Thumbtack, Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2014/03/16) */
Contact Name and Title: [redacted] CRS
Contact Email: [redacted]@thumbtack.com
Hi [redacted],
I am writing to you in response to your Revdex.com complaint against Thumbtack. I apologize for the poor experience you had using Thumbtack and hope that I am...

able to address all of your questions and concerns. Please note that I have added a few complimentary Thumbtack credits to your account to use when quoting on job requests.
I'd like to first mention that Thumbtack has followed all Revdex.com instructions and have posted an official response to common complaints against our company. This response can be viewed on our Revdex.com homepage below:
http://www.Revdex.com.org/greater-san-francisco/business-reviews/internet-servic...⇄ /> I looked into your Thumbtack account was able to find your bidding history. I understand your frustration in not hearing back from these customers, however please note that even our most successful service professionals do not hear back from some of their customer leads as well. Furthermore, I noticed that you do not have any reviews on your profile. Service professionals with at least 1 review are 400% more likely to hear back and get hired on Thumbtack. We've made it easy for new Thumbtack pros to add reviews - simply send the 'Review URL' to your past clients and they'll be able to easily leave you a review on your Thumbtack profile. If you're interested in using Thumbtack in the future, I recommend visiting the link below, which contains a list of best known practices on how to submit a winning bid. These tips include how to build a winning profile, getting reviews, and much more:
http://www.thumbtack.com/pros/how-thumbtack-works#get-hired
I do want to strongly convey that we are not in the business of scamming our service professionals. Not only is it fundamentally against what we stand for here at Thumbtack, it wouldn't make sense from a business perspective either. Our goal is to be the online marketplace for local services. We can only grow if we are connecting real, serious customers with real, quality service professionals. Spending time, effort, and funds on creating fake leads simply isn't a winning strategy. We spend a lot of time talking to service professionals who have seen a lot of success on Thumbtack - we're proud of them and you can see some of their stories here:
http://www.thumbtack.com/pros/stories.
Thank you so much, again, for your feedback. We are working hard to create a great experience for both our service professionals and consumers, however, sometimes we do not get it right. Please let me know if you would like to reactivate your account; I am more than happy to add complimentary credits to use when quoting. I am also happy to answer any additional questions or concerns.
Thanks,
[redacted] CRS
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2014/03/18) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I do not accept the response from this company. I firmly belief this company conducts fraudulent acts by placing random photography clients. I believe there is a computer bank of people who are employed by Thumbtack.com to do nothing but put false leads into their system. This is just a baiting system to have photographers bid on these fraudulent leads. After I purchased the points to bid on the leads I bid on several leads provided by Thumbtack.com. I was hired several times by Thumbtack.com clients. After I was hired I would provide my email and phone number for the client to contact me. I was supposed to not have to do this because Thumbtack.com was supposed to provide this information to the client for me once I was hired. No Thumbtack.com client ever made even one attempt to contact me. Nothing! I find it hard to believe clients would go through the trouble of posting ads, reviewing bids, and indicating they had hired someone and then never make an effort to contact them. Having worked fraud investigations in the past I find it very likely that Thumbtack.com is hiring people to sit at computers and generate these false leads and scamming thousands of people. If the Revdex.com is not going to take any action my next step will be to present this to the California Attorney General's Office for a more complete fraud investigation.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2014/03/27) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for your response and I apologize if my previous response was not sufficient in addressing all of your concerns.
I'd like to reiterate that Thumbtack does NOT create fake ads and that all of our job requests are posted by real customers. We simply would not be in business if this was the case. I understand your frustration in not hearing back from your customers, however it is completely their choice as to whether or not they would like to respond to your quote. We understand that this is not an ideal or winning experience for our pros; we are therefore developing new features that will make the experience more worthwhile. An example of this is to notify you when another pro has been selected for that specific quote as well as why you weren't selected (i.e. other pro had a cheaper price, more reviews, etc.).
You mentioned that you were selected as 'Hired" by a Thumbtack customer, however it appears that you, the service professional, actually selected yourself as being hired. You'll notice a green bar that says "You indicated that you've been hired by the customer" when viewing your quotes with a hired status to [redacted] (Wedding Photography and [redacted] (Event Photography). Please use caution when selecting the hired button as a service professional because the customer will be asked to confirm this hire status. Unfortunately, it is completely up to the customer as to whether or not they actual contact you, since they are in control of which Thumbtack service professional, if any, they want to hire for the job.
I'd like to clarify that we immediately provide the customer with your contact information once a quote is submitted. Thumbtack provides your contact information to the customer when you submit a quote, each and every time. This includes your email and phone number, if provided. Your quote includes this information from the outset, regardless if you were hired or not.
As I mentioned in my previous response, you do not have any reviews on your profile - I strongly urge you to gather reviews from your past clients (using the URL Review Link) in order to build a solid profile on Thumbtack. We've noticed this increases your chances of being hired on Thumbtack by nearly 400%!
Thank you so much, again, for your feedback. We are working hard to create a great experience for both our service professionals and consumers, however, sometimes we do not get it right. Please let me know if you would like to reactivate your account; I am more than happy to add complimentary credits to use when quoting. I am also happy to answer any additional questions or concerns.
I hope this information is helpful. We are here to help and please feel free to contact me directly if you have any additional questions or concerns.
Thanks,
[redacted] CRS

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2016/01/06) */
Hello [redacted],
Thank you for reaching out to us through the Revdex.com about your concerns. I would like to address these concerns here.
We understand it can be very frustrating for our professionals to receive negative...

reviews. This is especially true for professionals who work hard to maintain good reviews on their profile. At Thumbtack, we believe customers should have the right to leave reviews for professionals not just services provided, but for the overall experience with a professional. This is why we allow customers to leave reviews once a quote has been sent to them from the professional.
A review [redacted] not be deleted on Thumbtack unless it is in direct defiance of our Content Policy, which can be seen here: https://help.thumbtack.com?ar=kAXXXXXXXXXBOSw.
Maintaining these standards is what gives legitimacy to our entire review system, including positive reviews.
We know that there are a number of reasons why customers leave the reviews they do. We also care about the reputations of our professionals, which is why we allow our professionals to respond to all reviews submitted on their profiles. When a professional receives a negative review from a customer, we highly encourage them to respond to the review in a helpful, courteous, professional manner. This type of response shows potential customers that the professional is willing to work with all customers and make things right when a customer feels they have been wronged. It also gives the professional an opportunity to share their story as these responses are public facing.
At Thumbtack, we want to be transparent with both our customers and professionals and any decisions made are for the purpose of benefitting both parties. If you or any professional or customer has questions or concerns regarding reviews, our customer support team would be happy to help and may be reached by phone at XXX-XXX-XXXX or email at [redacted]@thumbtack.com.
We are always here to help.
Sincerely,
[redacted]
Thumbtack Support
[redacted]@Thumbtack.com
XXX-XXX-XXXX

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2014/03/23) */
Contact Name and Title: [redacted] CRS
Contact Email: [redacted]@thumbtack.com
Dear [redacted],
I am writing to you in response to your Revdex.com complaint against Thumbtack. I apologize for the poor experience you had using Thumbtack and hope...

that I am able to address all of your questions and concerns. Please note that we have processed your refund and the funds should have posted to your account.
I understand that you've had a frustrating experience with our 'Suggested Questions' forum and how aggravating it must be to have a question deleted when you simply would like more information before submitting a quote. The guidelines for suggested questions have not changed since their inception. That being said, they have been applied inconsistently by our customer service agents who monitor the questions. We are currently evaluating these inconsistencies and are working hard to create a question review process that is fair, accurate, and consistent for our service professionals.
I looked into your Thumbtack account was able to find your bidding history. I noticed that you have been hired 3 times on Thumbtack - congratulations! I hope these positive experiences show that our leads are not fake. I understand your frustration in not hearing back from many of your customers, however please note that even our most successful service professionals do not hear back from some of their customer leads as well. Although we are working hard to improve customer communication, it is ultimately up to the customer as to whether or not they would like to send a response.
I do want to strongly convey that we are not in the business of scamming our service professionals. Not only is it fundamentally against what we stand for here at Thumbtack, it wouldn't make sense from a business perspective either. Our goal is to be the online marketplace for local services. We can only grow if we are connecting real, serious customers with real, quality service professionals. Spending time, effort, and funds on creating fake leads simply isn't a winning strategy. We spend a lot of time talking to service professionals who have seen a lot of success on Thumbtack - we're proud of them and you can see some of their stories here:
http://www.thumbtack.com/pros/stories.
Thank you so much, again, for your feedback. We are working hard to create a great experience for both our service professionals and consumers, however, sometimes we do not get it right. If you decide to continue using Thumbtack, please note that I've added a few complimentary credits to your account. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
[redacted] CRS
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2014/03/25) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
While you continue to guarantee your services, you fail to uphold a quality service that allows professionals to reply to requests without budget information and contact details. This is no way to do business and I cannot conduct business this way. I have only been hired once and the other 2 were false due to the nature of the clients inability to follow through or respond. Also, This is a common complaint as I've read through other complaints on Thumbtack and it has several times been reviewed as scammy due to the practices that Thumbtack has implemented on the clients it has and subjects them to unprofessional practice to submit blind quotes which will of course be turned down if leads are actually legitimate. I have been refunded and I thankyou and will not be using this service until changes are made that allow questions to be asked concerning budget and a guarantee to the professionals that if the person does not put in a budget, time, and place, with details on the event, the request for service will be rejected.
Instead of apologizing, do something about it.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2014/03/31) */
Dear [redacted],
I apologize if I didn't address all of your concerns in my first response.
Thumbtack is currently focusing to create new features that will improve customer communication. We understand how concerning it must be to not hear anything back from your customer leads, however please understand that these customers may have hired another pro or are simply not interested in any of the quotes that were submitted. We are currently creating new processes that will provide our service pros with this feedback; we hope that this will educate our contractors to submit higher quality bids as well as understand why they didn't land the job. We will inform our service pros when these changes have been made and updated.
Again, I apologize that you've had a frustrating experience with our 'Suggested Questions' forum. We are working hard to improve this forum in order to allow the necessary questions to be asked. Although we don't allow questions that that were left blank by the customer in the request form, we may remove this rule in the near future. We believe this change, along with other future initiatives, will help create a better quoting experience.
We are a small company with a big mission. We are actively refining and improving our process of connecting service professionals and consumers, as it's important to us that we create as many great customer experiences as we can. I hope we were able to resolve your issues, and please do not hesitate to reach out directly if you have any other questions or concerns.
Feel free to give us a call at anytime; our phone number is XXX-XXX-XXXX.
Best regards,
[redacted]

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2014/05/07) */
Contact Name and Title: [redacted] CRS
Contact Email: [redacted]@thumbtack.com
Dear [redacted],
I am writing to you in response to your Revdex.com complaint against Thumbtack. I apologize for the poor experience you had using Thumbtack and hope that I...

am able to address all of your questions and concerns. This is a follow-up to your recent conversation with [redacted], one of our Thumbtack Customer Advocates. Please note that [redacted] has added complimentary credits to your account, and I've processed your refund request for your last two credit purchases. The refund will post to your account within a few business days.
First, I'd like to thank you so much for your loyalty to Thumbtack and providing a great service for our customers. I noticed that you were hired 107 times on Thumbtack, which is absolutely remarkable! Without a doubt, you are a top Thumbtack professional, and have received remarkable reviews from clients on our site.
I'd like to mention that this technical difficulty is a known issue and our engineers are working to improve our email notification system. This glitch is occurring for a very small percentage of our users, and I apologize that you are experiencing these difficulties. We are currently investigating this issue and believe that your email domain is incorrectly marking us as spam. This triggers an account deactivation, as well as a follow-up email asking if you meant to mark us as spam. Please note that we are currently reevaluating this process in order to prevent engaged pros, like yourself, from accidental deactivation. Again, I am so sorry for the frustration that this has created.
In the meantime, I suggest changing the email on your account to an @Gmail account. I realize that you have already switched your email address in the past, however we've had very few reports of lead email issues from Google users.
I do want to strongly convey that we are not in the business of scamming our service professionals. Not only is it fundamentally against what we stand for here at Thumbtack, it wouldn't make sense from a business perspective either. Our goal is to be the online marketplace for local services. We can only grow if we are connecting real, serious customers with real, quality service professionals. Spending time, effort, and funds on creating fake leads simply isn't a winning strategy. We spend a lot of time talking to service professionals who have seen a lot of success on Thumbtack - we're proud of them and you can see some of their stories here:
http://www.thumbtack.com/pros/stories.
We are a small company with a big mission. We are actively refining and improving our process of connecting service professionals and consumers, as it's important to us that we create as many great customer experiences as we can. I hope we were able to resolve your issues, and please do not hesitate to reach out directly if you have any other questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
[redacted] CRS
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (2000, 7, 2014/05/09) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)
Hello [redacted]
Thank you for helping [redacted] immediately take care of me and my concerns, I greatly appreciate you both and feel you both went above and beyond my expectations with the credits.
Furthermore; I hope that this problem is fixed asap since it really does cause a hardship to me and others and appreciate your acknowledgment that there is in fact this on-going issue.
Sincerely,
~ [redacted]

I've been using their service for about six months so far. I haven't gotten business out of it, but I have been able to recommend my colleagues and at least one person got a client from it. I'm still testing to see if this is a useful service for my online marketing agency.

Initial Business Response /* (4000, 16, 2014/05/09) */
Dear [redacted],
I am writing to you in response to your Revdex.com rebuttal against Thumbtack. I apologize if my initial response was not sufficient in addressing all of your concerns.
I went ahead and reviewed all of pertinent landing...

pages and was not able to find any evidence of misleading advertising on our site. When you submit a request, we reach out to service professionals in your area that provide the service you requested. Once the request is submitted, we display a confirmation page that lists next steps, which includes the following for your particular job request:
"We'll email you multiple lawncare quotes"
For your particular job request, we were able to successfully provide two quotes from interested pros. We reached out to 22 professionals on your behalf (as advertised), and allow a maximum of 5 quotes per job request within the 24 hour quoting window.
Please note that you received the following confirmation email after submitting your request:
"Available pros submit quotes within 24 hours"
We do not guarantee that you will receive any quotes, however we do promise that we'll reach out to our qualified professionals to let them know that you are interested in their services. The professionals that are visible on these landing pages are active pros who are not 'On Hold' and have indicated interest in receiving leads from your job location.
Thank you so much, again, for your feedback. We are working hard to create a great experience for both our service professionals and consumers, and hope that you will use Thumbtack in the future.
Sincerely,
[redacted] CRS
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (4200, 18, 2014/05/12) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I'm rejecting this for two simple reasons; (1) "reviewed OUR site" (my emphasis. (2) only two of twenty-two responded, which leads to a logical conclusion that those advertised are not interested, by majority, or are falsely listed clients. (How can so many, and assumedly paying for advertisement, not be more interested?! Makes NO sense. One pays for service, they'll use it.) END
"Landing pages" - reference = Google > "Best 22".
(a) Some of THE best / TOP rated, in OUR community are not listed. (b) Again, only TWO responded.
search reference = "best lawn care service in [redacted]
An outside/third, unbiased party should review. Other complaints have been noted, by me, as documented by the Revdex.com. My personal feelings are that this is misleading and that most others would feel the same, regarding the facts. There is no use in debating this matter, any further.
END
# # #

The concept is good, but the execution is poor...I shouldn't have to verify that those providing quotes are legally allowed to perform the work they are quoting for a site that claims to link people with local professionals. I found out after paying a deposit that the contractor was not registered in my city...which is a requirement for all general contractors. This person walked away with my deposit for work and materials and I had to file a small claims suit against them. I also provided this feedback to thumbtack through their support email address and have not been contacted by their market integrity team as promised.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 7, 2015/08/25) */
Hello [redacted],
Thank you for bringing your concerns to our attention. I am very sorry for the delay in getting back to you. We take issues between customers and the professionals they have hired very seriously and do our best to...

respond to concerns like yours within 24 - 48 hours. I apologize that we did not do so in your case.
Whenever a concern is brought to our attention, we reach out to the parties involved to try and help them work together to come to a resolution. Our goal is to reach a solution that works for them both. In cases where there are differing stories or an agreement cannot be reached, we will ask both the customer and the professional to provide us with documentation regarding the problem. If that documentation indicates that the professional needs to provide a resolution, we will ask them to do so. If the professional will not work with us, we will remove their business listing from off of our site until they provide the desired resolution.
I apologize again for the delay in getting back to you, but I do see that you are currently working with one of our representatives to address your situation. We will be happy to continue working with you until we can reach a solution.
Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.
[redacted]
Thumbtack Support Team
XXX-XXX-XXXX
[redacted]@thumbtack.com
www.thumbtack.com

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/09/22) */
Hello [redacted],
Thank you for reaching out to us through the Revdex.com with your concerns. It was also great to speak with you over the phone, and I am glad we were able to come to a resolution that you were happy with. I'd...

like to address your concerns here as well.
I know it can be very discouraging when you are not getting hired and it can be equally frustrating when customers do not respond to your quote messages. I want to assure you that we do not fabricate customer requests and all requests go through a 9 step verification process that is both automated and manual to ensure their validity. Through our research, we've found that 80% of customers come to Thumbtack ready to hire. That being said, we encourage each professional to report anything that may seem suspicious and we will look into it.
We care about the success of each of our professionals and have great tools to help them find that success. This information can be found in our Pro Center here: https://www.thumbtack.com/pros/. Professionals are also encouraged to reach out to our customer support team through email and phone. Our customer support team is trained to be helpful and are very knowledgable about what it takes to succeed on Thumbtack.
Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns. We're always here to help and love to hear from our professionals.
I wish you the best of luck with your business.
Sincerely,
[redacted]
Thumbtack Support
[redacted]@Thumbtack.com
XXX-XXX-XXXX

Hello [redacted],Thank...

you for reaching out to us through the Revdex.com about your concerns. I would like to touch on them here. At Thumbtack, we allow professionals to be in complete control over how their money is spent with us. Professionals are charged when they choose to submit a quote to a customer or purchase credits with us. Each quote costs a certain number of credits and credits may be purchased quote by quote or in packages. Professionals must approve each of these purchases. We also have what we call profile points. These points are awarded for things like profile completion and do not cost any money. Once a professional has a certain number of these points, they are awarded a badge on their profile with us that lets customers know they have either a bronze, silver, or gold profile with us. We use this small feature on professionals' profiles to encourage them to finish their profiles and thus have better chances of getting hired on our site.Each request submitted to Thumbtack goes through a verification process that is both manual and automated. With that being said, we encourage all professionals to report anything that looks suspicious. We will look into the situation carefully as we respect the professionals who use our site. We also encourage any professional who is not finding success on Thumbtack to reach out to us or look into our research based articles on our website. They are designed to help professionals make the most of Thumbtack and may be found in our Pro Center: [redacted]If any professional has questions reguarding payment or finding success through Thumbtack, they may reach out to us at [redacted] or [redacted]. We are here and willing to help. Sincerely,[redacted] Thumbtack Suppot[redacted]

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2016/01/04) */
Hello [redacted],

Thank you for reaching out to us through the Revdex.com about your concerns. I have looked into your situation, and would be happy to address your concerns here.
At Thumbtack, we never want to send our...

emails to anyone who does not wish to receive them. We know that receiving unwanted emails can be frustrating. This is why we are always willing to help anyone who is receiving these emails if for some reason the "unsubscribe" button is not working.
I have taken a look into your situation, and have removed you from any and all email lists we currently have. If for some reason you continue to receive unwanted emails, please contact us and we will address the situation promptly and find out why this is happening. We encourage anyone in this situation to do the same as we are always here to help.
Sincerely,
[redacted]
Thumbtack Support

Thank you for reaching out to us through the [redacted] about your concerns. I’d like to take this...

opportunity to address them.
It’s important to us that professionals are introduced to interested customers who are ready to hire. Before requests are sent to pros, each request has to pass through a verification system that includes both manual and automatic checks. The system is in place to ensure that the requests we’re sending to professionals come from legitimate individuals who are looking for an appropriate services, and that the requests have the information needed for a professional to formulate a quote. We also encourage all professionals to report anything that looks suspicious. We will look into it carefully as we respect the professionals who use Thumbtack
We want professionals to be successful on Thumbtack. In order to help pros achieve, we’ve compiled a knowledge base geared towards helping professionals. This includes articles on getting hired, tips that Thumbtack professionals have shared with us, videos on navigating the site, improving business profiles and more. Our customer support team is also available by multiple channels of communication to address concerns and provide assistance.
Please feel free to contact us at [redacted] or give us a call at [redacted] with questions or concerns. We’re here to help.
Sincerely,
Thumbtack Support
[redacted]
[redacted]

Horrible service, you bid against five other contractors,
Seems like they keep lowering their prices because I never get any work and I keep lowering mine.
They don't give you any telephone numbers to contact the customer you'll be lucky if you get a call back.
I have sold work on Thumbtack but I'm sure I put way more into it than I got back. There's not even a customer service number where you can talk to an actual person.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2014/07/21) */
Contact Name and Title: [redacted] Support **
Contact Email: [redacted]@thumbtack.com
Dear [redacted],
We just spoke regarding your Revdex.com complaint against Thumbtack. We appreciate you giving us an opportunity to clarify the automatic refund...

policy, how credits work on Thumbtack, and our request verification process

Please allow me to take a moment to clarify the refund policy that applies to Thumbtack Credits. As noted on the page where you submitted your quote, we'll automatically send you an email as soon as your quote is viewed by the customer. If the customer doesn't view your quote within 48 hours of your submission, we'll automatically return the Thumbtack Credits to your account, so you can use them again free of charge on the next work request that interests you.
I recognize that returning the credits to your account instead of a cash refund was a sticking point for you. Just to reiterate, we return credits as a convenience for our professionals so that they don't have to purchase the credits again. However, like I mentioned on the phone, we are happy to refund the cash equivalent. You should see the refund post to your account in the next few business days. If at any time a professional on Thumbtack feels that a cash or credit refund should be made they can contact us.
We only succeed when you do - that's why we are always working hard to help our pros get hired as often as possible. We spend time, effort, and funds on a request verification process to flag suspicious requests. We then go in and manually check those that have been flagged as suspicious. Only requests that are cleared by these processes are forwarded to our professionals. Of course no system is perfect and we are constantly working to make the process better. The ultimate guide to know if you should submit a quote on a request is you. If you decide that you are interested, available and qualified for a request, you have the option to send a customized quote. You get to choose which requests are a good fit - and which you'd like to respond to.
As we talked about on the phone, I recognize that the 'pay to quote' model doesn't suit everyone. Purchasing leads on Thumbtack should be considered an advertising cost. Think about buying TV commercials or listing on a directory like Yelp. Many people see that advertisement, but only a couple will likely turn into customers. It can take a number of times before you land a job, especially in a competitive category, but in almost all cases, the money you make for that job easily pays for your quote investment. If it's not worth it over time, then this form of advertising may not be right for you - and we encourage you to not pay for any more leads.
We are a small company with a big mission. We are actively refining and improving our process of connecting professionals and customers, as it's important to us that we create as many great experiences as we can. I hope we were able to resolve your issues, and please do not hesitate to reach out directly if you have any other questions or concerns.
Sincerly,
[redacted]

Thumbtack customer service is horrible. I had a big issue with one of the service guy I hired through Thumbtack. It cost me big money because of the poor service provided by him. Thumbtack customer service was very unhelpful and it was never ending wait time on call to talk to a representative.
I will never recommend Thumbtack to anyone.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2014/02/21) */
Contact Name and Title: [redacted] CRS
Contact Email: [redacted]@thumbtack.com
Hi [redacted],
I am writing to you in response to your complaint to the Revdex.com against Thumbtack. I am sorry to hear that you have not found much success on Thumbtack,...

and hope I am able to address all of your concerns.
The leads we send our service professionals are 100% real and not created via a lead generation service, or any other automated channel. We advertise to customers through online channels, such as forums, social media, and online search results. Our company has been rapidly growing due to word-of-mouth brand awareness as well. Since our leads come from a variety of sources, we advise our service professionals to utilize our public questions forum in order to gain any additional information before paying for a quote. This process helps our service professionals validate customer seriousness and overall communication. Furthermore, I noticed that you do not have any reviews on your profile. We encourage our service professionals to request reviews from past clients (using the URL in the 'Edit Profile' section of your profile) in order to improve customer responsiveness and overall success. We've found that our service professionals with at least 1 review are far more successful in winning jobs on Thumbtack.
I do want to strongly convey that we are not in the business of scamming our service professionals. Not only is it fundamentally against what we stand for here at Thumbtack, it wouldn't make sense from a business perspective either. Our goal is to be the online marketplace for local services. We can only grow if we are connecting real, serious customers with real, quality service professionals. Spending time, effort, and funds on creating fake leads simply isn't a winning strategy. We spend a lot of time talking to service professionals who have seen a lot of success on Thumbtack - we're proud of them and you can see some of their stories here:
http://www.thumbtack.com/pros/stories.
We are a small company with a big mission. We are actively refining and improving our process of connecting service professionals and consumers, as it's important to us that we create as many great customer experiences as we can. Please note that I've added a few complimentary Thumbtack credits to your account. I hope we were able to resolve your issues, and please do not hesitate to reach out directly if you have any other questions or concerns.
Best regards,
[redacted] CRS
Final Consumer Response /* (2000, 7, 2014/02/26) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)
I've been auditing their ideas on how to increase your chances of landing a lead, against my business license. I also audited my pricing structure against [redacted] to ** with SCORE and the SBA before I engaged with Thumbtack and they may not have been realistic in my prices. I'll readdress once restructured. I find their service easy to use, clear, thorough and enough sales lead to be of interest (vs. other services) and only want to verify if my services aren't competent since I moved to [redacted] In the [redacted] suburbs, I found prolific work at times slow, but word of mouth, and want to work with a social media or sales service.

Hello [redacted],
Thank you for reaching out to us through the [redacted] about your concerns and thank you for working with our Marketplace Integrity team as well. I woud like to address these concerns here.
We understand that this situation is very frustrating. Though Thumbtack is a marketing platform and the professionals on our site are not endorsed by Thumbtack, we expect them to offer quality services and treat their cusotmers well.
Disputes between customers and professionals don’t happen often on Thumbtack, but when they do, we encourage customers to work with our Marketplace Integrity team. If you still have questions reguarding this situation, we encourage you to continue to communicate with this team as they are well trained and dedicated to helping our customers if they are able.
Sincerely,
[redacted]
Thumbtack Support
[redacted]

Despite a negative experience with a [redacted] "CON(tracting)" LLC, resolution with thumbtack regarding our issue was extremely positive. This crook, [redacted], was professionally licensed (PA, DE, NJ, VA) talked a good game and caused nothing but frustrations shortly after our point of contact. However, [redacted] from thumbtack went above and beyond to provide resolution for a terrible experience. So much so, that we trusted thumbtack again for multiple other jobs (although this time more weary of those that we were in contact with for our projects) and we have had multiple good experiences with remodeling our new home. Thank you thumbtack support team, especially [redacted], for turning a negative experience into a positive and helping shape our house into our home!
9/2015

Beware of Thumbtack at all costs. They run an extremely unethical business practice.
Thumbtack charges service providers for bids on the categorized job request listed on their website. Thumbtack does not screen any of their job postings. There is no better way to explain Thumbtack's ethically-challenged operations as the refuse to refund bid credits for job cancelled, deleted by Thumbtack or completed outside of their service.
I run a small photography studio who has used Thumbtackto set up assignments for our photographer. Thumbtack lies about screening their job postings, as numerous ones ever receive job status updates, quite possibly indicating the postings are bogus.
Thumbtack's customer service is extremely rude and I can not stress any more then to never use their service. Thumbtack is in existence simply to gather revenue even by not providing the service the advertise. They are charging for bids on jobs that are not completed through Thumbtack.
Service providers should avoid them at all cost.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2014/08/31) */
Dear [redacted],
I am writing in response to your Revdex.com complaint against Thumbtack. I have attempted to contact you directly to address these concerns, but we have been unable to connect. I hope I can resolve your concerns below.
We are...

not in the business of scamming our professionals. Not only is it fundamentally against what Thumbtack stands for, it doesn't make sense from a business perspective either. Thumbtack can only succeed if our professionals succeed - that's why we work hard to help our professionals get hired as often as possible. We can only grow if we are connecting real, serious customers with real, quality service pros. We spend considerable time and effort on a request verification process to flag suspicious requests. We then manually check those that have been flagged as suspicious. Only requests that clear these processes are forwarded to our professionals. Of course, no system is perfect, and we constantly work to improve the process.
We give you control over what you pay for and when - it is free to create a profile and to receive customer requests relevant to what you do. You choose who you'd like to respond to, and only pay when you choose to quote. There's never any obligation to respond to the customer requests we send you. There are no annual fees or minimum payments. I have reviewed your quoting history and it looks like you submitted 3 quotes between the 9th and 12th of August. I encourage you to give it another chance. Many of our most successful professionals say that it took them several quotes before their first customer hired them through Thumbtack.
We see our role as that of making the introduction to a potential customer, and then we get out of the way, so that the pro, who is best equipped to actually sell the customer on their service anyway, can tackle the lead however they see fit. The 'pay to quote' model doesn't suit everyone. Purchasing leads on Thumbtack should be considered an advertising cost. similar to buying TV commercials or listing on a directory like Yelp. Many people see those advertisements, but only a couple will likely turn into customers. It can take a number of times before you land a job, especially in a competitive category, but in almost all cases, the money you make for that job easily pays for your quote investment.
Based on your concerns, and to help build your faith in Thumbtack, I have refunded all of the credit purchases you have made since adding your service on August 8, 2014, a total of $31.66.
I appreciate you reaching out to clarify your concerns. Thumbtack is dedicated to becoming THE online marketplace for local services. Your feedback, along with all feedback from other Thumbtack professionals and customers, helps us improve. If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to let me know.
Sincerely,
[redacted]