Alex P.

Thumbtack is an utterly irresponsible and reprehensible company that provides no information and takes zero responsibility for their contractors. It should be illegal for them to connect customers to short and long distance movers. Recently, the FBI charged 12 people for moving scams where these criminals will either a). Take your stuff hostage and demand more and more money to return your stuff or b). Steal your stuff and then auction them off. There are in between outcomes where your stuff will likely be broken by illegitimate movers who will also severely overcharge you. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration keeps a database of movers who are registered and insured with the Federal government. In addition, a U.S. DOT number is required by FMCSA for interstate moves. This is the BASIC minimum step to check for the legitimacy of a purported mover. Otherwise movers who don't meet this basic minimum requirement: a) may not be insured and therefore you may be mislead into believing the insurability of your goods b) may actually NOT be legal to carry out interstate moves and c) are NOT subject to any regulation because you can't file a complaint against them with the FMCSA.
Think about online websites that connect customers to service providers. When you sign up on eBay, you are given hints to how to purchase safely and how to sell safely. Thumbtack provides NO guidance on identifying legitimate moving companies. This is because their business model SUPPORTS predators who prey on unsuspecting or ill advised consumers. Businesses have to pay a fee to see your request and that's how Thumbtack gets paid. They're largely accepting of scammers and shady contractors because they get money, take no responsibility for your pain and loss when in fact, they should be legally liable for not doing background checks on contractors.
I was contacted by a shady person, likely a moving "broker" who gave me a quote for moving interstate. I was asked to pay an upfront 20% deposit (a sign of shady business practices) which I did through PayPal. The moving company name this broker masquerades under is the same name as a legitimate company in another state, which is not unusual as moving companies often do long distance interstate moves. Their phone # also matched the area code of the legitimate moving company (Flag 1 for misdirection).
I then googled the name of the actual moving company, who has a similar name to yet another legitimate transport company (Flag 2 for misdirection). It wasn't until I felt a sense of uncertainty that I looked further and realized that this was one of those shady illegal moving companies that hire a local penske/generic truck, bang up your stuff and possibly hold your items hostage and/or force you to pay "storage fees". They CLAIMED to accept credit card payment, but switched to PayPal or Venmo (Flag 3). I was able to resolve the issue through several calls to PayPal but I had to escalate the issue as they did not believe me and thought I was backing out of a moving contract. I later did some research and it turns out the invoice was illegal because they charged by volume instead of weight (google binding vs. non binding contracts and the legality of quoting by volume vs. weight) so had PayPal not stopped the transaction I could have sought back my deposit by other means.
I contacted Thumbtack and sent them PROOF with screenshots. The moving company has ALSO been reviewed under Yelp with complaints that Thumbtack referred them. This is 99% Thumbtack's responsibility and yet they don't care. This individual is still on Thumbtack with fake 100% positive reviews. There have been other reviewers stating that these scammers just change to another name on Thumbtack even if action forces them to close down one account. In the end Thumbtack proposed a solution to connect me to this shady individual summarizing that I was "not comfortable pursuing services." This is highly misleading and has NOTHING TO DO with personal feelings or being comfortable. There were CLEAR signs and proof their contractor was shady and illegal. Not only that, it is dangerous to clearly disclose to a shady individual, "your customer is uncomfortable doing business with you." Who knows if these individuals will retaliate or get revenge, GIVEN that my original and new moving addresses were given to them. I advise anyone considering moving to NOT use Thumbtack and instead use OFFICIAL and FEDERAL government licensed companies and most of all, do research. Thumbtack doesn't care if you lose your valuable belongings, get terrorized by scammers or lose money. They will keep a band of thieves if it serves them their dinner on a silver platter at the expense of your WHOLE LIFE.

Update: Since contacting them almost two weeks ago, I haven't received a refund and will have to contact them again after "10 business days." Don't order from them directly, their parent company IconFitness (or whatever it's called) has terrible customer service. Order from another retailer to avoid this refund nightmare.

Since I've had consistent difficulty in finding shoes that fit me (size us 4.5-5 depending), I heard Altra was a candidate and decided to try them. I tried ordering off Zappos at first but my purchase was declined due to an overzealous credit card monitoring. So I ordered from them directly and the products were shipped quickly, but oddly three shoes in three separate boxes (seems to not be cost effective, but what do I know about merchandising, warehousing and shipping, right?). Unfortunately, they were still too big so I requested a return and was given three separate return shipping labels. I shipped them back and they arrived, but did not hear from them about the refund for a month. I got no confirmation that they received the return or that my refund is forthcoming. I emailed them after the month wait and they responded, but offered no apology. What if I had forgotten? It seemed like I would never have received a refund. I just find it shady when you, the customer have to remind businesses to refund you. It's like they're counting on people who forgot. If they were annoyed about the shipping costs, they can maybe consolidate having to ship shoes separate and/or charge a flat fee for returns like some retailers.

I don't even actually really like going to the store. For some reason, their store associates are always standoffish and/or try to oversell and then act disinterested when you refuse.
Online, Teavana has better deals compared to the stores so I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone. Get cheaper tea and avoid store associates. They had a promo for free 2 Oz of caramel truffle if you order a certain amount. When my tea came, I got a random English Breakfast tea instead. I called them and they said they ran out of the caramel truffle so they replaced it with the English Breakfast. First of all, the English Breakfast is around $5/2oz, and the caramel truffle is $10/2oz.
It's mighty cheap of them to substitute something of less value, instead of another one of equal value. PLUS, you can still order caramel truffle online so obviously it's either a bait or switch or they decided to limit free caramel truffle teas to what, like 50, and then stick other customers with some lower value tea.
Second, I can't drink black tea because it's bad for my stomach. I'll have to now give it to someone else. My call with them didn't resolve the issue. I emailed them and they told me they couldn't address my issue over email and told me to call their customer service. Basically, they don't care about you and don't want to resolve your issue. It's YOUR fault for buying from them and if they screw up, it's YOUR fault and they don't care.

I booked a vacation via SouthWest. I got an email that told me to check in to their resort hotel and sign up for Disney's Shuttle Express service. I don't know who designed and/or programmed the website but it is the most incompetent, flawed and poorly streamlined site. It's only a smidge above those news sites that play advertisements for 15 seconds before you can click an X and/or has some video ads in the background. Everything is laggy and takes seconds to process. I know it's to entice the Disney goers but when I book vacations I expect things to be efficient, not slow as hell.

First, the Disney Shuttle Express pages are BUGGED. I could not enter in a flight number. The calendar for arrival and depart dates were messed up on all computers I tried. My macbook pro's three browsers: Safari, Chrome and Firefox had the same issue. I tried on a pc with IE and Firefox and the same issue was there. It could very well be that all of my computers and browsers were having simultaneous issues but I think their website is programmed poorly, very poorly. I mean, do they outsource their programming to overseas for a salary for $2/hour? Is that why it's so buggy?

I try to check in with their resort online, two rooms were booked. They were unable to check in the other guests in the other room because of their website limitations. As much as they like to promote a stress free experience, I've never had as many issues with Disney as with any other website in my life. Even Gmarket and the Korean language were better experiences. For the two things I attempted to complete, I give 0/2. I ended up spending almost an hour with Southwest Airlines who ALSO ON MY BEHALF attempted to complete the booking but THEIR browsers were also having issues. They ended up calling Disney to do it for me. So that confirms it wasn't just my computers or browsers. For a company that has so much revenue, there's no excuse to scrounge on a better web experience. Sure it might save them a few $$$, but it wastes my time and my time is money also. It's disappointing that it's so glaringly obvious they value their own profits a lot more than their customers.

I think that this might actually be a legitimate company that just has terrible customer service and business practices (they have some good reviews elsewhere) but so far, my experience has been pretty unsavory. I placed an order on August 22nd and after waiting a week in which my order status was still "Awaiting Fulfillment", I emailed them asking when they planned to ship the item. I got a reply in less than 1 minute that was obviously a generated email telling me a shipment was delayed and that my order would be shipped shortly. It's been almost 2 weeks since that and still no update or tracking number so I emailed them again to just notify me when the item would be shipped (it's not as if I demand something to be shipped from them ASAP, I just wanted a date or a range of dates) and if the item was indefinitely available, that I just wanted to cancel my order. This time I get no reply which worries me so I filed a claim on PayPal, technically I have 45 days but at this point, I kind of just want my money. I have concerns that the item might actually be a knock-off from China since they ship from there. Magically the day after I file a claim on PayPal, I get an updated status on my order and a tracking # for OSM Worldwide (some kind of consolidation shipping service I've never heard of) which of course doesn't work. They state that it may take 1-2 days for the tracking to update which is reasonable but based on the pattern of responses on their end, I'm not too hopeful and would rather just be refunded the money than potentially receive a cheap knock-off and have to escalate that even more with PayPal.

This site is now just freelancer.com, either they changed the people who run it or revamped it but while I was out of a job, I did a job on here that cost the person hiring $30. They charged a $5 fee for that, but their paypal withdrawl limit is $30, so basically you'd have to win another project and complete it before you can even withdraw any money! Not only that, they charge another fee for withdrawing from their site to paypal. If I remember correctly, they gave you free bids for projects per month but if you wanted to bid more you have to buy bids. I considered adding in another $30 to obtain a final value of $55 to transfer to my paypal, but I'd lose $5 more plus the initial fees. A gain of $20 is better than nothing, but it just seemed excessive for such a small amount. So I left it there, a year and a half later I log on and ALL THE MONEY is gone. Apparently they took out $5 every set period for inactivity.

I'm glad I didn't add any money on my account! Basically if they think you're no longer active, THEY WILL take your money. Hell, even imagecave sends me email reminders "your account will expire in 30 days, please log in to reactivate it." This kind of deceptive behaviour borders on theft.

Official sounding name: Domain Registry of America - shady!

Be very careful! I received a letter in the mail the other day, with garbled information in the To: section (based from a whois of a domain I own that's static now - I recommend getting a service that blocks your whois information to prevent these places from sending you mail). Based on that, I knew right away that they had gleaned my info. And was probably up to no good.

For one, I'm not stupid and my domain is registered with GoDaddy since September of last year. Why would I want to renew my domain through DROA for $30 a year for approximately 3x the cost it is currently with GoDaddy? They also stress you to reply before a certain date, at least 4 months before the actual expiry date. It just makes no sense and in fact the link here: http://www.ucan.org/blog/blog/scam_alert/domain_registry_of_america_scam, features a great scan of what the mail looks like. There is information on DROA's wiki page and the linked site regarding FTC fines and the like - basically stay away!

I got spammed too:

"LouisVuitton L. Along with the network development, many products sale by the network.It becomes a Fierce
Competition. For example the Louis Vuitton Online Store, as one of the most famous brand in the world,
Louis Vuitton has their website, but they also need the Louis Vuitton Outlet to sale their products.So if
You want to buy Louis Vuitton you just visit our Louis Vuitton Store. Welcome to http://www.buylouisvuittonoutletstore.com or email me:*******@yahoo.cn."

It seems like these people don't know what SiteJabber is for, but it's comical... and sad. The other review pretty much covers the likelihood that this is 100% scam, but I just wanted to chime in about their ignorant spam methods.

I was curious about the 7 day free trial was entering my information in when they asked for my credit card info., so I googled some reviews and realized it was probably not going to be a good idea. I closed the browser and didn't sign up. The next day, I get at least 3 calls from them with a voicemail telling me to sign up for their promotion of 14 days free. I hope they stop calling me because I read on another site, that they've been receiving calls from them almost every day... and it's not possible to block numbers unless you pay $4.99/month if you're with AT&T so I'd recommend against trying it, unless you like the thrill of waiting for their phone calls.