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Thumbtack is a scam without a shadow of a doubt. When you've run a business for 10-15 years you get to know your market intimately and you get a good idea of the average job request and the form they take.

So when you see the job requests that Thumbtack send you, and they're completely different from the job requests you're getting from your website, if alarm bells don't ring in your head then you're asleep at the switch. As an example, I run a pet care business and we get a lot of requests through the contact form for cat feeding jobs. In 15 years in this business I don't think I have ever received a single request from a real person asking to feed their cat twice a day. It's ALWAYS once a day.

With Thumbtack however, I frequently got quote requests asking for a price for two feedings a day. These are not real people, they're automated requests generated by an algorithm. Thumbtack has obviously programmed a set of parameters for each industry type into its algorithm but since they have no hands on experience of these industries, they don't understand the subtle nuances which make a job request sound real. Here's an analogy which the musicians among you may understand.

There are computer algorithms which purport to "humanize" a computerized drum beat by randomizing the timing slightly, to mimic the way a real drummer's hits are not exactly on the beat. But it NEVER sounds natural to a real drummer or anyone who has intimate knowledge of how a real drummer sounds. It can never replicate the correct "feel" to those in the know. And so it is with Thumbtack's attempts to create random job requests from an algorithm.

I'm not buying it, and many other people I know in my industry say exactly the same thing. But it's so much more than that. Not only do you get to know what average job requests look like, but you also get a sense of how frequently people respond to your quotes. With the requests we receive from our website, we'll get a response from virtually every inquiry we receive, and the vast majority of them get us hired.

With Thumbtack, we'll be lucky if 1 out of 30 quote requests are responded to. Why? Because among the few real job requests they send you, there are a sea of fake ones just itching to cheat you out of the credits you pay an arm and a leg for (and recently they have drastically raised the number of credits it takes to send a quote, claiming in their canned corporate justification that the new credit system is better for everyone). You might get the odd job off Thumbtack.

And those extremely infrequent jobs persuade you to keep buying credits. Then you throw most of those credits away on fake job requests.

Don't listen to the canned response from the Thumbtack "damage control" flunkies - they obviously spend their day Googling "Thumbtack scam" in order to find pages like this to spew their lies on. Thumbtack is without a shadow of a doubt a scam.

Reason of review: Not as described/ advertised.

Location: New York, New York

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Guest

I will never waste my time with this outfit again. Had a Pro lined up for a job only to receive a message from this Scam central that the Pro had cancel just hours before scheduled appointment on the same day then worded the message to appear like I'm the one who canceled. Stay away from Thumbtack!

Guest

Thank you for the message- I have been trying to stop thumbtack to not send me leads...I am not registered with them- So this was helpful

Guest

Wow, so negative over cat feeding. We dee our cats 2-3 times a day.

Guest

Thumbtack's way of charging for leads is stupid. Why should I be charged almost $60 for a customers response even if I'm not hire for the job. I can understand being charged if I get the job.

Guest

Thumbtack SUCKS & is FAKE

Guest

Thumbtack does scam their clients

Kagan Brg

The person or persons behind Thumbtack need to be eradicated from Earth. If ppl like them got harsh punishments such as the death penalty, we wouldn't be scammed left and right by these pieces of shit...the reason scamming goes rampant is because the biggest scammers and fraudsters are the ones running "our" country...

Guest

These companies are on the rise, taking pleasure in profiting off the backs of others. I would suggest spending money on advertising and old fashioned guerrilla marketing. Stop giving away your money

Guest

I agree 100%. Going to look into a class action.

Guest

Same exact experience here.They should be shut down!

Guest

So Fake.THEY OWE A TON OF $$$ to their VENTURE Capitalists...they wasted a lot of money and they have a ton of overpaid 23 year old idiots to support in thier company

Guest

I spoke to a massage therapist last week who used to pay two or three dollars for leads, 19 months ago. I started on Thumbtack paying three to five dollars, and the just increased the lead prices to TWELVE DOLLARS, while HIDING the pricing from me. They are losing me as a customer.

Guest

I don't know about the fake leads issue. I didn't stay with them long enough to find out.

But I did find out quick enough that Thumbtack charges way too much for the "leads" you get. As a business you are much better off using Adwords, Bing, and Facebook to generate business than Thumbtack.

Guest

It does work. I have made good money off this site as a contractor and many return customers. Mostly on small jobs but you cant bid on everyone it seems like the ones with no details about the job are bs and for some reason they are the most to bid on.

Guest

I'm starting to think the same thing. My boyfriend just signed up with them yesterday and has gotten several "leads" but no phone calls.

He has spent over $100 with them already and no calls.

I'm gonna tell him to cancel the service because they are totally bogus. I will also reconsider using them for services, as I have used them in the past but finding out that they are basically liars, I'll pass.

Rosselyn Kib

TT does not monitor the requests coming in properly. On 9/13/17 I received 5 similar videography requests with the name changed a bit and the city location.

It was blindingly obvious this hoax passed thru the system. I phoned TT to no avail, with a whiny lame excuse of it takes a day or so to find the fraud requests. I asked to speak w/ a manager and the rep said they do not accelerate phone issues to supervisors. He would have the information passed along.

I guess another misguided corporate approach, if I wanted to vent to higher ups it should happen.

I am done with TT, after a couple years and prob $2K+ spent for two jobs.

My info and website is professional so I take little of the blame for lack of work. I feel someone, somewhere is feeding the system with fake requests and TT has no way monitor or seem to care.

Guest

Thanks. I've been very frustrated with Thumbtack for the last 4 months.

I get 4 to 5 leads a day and not one phone call.

I would think that atleast one of those customers would leave a phone number. Whenever a student gives a verbal referral about me , I'm usually contacted in2 to three days BY the customer.

Guest

I agree. I'm glad I caught on to the scam after loosing $18.00.

I knew the job requests were not real because when someone request a transcript job they always include the hours/minutes. The fake ones never did.

There's no way to quote a transcript job unless you know the hours/minutes.

I feel so *** for giving this company a try.

Guest

Totally agree with this, 100%

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