Thumbtack

PLEASE do not use these services on Thumbtack. I was horribly ripped off by $400.00 dollars and the Supervisor of Customer Service at Thumbtack would not advocate to try and get at least half of my money back. The contractors who BID for the jobs pay Thumbtack, so there's money in their accounts.
I had to have another photographer and a photo shop hire, re-do the images plus I had to pay nearly $600.00
I'll NEVER use anyone on Thumbtack, it's a royal SCAM, no better than CRAIGSLIST, maybe worse since they have a customer service team that won't help you against these fraudulent contractors.

Ive been a Thumbtack business customer for several years, been difficult to justify hanging on for that long. They have changed their business model since then and gotten worse and worse, and more expensive every time. $27+ to send someone your name and number to get in contact with you about helping them remodel their bathroom? Pay money to send quotes but then the "customer" never contacts you about anything? You will throw money away if you are a small business that uses this service. And when they send you a survey to voice your concerns, the survey page is broken, asking to please fill in all fields, and use only numbers, which I do, but it keeps rejecting... so Im voicing my complaints here. Not to mention, it makes no effort to slightly educate the customers on what they are looking for, so as a finish carpenter, Im getting requests for popcorn ceiling removal, and rotten window repair, and there is apparently no way to filter out these requests, as I have tried. There are alternatives to Thumbtack, try them first, this company will drive you crazy, waste your time and take your money.

My name john russo i had just bought a condo in charlestown mass i needed to update the kitchen and one bath i found joseph sobalo on thumbtack i like his pricing and the way he replied to me he worked within my budget and in a timely maner he told me all the differenet ways to save maoney he has been doing this type of work for 50 years i learned a lot about what materials you can buy from high end to low end he also did the painting i nam very happy with joseph and his work i have to give him a 5 star rating

My name is Lisa and I have gotten a little bit of trouble. And I found Michael on the internet with Ashley Law Group professional and hard-working took my case very seriously at all times with care and heart I would suggest anybody if you need a good lawyer he's the one to call he'll take care of your needs and do it professionally with a heart thank you Michael you changed my life

Thumbtack has earned a terrible reputation among service providers in that professionals no longer have the right to select clients for whom they feel they will be a good fit. Rather, Thumbtack now does the choosing, the result being high, unreasonable costs to the professional, usually being left with nothing to show for it but a lighter wallet. The prior system made sense where the professional had exclusive rights to bid on a job. Since the professional no longer has that control, Thumbtack gets paid each and every time a prospective client (regardless of how sincere their interest) clicks on a link to get free further information from the professional. Prior to the change, an average cost for a bid selected by the professional might have been about $3.50. Now, that professional can expect to pay $15 or more from clicks of people who may not even be a good fit. Thumbtack has taken away the initial direct communication between the professional and perspective client, which defeats the purpose for an entity like Thumbtack to exist at all.

I have been using it for 8 months. I spent over $300 on leads and only got one job worth about $400.
They charge you to see contact info of leads for freelance jobs. In my case photography. EVEN IF YOU DO NOT GET HIRED. The bad thing is that the system often allows anyone to put out a message that they need something, with very few details, leading to inaccurate matches. 90% of the time noone writes back and honestly sometimes I think the leads are fake, for one lead it can cost $19. I get more jobs from my FREE google business listing. I think they should work harder to get people to put down specific job details. Or only charge if one gets hired. I have had to initiate many refunds also because the people are in a different state than their jobs etc... this model won't survive long.

TIPs for consumers using Thumbtack
Maybe use Thumbtack to find people and then look them up on google business, read reviews and contact them independently. Realize that the companies and contractors are often paying up to $18-30 just to e-mail you! Most of the people on thumbtack are also listed on yelp or google business. Pay them outside of thumbtack because thumtack skims off the pay as well as asking contractors to pay for your e-mail contact info, even if they are not hired!

In many ways, Thumbtack is like taking your money to the casino. They give you just enough hope to keep throwing money down with anticipation that your next bet is a win. I gave myself a test budget of $100 and have found that either the users on Thumbtack are just casual shoppers trying to gather a "price range" for the services they are loosely considering or Thumbtack is sending false leads. You see, with Thumbtack you purchase credits upfront. Each job bid varies from 3-6 credits (at least it does for wedding planning services) to send over a quote. Most are 5 to 6 credits with credit purchase prices changing as you need them. For example a starter pack of 30 credits was $30, then 6 credits was $10, then 1 credit was $1.66. Once you've bid, and the quote is viewed, the money is gone. Out of $100 I've sent about 17 quotes. Of those 17 Thumbtack claims 15 were viewed, 2 went to my website, 1 physical contacted me as a result of my bid and 0 hires. The lead that I had was really only looking to validate whether her planning process was on the right track and didn't even have planning in her budget at all! Thumbtack takes your money up front, provides instant gratification with slightly room temperature leads and takes your money even if all five bidders (that's the max) go un hired.

I've used Thumbtack for over 4 years. The first 2-3 years things were great and I had no reason to contact support. But oh man, this year I contacted them because a reviewer left a 4 start review simply because she "wanted to stop receiving messages from Thumbtack". Now crazy thing is I was never even HIRED. I sent her my quote and 2 months later I get this 4-star review. It was then that I asked her why and she gave me that response. I called Thumbtack, chatted with Thumbtack. They specifically saw the message where she said "I just wanted Thumbtack to stop sending me messages". Their response, "We believe reviewers are allowed to leave reviews and not get them taken down, that could be a lawsuit". I was shocked. It felt like I was on a different planet. What kind of logic is that?

I contacted them earlier this week for a customer that put a incorrect zip code and popped up as "in my area". I wanted a refund for that quote. They gave me one, but proceeded to tell me I need to update my preferences to not get jobs like that. This guy could've lived in Madagascar and put my zip and it would've popped up in my feed. Zero empathy and zero ownership. Nothing is ever their fault. Worst customer support I've dealt with.

I used Thumbtack to search for a contractor. They were all clearly cheaper than Home Advisor contractors so I hired one. I saw the guy throwing up one morning and asked if he was okay. He said he wasn't feeling good, i insisted the poor guy leave and come back tomorrow. GUESS WHAT... he never came back, left his tool bag here and my husband for a package of drugs in it. I was furious... I called Thumbtack to complain and ask how this guy was able to be referred by them and they told me anyone can sign up. YOU JUST SENT A JUNKIE TO MY HOUSE I SAID. They said they would look into it. End of story, the guy never came back took $1000 of my money probably spent $100 of it here and it's all my fault looking for these cheap quotes. HOME ADVISOR has real pro's thats for sure.

This site steals people's money! Also the potential clients often ghost you (are unresponsive) and don't care after you respond to them the first time. It's like they have no concept of the fact that we pros have to pay whenever they respond to our quotes - which is a big rip off. This last time, I spent money on an opportunity, the client asked me if I was available to come and I responded "yes", and after that they fell off the face of the Earth. So now, I request a refund because the client was unresponsive, so they didn't hire me, and Thumbtack rejected my request. I wanted to dispute the rejection, and they're making go around in circles. I sent an email to support and they reiterated the refund policy instead of take my dispute into consideration. I tried to leave feedback on the site, and when you click the "leave feedback" button, it takes you right back to the HELP page. No space to leave feedback. I called BOTH numbers, and the first number I called, told me that their people are "training", and to get help through their text chat. Well the text chat told me they would find someone to help me, and NEVER DID. Neither one of the phone numbers has a live person to talk to. Just their people are "training", and call back at business hours. I did call at business hours! Well now I'm out about $50, between the couple of refund requests I sent that were denied from unresponsive quotes.