Thumbtack

I am frustrated because of the poor customer service. When I started with thumbtack over five years ago I could make a call and receive assistance. There are issues that are not found on the robotic troubleshooting methods. I am constantly paying for regular house painting leads and I am a muralist. I am also paying for sign painting leads and I am a muralist. Thumbtack needs to screen people better.

The prices have jumped twice in about the last 2 years, and now there is not even a set price for specific leads!

The wait time for phone support has also increased. It used to be under a minute. Now it can be 5-10 minutes.

My worst complain about Thumbtack.com in the 7 yrs I have used their service is that they charge the customer NOTHING! All the expense, and risk, is borne by the vendor. Why? Just charge the customer a small amount ($2-$5). You don't respect something you don't pay for.

First time customer need help arranging my bedroom they worked three in a half hours straight. I was I was happy with the work especially because I was sick and just came out of the hospital.

Would be great if we could specify size of potential assignment. I'm currently flooded with requests gumming up my mailbox, most of them one or two pages, but will only take much larger scope of work.

I have been using Thumbtack as a professional (licensed nutritionist) and this morning they raised the price AGAIN to bid on a lead. This is very frustrating when it costs $6+ dollars to be one of 4 other bids, thus making Thumbtack $30 for every potential job. I would recommend only use Thumbtack if you are serious about getting a job done, because if you view any or all quotes, that professional is out of money, even if you never end up getting the job done. I am unsure at this time if I will continue to use Thumbtack.

I am a pro, and from what I have seen, one of the best on Thumbtack - over 116 hires (they just removed 7 hires from my profile without any explanation) and over 77 5 star reviews. They have continued to raise the cost of credits, as well as the number of credits to quote jobs with Federal price limits for my profession. When competitors pretend to be perspective clients, they do not refund the credits when jobs are mysteriously removed. Been with them 2 years and looking for alternative sources for my money!

As a self-employed individual I have used Thumbtack faithfully for more than 16 months to try to grow my businesses (2) with mixed results. Yes, they have provided me with new leads that I have used to gain new customers. And, Yes, I have paid them for this: approx. $235 in calendar 2015 to submit my bids.
I find their new "bidding system" which they claim to be more accurate to be just the opposite! I'm a handyman and dog walker/pet sitter. The credits they have assigned to bid on some plumbing and electrical jobs are totally out of whack with the relative size/profitability of the jobs. I have continually complained directly to them about this and only receive "boilerplate" scripted responses that never really address my complaints.
So, if you're trying to obtain new leads and grow your business, I suggest you look at other marketing techniques. I have found Thumbtack to be helpful, but in the end, unresponsive to my criticisms of their policies.

I used to work with Thumbtack frequently until I discovered there was a lot of fraudulent request from pretend customers. The problem is Thumbtack has no way to determine at this point if a customer is real or fake so as business owners we keep the site going because we pay and in turn we often pay for fake customers. Thumbtack also changes everything all of the time on its business owners and doesnt notify us outright but their very sneaky so you will keep spending your money. Their latest thing is allowing fifteen businesses to bid on one customer. They used to only let five on any given bid. One week I spent $200.00 on bidding and while I would usually get at least four customers out of this I got None. I kept callling them to see what was going on with their system. It was only after I discovered by seeing something about being eight out of fifteen. I was livid! There a greedy company. Then on top of that on my recent bidding which i dont really do but out. The eight bids I did five cancelled their project supposedly. Do you think Thumbtack gave me my money back. No, they keep your money even when the project you bid on has been cancelled by the customer which is wrong.

These guys are another homeowner contractor search site. They have a different approach though. You tell them what you want and they will find the contractor for you. I'm a little uneasy about this approach as I would rather pick out the contractor I want before inviting them over to my house. Part of me wonders if they take this approach to mask their lack of content. I'm really not sure. I do like the nice clean layout of the site and they look professional. For me, it's not really how I operate though.

Hi I have my company which master handyman LLC I never getting any job from thumbtack also they not tell anybody if you lose the bitter no information I don't like wasting time

After reading many reviews about Thumbtack, I am now hesitant to use the service. There were almost as many negative reviews as positive. It seems that Thumbtack does not always have the interest of others (customers and business professionals) in the forefront, but instead operates on its own best interests.

Four professionals responded to my inquiry but only three followed up after I contacted them. Not a bad percentage.

It is hard to make a decision based on one person-to-person meeting and very little public information available on who these people are and whether or not they are trustworthy. For that reason I have decided to query family and friends to get suggestions on qualified professionals.

Based on all this, I would relay to anyone who asked about Thumbtack to proceed cautiously.

My name is Robert, and I have been using Thumbtack.com for leads in the home improvement industry. I have been using them for about 3 months now, and I have had no return on my lead investments. I have a good profile built there, according to their standards, and the correspondence from potential customers is extremely low. There is zero accountability for the customer to commit. Up to 5 service pros at a time send bids to potential customers. The leads are very vague, and customers appear to be "kicking tires" most of the time, instead of looking for a service they will actually use. There are those that have had a very good experience through Thumbtack, and good for them. I, unfortunately am not one of the privileged in that category. I have spent about $300 in 3 months, and have not landed a single job from them. I do not think it is a scam, but I also think that there is absolutely no qualifying to the type of lead I pay for. I recommend that Thumbtack refund any leads that are not hired out. That would at least keep money in the bid pool for the actual true lead that seems to come 1 out of 50.

8/13/15 - I would like to make an amendment to my previous comments about Thumbtack.com. As with alot of things in business, success takes time. My opinion of Thumbtack has changed to the degree that I would like to move my rating from 2 stars to 3 stars. Although there is still alot of potential customers that simply want a big something for nothing, there are also more true leads present than I first had estimated. Perhaps the time of year, the type of lead, or simply coincidence led me to a negative experience when first using Thumbtack. I have landed a number of jobs, collected 9 reviews, and have replaced my lead money and pulled a profit. Although Thumbtack services to the potential customer, and the service professional pays the price, time has proven to make Thumbtack.com a useful tool for "fill in" jobs between my larger contracts. If you are planning to use Thumbtack.com as advertisement, and for new job leads as a service professional, then let me give one piece of advice. Only spend on leads what you can afford to lose with no expectation of a return. Eventually a job will land and a review will be placed. Do not compromise your integrity by trying to lowball to get the job, as that process has proven to be ineffective. It just takes time for that one job to land to get the ball rolling, and many months later I am categorized by Thumbtack as the 3rd best contractor in the greater Bessemer, AL area. So if you choose to go the way of Thumbtack, or a similar lead based site, be prepared for it to take time to get established, and be familiar to it's users.

THUMBTACK IS GETTING GREEDY, THEY JUST RAISED THE PRICE THAT SERVICE PROVIDERS MUST TO PAY TO PROVIDE A BID. AS IF THEIR NOT MAKING MILLIONS ALREADY, BUT THAT IS NOT ENOUGH. NOW THEY WANT TO SQUEEZE MORE FROM THE STARVING VENDORS. GREED! GREED! MORE! MORE!.