Thumbtack
Reviews and Complaints

Spread the word.... Thumbtack sucks.

People put in a request for a job. They get 3 or more contractors who contact the customer vie email within Thumbtack. 99% of the customers do not provide a phone number nor any other way of contacting them except via Thumbtack.

I was with Thumbtack for a long time.

I gave them a fair shot. Out of all the customers I responded to, many times being the first contractor to respond, and despite having a 5 star rating, I would say that less than 10% responded to my contact. Even after 3 or 4 times of contacting people, they still didn't respond. Out of the ones who did respond, I'd say maybe - MAYBE I got 1 or 2 jobs, small jobs.

Not worth the money. Avoid them.

A lot of contractors complain. Customers don't respond.

People leave fraudulent feedback from outside of Thumbtack and from within Thumbtack - people who were never hired by a contractor that is. There's a lot of problems with them. You'd be a lot better off advertising locally or finding some other way. There's dozens of lead chaser companies that are better and more dependable with legitimate leads.

With Thumbtack, you have no way of knowing if the leads are legitimate. Thumbtack could be posting jobs to get your money, which might explain why most prospects you reply to - even if you're the first contractor to reply and even if you have a 5 star rating, they don't ever reply. Another BIG PROBLEM is that you're at the mercy of the customer. There is NO WAY to contact the customer by phone 99% of the time because they don't provide their phone numbers.

That's another reason to believe Thumbtack is providing leads that they post themselves. The bottom line: I think Thumbtack is shady, and I suspect them of being full of ***.

They're not worthy of your money. That's my opinion from my own experiences with them for over a year.

http://www.maxpowermarketing.com/thumbtack-new-way-to-get-leads/?doing_wp_cron=139438****.848411****214355****50

http://www.visualpeople.com/blog/does-thumbtack-work-for-getting-new-leads

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/open-dv-discussion/507294-might-worth-being-careful-thumbtack-com.html

Had a similar experience myself as a photographer. Better is when you try to screen bids using the public questions.

The moderators usually delete the questions with some bogus explanation. Not worth my money.

Sorry that this happened to you. As a massage therapist, I was quite frustrated.

I had all these alleged leads and never got a job or even an answer from any clients. Additionally, I kept receiving the same clients' leads over and over again ?? And no responses. That's when I realized something was fishy like you said.

Anyway, they only took me for $18. I wasn't about to keep paying for these ghost leads. My advice to everyone?

Stay away! :eek

Again, Ditto to your posting. I went through the same B.S.

Earl

About Face Remodeling L.L.C.

No self respecting photographer or other service provider pays for leads... Folks if you are looking for a pro, you will NOT find it via thumbtack....

Do you really want somebody that has placed themself between you and the provider on search engines, and the service provider has to pay for you lead? Google should be ashamed for allowing this.

As an attorney. I am always amazed how much people want to trust others and refuse to accept that there just are *** in the world who wake up each day trying to find a better way to cheat their fellow humans. I think all of us want to believe that most people are good. Frankly , most are. But with millions of people it doesn't take but a small percentage and you have a lot of bad apples.

Thumbtack I felt from the beginning (when I did a trial run with free credits), is a classic scam. Anyone who is actually an aware person and pays attention, rather than believing in Santa Claus or the tooth fairy leaving money under their pillow fora tooth, can discern the subtle nature of their plan. For example, did anyone notice that after you submit a few quotes, they suddenly have a surge in "leads." What I want to know if who is the clown who dreams up the names they use. He or she must have a book of babies' first names so that he can generate enough bull-*** leads to bilk the unaware and naive.

Further, what website that was totally legitimate would have prospective customers/clients ("leads" ) include such minimal amount of information about the services they seek; and apparently, then expect professionals service providers to actually send legitimate quotes.

The information that they provide for so-called "leads" looking for legal service would not allow any competent, ethical attorney to provide a rate, fee or "quote. How some lawyers are apparently submitting these quotes is beyond me. Same for persons in other businesses and professions.

I sent a few quotes to some "leads" writing something like: "Are you another B.S. lead that the losers at Thumbtack generate to bilk and cheat us providers, etc. etc?"

Another time I wrote in the quote (asking for more information): "I think that I will charge you zero and instead investigate the possibility of filing a class action lawsuit against Thumbtack and individually against their officers and key employees who obviously are committing a deceptive practice." Do you think I got any response from the so-called "leads" to whom I submitted these quotes; maybe asking "what the heck are you talking about... I am a legitimate person seeking an attorney?!!" Nope. Try it yourself. See what reply if any you get. Save you money! Use it for legitimate marketing efforts. This Thumbtack is another online predator trying to scam others. Research their history. I believe their founder was indicted some years ago.

Thumbtack is a scam and a lie. They code their webpages to come up in search engines with the title "The Top 32 general contractors in Cincinnati" or whatever the industry, city, and number of companies they list.

But anyone can fill out a profile with them, including bogus companies or ones operating illegally without a license. So how are they the "top" companies? Answer: They aren't, and it's a lie.

Thumbtack scams the consumer with their fraudulent website titles. Google should blacklist them.

Just wait until they get slapped with the class action lawsuit thats in the works...Gonna be fun !!! And I cannot wait until its filed.....

tell us where, when & how...we'll be in that line....we imagine some geeks sitting at screens entertaining themselves with the corrupt practices of this company, but then again, it's likely this company pays its employ minimum wage

They might pay them extra to write fake reviews here too!

Original Complainant - I stopped my service at thumbtack!!! Since then my business has taken off in other ways. Don't pay for thumbtack the response back is a joke!

I tend to agree with you thumbtack is total BS

..

$85 for x-amount of leads, 5 times a month and to only have a closing rate of 1% is pathetic, I have been paying for this service for over a year now, my prices are below most other services and compared to Groupon prices... I cannot give our service away for free and I'm sure not in the business to continuously lose money - after my credits are done...

so am I! :(

Thumbtack is SCAM. I own a carpet tile and upholstery cleaning business, and I kept getting leads on my phone without even being signed up with them.

So I decided to give thumbtack a shot. I bought 12 credits for 17.99 to reply to a potential tile cleaning job in Newport Beach. The request was very vague such as it didn't say type of tile and the square footage was listed as 500 to 1000 sq ft, which is a huge discrepancy in being able to accurately give an appropriate estimate. So I sent I need more info such as type of tile and exact sq ft.

I received a message back saying travertine. No sq ft. So I sent another message for sq ft. I received no response.

24 hours later still shows lead is still open for quotes. I noticed I was charged for requesting info twice. I then called thumbtack customer service and asked how they could charge me for more info if no quote was given. She said that is how it works.

She then told me that a quote was accepted by client. I said that's funny it doesn't show that to me. I then proceeded tell her that how can a quote be given and accepted without proper information. She had no answer.

I told her that thumbtack seems like a hinky organization and wanted a full refund of my $17.99.

I noticed they have taken my business off their service, however as of yet I have not received any refund. Moral of the story is that thumbtack leads are basically a fairytale and that this company preys upon the small business owner

Hi, please check thumbtackblacklist.wordpress.com for lists of clients likely to cause professionals grief.

This is how Thumbtack actually works. What you're experiencing is just the system.

You will never get responses from all the leads you get. We use Thumbtack regularly for our business. We get about 4-5 leads per day on average. I might get a response from one of those and actually get to talk to one customer out of about 6-7 leads and maybe one out of 15-20 turns into a sale.

It's just a numbers game because most people are kicking tires. You have to ask yourself if a job is worth paying for about 15-20 leads. It depends on the cost of the service you sell as to how much you're willing to pay to make a sale. For us, our jobs average about $2,000-$10,000 and it's definitely worth paying for 15 leads to get a job, maybe $200 or so.

I'd pay $200 all day to get a $2,000 job. A lot of Thumbtack technique is about the way you respond to a customer. It's also how polished your profile page is and the number of reviews your company has. You need to put on your best sales game and make it important for them to get a call.

I've changed my response technique several times and I've also gone in as a customer to see how it works from their POV to get a better understanding. They will respond if they're actually interested. Those that think every lead that comes in will turn into work are fooling themselves and don't understand how the system works.

You just need to calculate if the cost of sales on Thumbtack after you've made a few and see if it's right for your business. In our case, we've probably generated close to $100K in revenue through the system so it's definitely worth it to us.

Same here. I finally bid a job for $1 and still got no response.

What a joke!

What a ripoff. I have learned and I hope you do too.

I Agree this services needs to be avail-waited. I get leads for Power washing asap when it's 2 degrees there is 21 feet of snow on the ground.

Also yes the leads coming in at 1am or 3am in the Morning are very questionable. :cry :x :upset

I have had the same trouble with the site. No matter how low of a quote you send in, the consumer never calls and support doesn't care about this issue.

Definitely would not recommend this service to any Service Providers out there. Waste of Time and Money!!!!

I create websites and have spent $200 so far. ZERO is the result.

Some of the leads appear exciting. Then the lead cancels.

Time to reevaluate. Social Media advertising pays off much better.

Do not sign up for Thumbtack! I paid money to get be able to respond to quotes, not I can't access my account at all and no one responds at customer service or "support".

It is making my company look bad, as if I am ignoring quotes despite the fact I PAID to be able to do so!! Total scam & rip off.

I feel like an *** for signing up with these numbnuts, too. To give a quote, you have to have info, especially in a design capacity, but any other such thing, fence building, patio pouring.

Don't you have to SEE what you're going to be doing before you bid on it? Wouldn't you get yourself entangled in al sorts of liabilities? I was called out by a commercial property who wanted to extend a ramshackle shack in back of their place of business in Beverly Hills. I could tell they wanted cheap and hungry - in order to avoid a permit i.e.

they would choose someone who didn't know a permit was needed. One always spins the wheel of chance on bids, but the one bid I got wasn't worth my gas.

Thumbtack is very tacky…..

And you thumbtack representative, quit writing fake reviews and quit scamming people!

You do realize your review makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, right?