Thumbtack for Professionals

As a 2 person mobile IT business, generating leads has been one of the hardest things to keep up with. Thumbtack provides folks looking for computer support and related areas of service and let's us bid for $3-25 depending on the potential value of the project and the number of competing providers in our area. We have access to business and residential customers and have bid about 100 jobs in the last 5 months and earned about 10 new customers. About 1/2 of those have referred us to other folks or hired us back for additional work. Definitely pays for itself if you work the leads, ask questions in your quote instead of using a catch all template and follow up with a message or phone call where possible. We list our diagnostic fee and discount the first hour then clearly state in the quote how we handle pricing on longer jobs. We receive about 2 leads per day and sometimes up to 5 after building our business and brand in Thumbtack and asking clients to review and refer to us. We will reach Pro status shortly and I'm happy with this service and have exposure in areas I wouldn't normally be able to network in, i.e. Communities up to 30 miles away, as I defined our territory. I also love that it's all mobile and sends me text alerts when responses are needed or bids are available!

Very expensive leads!they charge you a lot of money even if leads doesn’t turn into hiring . They also charge you for leads from customers who carelessly send out mass email to multiple pros just to check for pricing without customers even visiting the pros profile first- this mass email is the same model as the knot- but at least the knot doesn’t charge you price per lead! There was a time where I spent close to 1000$ and none of those leads turned into bookings because some of those leads are just price shopping leads or whatever they are. Being a top pro doesn’t really help either. They have this system where they reduce the price of leads if customers contacted multiple pros - it’s not that much reduced . For example - if your price is 1000$ a wedding - everytime a customer reach out to you (even if it’s just price shopping) you get charged around 50$ —- if for example 4 other pros were also contacted - your price of that leads still might be 35$-40$ ... and this same customer can still go ahead and continue sending out more leads later on. additionally , if you are going to use the app, be aware that customers who contacted you for a quote can also review you anytime before you even accept the job or complete any work for them! Overall - disappointed with how much money I spent on the app and it’s rate of conversion.

Well, let me begin by saying, like others, I too was about to get scammed by a heating and air company! I was told that my unit was too old and that anything manufactured over 20 years ago, the parts are impossible to find. My only option was to replace the entire unit that cost $5,000. I contacted Guardian and talked with Eveline. She was very courteous and explained their company’s policies, services and options for financing available to me. Richard Eppers was scheduled to come to my home and just as Eveline explained, Richard was very prompt on arriving. It only took him about twenty minutes before he had determined that, I did not need to replace my system, it only needed a condenser and coolant. The level of professionalism exhibited by Richard surpassed all I have ever experienced with the heating and air industry. Before Richard arrived the temperature in my home was 80 degrees and within an hour, I was enjoying the comfort of my home of 72 degrees. I can not begin to tell you how fortunate I was to contact Guardian. I know that eventually my unit, being 22 years old, will need to be replaced. When that time comes, I definitely will be using Guardian to replace the entire system. Trust me, Richard and Eveline are the very best in this industry. They definitely “save the day with Expert Service” for me and my family! I highly recommended Guardian for all of your heating, air, plumbing and electrical needs!

I look at the reviews as I did when I first tested Thumbtack and I read stories like , I wasted time and money on Thumbtack and unless you have 200 reviews and seventy five hires you’ll just be spending money with no return. Those statements couldn’t be more wrong. I could only speak for myself when I first started using Thumbtack I didn’t know how to make the site work for me as well but I didn't give up just like any business you have to invest in advertising and have an angle that works for you. Through the tips they offer and seeing what other people have done in the past you put together a system in place that works for you. I’ve only been with Thumbtack for two years and yes I started with no reviews but I did what they told me I looked up old clients and asked them if they would write a review for me and as long as you did the right thing by that customer they were happy to so I sent them a link. Like I said it’s been two years and so far I have 28 reviews and twice that in hires. Not everyone likes to take the time and writes reviews but some do. I ask all my customers to , and so far it’s been 28 for me my rating is 4.8 out of 28 I’m happy with that. Nothing in this world just happens you have to always shoot for the stars and work hard for it.

As a person who is licensed and insured it’s hard to find people that actually wants a “pro” and not someone who does gig work. I will say the app works better for certain services and a lot of times I get under cut by people who do the job for practically nothing. I went as far as trying to charge a customer $65 for a service and still got beat by someone charging $50 when the going rate for that specific service is $125. I don’t like how the customer can just get price checks from 5 people and I still get charged for the lead. Recently i was recommended by the app to charge $85 for a service and to turn on “instant booking” when I did that I got a instant booking and the customer was set to pay $85 and I had to pay $83 for the lead. I tried to talk to customer service about it and they told me they had the right to do so because instant Booking may charge x2.8 because it’s only given to you. In my opinion and a lawyers opinion that’s a form of entrapment and to me that’s shady business. Plus many leads i got when I called the phone numbers provided the phone was not in service and they still charged me the lead and didn’t notify me of whether or not they reviewed my dispute. Customer service is sub par, you can tell there reading off of a script not really trying to help you. I wouldn't recommend this to someone that actually owns a business and llc until certain issues are fixed

When I originally started using this app some years ago it was great however, in the last couple of years lead prices have become ridiculously expensive even for small jobs. When it comes to refunds they never actually give you your money back instead you get a thumbtack credit. I honestly can’t count how many leads I’ve paid for where the customer never even read my message or replied and even in those cases I’ve only received about 20-30% of of refunds. Most recently with the instant book option, I have had many customers that booked me, don’t respond to follow up messages, I show up to the job and they are like “ ohh I forgot to cancel” even then I still haven’t received refunds. So between the cost of the lead, driving out to the job(some jobs about 40 minutes away), loss of time and resources they still believe they should be paid. Another con of this service is the fact that customers can request up to 5 different contractors for an estimate and you still pay for the lead(water heater installation leads are about $60-80, multiple that by 5 and that’s what thumbtack gets for forwarding the lead to you) again even if you don’t get the job you still pay.. why do they deserve to be paid that much for forwarding information? THEY DONT!!! More lazy leech’s of society that expect top dollar for a poor service and sitting on their butts.

They charge you automatically from your card for customers that "show interest in you" they call it perfect match or direct leads and some of them are ridiculously expensive. Then you send message to the customers and 80% of them don't even text you back, some even put fake phone numbers. Some take 1 week to answer you after you try to speak to them again and tell you that they are just doing a research for now and they plan to do the job in 3 or 4 months, that's ridiculous they should let people that are looking for someone to do a service that it's serious, they hit you up out of curiosity to have an idea how much it's gonna cost them in the future and you are charged almost $100 from your account or from the credits you put there. When you run out of credits the don't let you know and charge you from your card automatically so you have to be very careful with that because they send you a lot of "direct leads" at once sometimes, so you have to be very careful and they don't refund your money. what they do is to give you in the app and that is just sometimes. It's ridiculous because even if you have lots of credits in your account and you take your card from the app so they only charge from your credits they stop sending you leads. This app took more than $300 from me and i made 4 small jobs in there. There Pathetic! They need to do something about that directly garbage and there fees…

Ive used this app as a contractor for two years, always been a fan of the app, never had any big issues, this year i noticed you can no longer talk to a customer service rep. The used answer calls and also uphold their refund policy to refund jobs where the customer did not answer or if the job details changed significantly. -This year in a two week time frame, i was charged for 6 jobs where not one person answered texts, chats in the app, or phone calls, with very odd job descriptions and very high prices (AS HIGH AS 180$) again all in a two week time frame… its now been close to two months and I've filed disputes for all, as well as multiple follow up emails, thats right over 15 emails regarding my issues still unanswered 2 months later. Not to mention the jobs that have changed significantly (another 3-4 jobs with refund requests and follow ups) AND not to mention all the other chats I've started and sent messages off to never be answered! If you call you get sent a text! Also other duplicate jobs theyve charged me for again, with no answers ever!! Between all the jobs (over 10)it is HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS of $$$ I am missing, but they still charge me for more every singe week! There are many other apps with similar processes to generate you leads that actually have a good customer service team who cares and resolves your issues. I would stay away from putting your hard earned money into this app.

Thumbtack charges way too much money for leads!!! Customers can contact multiple businesses & thumbtack says it’s your responsibility to secure the job. On one occasion they charged me $120 for a $140 job because the customer said it was “recurring”. As business owners we understand that that’s not always the case. Sometimes people just want a cheaper price or whatever the reason, thumbtack shouldn’t be able to charge that much money. And if you’re lucky enough to manage to get a refund out of them by contacting support, it will only be refunded to your thumbtack account which they will continuously take money from. Yes it’s good for businesses just starting out, but be prepared for them to charge a heck of a lot of money just for leads and some jobs will not be within your preferences (out of your chosen area etc…). Also if you put a cap on the price of leads you limit yourself to getting your business out there. (To top it off you can’t write a review if you rate under 3-4 stars) I rather pay $300 to Yelp or Google than give Thumbtack any more of my money.

The leads cost so much per lead, many times not actually matching my preferences, or customers asking for things I clearly state more than once on my profile I do not offer, such as free consultations for example. When I submit a dispute for them, very often I am denied. There have been MANY weeks I have spent out more in advertising fees for leads than the actual profit I make. Yet there are so few platforms for entrepreneurs to advertise across the US. Thumbtack is making a killing off providers, while we continue to eat lead costs for customers who either aren’t serious to hire someone, or seem to want services for free. Any time I pick up a phone I’m exchanging both energy and hard earned knowledge with people. So I don’t offer free consultations, like most counselors. Thumbtack forces customers to check they are ok with virtual services in many instances (I’ve heard from customers) so they can submit the lead request, then they don’t in fact want virtual services and aren’t aware you aren’t in there area. I’ve had more back and forth with customer service over disputes than actual customers who follow through with hires. It’s very frustrating and Thumbtack is making a more than a 3rd of what I even charge for a session per lead, without even guaranteeing a hire given they send customers numerous profiles/competition.

Now I am not talking bad about salespeople because I am one too, but this is pure greed. I spent well over 600 dollars on leads on Thumbtack and barely doubled my money in actual photo shoots. They talk a lot about “quality leads” and they will have salespeople call you and sell you on adding more money and they will pretend they will be your point of contact and that you’re going to be so successful, but once you have spent the money? You get nothing. I have been emailing my supposed point of contact for going on 2 months and she has never responded to me after the original phone call where she convinced me to spend more money. They changed how the refunds work. The problem is that there are very few actual quality leads. Most people who are looking for a service on thumbtack aren’t serious. They’re just looking and finding out prices. Thumbtack consistently charged me for leads and refused to refund them even though clients would stop responding completely. How is it my responsibility to secure the job when I have paid the service for a so-called quality lead? I could be the best salesperson and photographer in the world and it still wouldn’t make a difference to people who are just window shopping on the app. I want my refunds!!!! More than 400 dollars worth!! You guys need to stop stealing money from hardworking people just trying to advance their small business!!!!

I would love to say Thumbtack is okay for someone just starting out. But I honestly can’t because when you’re just starting out you have a low cash flow. This service will ALWAYS MAKE 100% profit when you pay for their leads, but you will will find yourself losing money on the very same leads they send. They have an OPTION to leave their number and email address or not. So these leads they send you, you may only have one way to contact them and that’s through THUMBTACK! How is it a viable lead if you don’t supply their phone number, email address or anything but the contact on the app. They also used to send only THREE companies bids to one customer.. now they send 5+! So your closing ratio goes down but guess what... YUP YOUR PRICE FOR THE LEAD STILL STAYS THE SAME! A lot of the people on here are looking for “deals” and when you’re a REAL company not just someone looking to “make extra cash” these things can chew into your profits tremendously. I would recommend anyone with a cleaning/janitorial business to utilize SEO and email marketing instead. Your CPL (Cost per lead) will go down over 100% from using this service. Not going to lie, I love the concept they have and what they’re trying to do but it’s cookie cutter, not industry specific and expensive for the startup company or novice who isn’t paying attention to their numbers or bottom line.

They charge you automatically from your card for customers that “show interest in you” they call it perfect match or direct leads and some of them are ridiculously expensive. Then you send message to the customers and 80% of them don’t even text you back, some even put fake phone numbers. Some take 1 week to answer you after you try to speak to them again and tell you that they are just doing a research for now and they plan to do the job in 3 or 4 months, that’s ridiculous they should let people that are looking for someone to do a service that it’s serious, they hit you up out of curiosity to have an idea how much it’s gonna cost them in the future and you are charged almost $100 from your account or from the credits you put there. When you run out of credits the don’t let you know and charge you from your card automatically so you have to be very careful with that because they send you a lot of “direct leads” at once sometimes, so you have to be very careful and they don’t refund your money, what they do is to give you credits in the app and just sometimes. It’s ridiculous because even if you have lots of credits in your account and you take your card from the app so they only charge from your credits they stop sending you leads. This app took more then $800 from me and i made 2 small jobs in there. Pathetic!

I’m sorry, buts it’s just too expensive! Thumbtack is an amazing app to start out and work on your clientele, however the leads are just overpriced. I do painting and everyone wants painting done cheap. I offered someone around $350 to paint 1 room and I was told “you’re too expensive “ and I paid around $50 for the lead. How low do you want me to bid? Any lower I go I don’t make any profit or enough profit as a business. And when it comes to big jobs, it’s around $100 a lead. So if I’m looking for work on a daily basis trying to stay busy for a month, I’m paying around $500 a week for just leads. And even around $200 a day. Yes, I’m big jobs im making profit and im paying back the lead but I don’t think it’s worth paying the ridiculous amount for the lead. When you have a small business starting out with little cash flow, idk I can’t even explain how much money you will lose. Once you build a clientele, your clients will refer you to other people and word goes out and at that point you won’t need thumbtack. Even when you are popular or “pro” on here you have people asking for bids, but when you are too busy and booked, you pay for leads… I’m sorry but it’s very iffy on here when it comes to pricing. But other than that great app to find work.

I really like using Thumbtack but this is my fifth account to get banned after my first one. My very first account I put a lot of money into so that I can get my company name across, and it worked! I managed to be placed as one of the top pros on the app and got in a lot of reviews, and then one day I log in to see that my account was banned. I contacted the Help Center and all I got back was an email stating “ you have broke one of the terms and conditions, your account has been banned and won’t be reactivated”. I emailed back to see if I could get a deeper explanation but never heard back. I quit the app until recently and opened three more accounts all to get banned right after I opened them. My last account finally managed to stay open for about 4 months now, until today I log in and now my account has been DEACTIVATED AGAIN. I never get anywhere with customer service they don’t ever give an explanation for anything, they just ban ban and ban. I again put a lot of money into this last account and got my company name to have good exposure and now I’ve lost contact information for some customers, and now won’t be able to confirm pre- scheduled cleans for this month, which hurt my company name if the customers don’t get confirmation from me. I hope customer service can help me out this time with my account but I don’t have high hopes :/.

So the issues with this app are a lot so honestly 60% of the leads are made up they aren’t real and then the rest is like 12% actual people looking the rest are people window shopping for prices but no real work is going to get done anytime soon or the worst part about this app is that they charge you before you even get the job other contractors can still win the job but you pay for it or even worse the client will lie about the work needing to be done and your charged for it and they cancel because the price is to high , here is a example they charged me 30 dollars for someone who said they needed actual plumbing done and when this person booked my company and was messaged the price of 80 dollars a hour for that type of plumbing they said it’s just a toilet seat that needs to be installed . But I have to charge the 80 dollars because I was just charged 30 dollars for the job to thumbtack I can’t go do the job for 40 dollars and make ten dollars well actually no money because they needed us to buy the toilet seat so we would have made 2 dollars and spent triple that on gas to get to the hardware store and then there house !!! So they cancelled the job but I was still charged 30 dollars for nothing !!!! This can’t be ok or legal at all in literally paying the app and get no return at all !!’

I had used this app a few years ago, for house cleaning, and really only got one good lead. At the time they only charged you for leads that you wanted. After a while I had some stuff come up and was temporarily unable to clean houses. So I tried to make sure I wasn’t being recommended anymore and charged for leads. I didn’t want to delete my account because I had good ratings and wanted to eventually go back to cleaning. Despite trying to disable everything I was still being contacted about leads. Since I wasn’t getting charged anymore I thought I would just turn off notifications and that would be the end of it. That was a few years ago. Two months ago I noticed charges coming up on my account for $9-$21. I saw that they were from thumbtack and I checked the app. They had started charging me for leads that, not only did I not have the budget or the time for, but weren’t even in my area. I saw that I could request a refund and thinking that this was just an odd situation I went ahead and requested it. They apparently looked at the leads and decided the most expensive lead was perfectly reasonable and did not refund me. On top of that the leads that they did refund were for credit on the app! I am not using the app and may as well not been refunded! I really need that money right now to buy groceries and can’t get it back. I highly recommend staying away from this app

I’ve had it for 24hrs as a MUA & it’s a complete joke. Pros have to pay for leads: it’s pretty much a money grabbing scam. The higher budget you have for leads, the higher you appear in the search (obviously you want to appear higher in the search which means you’ll dedicate more $ for leads). As soon as you get a lead they want to charge your card (thank God my card was off) not even knowing if you want to accept the job or if you’re a good fit. They’re so contingent on you using THEIR app for leads if you try to add your phone number in your bio or even your instagram they’ll take it down, no matter how you reword it. It’s so sick. You have to compete with other pros in your area for a customer, still pay for the “lead” (whether the customer chooses you or not) & you can’t even put a direct way to contact in your bio with it getting taken down (it’s like they’re monitoring your bio, it’ll be up for an hour or so then removed). It’s better to get booked elsewhere, you’re literally PAYING for a POTENTIAL customer.. Update: a few hours after writing this review they hid my account from customers because I put in my bio a direct way to contact me 🤣 so petty. I read their user guidelines and it doesn’t violate that but I guess if they can’t make money from a lead it does 🤣 I will never use this app or recommend it to anyone it’s trash!

I’m giving a one-star review because most of the leads are garbage. Every now and then I get some leads that generate me enough money to cover what I deserve. However most of the leaves are way too expensive and ridiculously priced. You just charge me $40 for one client. The next lead you sent me you charged me $10 for well it was nine dollars and change but there’s not even an actual phone number. That lead listed their phone number as 000–0 00–0000. If you get a false review from someone, Thumbtack you don’t even bother to fix it even if the pro me proves that it’s a false review with screenshots of messages back-and-forth. I’m done wasting my money on your company because your customer service is absolutely horrible and your way over price. I get so many more leads to better companies that I’m done with you guys. Then you write some lame apology saying I can submit a refund request, yet your deny refunds and allow people to put bogus information such as a phone number with all 0s so you can’t even contact them. You’re a rip off and a joke. And we should be refunded for the fake leads you send us when the people don’t even read the messages. Look at all the negative reviews you have! It’s because you take advantage of people, give us fake leads, and basically steal our money with the ridiculous cost of leads!

If you are new you will not be able to compete with someone that has 200 reviews and 75 hires. They apparently got in when Thumbtack started. There is a flaw in this logic. So the 4 others have to pay and that person will win again. Their quote isn't any better than the others. They just lucked out and have more reviews and hires. If you don't believe me just go pretend you are a customer and see who quotes you. Then you will see who your competition is. On the Insights page you can see who is hired and 9 times out of 10 it's the one that has the highest reviews and hires. I decided to put $100 in and I have not received any hires from my quotes. The majority get viewed so I lose my money. After my credits get used up I am done. I have never written a negative review on apps, but this one deserves it because of the flawed logic and I don't want you to be scammed either!!! Update 6/4/18 - I thought I would give it a try again. 30 quotes and $115 later still no viable business from any of them!!! BEWARE Update 6/8/18 - still nothing from the quotes. 1 person went back and forth with me. Unrealistic budget wanted a 20+ person Hotel/Villa/Resort for less than $1500pp for flights and lodging in Hawaii for 7 nights. I also sent reminders to the ones that viewed my quotes. In the past the quotes where cheaper per credits and you only competed against 4 other people.

Thumbtack charges the pro a premium price for leads while at the same time marketing to the customers “affordable photographers in your area.” So the customer will expect an affordable price but the pro has to charge more because of how expensive the leads are. The leads themselves are not great either, out of 32 leads I’ve only got 6 customer so my business is breaking even and I’m not making any profit… the conversion rate is terrible. Recently, I just got charged way more than my actual “max” set amount per lead.. which is unbelievable.. why am I being charged so much more than what I’ve agreed on? I’ve recently gotten 2 separate “leads” from the SAME customer for the SAME event and got charged $25 and $23 for it and she never even responded… so one person cost me almost $50. The customer service is terrible… every time I request a refund I get a generic copy pasted message saying I’m not eligible.. I think it’s a very greedy business model and only thumbtack and the customer benefit on the pro’s expense.. it’s a shame because I like the idea and the design of the app, but the risk is not worth it.

This app is good for finding gigs and connecting with people for future parties but it is so ridiculously expensive. Last week three different people requested a quote from me (every time someone requests a quote you’ve to pay) for the exact same day. You’ve to block your calendar off the second you get a quote but if that person hires someone else you’re out of luck & might’ve missed other opportunities while your calendar was blocked. I’ve had fun at all the parties I have worked for thumbtack but for 15-25$ a inquiry, where 75% of them you’re not hired, does not add up. I’ve spent a whole lot of money on this app. It should really be if you only get hired for a job you get a commission. They say “it’s for you to get your name out there & blah blah blah.” Most of these people only need a job done once. 85% of them , you will never see again no matter how well you did and the reviews they gave you. These people are usually reaching out to 4 other professionals too & they never respond back! Majority of people that reach out to me just cancel their party & we’re only looking into it for fun. It’s not fun when you’re losing a ton of money on people who don’t really want to hire you. Please do something.

Like dead leads? This is the way to get ‘em! It presents a complete untruth to the requester in which it’s “free” but even if they contact 5 other providers guess who pays? Sorry but if I really wanted to be on a paid listing service, I would seek something that doesn’t play you off any other desperate fool who offers to do the same thing for half your rate & leaves the client to drive the price ever lower as more & more providers are contacted while anyone who doesn’t kowtow to the bottom line gets charged regardless of if they get the job or if the requester decides to cancel at no fault of the provider. Thankfully, it seems to be on its way into the dustbin of history but stay away unless you don’t value your own dignity. Not sure who on the provider side would ever put a good review of this up unless the company bribed them for the publicity—at present the clear trajectory is ever higher arbitrary fees & ever fewer leads & listings are clearly ranked by who’s losing the most money to these ppl, meaning someone with no developed skills & a dozen services can be ranked above a true specialist who may want limited exposure for their business, even when a specialist shows a better overall rating & have been listed thru this platform infinitely longer; it’s really awful.

The cost of leads is too high and the mass price hunting by customers makes it fit for a documentary on tru tv. As a product manager I can come up with so many ways to fix it but that’s not why I’m here. The model is trash and needs to be looked at with an unbiased set of eyes. You charge for every interaction a pro has with a customer. Im surprised you all don’t charger for mistakenly opening a message then you’d really be living like Scrooge McDuck. Bottom line is this. The app is good but the practices are morbidly inhumane. No human would rip off the little guy the way thumbtack does. I’m convinced it’s ran by King Julien. Anyway you all owe me some money. I was charged for 2 leads on a service I had paused for weeks. I submitted my request for a refund on June 27 but you all still have failed to honor it. Called the 800 number and it wants me to text instead of talking. I guess King Julien is too cheap to hire actual people to “man” the phones. But never mind that. I just want my money back and if you all really want to make the app and service better then come talk to me. Until then you’ll get a one star from me for the rest of time on here. Each person I encounter I’ll ask to use their phone and rate your app. It’s 8 billion people in the world and I’m in the navy so “may the odds be ever in your favor”

Thumbtack is good, I like the concept, it’s an investment . But let one thing go wrong or one complaint that you don’t go about it thumbtacks way, they will deactivate your account or put it on hold . This a a horrible tactic and kind of messed up for small business owners trying to build something for themselves . Thumbtack just wants your money, they don’t care what happens outside of that. You can have the strongest profile, the best reviews, 5 STARS on every job, they will still describe your page if you don’t do what they want in a situation where they have no say. How does thumbtack get in between me. And my customers business ? Then shuts me out ? We are customers too. Someone told me stay away from thumbtack but I didn’t listen, because I was seeing profits . But I see why, they treat pros like crap. And then all the money you spend with them, they don’t give no incentives or free leads the way they should . They wanna give you free perks to talk to customer service and a badge . Horrible , horrible horrible … your better paying for IG, FB and social media marketing traditionally, not through thumbtack . I recommend but don’t . They will crash you

I wish the homeowners would understand that the hard working professionals of thumbtack pay just so they can be clicked on. When I first joined thumbtack, my bids were charged only if I had an interested customer. Now it doesn’t matter if they are interested or not, interact with you or not, just because they clicked on your profile to contact you, you automatically get charged. Even tho thumbtack says you get 20% off the lead through promoting yourself, the same bid you are sending is normally $20. How is $75 20% off of a regular job? Honestly this is an unaffordable business model for the professionals. If thumbtack could just educate homeowners on the simple fact that: Professionals pay to bid on quoting you; although a homeowner is not required to hire, we ask that you are courteous and serious about hiring professional you are about to click on because pros spend money even if a homeowner is just “window shopping”. I am also a frequent thumbtack user on the homeowner side, and I am always extremely courteous about this. I don’t just click and ghost.

I’ve had some good luck with this app and for the most part it was ok. Recently I have been getting responses worded exactly the same from totally different people, which seemed very strange. Most people sent 3 word responses and when I responded back it was like they fell of the face of the earth. And customer service felt these where valid leads and blamed me. Common sense is not used on any of this, it’s a script and that’s that. They do not back the professional at all. They feel it’s ok for the customer to contact 9 out of the 10 quotes they get. Each of the pros pays thumbtack for that contact. This service is doomed unless they stop the money grab and work with the pro better. The pro that can actually do the job is being constantly charged for dead leads and even possible fake leads, they then need to make that cost up by charging more for the next job. The customer goes with the cheaper job and then is unhappy when done poorly and never uses the app. Can’t anyone see this? If you are a good contractor you can get some good leads and then have to roll those leads into outside referrals and more work for the same person. You will be out of business if you rely just on sending quotes on thumbtack. To many customers respond with no intent on follow through and they see these as valid leads.

I have been using this application for a year before, this application had normal prices, but recently the price tag has increased significantly, you are forced to pay $ 50 for 1 lead, which even then does not respond and haggles with you a lot of scammers have appeared recently, once I was cheated out of $ 2,000 and support didn't want to do anything clients from this application are often blackmailed that if you don't do the work for free, they will leave a bad review and use it if you are a professional, then absolutely everything will wipe your feet about you, starting from support, ending with customers you will be deceived for money, leave reviews less work that you did not do and you will not be able to do anything about it I consistently spend at least $200 first, in order for at least 1 client to answer me and discuss the work and often the cost of work will be less than you spend on advertising it turns out to earn money only on large projects, of which there are few I recommend using Google advertising, it will be cheaper and better than if you used this application I say again, no one will ever be on your side here, even if you are deceived, support will never do anything but customers can always blackmail and deceive you or not pay money at all

We get charged full price for direct leads without clients even leaving a message and it ranges between $9-$17 depending on the price range that the client is setting for the event. Clients can do direct leads (I’ve seen up to 9) for bartenders because they are just fishing and why should all 9 bartenders get charged full price. I have messaged everyone of these direct leads within minutes and they don’t respond so it makes me feel like it’s an inside job to get more money out of us. I was charge $76 in one week for direct leads and I didn’t get a single job. I am extremely qualified and experienced to do an amazing job so what’s this about. I did a party last night and my client told me that after we committed to the event that the Thumbtack app was still sending her bartenders to reach out to. This is totally wrong because if she reached out to anyone else they would get charged even though we had already committed to the event. I try to get refunded for clients that were way out of my reach like 125 miles but thumbtack refuse to do the full amount and I asked for just a partial because they were being stubborn but I didn’t even get that. I feel that if a client reaches out to nine bartenders that we still only get charged a small amount and not the full amount until the job is committed to

Let me start off by saying I was a customer for two years and a top rated pro for one year. The way they treat customers who spend money weekly is Absurd and beyond me, I was booted out with no explanation after spending thousands of dollars with this company, I personally had to reach out to them to find out what was going on. After being on hold for over an hr with a rep, and asking numerous of times to speak to someone in a management position to find out what was going on, I was informed that I cannot speak to such a person and I will not be told the reason for dropping me and that there is no one to speak to regarding the matter which is bs. All this came about when I refused to take the background check a week prior( which they never required when I first started nor am I a felon I just found that a tad bit weird being I was a top rated pro for a year already) I was bullied into taking the background check by a rep telling me that if I didn’t take it I wouldn’t remain a pro, so I took the background and here we are. Again I’m not a felon I only have traffic tickets and this has never been an issue the pPrevious yrs. I have spent thousands of dollars with this company and to be let go without explanation or reaching out at all is very unprofessional

I do like the applications because it helps you c next with a lot of potential clients. However, they can’t get their fees right. When I first joined, you paid to send potential clients quotes-whether you were hired or not. That was a little frustrating because sometimes you’re sending so many out with out a response and still paying. They did refund you for clients that didn’t open your quotes in 48 hours. Then, they tried to make it so you’d have automatic quotes sent. So anytime a potential client submitted a request your quote would send- but that wasn’t personal enough. I wanted to reach my clients with personal messages soo didn’t like that either. Now, you pay if they book you! I was so excited about this, but I booked one client and they charged 40% of my profit! That’s an unreasonable rate. I contacted the help center and they said they don’t go by any percentage and there are a few factors that determine the new cost, to include size of job, amount of other professionals who submit quotes, and available pros in your area. I’m not sure I’ll continue using the app because the price I continue spending almost half of what I’m making sending quotes out and now, actually getting hired. I’m disappointed.

For me, this company and the service they provide to hard working professionals is a total scam. They charge $15-$20 for every referral that contacts you, whether or not you book them. It was my experience that most of the contacts who were reaching out to me were either fake or BOTS. Here’s how it works… Let’s say that you are a plumber and are interested in getting contacts from your area. TT determines that the appropriate rate for your market is $15 per contact. If you set a budget of $60 per week, you will get 4 contacts and then your ad is removed until you “up your budget” to get more contacts or you cycle into a new week. It was my experience that only 10% of the contacts referred to me by TT were legitimate customers and only about 10% of those were serious customers. Most were just shopping and price hunting. I plan on reaching out to every state attorney general in the country and also contacting the Federal Trade Commission regarding this unscrupulous company. They are taking advantage of small business owners and in some cases charging tens of thousands of dollars annually for very few contacts who actually end up being legitimate customers and who book their services. OMHO, There is a very, very, very cold place in hell for these people. If you don’t believe me, google a review of this app on the web.

I started out on Thumbtack a while back. It was a great way to get my name out and I even acquired my first client through them. However, they continually push new updates that cost me more money, raise the competition and lower my rate at acquiring a customer. So in essence, (after their last update) I’m paying them money and getting little to nothing in return. The app works when a customer sends in a request for a service. Then you, the service provider, pay $ for each bid you submit. If the customer looks at your bid (even if they never reply back to your bid), Thumbtack keeps your money. MOST customers do not end up hiring off of Thumbtack and go elsewhere, so you’ve essentially paid money for the customer to find out the general price of a service. Then, the next customer comes along and the same thing usually happens. From my experience, only about 1 in 10 end up hiring somebody off of Thumbtack and it now has a 1 in infinite chance of being me. (It used to be a 1 in 5 chance before they pushed a recent update.) Thumbtack also hounds you with upgrading to their “plan” which costs a minimum of $15 a week with NO guarantee of acquiring a customer. Overall, I feel as though the company has become very greedy and I’d rather spend the money in advertising or acquiring customers the old fashioned way.

The app is easy to use and their customer service is very helpful. But there is a major flaw. You are charged for each lead that picks you. You have no control if you even want to accept that lead. Many of the leads that pick you don’t even respond. It’s very frustrating. I often feel like it’s a bot selecting you so you get charged. For example in a period of five days I had 14 leads. Only five of them responded to me. Four actually lead to a job. 2 I had to reject because they were too far away (even though they were outside my geo limits that I selected). Those leads cost a total of 116. Just starting your business out it is frustrating and just know that most of the leads you pay for will not even respond so just be ready to get over that. Here’s how they could fix it. Don’t charge a pro for a lead until they open it and review the details of the job. At the same time allow pros to review the customers so that way a pro will know if the lead is worth paying for before they open it. But this will probably not happen because Thumbtack will lose out on a lot of money since they automatically charge you when ever a lead selects you.

All Thumbtack wants is your money!! They charge to much for a customer contact and if the customer contacts you just once, even to ask a question you have to pay!! I can understand if paying if you get the job! But nope it’s all about paying for an app that does nothing but take your cash!!!!!!! What I have been learning is this, most of the customers on Thumbtack that are looking for service don’t won’t to pay the rates of below the average contractor! This is why they are looking on Thumbtack because no one willing to lower their rates! Insta-match is a joke!! It’s worst then a slot machine! It will charge you even if you never had contact with the person looking for services!!! Thumbtack will not allow you to delete your debit card or bank account!!!! The worst part is that you could have 5 pros looking at the job and all 5 have had contact with the customer wishing to hire one of them, all 5 get charged for the contact!!! Thumbtack is making a lot of money and you won’t! So beware of this app!! Don’t trust them! I asked and was told that I wine getting a credit when a customer backed out of the job since the 1st contractor was going to fix the mistake, Thumbtack never gave me the credit!! I have asked 3 times now and it goes no where with these people!!!

They have removed the ability to send personalized information to clients. The image preview they show is now false advertising - when you send a quote you can’t personalize it and they need to remove that ASAP unless they put the feature they stripped back in. As a musician who plays several instruments and different styles within those instruments as well as music theory, composition etc. the initial write up I sent to prospective students was essential. Now all the see is a quote, my location and my bio, turning freelancers into data with no personalization. After contacting Thumbtack they said that customers requested this - I don’t see why customers would prefer LESS info and the change was probably to benefit the company in some way. An extremely disappointing change. I have told several other musicians about this app and I’ll continue telling others about it but with the addition of saying not to use it. Perhaps online seeing a price quote, location and bio is useful for some freelancers but I can’t think who that would be and I also don’t image any customers would want less information or a personalized intro written for them. Extremely disappointing, particularly of the change was only meant to benefit Thumbtack while making this worse for the rest of us.

The worst experience in my like with a Freelance App, they deactivate my accounts, I created one a few years ago and with out no reason they deactivated, I didn’t used anymore until a few weeks ago I tried again. Instead of reactive my past account I create a new one. I create my profile, filled with pictures and sent reviews request to my friends. Then when I realized my account was deactivated again. I chat to help and they told me that was deactivated because I didn’t make a background check. In other words before even test the App they check your background asking even for my SSN and other personal informations, I really hate giving my personal information, even more when is a service that don’t have my trust. Then when the results went good of my background, they still have my account deactivated because the name of the account doesn’t match with my real name!!!??? What??? You say that my account have to be my name, what if I’m creating an account with my artistic name!!??? I just wanted to have DJ gigs and they make everything so bad and complicated, asking for personal information and deactivating account with out previous requests. In my opinión this is the worst service that I’ve been through. App like this should be smooth and easy to get clients and gigs. Is the worst.

When I first heard about Thumbtack it was about 2/3 years ago. My husband used the app and found success with it. At that time they used credits and you paid for points. Recently, I finally joined about 2 months ago. It is a complete rip off. It is not fair that customers do not have to pay to see a quote! How do we know that the quotes are real? If customers view my quote they usually do not hire anyone, not even my competition. As a result, my hard earned money goes DOWN THE DRAIN and I have nothing to show for it. As a pro in the makeup industry, I am not against paying, but it should be fair and consistent across all quotes. You should also have a feature where the customers must write the actual dollar amount for their budget instead of using ($basic, $$standard, $$$premium, $$$$high end) How do I know that my quote is within their budget if they do not have the option to specify the exact amount? Please revamp this app because it does not support small business owners who are just starting out. Make this app fair for ALL users. Customers should have just as much at stake as us pros! Where is their accountability? They should have to pay to view quotes as well! That would certainly weed out the customers who are not serious!

Thumbtack used to be great and fair for pros. Unfortunately, as usual, it all went downhill. Their method of automatically charging for leads is insane. Example: I got charged nearly $40 for a photography lead not only on a date I am unavailable for, but the customers budget was half what my listed quote would be. I started using Thumbtack in 2017. Back then, you only paid for leads that you chose, and the prices were also much lower than they are now. The system was great, I could check the date, scope, and budget of a job as well as the lead price before deciding if I wanted the lead or not. Over the last couple of years, I didn’t really use Thumbtack at all, seeing as the pandemic made wedding photography a lot tougher. But I recently decided to try it again, and absolutely hate the changes they have made. Now, while they do put some jobs in the “Opportunities” tab this way, the main way is to blindly charge the pro before they see any of those details. Furthermore, they penalize you if you don’t pay them weekly for leads by eliminating you from customers search results. If they go back to the old system, I’ll consider using them again, but as it stands it seems like a blatant rip off to small business owners.

I have never written a review before, but this needs some serious attention. This platform is costing me more money than I make. First you charge me for leads I didn’t accept and secondly of the ones I do accept and willing pay, most you never here from again. There’s only one way to correct this. We should only be charged for confirmed and paid jobs. That’s your commission for linking us up through your platform. RideShare platforms don’t charge the driver for canceled calls, In fact they charge the customer and pay the driver for wasting their time. Unfortunately most people are just surfing and not serious or ready to do business. The final draw was a last minute request for service I received last night for today. It was a lead that I was supposedly promoted to. I responded with a quote and I wake this morning to this reply, “Hello: Thanks for your immediate response. I will notify you should I choose your services.” So I paid Thumbtack and on the day of service which is today, am I suppose to sit around and hope she calls me? If Thumbtack doesn’t change the way you charge the professional for leads, or explain to me what I can do in the settings to stop being charged for jobs I didn’t get, I will be leaving this platform and not recommending it to anyone.

We are an owner operated small business that have used Thumbtack for many years. They updated their system form choosing when we want to pay for a quote to ”Instant Match”. Additionally, they never let us know that people can book same day appointments. At 11am a lady booked an appointment for same day 3pm, then gave our company a 1-star review at 3:30 bc no one showed up to the appointment. We are an owner-operated company and there is no way to do same day appointments, also we didn’t see any of this until later that night. Also, she marked us as “hired” in order to leave the 1-star review - which was an obvious lie as she specifically stated in her review that she never spoke to or met anyone from the company. Anyhow, I asked Thumbtack to remove the review as it clearly violates their policy of leaving a review in “reasonable time”.....4 hours is NOT a reasonable time. They refused. They don’t even follow their own policy. Our company relies on reviews and customer trust, and Thumbtacks review system is a huge disservice to small companies. How does it make any sense that a person can mark a company as hired without confirming with the company? Also, customers aren’t required to leave phone number or email so no way to contact them, but you get charged anyhow! Will never recommend them.

Leaving another bad review. I’ve spent $300-$400 in leads,$100 in gas, and hours wasted making estimates and bids for nothing. I’d like a refund, but it seems like it takes 2 to 3 weeks to even get a few dollars back from a missed lead. I did everything the app required, even got platinum status, it’s just a joke, a stupid gimmick to make you stay on the app. roughly like 30 jobs and nothing. I had only gotten one job, everyone is sketchy and flaky. The people on the app expect cheap work, and don’t understand how contractors actually price things out. I am a one-man show, and was more than fair of my pricing and bids., Almost too cheap compared to competitors. Yet the responses I got were almost nothing, people would not text back. I went to one job site, and that was it only made $300. This app is junk, most of the leads are fake. I’ve seen multiple people with the same leads after I just talk to them probably have better time making a website and trying it that way, just wanted to make some side money. Drove halfway to one job site about an hour away, and they canceled on me when I was almost there. Very sketchy the app is only good for large cities, only jobs I were seeing were in the biggest city closest to me.

Back in August I responded to a potential customer. We discussed his needs then he went silent, he just blew me off. So then, in November, I unknowingly responded to the same guy who put in another request. Again, he went silent after a short conversation. I even offered to come give him a quote free of charge. The first time I was charged $18 and the second time $22. So now I’m out $40 because the guy is flaky and probably not serious about hiring someone anyways. This is just one example of many. I know I’m not going to land every job but this is getting way too expensive. If a $22 lead goes out to 5 contractors, Thumbtack has made $110 while 4 of the 5 contractors are getting screwed. Possibly all 5 if the request is from a flake. Here’s another example. Let’s say I respond to four $22 requests before I finally land a job. That’s $88 I’ve spent and many times these jobs are simple service calls that only pay $150-$200. How am I supposed to make a living when Thumbtack costs so much? It was worth the money a few years ago when the leads were $6 - $8. I used to make a living using Thumbtack. But now they are pricing themselves out of the market. Multiple $5 Craigslist ads will get you way more work than Thumbtack will. Their greed will eventually put them out of business.

I wanted to love Thumbtack, the concept is brilliant in matching you up with local service seekers/consumers. However, paying for a “contact” (someone merely responding to your quote via message, not an actual acquired customer) can get a bit expensive fast it seemed in the very short 2 weeks I was on the app. After spending $48 with no business, I had to jump ship. I started getting anxiety about sending quotes, because if someone was kicking rocks, I knew I would still pay. I think this concept is brilliant so I’ll still keep an ear out if changes are made to the current system. I completely respect that the developers need to make money and have a business model. It’s just not for me in the smaller stages, as the return on my investment was negative for me. I wish there were a way to actually keep track of true acquired customers, or confirmed bookings, and taking a cut from those. And honestly, I’d even be content if this app simply charged 50-70% less for contacts. It just got too expensive, too fast, with too little (zero) return. Thank you for the opportunity. Unfortunately, as of now, I don’t think Thumbtack is friendly for the business half of the app. Hope this review helps others in similar situations.

I wanted to use Thumbtack to hire someone for junk removal and accidentally downloaded the “Pro” version. Which is the first that comes up in App Store when you search “Thumbtack”. So be careful because it is a NIGHTMARE to deactivate!! When you first download there is really no warning or notification that it’s the “Pro” app. Because it just asks you very basic general questions so they can get your email & cell information first to establish sending emails & texts 90 times per day!!! Then when you go to deactivate the account you have to finish filling in all the remaining information about your “business” which is what they should have asked initially so I would have realized I downloaded the wrong app. After you answer 75 questions about a business you don’t have you can then deactivate the account. HOWEVER, you have to first unsubscribe to texts & emails because deactivating the account doesn’t do this as it logically should. This is deceptive aggressive marketing that should be reported!!! I’m tempted to not use their app for this who want to hire because m so annoyed by their scam with the pro app. SO BEWARE when downloading app. & make sure it’s the correct one or get ready for 8million texts and 7million emails per day!!!!!

First I want to start by saying that when I first stared to use thumbtack as a pro it’s was great for some one like me me who just started my business , now unfortunately that change , obviously you pay for leads which is fine but now you can set how much you would pay for leads and the bigger company’s with employees can set a high number meaning if your max is 25 and there’s 3 other company’s that that max is higher you won’t be show on the feed , I have looked up service and confirmed this , 2. There unfortunately is no real customer service for the pros ,if you want phone support you have to meet there cretia to even get phone support with and agent so if you don’t meet it your stuck with automated bots and emails that almost never get followed up on,3. When you get a lead as soon as you except it even if the customer doesn’t really want immediate service you will still get charge if no contact is ever made , there motto is put customers in front of you , but it your not able to get in contact with them how that work , so disappointed in this app now

After my previous review of this company I was contacted by the developers as can be seen below by the many comments they leave. I had hoped that calling that number I would be able to retrieve some of the “money” I had purchased to use the platform. The fact that you have to buy fake money alone should have made me realize something wasn’t right about this company, however I proceeded under the guise of needing to spend money to make money. After reaching out to the provided number I was told thumbtacks terms prevent the transfer of funds to cash, meaning the dollar for dollar “credits” you purchase are not real money but essentially chips in a screwed up game of poker. It is important to understand when quoting to thumbtack that if a client views your quote you are not refunded the amount you paid. This is often in the $10-$20 price range. Little to anything was done to right what thumbtack is done. Further the customer service representative felt compelled to try and sell me on additional services. I will work diligently to warn others of the ill will thumbtack holds towards freelancers, and will utilize any public standing, as well as professional associations I belong to do so. Thumbtack is a disgrace to freelancers, and I hope their scam is soon revealed to all.

Great app to get leads, however they don’t refund you or give you credit when client cancels an appointment or cancels the project because they changed their mind without allowing the pro to provide an estimate. Thumbtack answer is you have the client contact for life, you can contact them another time. Well sometimes phones numbers don’t even work. Thumbtack you should look up the numbers to see if they are real, if we pay in advance for a lead, it should be a real one. Our recent experience a person contacted us to just find out the cost of the project and she’ll think about it. 5 Pros paid $80 for no reason, she only wanted quotes. Thumbtack responds is you should add prices in advance, that’s isn’t possible for a painting company. We need to see the project, talk about the color, sometimes clients pick colors where you have to give 3 coats, sometimes the house has cracks that client assumes is part of the painting job. Yes you get leads, but they should look at their contact information policy or charge the person that doesn’t allow you to provide an estimate. I feel like Thumbtack is very lean back. Now we need to find other ways to find clients.

I use a dozen different websites to get Gigs and thumbtack is by far the worst. Be prepared for the worst return for your investment. Thumbtack literally charges you for everything even when the customers making a mistake. You pay $15-$40 a lead even if it’s the customer contacts you by accident. Let’s say a customer clicks on your your phone number to call you but you don’t get the call? Congratulations you just spent $15. The customer responds to a quote to say that they are not interested? boom! you just spent $30. Customer asked you for two quotes for the same job by accident? Boom! You just paid $60. let’s say you close 10 percent of your leads, (which is high for sales), and you are still spending way more than you are making. Thumbtack knows this and they don’t care. The designed it this way on purpose. Their customer service is awful as well. They have no sympathy for their victims. Don’t be foolish. Thumbtack might have worked in the 90’s when it cost a penny a lead but it’s 2023 and there are many other websites with way better models. Most of them use subscription services were you pay for one time fee for unlimited leads. Save your money, time, and headaches. Don’t use Thumbtack

I have used Thumbtack when they started and I got hired a few times a couple of years back, the ratio of hires was not something to brag about and usually you would get lowballed by the customer any way. It is no surprise that the hacks that are doing jobs for half or a third of what an experienced, licensed, bonded and insured contractors would charge, are landing the jobs. Thumbtack you have to put a stop to the shopping around that some of these people are doing, I get charge $65+ for a request but they are just shopping around, respond to 4 of those and you have made Thumbtack money but taken food off your family’s table. If we’re promoting a certain kind of job we’re still going to get charged, we agreed upon that! Make it mandatory for the requesting party to include the phone number. The removal of the personal connection makes our job harder and this might be the reason I would stop using Thumbtack. The marketing/lead request offering tactics are dishonest, but guess what it is my fault according to them for not enhancing my profile. If you’re an up and coming company I would invest in other way to drum up some work and stay away from Thumbtack. Thumbtack has complete disregard for the blue collar class and would eat up your profits in a heartbeat.