feel like I'm wasting my time doing what I am paying them to do. Protecting the consumer and the vendor. I am very dissatisfied overall.

BARK is a lead generation service with little to no vetting process. Aside from a few qualification questions that don't fundamentally help the service provider to land the lead.

Service providers are totally in the dark as to what to expect, and much of the time, the lead is falsely representing their interest in support. At times it's even been a competitor looking to see what the competition is doing.

Most leads are also poor, and simply "browsing", so much of the information they are providing isn't even in alignment with their true intentions on the site.

In addition, leads don't receive your notifications, or find no value in the platform, and close their request within hours or days of opening it, without ever replying to you. I know, as I've been tracking this systemic issue. I send a message, I call and text a few days later, I followed yup with email - the lead ghosts off the platform, or says they'd already found someone outside of Bark. It's insanity.

I could say more, its been a horrible experience, and honestly don't bother dealing with their team! They basically just cut and paste the same policy response!