Jennifer B.

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.