I started with Thumbtack as a pro dog trainer over 4 years ago. The cost of leads were about $7 per lead and refunded if there was zero response from potential lead. Here we are 4 years later, cost is now $14- 17.50 per lead! Lots of non serious leads, some shopping for a friend or even shopping for dog trainers before they acquire a dog. Many don't want to spend $$. No responses is common. You pay equal amounts for leads with zero contact info, so you are forced to use the Thumbtack platform- no phone or email. Competition sites. Bark.com per lead around $11-13 and you get a phone number and email address. Advertising and lead referral costs money, but seems throwing nearly $20 per lead is crazy! The people don't know they charge the pros... so they will even relist and keep costing pros money. Basic idea good but vast improvements could help this lead platform have better value.
Thumbtack will provide you with leads. But I even if you cannot take the job, they charge you. If you try to reach a living body by phone, expect 0 response. If you email with questions expect NO response. You'd be better off tacking you resume to telephone poles at least you know your bank account is safe. Their business model is self enrichment not customer or client support.
They make you pay for credits per customer looking at your quote, even if the customer doesn't hire any professional from the site. This means people can simply be price shopping or even be another professional scouting rates of other professionals and this costs your money. This site never generated a dime of business for me. Then, they refused to refund my money when I did not agree with how they were doing business.
THUMBTACK GONE BAD
1. Tripled the cost of leads. Terrible!
2. Introduced "Instant Match" that doesn't allow the Pro to see the specific details of the job, and then decide to pass or buy the lead. Not cool!
3. Now want our budget upfront. Intrusive!
4. Has terrible customer service. Horrible!
5. Only gives Pros an credit for future leads if customer doesn't respond to the Pros reply. Thieves!
No customer service to speak to other than AI and a bot that simply copies and pastes the help section menu stuff we have all read many times. Bullied into signing up for the auto book which charges 3 x the amount of a normal lead just to land a lead. Then if the customer cancels the auto booking, then you're out that money because they're not going to refund you. Thumbtack is no longer about supporting the Prose and helping customers find good pros now it's about a money grab with horrible customer service. If you could even say they have customer service. I don't know if it even qualifies I used to really enjoy them Tak it was a great platform to build and grow, your customer base however, they have grown so much they have abandoned their pros and were now a dollar sign to them. Really sad.
This past 2 weeks I paid about $500 to thumbtack and got only one real job out of them. All the other leads seam fake because for one reason or the other the customers ask one question, thumbtack charges and then nobody gets back to you. I have call thumbtack customer service and they don't want to give me no refunds. Im in the painting business and they charged me $50 because someone made an on-site quote request and after 2 hours they cancelled. I think they have someone write fake requests just so they can charge the pros.
I have been on there now for 10 years. They are helpful and have asked feedback often from me. Not inexpensive but I have found it mostly profitable. Consistency is key on this site. To build your clients.
My name is Chuck and I have a junk hauling business in Tucson Arizona. I started using thumbtack back in 2019 and they have been awesome until the last few years. They are no better then Angie now. I had a customer book a $50 job and thumbtack charged me $41.99 for the lead and refused to refund my money. I used to get 2 to 4 leads per day and close over 75%. Now I am lucky if I get 2 per month. What ever you do, do not use this platform.
I've been a pro vendor on Thumbtack (TT) for over 3 years, "Top Pro" for two of them. They have gone from helpful and reasonable to useless and greedy in the past year. They charged me $38.00 for a contact offering a $200 job. That's a 40% commission! And the job was cancelled. They would not give me even a partial refund after 3 phone calls.
Stay away -- they only want your money.
The leads are probably bogus and cost big $ to submit quotes.
I would gladly pay a much heftier fee being awarded a project vs. squandering $ on quotes
That go nowhere. Of course, that's so much more profitable for Thumbtack to drum up quotes... since I believe most are bogus or are from homeowners just kicking the tires with no thought of ever letting out the work.
I signed up as a pro to get leads for my service business but it is a huge waste of money because they will charge you for leads who request services that you don't even offer and you still get charged even if you don't reply to the lead. Other platforms send me lead for free! What a joke!
Hi Chris, you should only be receiving leads for the projects you want to work on, in the areas that you want to travel to. Learn about updating your preferences to reflect the jobs you want here: https://help.thumbtack.com/pros/topic-targeting-preferences-lh-pro/subtopic-set-my-preferences-lh. While we can't guarantee that every lead will result in a hire, it's important we provide the tools to help you be successful on the platform. You're welcome to submit refund requests by following these steps: https://help.thumbtack.com/article/how-to-request-a-refund.
At first this business paradigm sounds like a good idea, but you will tricked by their payment process. The process is just plain weird. They state that to bid on a quote costs $1.67, then that quote turns into a $58.00. When contacting them, their explanation makes no sense. They say that some answered quotes cost more than others? Why would that be? No logical explanation except it costs more credits to answer some quotes than others? Why? I never found out.
Great home cleaning service. I am on a revolving service of every three weeks. They are very reliable and their cleaning is impeccable. Love coming home when the entire house is clean. Have been using them for over 4 years. The best!
We've worked with Jeff Young from Renew Crew for several years. He uses biodegradable wash and turned our gray-looking fence into a looking like new fence. Neighbors were impressed. He's very professional. He also re-stained our deck and has kept it looking nice over the years.
I was looking for someone to haul a half-truck load of construction waste. From a google search I contacted a few ads, some being with Thumbtack. I got 2 emails back saying a had a bidder, $50. There were no links to reply to, so I looked up one of the people, phoned them, and they said they didn't know about the bid. They asked me to forward it to them. They also said they would do it for $130.
Don't waste your time trying to use Thumbtack - it's frustrating and you'll probably just waste a lot of time.
Going against their own Terms of Service, Thumbtack allowed a racist consumer to submit a racist complaint against me without me even by hired by that person and the Terms of Services strictly states that persons must be hired before one can complain about them. I let them know the person was discriminating against me and degrading me via text and they did nothing but side with the person. This platform is no good especially if people see your picture and you just happen to be attractive and black. People are so jealous of black people that it's disgusting!
When I first started my marketing agency this was a great way to get some initial business. There are other people quoting jobs as well, and there is a fee to quote, but take advantage of some free credits, offers and coupons before having to pay.
We hired a painter from Thumbtack—they ruined our floors by trying to clean up paint they spilled with a scouring pad! They also spattered paint on the carpet. We filed a claim via their "ironclad guarantee" and submitted all documentation, yet they're saying they didn't get it and I have proof of submission. They can also review the chat between me and the contractor where he admits they messed up the floor. We hired the painter based on their guarantee, which they refuse to honor. Will never use Thumbtack again!
Hi Pam, we're sorry to learn about the outcome of your project, this is disappointing to hear. It sounds like you're in communication with our Trust and Safety Team. It's important to us that the service provider is held accountable for these concerns and that we're able to help you move forward from this experience. Please continue communicating with them via email and phone, they'll help you troubleshoot any issues with the Ironclad document exchange that you have.
Hello! Hope you are having a great day! If not, know that a great day awaits you! Thumb tack has been incredibly difficult with the rules. Rules they make. Just ran the first lead. Client contacted 13 vendors from thumb tack. Just said to drop off estimate at house. No contact available. This company has delivered garbage so far. Expecting the same forward. At least customer support has bothered me with a follow up call. Thumb tack views customers complaints as ways to not address the concerns the client has.
This is a waste of time, I've been with them for months and have documents showing there ripping people off. I made 2259.00 over three months. I spent 1200.00 on leads. 700 in labor and close to 300 for gas. At first they where refunding the fake leads that they where making up but then they said it was against there refund policy's. Moral of the story is it ain't worth it. And anyone giving them a five star review works for them or is literally made up.
We're sorry to hear you feel this way. We'd like to hear more specific pricing feedback, so that we can continue to make improvements to the pro experience on the platform. Please share details with us by emailing support@thumbtack.com.
Overview
Thumbtack has a rating of 1.6 stars from 1,570 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers dissatisfied with Thumbtack most frequently mention customer service, credit card and phone number. Thumbtack ranks 101st among Local Reviews sites.
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- Sitejabber’s sole mission is to increase online transparency for buyers and businesses
- Sitejabber has helped over 200M buyers make better purchasing decisions online
- Suspicious reviews are flagged by our algorithms, moderators, and community members
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