Thumbtack

In the beginning of this year, I really loved using this site for getting my company so much business. The past two months have been the most horrible experience for me. I have noticed an increase in customer scams, faulty accounts and freudulant activity. Tonight I have witnessed someone request two wedding planning requests along with a graduation party Planning request. I didn't realize it was the same person, so I bided on two of these request. Soon after I realized it was for the same person. But for some reason this person was getting married twice this year and throwing herself a graduation party. Absolute scam and fraudulent account. So I reported it. After twenty minutes on the phone, I soon realized thumbtack support was not going to close that account and save us pros our valuable time and money. Instead we are wasting our money on fake accounts. This has happened so many times in the past two months. I have spent more money the past two months on this account and haven't gotten as much work. The only thing I have gotten is scam accounts. I can seat here all night and write a book on every scam account I have dealt with, within the past two months. But it's not about that. It's about the fact that thumbtack support isn't doing their job wth filtering out the freudlant accounts. They aren't holding up to their end with quality customer service. Thank you Jessie T with thumbtack support for showing me that you guys are absolutely fine with these freudulent accounts. With you justifying these accounts and not refunding us for the ones that are scams, has shown me that I should bring my business elsewhere. And save my money from Thumbtack scams.

Yours truly with Carismas

Description of Complaint:
I was scammed by a contractor that I hired through Thumbtack for a patio extension, total cost $11,400. The contractor started the job, then over the week requested all the amount in full for material. While digging the contractor hit my water line for my sprinkler system. Never to show up again or respond to emails/texts. On 11/15/2021 I reached out to Thumbtack Trust and Safety and started communicating with "Helen" as you can never get a direct email or number to reach an actual person. Good luck trying to use the app to "schedule" a call as all time slots are booked. I was asked to provide proof of contract, proof of payment, proof of communication emails/texts, proof of damage/pictures. I provided all back promptly. On 11/17 I received an email to fill out a link on total cost I would like reimbursed for the damage/repair and the quotes to support the amount within 60 days, 1/17/2021. During the Holidays, COVID hit my household and affected us for a 6 week time frame which caused a delay in having a contractor visit on site. I had delays finding a contractor as many are booked out for on site quotes for 8 weeks or more due to limitations of staff due to Omnicrom spike during that time. I was able to get one contractor to visit on site and provide quote for the cement to be demolished to repair water line and rebuild cost would be $40,593.75. I submitted the estimate and explained the delay on 1/27 which was 10 days pasted the 1/17 deadline. I was immediately denied for the Thumbtack Guarantee because I was past 60 days but offered a "possibility" of $1,000 money back guarantee. I asked for management to reach out to me as I feel there should be exceptions and extensions due to COVID. I am not asking for $40K reimbursement but at least want to be fair and $1K is not fair. Per the fine print for Guarantee, I provided everything requested. Estimated quotes are not in the fine print and I feel is another way to delay reimbursement.

Thumbtack is a scam for business owners. Quotes are free to send but if someone replies, even if they have not read all of Thumbtacks rules and regulations, or if someone has something misclassified, such as needing a printer, not a designer.

You are charged $20-35.00 for every 100.00 in a quote you sent, so something you charge $300.00, you get charged $75.00 if someone replies to your quote, NOT if someone hires you. (A lot of users looking for professionals, this service is free, they do not read the lengthy rules, then YOU as a registered pro are charged just for someone saying, I'll save your info and get back to you when I know what I need, or if someone needs a printer and not a designer not understanding the difference, you have to file a claim with customer service, and it isn't really refunded to you.

All of this is VERY unclear on their website. After lots of emails and customer service chats, I was told I would be refunded a couple mischarges. Then after more time talking to customer service, to find out they didnt mean I would be refunded the money to the money to the bank account from which it came, they indicated my money would be credited to my thumbtack account and told me in the fine print they do not refund money to bank accounts.

Next, I went to my account and removed my credit card, just wanting to use the money that was credited to my account, I then got a message saying I could not send quotes unless I had a credit card linked to my account. You know, Ill take the loss, so that I dont give you one more dime I work really hard for!

For 100.00 on Facebook, I can run ads for weeks, probably gaining at least 5-10 new customers for what they are charging. Hire a local designer/advertisement pro and get some real advertising for yourself!

I have since read many reviews from other areas of service, home contractors, hair stylist. Same issues. Home contractors look like they have it rough based on some of the bids change but the average proposal cost 500.00?!

Ill join a class action with anyone else that feels like this service is a scam! I'm also filing complaints with BBB and FCC is possible!

I have hired off Thumbtack twice and both times they damaged my home! The first "professional" threatened to "beat me within an inch of my life" because I left him negative feedback! I responded to him appropriately considering he threatened violence in open forum and Thumbtack kicked me off the site! I lost money too!

I opened another account and hired painters! They ended up not being professional painters, had no plan, no reliability, never showed up consistently, and were all Meth Addicts! I can say that with all certainty from what I saw and experienced with them after 30 years working the streets of Las Vegas! After 19 days these Methheads couldn't finish the exterior of my 400 sqft shop yet they had paint all over the shop, and different walls on the exterior of the house now! Nothing Finished! Paint Everywhere so I fired them and gave them half the labor minus the $260 I gave him upfront for "his utilities bills at his house!" (MORE THAN LIKELY METH
MONEY!)

I was left over the barrel with any other painter that came along by them knowing I needed them to finish the job!

I gave Thumbtack two opportunities and after being threatened with violence by the First "Thumbtack Pro" and having Thumbtack block me over responding to him I opened a second account to give them another opportunity! I got the Meth Addicts next that knew nothing about exterior painting! They had no plan, no management, no schedule, no idea what they were doing and wanted me to buy paint before they had prepped the entire job! Two Red Flags! The #1 was their appearance and TEETH! Then the "Owner" asked for a draw on the job to pay his utilities! Red Flag #2! The last and final straw was 19 days and no completion of anything and paint slung on every wall, in my landscaping rocks and no one showing up on time!

After 19 days I fired them!

I had one painter before the Methheads set up an appointment and never showed or called! So really 3 Negative Experiences with Thumbtack!

STAY AWAY FROM THUMBTACK!

I love how there isn't any place to review this stupid company.

Thumbtack is a total and complete rip off to professionals. Please do not sign up to be a professional on this site. You will lose more money than you make.

Here's what's wrong with this company:

First of all when a pro signs up with thumbtack they are told you get a refund if a customer doesn't look at your quote within 48 hours. The problem with that is the customer requests a quote from pros, the customer looks at them and never hire a professional. They never had the intention to hire a professional. Most of the customers are on Thumbtack just getting free quotes from professionals and never hire anyone. For all we know it could be someone that Thumbtack hires to sign up as a customer and look at pros quotes but never get back to them. That seems like a full proof way to get money from professionals.

Here are a couple things Thumbtack SHOULD do but won't because they are complete scammers:

1. Thumbtack should, at the very least, tell customers the professional is paying to quote them. I did a test run and signed up for Thumbtack as a customer looking for a quote and NO WHERE did it tell the me that the professional will be paying to send you a quote. (I didn't view the quotes sent me to me because I'm not that kind of person). Therefore, all of the customers that sign up with thumbtack have NO IDEA we are putting money out there. At least let them know before sending us a request so if they have some morals they can hold off on requesting a quote until they are truly ready to hire someone.

2. If the customer is actually SERIOUS and ready to hire a pro, they should put some of their money into their request. That will tell the pros that the customer is actually serious if they are willing to pay for a quote. Then, when they actually hire a pro off Thumbtack they will get their money back.

3. THUMBTACK should be the one to follow up with the customer. I'm sure Thumbtack has data that tells them which customer hired someone and which customer is leaving pros in the dust. If Thumbtack contacted the customer, pros can find out why the customer did not hire any of the pros that quoted them or maybe help them make the right decision.

4. Thumbtack should refund a pro's money even if the customer looks at the quote and never answers within 48 hours. Thumbtack should refund a pro's money if the customer hires someone other than themselves. That way the refunded money can be used for another quote in the future. It all sounds like Thumbtack doesn't actually want to help out professionals, but to take everyone's money.

Please change the unfair ways toward professionals and maybe more professionals will sign up for Thumbtack or maybe you will get less reviews like this one.

I would give them zero stars if that was an option! My issue worked out, but no thanks at all to Thumbtack. They front like they will help a consumer, but really they have no power over a "Pro" to work out financial or contractual issues. They make money recommending people and are not accountable in any way. I was having a problem with a "Pro" who I found through Thumbtack. I read his reviews and they were great except one that said he never got back to them after they tried to contact him. It happens! I hired him using a signed contract and gave him a deposit. This was followed by five times that he said he was coming the next day and then never showed up. He ignored calls and most texts, except to let us know when he would be "fake" showing up again. I was already actively pursuing civil and criminal action, but decided to turn to Thumbtack for advice and assistance. I used the online chat feature because I like to have an exact transcript of the conversation. The agent took all the details and explained that this dispute would be escalated to the Thumbtack Solution Center. The agent also said that I would get a call from them - I did not - and that they would email me a copy of the transcript of our chat - they did not. I knew enough to copy the chat and was able to paste it into a blank word document. When this "Pro" got the complaint he finally showed up and did the job. Two days after the job he contacted me to ask why I made a complaint and if I was unhappy with the work. I knew he had received the complaint days before. I explained to him that I filed that to help protect myself and make a trail of evidence for court, but now I would withdraw the dispute, A few days later I received an email from Thumbtack. I asked them to get the pro to do the job or refund my deposit, HERE IS THERE BIG HELP FROM THE SOLUTION CENTER: "We have an update on your dispute in the Thumbtack Solution Center. It looks like ***** didn’t accept or counter your suggested solution by the deadline. We know this is
Disappointing, so someone from the Marketplace Trust and Safety team will reach out to you within two business days. In the meantime, we suggest looking into the resources available in your area to hold ***** responsible." So basically they said we tried to reach him and he ignored us. Good luck@. I will never use them again! And BTW they did not get back to me!

You’ll hear from us soon.

Marketplace Trust and Safety Team

I hired this company for my original move to a storage facility back in September. They were suppose to show up on Thursday at 10am they showed up at 3pm. When the guy saw what he had to pack he said our move wouldn't fit because he had another move in the truck.We told him not to bother the storage would close by the time he came back. My husband had to take another day off the next day. The next day they came at 10am and packed everything what I thought looked pretty good. They charged me $450 for the wraps for the furniture which would be refunded to me in three months when I contracted them again. So I was forced to hire them again. I was dissapointed with the way they stacked the boxes in the storage because I had rented two huge units for enough room. When I hired them 3 months later I realized I was right. My china cabinet was scratched at the side and a big chip of wood in the front. The bracket that connects the top to the bottom was lost. Also the wood and screws to my dresser mirror were lost. The mover tried to blame me telling me he had given it to me three months ago. They also broke two glass shelves in my china cabinet. They then dropped a box of liquor which was carefully wrapped with bubble rap. Besides breaking 6 bottles they then brought broken glass and liquor into my house with their boots. Needless to say I was livid. When I started to unpack the boxes 6 of my china glasses were chattered. When they finished and I call he office that I wasn't paying the mover started yelling at me in Russian and refused to leave my house. He threatened with calling the police. I called the office again. This Interchange of calls took an hour before the manager spoke to him and told him to accept $100 and leave. Never have I been so insulted in my own home. I am a diabetic and my glucose was at 650. I will never recommend this company. They should not be in business..

I worked for Thumbtack, right at the VERY beginning when leads were completely free, and it was absolutely wonderful! I LOVED Thumbtack and was getting hired a LOT. Then, gradually, bit by bit, they started to change. The charges were reasonable at first, and they also had this thing whereby if the person ONLY asked for a quote from "you", you got the lead for free.

Someone has been playing around with the system BIG time. You know what they say: if it's not broken, don't try to fix it. As time went on, the categories changed, too, and I found myself being placed into categories that didn't really accurately reflect what I do. My complaints fell on completely deaf ears. I am an ordained Spiritualist Minister, with all of the rights and privileges granted to any Minister of any other recognized religion; I'm not a "fortune teller" (shudder: HATE that expression), even though Spiritualists have the belief of the ability to communicate with people who have crossed over, but I'm not a traditional, Christian, minister either!

Then, we have the public's mindset of "let me book the person who is the cheapest, and who will work for almost free". These are the exact same people after the event who are complaining that the person/entity doesn't know what they are doing!

If you check my reviews, on Thumbtack AND other sites, you will see that they show 5 stars for the most part. That's because I have integrity. No, I'm not the cheapest, but my pricing is on the low end of average for New York City.

Now, I rarely (if ever) use Thumbtack for anything, even though I won an award for "Best Of", back in 2013 I think it was :). I think it's a shame because if it continues to make everything "all about the money" it will gradually wear itself out and down, as do most people/companies who start to believe their own publicity. I mean, Angie's List is free and there are a host of other choices for workers now.

All that being said, Thumbtack gave me a start. At the time I was using Thumbtack, I was just transitioning from a full time corporate job to this work, my passion. For that I will be forever grateful. These days, I get referrals from my early Thumbtack leads and honestly, word of mouth is still King!

Gradually the pricing has gone up and the quality has gone way down. I just simply got sick and tired of quoting for things and spending my good money on leads that went absolutely nowhere. It seems to be the same story for most.

Thumbtack certified and verified this business. JNVIS roofing company's owner seems to be a very decent guy, I like him. I was ready to hire him until I looked him up on DPOR and he is not registered as a licensed contractor in Virginia or anywhere. For those of you who don't know, DPOR is the governing body of Virginia Department of Professional and Organizational Regulations. I posit the questionb to him as why he wasn't licensed and he never answered me. I double checked with DPOR and they could not find him either. I asked him for his license and insurance several times and he never produced them. So buyers beware since Thumbtack and others are verifying him as one of the top roofers in this area, certified and verified by who? I guess Thumbtack is still just trying to make money and /or get a lawsuit against them because they recommended someone to me 4 years ago and I did not do my due diligence and he still has 4500 ( Bruce Ross DMV Roofing and his sister Brittany they're just thieves) of my money and he was listed on Thumbtack HomeAdvisor and including Google. However, I can't seem to find this company on Google either but Thumbtack says he's one of the top rated here but we do know you can buy some people to write reviews right there are legit scam artists. JNVIS doesn't have a website but he is on Facebook, that alone should give you pause, who isn't on FB? What happens if he falls off your roof or one of his workers are injured who is liable? I'll let you unpack that question while I provide you a few answers. No matter how nice a contractor is: In the State of Virginia this applies to all contractors...
Only a licensed general contractor can undertake major projects where construction permits are available... A large number of works can be done by licensed general contractors. It may include earth movement, transportation, power, supports, framing or roofing. But contractors in fact can not always work on it all. And some license only go up to $10,000 so make sure they're able to work on your project, THUMBTACK isn't for sure.
SF
Just looking out-

Look closely at the "leads" -- the names are ridiculous, 99% of the leads are people who don't have facebook or LinkedIn profiles. Coincidence? If an executive named "Simon Z from Maui" is looking to hire a photographer via Thumbtack, don't you think chances are pretty good that "Simon Z" would have a profile SOMEWHERE on the internet? 99% of the names given as the "first names" of the "leads" are so off-the-wall that you think it would be easy to find them on the internet -- nope. And, if you do find one on LinkedIn, it's a "person" with no picture, no information, and no contacts! I can't tell you how many "fake" leads I have come across! On top of that, when I started comparing what the descriptions were for what they needed -- they were all very similar (all very vague).

DON'T put your business on Thumbtack unless you have hundreds of dollars to blow every week. If you already have your business on there, copy and save your profile (so you have it) and copy and save all your positive reviews (so you have them) -- just in case they go out of business before you had a chance to do that!

They should have the potential customers pay $10 (and reduce the fees for the pros). If a customer is SERIOUS about finding an awesome professional to help with his/her project, they won't mind paying $10 to find that contact! In addition, they should make the customer provide a legitimate phone number and email address.

It just makes no sense to pay $20-$70 per POTENTIAL lead with no guarantee of ever being able to have a conversation with the client! With their new business model, all they were doing was simply charging my credit card over and over and I never got any new clients or the opportunity to talk with potential client! Prior to that -- when I was picking and choosing the projects I wanted to respond to --and was paying to send them quotes, I was getting a new client every day! A few weeks ago I responded to about 50 projects -- just to see what responses I would get via their new model! I got lame questions like "Can I call you?" (and, of course, never got a call but got charged on my credit card $20 for that question!) or I was asked a question that was answered in my profile (and got charged for that question).

I am done with them. Their business model will NOT sustain itself if they have no pros (like me) no longer on board.

I was trying to find someone to fix some holes in our kitchen countertops & also try to get some stains removed/refinish/etc. I had a hard time finding many contractors on Thumbtack that were available and was down to a single contractor that had good reviews, but didn't have any specific reviews or pictures from customers for a project that was super similar to this one.

Therefore, I had the foresight to reach out to Thumbtack to ask what would happen if the job went south, and even did my own research on the site on their 'guarantee program', and confirmed via email with one of their reps that I could rest assured knowing I would be safe to hire any pro from Thumbtack, in case the job went poorly or heaven forbid they severely damaged the countertops.

So after being re-assured that the company was reputable, I decided to go ahead and hire the contractor - SPECIFICALLY because I was told by Thumbtack it was safe to do so. TOO BAD THAT WAS A BOLD-FACED LIE!

The contractor did in fact destroy the countertops! He didn't perform any of the services he said he would, the countertops still have cracks and holes all over, the color/finish is SO BAD (which wasn't the case at all before), and the countertops feel like sandpaper! Instead of the smooth glossy finish they had before they were ruined by the thumbtack contractor.

So I naturally tried keeping my calm and reaching out to Thumbtack. I spoke with a friendly rep who (yet again!) assured me they could and would help remedy the awful situation. I sent tons of pics/videos of the before/after countertops. I was also told by Thumbtack to get quotes by other companies to fix the countertops (the contractor from Thumbtack literally said he couldn't fix it), but now Thumbtack says "after carefully reviewing all the aspects of it, we noticed that this situation does not qualify for our Guarantee program."

Thumbtack IS AN ABSOLUTE SCAM. The "Pros" are nothing of the sort. DO NOT USE, YOU WILL REGRET EVERYTHING!

I wanted to warn you about a terrible experience I had with Thumbtack. Ive used them before and found a great moving company that moved us across the country. Therefore, when we were wanting a custom bookshelf made for our living room, I was excited because I thought I found a great carpenter on their site. He had almost perfect, verified reviews. He came to our house, created a prototype for our bookshelf, and we were excited to hear we would have a bookshelf made in 4 weeks. We signed a contract where we paid 70% upfront. After paying the carpenter, he stopped responding to our calls/texts/emails. We were really worried because we had paid close to $5000 and didnt know what was going on. We spoke to Thumbtack, and they told us not to worry and that 9/10 times they were able to resolve things. Thumbtack had his credit card on file and tried charging him for the full amount but could only get half of it cleared. They mailed us a check for around $2400. At this point, we heard back from the contractor and he apologized saying he had health issues. We went to his shop and saw the wood he had purchased. He assured us that it would take two weeks or so to finish it up. Afterwards we didnt hear from him again for a couple weeks and then we got a text from him saying he that he cant finish the project because his health is too bad and he would repay us the balance. After trying to get a hold of him again, we heard nothing. In the meantime, the contractor posted pictures on social media of him making a table with the wood that we presumed he purchased to make our shelves. We ceased contacting him further because he was tweeting messages that were satanic and made us feel uncomfortable. Furthermore, we saw online that he has a criminal background. We contacted Thumbtack again for their assistance, and after our case was escalated to a manager, they advised there was nothing else they could do to help. They said that its now between us and the contractor and they have no additional responsibility to us. When I asked Thumbtack does background checks, they say they ALLOW the vendor to complete one. This experience has been ridiculous and we feel beyond disappointed. We are out $2400 because we trusted Thumbtack to vet their vendors. Instead, they put a criminal on their platform and refused to take responsibility. STAY AWAY FROM THUMBTACK so you dont find yourself in a similar situation!