Bark

Bought credits in Bark to contact clients and after contact more than 50 people never had 1 contact back.
Seems pretty strange.
They promise money back but actually they give you credit back.

This company is a complete fraud, they claim to have legit leads and only give to 5 people but that is not true. Many of these leads within minutes of being placed online have full voicemails and one even was trying to scam me. Another was what I thought was a local United States phone number and turned out to be overseas and I got a BILL for $57 on my Verizon bill.
Also the auto top-off you account with twice of what you paid in the beginning.
TOTAL FRAUD!

BEWARE DO NOT USE>

This company sadly took my money sent me fake phone numbers none worked! And I messaged their fake emails and received ZERO REPLIES! I called and spoke to the customer service and they gave me the ring around.
They said to email them I tried several times and they said to call them ‍ WE LIVE IN A MESSED UP WORLD WERE THESE PEOPLE SCAM HARD WORKING SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS! Dont waste your time or money! Completely disgustingness!

They reply back with some fake generic lie comment below. The numbers they provided dont work. All of them says the numbers invalid when you call. Please BEWARE ONLY WRITING THIS TO HELP OTHERS

As a photographer and after months of paying for leads, I have never received a single order. They don't reimburse you. I have a complete file with all the responses I sent to what they call "prospects". Less than 0.5% send you a response and in this case it is to say "sorry I'm doing otherwise…" I guess they're all fake customers. Either way, the forms that customers have to fill out are utter nonsense. So even though the client was real this is the worst filter i have ever seen in my life. I have been a photographer for 40 years and due to a move I thought it might be a good idea to use them to be known locally more quickly. I even sent them a few offers to teach them how to make forms but they declined... Be aware that customers don't pay anything to ask for a pro but pros have to pay a high price for each lead. Do not make these people work, the shame of Internet services. Dont waste your money, dont trust them! This kind of people must be ejected, they are the parasites of the Net.

I entered a request for conveyance solicitors and had 2 quotes in less than a day both with great prices. I will definitely use it again! Thank you for such a hassle-free experience.

I asked for recommendations for local gardening services in my area and I had local companies contact me gave an acceptable price and agreed date to carry out the work within 48 hours

Signed up last night and started getting responses. My alarm bells went off immediately because I sensed a very strong similarity between Bark and Dating sites.

I won't bore with details but I had an experience where I joined a dating site and had over 40 messages from around 30 women so some messaging twice!

So as a stupid man I paid the $40 to see and reply to those messages. I replied to every single one and not one answered... by the way I'm not that bad looking lol!

I can only speak for myself but if I genuinely sent a message to a woman and she replied then there is no way I would not reply to that... perhaps women are different but I don't think so and for none of then to reply... c'mon!

This happens a lot on dating sites and they try so hard to create the illusion of women liking you for obvious reasons and so it saddens me a lot that this fraudulent activity is now present in the freelance employment market.

I've used Fiverr and PPH for a number of years and they're 100% genuine and I suppose what caught my eye with Bark is that they're emphasis is on local businesses needing help... as far as I can see all the leads I've received are anything but local!

But to be paying just to communicate with a potential business... that should be enough to reject Bark out of hand irrespective of anything else. Take my advice and go to a reputable freelance site like those I've mentioned.

I have started my journey with Bark last year. It is not cheap to reply to Bark requests from the potential clients but it would be reasonable if all the requests were legit. I have emailed you few times to say that I was informed that the client was just checking how much is the service and wasn't returned my credits. In situations like this the credits should be returned. It would be different to loose a job to another professional but not to someone who is just checking. Each time I was told that you only return credits if the contact is not reachable and you screen the requests. You clearly don't as I had few people saying that or they were checking or they haven't bought the property yet or will maybe decide to do a job in the future etc. I am really disappointed and agree with most of the negative reviews. It seams like there is a lot of clients who are not real about hiring the professional. I have raised it with you before. I suggested that the clients should pay a deposit which will be given back if they hire a professional. That would steer away people who are not serious about hiring someone.
It has been repeated many times here and you keep saying to most professionals that you screen all requests. It clearly doesn't work. On top of that you have recently updated a way to reply to people taking away a possibility of replying to a single request and professionals are forced to buy a pack instead of paying for what they can afford. Change your policy in regards to checking potential clients and your credit refund first.
A.

I think that the Bark system is good in some ways but the charging system for leads needs to be changed. It is way too expensive for service providers / freelancers as many of the jobs are not real jobs and it costs money to buy a contact even if they are not serious about hiring. As a service provider I am happy to pay a small amount of money for genuine leads, but often leads/job are posted with very vague information. Some clients are just fishing for a price but not intending to hire anyone. If I need to contact a potential client and ask for more information before I can quote, I am still charged by Bark even if the client does not reply. If a client is not willing to answer questions / discuss the job then I think that these are not genuine leads. In this case I think that Bark should not charge or should refund the credits.
I just purchased a lead and immediately the potential client cancelled their request, it seems very unfair that I should pay for this lead, if I had waited a few minutes then the lead would not even have existed!