Thumbtack
Reviews and Complaints

Thumbtack is a platform that connects professional service providers with potential customers. As a professional, I have been using Thumbtack for about a year and have spent several hundred dollars on leads. While the platform has great potential for helping professionals expand their business, there are some issues that need to be addressed.

One of the main problems is the poor quality of quote requests. About one third of the requests I receive have no real useful information for professionals to actually quote on the project. This is frustrating because I have to pay to respond to these requests, and most of the time, the potential client never responds to my email with basic questions. It is obvious that there is no screening of the quote requests other than the form fields having a check box or default response.

Another issue is that some people requesting quotes are not providing enough information. I understand that many people are using Thumbtack who have never purchased services before, but Thumbtack should be capable of putting in a screening filter so that quote requests lacking any real information would be filtered out or sent back to the requestor for more information.

Thumbtack's customer service is also lacking. While they do have a help center with articles and some videos, if you have an issue or a question and you want to email them, you are limited to a Twitter response--just a few sentences. By making it hard for professionals to give useful, detailed feedback, it is clear to me that they are not really interested in hearing detailed feedback or actual suggestions that could help them improve the service for both vendors and for end customers.

Thumbtack could be improved by screening all quote requests and rejecting or sending back incomplete requests. They could also allow a quality rating of the customer and their quotes by the pro. If I could rate each quote I see in terms of good to bad information and rate the customer in terms of whether they respond to a quote or not, this would be helpful to other pros considering working with a particular customer. Thumbtack should also offer a "Window Shopping" version where uninformed customers can submit requests that are free for Thumbtack to respond to or where the customer pays a small fee to get educated. These would be for the, "I don't know what I want but I want to talk to someone first. Pros that respond to these type of requests could be given credits for purchasing quotes.

Thumbtack's dashboard is one of the best I have ever used. It's organized and it shows incoming quote requests and quotes that are in process. The quote window is a split window with the quote request on the left and templates for replying on the right. In Safari on my iMac, the right side scroll bar doesn't work, but it works in Chrome so it's a minor irritation.

The cost of quotes varies depending on the project budget, but many quote requests don't have a budget. Quote requests for me cost between 3 and 14 credits typically, and a credit costs $1.67 but you can get a discount when buying large blocks of credits.

In conclusion, while Thumbtack has potential, it's not worth the time and money spent on leads that go nowhere. If you have a low frustration level and don't mind working with a faceless company, that has no known address or phone number, and limited customer service, give it a shot. But if you value your time and you are looking for a real return on investment, you might want to look elsewhere.

Thumbtack has been a huge disappointment for me. I had a really bad experience with a professional who used homophobic language with me. I reached out to the Thumbtack team to express my concerns, but they didn't respond to my emails in a timely manner. They would tell me that they would follow up with me, but then I wouldn't hear from them for days. It was frustrating.

I was also concerned about the professional I had hired because they had received numerous negative reviews on Yelp for harassing and scamming people. I had been called homophobic slurs and insulted on my physical appearance, and I was also being delayed in receiving a refund on PayPal. Thumbtack didn't respond to my emails with much depth. Instead, they would write vague things like "oh, have you heard anything from PayPal."

What's worse is that Thumbtack took the side of the professional who was using homophobic language. They banned me from their website, claiming that I used inappropriate language in our interactions. However, I have clear evidence in text messages that what I was writing was not inappropriate. The professional, on the other hand, was using inappropriate language in our interactions. But they were not banned from the website! They are still doing business on the site. It seems like Thumbtack holds different standards for professionals versus consumers in terms of their interactions on Thumbtack.

I tried reaching out to Thumbtack numerous times to ask why I was banned, but they offered no response. This was really unfortunate because I had connected with a personal trainer on Thumbtack who was responsive to me and I wanted to work with. But when I called Thumbtack to ask about using the website, they told me that I am not allowed on the website because of an email that clearly instructed that I'm banned from Thumbtack because I used inappropriate language. However, this email is completely null because I never used inappropriate language and have text messages to prove that it never happened. Additionally, Thumbtack never sent the email in the first place! It's nowhere in my inbox. They promised that I would get an email within 2-3 days of my complaint (which was more than a week ago). But I received nothing!

In conclusion, I am never using Thumbtack ever again. I am scared that I will not receive my $140 back. But this is not just about $140. Thumbtack clearly does not listen to their consumers and their needs and fears. I was afraid that a professional that I was talking to was scamming/harassing multiple individuals and Thumbtack did not take this seriously. Instead, Thumbtack banned me from their website so Thumbtack could continue to make money from the professional. I am truly disappointed by this situation.

Furthermore, neither Thumbtack nor the professional that they hired has offered any apology for insulting my physical appearance and sexuality. Instead, one customer service agent on the phone said "What was said was said."

So, guys, please be wary of Thumbtack. Choose businesses that actually care about their customers, do adequate background checks on the professionals, and respond to emails promptly. And choose businesses that do not delay giving refunds to people for extremely long periods of time!

Thumbtack is a website that allows contractors to bid on jobs as they come in. The process involves buying credits on their site, which are then used to bid on jobs. The cost of credits is around $1.50 per credit, but if you learn to navigate the system, you can drop that to around $1.40 per credit. As a photographer, I have a really strong portfolio and competitive prices, but I've spent a lot of money for a small number of jobs. To simply bid on a photo job, it costs me a minimum of 4 credits, which is around $6. Several of the job bids are bogus, from looky-loos, or other photographers testing out the portal. Often I have to bid on 4 to 6 jobs before I get hired, which costs me $24 to $36 bucks! I really can't imagine how photographers that don't have a strong portfolio and who charge more money ever get hired. To bid on the more lucrative jobs, the cost is 8 credits, which is $12. I've never been hired for any of the more lucrative assignments. It's a lot of work, the cost to use the portal is very expensive, and you have to put in a lot of hours to get the job, and then to complete the job assignment. Not worth the effort. Especially considering that the bids are often few and far between.

Old fashion networking and business cards / postcards work much better for me than this tech option.

My major complaint is that Thumbtack does not stand by or protect its contractors. I obtained jobs by using the Thumbtack portal for over 1 year. My clients loved my work, and my ratings were so high that Thumbtack issued me the status of "Top Pro," something they only award to the top 3% of the contractors using their portal. Then, I was hired on a job where I completed a beautiful set of photographs, delivered bonus images with complete editing, over 50 photographs in total. Several weeks later, the client contacted me asking for more editing, around 10 hours worth of editing. I let the client know that the added editing was not included in the original bid and offered to complete the editing at a reasonable rate. The client then used extortion style tactics to pressure me into completing several hours worth of unpaid work, otherwise I'd get a bad review. Needless to say, this developed into a civil dispute.

Rather than allowing us to go to neutral mediation / arbitration process as stipulated under their terms of use, Thumbtack concluded that I owed the clients a refund. When I refused on grounds that I honored the original agreement and had spent over 8 hours total on the assignment, they withdrew money from my bank account using my check-card they had on file for buying credits, without my authorization, essentially breaking the law. The customer service rep at Thumbtack that was overlooking the dispute sounded like a 12 year old. They kept trying to send a link for us to communicate our dispute that would never arrive, when I made a phone appointment to speak with Kerri, it was some sort of cheap internet phone line that didn't work properly, had a lot of static and kept cutting off.

In short, this is a highly unprofessional company that all true professionals should probably stay clear from. Dispute is still pending.

Then you authorize purchase of the lead that is costly, $5o is common, well since you had no idea what the lead will cost until after you have put money into your account, as explained before, you have money left over, as explained before, but this money cannot be used for another category! You must put money into every category that that you wish to buy leads on! There will always be money left over in every category that you have interest in, myself over fifteen. Money they keep, they collect interest on etc.

It's really frustrating to see how Thumbtack has changed its pricing policies over time. As a service provider, I have noticed that they have managed to accumulate many great contractors and service providers. However, from their perspective, Thumbtack has changed their pricing to basically screw them out of money. It's really unfair and unethical.

The "No Refund" policy is really frustrating. If you buy a lead and it turns out to be a bad one, there is no refund. This is really unfair, as you are required to put money up front for potential leads that you may wish to purchase. After a lead purchase, you will have money left in your account, which is non-refundable. This is really a scheme and nothing less. With this money, you haven't purchased anything, you haven't received anything, and yet they will not give it back to you. This must be illegal in some way.

The scheme goes even deeper. There are many aspects to construction, such as electrical, plumbing, house remodel, construction contractor, remodel contractor, flooring, etc. They have managed to break down every industry into micro parts. For example, if you have a cleaning company but you also do window cleaning, or if you are a general contractor but you also do drywall or flooring, etc. When you put up money for a lead that you have no idea what it is going to cost, and then you authorize the purchase of the lead that is costly, $50 is common, you will have money left over. Since you had no idea what the lead will cost until after you have put money into your account, you have money left over, but this money cannot be used for another category! You must put money into every category that you wish to buy leads on! There will always be money left over in every category that you have interest in, myself over fifteen. Money they keep, they collect interest on, etc.

I am really angry and disgusted with Thumbtack's policies. I feel betrayed and continually raped (they are big and cannot be stopped). I wish to join a class action suit against them, if anyone knows of one going on. In the meantime, the $500+ I was paying before for leads when they did business honestly, I am now banking in a savings until I save enough for a retainer with a very high-end law firm.

Thumbtack, keep in mind that evil will be exposed and punished in the end. You need to change your policies and be fair to your service providers.

I've been charged a few hundred dollars without A chance of even getting a lead All the lead sent to me were about $50 a piece and the people either canceled had the wrong phone number already hired someone else but no chance of even meeting any of them why would I pay $200 when I got no chance of getting any money out of it this is a scam I went through the same thing with Angie's list and there's no one to get in touch with

I hired a pro Travelnista Thur Thumb tack to book a flight from Berlin Germany to Knoxville Tennessee On Friday 5/19 2023

My girlfriend Melissa Jackson passgenger arrived at Berlin airport KLM airline counter and advised her ticket was not recognized at KLM I texted Travelnista pro name Fran to find out what was going on Fran became irrate and said it wasn't her fault and refused to help I can't find out from Travelnista or KLM airline what happened to the money I paid pro she was supposed to send to airline Enclosed is documents This pro has deleted most of the conversation from my phone

Today is 5 May and since Monday today is Friday I’ve been trying to get in contact with Thumbtack all of the telephone numbers basically not working the ones that do work referred you to a text getting to the text still live with the results after taking you through the procedure and waiting for a chat person in my case a chat person never appeared after me hold them for over an hour and a half. I am disputing charges and they need help with finishing setting up my app I do not fully understand how to proceed with it and make an appointment or retrieving the appointments.

Contacted the contractor /handyman via Thumbtack.

He then began to contact me via text messages, we set up dates for work Mon. 4/17-4/20. He sent me a contract, I read that the customer has to pay for all materials.

My sister took off work Mon 4/17 & 4/18. I took off Wed 4/19, 4/20, & 4/21, using the other 2 days to complete other things that I needed to do. ($1600)

Bradley, texted me on 4/17 that he did not complete his previous job and would not be able to come on Mon 4/17. I said Okay-I wondered why he did not let us know over the weekend because we took time off from work which we did not need to.

He did come on Tuesday 4/18 explained that the job was bigger than the pictures presented the price increased my sister and I agreed. New price $2700 plus materials.

Wed. 4/19 arrived at 10, worked until 2, completed back room ceiling except one small spot that he said he would finish Thurs. 4/20.

Thurs. 4/20, texted will be a little late, I have to take my daughter to school. Arrived 10:30 worked until 4pm on the living room ceiling.

Fri. 4/21 arrived 10am. Installed the front screen door without the latch, I explained the door will not stay shut without a latch, he installed it. Started the one cement square on the front pavement, mixed the cement did one quarter and told me he did not have enough cement that he would need another 6 or seven boxes? I gave him another $60, he said he would come back on Monday to finish after he picked up more cement, what? That we can hold part of his payment ($400) until he finishes the cement and we can send Venmo. He left at 1pm, he said “he was hoping it would be an early day”?

On Sat. 4/21 he is texting me asking me if I wanted him to finish the work he started and the price he can finish it for $1200. My response, no. Next text, I can complete it for $900. I do not respond. Next text I can finish it for $400, I do not respond. Too many personal interferences/excuses used to be professional at this time.

Mon. 4/24, he is texting me again about finishing the cement work, I say okay. He is calling and calling, I am at work. He is texting, I telling do I have an outlet outside, my response no. Is my nephew going to be home, I don’t know depending on his work? I can come in the evening when you get home, I say send me your Venmo or I can pay via Thumbtack. This unprofessional conversation went back and forth for hours after I got home I finally was able to complete part of his final payment via Cash App and the rest the next morning.

I can definitely say that the text messing and phone calls were harassing and unnerving.

I presently have my son finishing the work that he wanted to charge me another 3-days’ pay for.

I am a brand new cutstomer that scheduled a power wash this AM for 2 PM today and now have been trying to cancel it FOR HOURS. I did get a call from the techition and let him know not to come but he said I needed to cancel through Thumbtack that has proven to be impossible!

The cancel button on the email sent to me just spins and spins.

I have been on the phone twice for over 1/2 hour with no answer.

Will you reach out and resolve? I can be reached at [protected].

Thumbtack is a scam. You are charged a fixed amount, around $19. for every "lead". If the "lead" does not respond to your message, you are out your $19. In my case, 25 leads/month I was charged $475/month with NO response from any of their "leads". Who's to say that these "leads" are real people, or internal people within the Company. I am attempting to cancel my subscription, Thumbtack has been a nightmare.

I have been a Thumbtack supplier for close to a decade. While I had successful client/supplier interactions and projects, more often than not I had difficulties with Thumbtack's standard operations that involved charging me (sometimes as much as $50 or higher a week) for projects that I could not accommodate or pursue with no recourse. Because they made it so hard to turn off my active profile and made it difficult to get reimbursements for projects impossible for me to accommodate, yester I was forced to shut down my presence because they did not give me a way to shut down (temporarily) my presence.

I had blocked out on their calendar a solid month where I marked myself as unavailable, yet the next day I was charged for a job within that "unavailable" period and came to discover that entire period had been changed back to "available".

They used to make it possible to stay a member if you deactivated your credit card so you would not be charged but they recently changed THAT policy so that you had no option but to cancel your whole account (losing your reviews and past customer list) if you tried to cancel your credit card on file.

Thumbtack has become a sham and deceitful operation, taking money from you without giving you options. In my mind they're a bunch of crooks.

After having several issues with my account in regards to billing, settings, leads etc. I attempted to contact customer service.

I called any number I could find but got the same recording telling me to press on for text help.

It does not go through to a live person, only allows texts.

The text bot does not help. Just asks the same questions over and over. I repeatedly asked to speak to a person each time.

It replied "looking for someone to help" but I either got no reply or just a request to rate the call.

I am extremely frustrated at this point. One of the problems I have is, I have been on Thumbtack for years and booked over 60 clients through there. I have a 5 star rating and though it shows on my profile "Top Pro", it does not show on my page in search results.

When I searched my business, I was four pages down and the first pro listed as "OTHER pros" . I found several new pros with 1-2 booking (and further distance than my search request-my location).

Thumbtack also lists services/items I do not provide as part of my quote, but does not allow me to edit this, so I have to explain to each client prior to booking.

They want pros to quote an hourly rate for service, but include items in that RATE that are not part of the service.

In the past, when they actually answered my calls, I spoke with them at length about this. The problem has never been resolved.

In addition we were told a year or so ago, the amount of pros a customer would contact, or receive quotes from was reduced. Since then it has been approximately 3-4 (for my business). However, the other day I was charged for a lead that had ELEVEN other pros in competition.

This means Thumbtack charged 12 people for one lead.

Part of the contract with Thumbtack includes customer service communication . They have not been available after numerous attempts over several weeks.

I will continue my attempts to contact them but if I am unable to within one more week, I will be filing a complaint with the proper agency.

I Closed my Thumbtack account on 1/15/23 due to being sent (and billed for) jobs that were not even in my category. Since then (it is 1/31) I have been billed 5 times for job leads. I looked on the thumbtack page for a customer service number, and not finding one, finally called as a new customer to speak to a living person. The Girl I spoke with said she could give me a thumbtack credit for the overbilling! I Explained again, I had closed my account and did not want "Credit" I wanted my money back. I Asked to speak to someone in charge who by their position in the company could correct this, and that is when I found out I was speaking to a girl in her house somewhere in S.E. Asia and had no way other than E-Mail to ask for assistance. I Have given up hope of ever getting Thumbtack to refund my money they took after I closed my account, and if you own a business, I'm telling yall, you want to avoid this one.

First, on their website there is absolutely no way to contact them by phone or maybe even email, it's just look at the FAQ page. I've been a thumbtack user for about 5 to 6 years. Hiring only. I've had very good luck with the individuals I've hired, except for the last one he punctured, a hole in my pub able that I had hired him to assemble. That's not my complaint. My complaint is against thumbtack itself. Background, I decided I wanted to start my own mediation business with my success on thumbtack. I decided to use them. I did not follow through. I decided to retire to my writing career. Second, I noticed that they wiped out my thumbtack account to hire leaving me with this unstarted business. I got a bill recently in overdue for $27 for what I have no idea. It is linked to the business account. I never finished or set for public view. They've blocked me from being to see what the heck is going on. Blocked me means that unless I pay that $27 ransom. I am not able to look at this phantom account. Whatever account is they have there? I deleted the mediation posting the day after posting it. I didn't finish my credentials because I decided not to pursue having my own company. Why was that activated? I can't get anybody to help me. I got this email last week requiring my mediation services. I did not launch the page! What the heck.

I contact Thumbtack to have someone remove a sofa. Got a quote, scheduled a time all through Thumbtack. I have a copy of the message. After the scheduled time came and went I called the company directly. Was told they had taken me off the schedule because they "couldn't get ahold of me" I had received no calls or texts. If the job wasn't scheduled then Thumbtack should not have told me it was. And the job quoted for $75 is not $125. This has happened before and I will stop using Thumbtack.

I tried opening a painting company after mine other company was closed due to customer complain after being told I couldn't open another page so decided to pay $1000 towards the client complain to reopen 07/22. The other page which was told was functioning was open without my knowledge and the card I put on file on my current page was put on the page that I had no knowledge of and on top of that was placed as unlimited which my current page doesn't even have unlimited, I was charged over $3,000 in less than 3 months and wasn't even aware of the charges until updating a new card to my present account so the account I didn't even know about kept charging they are able to see none of the leads were called or the page was never even in usage but kept charging. I called the company and still waiting for them to fix this matter if possible

This is who we hired - Protect Waterservices - I can give you a copy of the contract (9/4) and the money we paid. It was to be a 4 day job starting and ending before 9/21. It is now 10/11 and it is still not done. Contractor is not coming to the property - making an excuse every day as to why is not coming to complete. We don't know what else to do. He's been paid in full (listened to a sob story so I paid him, which I shouldn't have). We need help and we can't get any assistance from Thumbtack. The "Form" we are to fill out is no longer on their website and there is no email address. Any phone # we found is just a busy signal. We wanted to file a complaint under their guarantee!

Phillip Fries comes to my house to give me an estimate. He was kind and sincere feeling. I thought he would at least tell me yes or no. He pitched a job that was too expensive for my needs. I asked him to reconsider a patch repair until spring. He then started talking my idea and pricing. Saying don't worry, I'll take care of you. I believed him to be sincere. I told him I would be available to discuss the options on my carport weather to patch it until spring or overhaul. He said he would work with me. I told him I liked him and would not seek other contractors until he could give me his opinion.

He stopped answering the phone. Never called like he said. Basically blew me off! I just asked on a text if he would please let me know one way or another. He Ghosted me after I realized the pic's he showed me were high end job's, that the man basically thought I would just go away.

That is not how business is done.

Hi there,

A former tenant moved out on 9/1/22 and then waited until I left the country to use your services to burglarize my home.

The pick-up location for this task was: 1412 Lyon St, San Francisco, CA 94115.

The police need to find out where the drop off location was for this task on 9/16/22. Sienna Vuong, the primary suspect (confirmed), does not have her vehicle registered to her new address and they have been unable to locate her. This transaction of where the theft took place, is our best shot of finding both her and my belongings.

My goal is merely to get my belongings back. If photos from the robbery are needed to process this request, you can send the request to Greg, the detective on this case: Gregory.[protected]@sfgov.org

You can contact me directly at 515.490.7878 or [protected]@gmail.com

Thumbtack is a sham. I wouldn't recommend it to professionals. Look to other platforms. It's designed to take your money aggressively while customer service remains evasive. Their website gives you the run-around when you try to contact them for what ever issue. My account was deactivated and I have tried repetitiously to get my balance refunded to no avail. Other professionals i've spoken with have had similar experiences. Thumbtack is robbery. It should be shut down!

Will report to BBB as well.

What for? I see 6 complaints...ZERO have been resolved.

I convert videotapes, old film reels and color slides to DVD and USB Thumb Drive. Thumbtack only has a category for videotapes to dvd but does NOT have old film reels or color slides as categories. Half my earnings come from converting old film reels to DVD so by not having these two other services I provide (old film reels and color slides) customer prospects who have their memories on them do not know where to turn to for getting them converted. There are at least 30-50 or more service pros in my State alone who do what I do. Multiply that by all 50 States and do the math...they as well as Thumbtack are losing thousands of dollars in potential earnings.

Also, there is no category for pros who provide AUTO REPAIRS or AUTO MECHANICS. This is yet another source of high income potential for both the pros who do it and Thumbtack. Despite my repeated suggestions again and again and again and again for many months ...they fall upo deaf ears. The chat support staff robotically assure me thta my concerns and suggestions will be forwarded to the "team" - yet nothing ever gets done. Thomas R