Thumbtack, Inc.

I hired a pet sitter (vet tech) that was suppose to stay at my home for 10 days and care for my cats. When I returned home, I found my house trashed . The litter boxes were dirty and the cats were neglected. New food was dumped on top of old food. They urinated all over my new furniture, and were sick. They were drinking water from the toilet that contained bleach cleaning blocks. I ended up in the emergency vet clinic with a $760.00 bill. The pet sitter started posting nasty comments about my daughter on Facebook (an attorney). Saying all kinds of negative things and posting her cell phone number on Facebook. She went so far as to threaten my daughter with legal action to collect her fee. My daughter didn't hire this woman...I did. I contacted Thumbtack and they said that their team was working on the situation and would get back to me. THEY NEVER RESPONDED! I kept calling them to get a hold of someone...but never could. All I heard was that they were sorry this situation happened. It turns out this pet sitter was writing her own references. I contacted the vet hospital she worked for, and was told that she is a scammer. DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND DON'T USE THUMBTACK FOR YOUR NEEDS. My insurance doesn't cover a situation of this sort, and now I will have to resort to a lawsuit against Thumbtack and the pet sitter. Nothing but headaches!

No concept of customer service.
Run by arrogant children.
Fraudulent and false advertising .
Steer clear!

I recently filed a complaint about this company. Whatever Thumbtack Inc. may have been at their founding, the company is nothing but a scam. Worse is that its crimes are likely not perpetrated in house (other than neglecting to do anything about scammer). They simply allow scammers to do as they will, which costs those sincerely looking for services and/or seeking employment both money and time. Once can only imagine how much money Thumbtack Inc. makes by NOT doing more, if anything, to stop those who post fake job requests on their site. It is incredible that such an entity can operate freely in the United States. No . . . it is a tragedy.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/07/14) */
Hello [redacted],
Thank you for bringing your concerns to our attention through the Revdex.com. We work very hard to ensure only valid requests are making it through to our professionals, but we recognize that our system isn't...

perfect and appreciate any feedback that helps us improve.
Our goal at Thumbtack is to help professionals grow their businesses by introducing them to new customers. Customers come to us looking for professionals who can help them with their personal projects. They fill out a request form that lets them provide details on the kind of help they need. We do our best to make sure that when those requests are submitted to professionals, they are legitimate opportunities for work.
To do this, we've created an extensive review system that checks every request submitted through our site. We monitor for information that would indicate the customer is not actually looking to hire a professional. The system is certainly not perfect, so we always investigate any concerns professionals may have with the requests they receive. If we find that a request is not legitimate, we refund the credits a professional has spent to respond.
Thank you for providing feedback and helping us to improve our system. I'm happy we were able to provide your desired resolution.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to let me know.
[redacted]
The Thumbtack Support Team
XXX-XXX-XXXX
[redacted]@thumbtack.com
www.thumbtack.com
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (2000, 7, 2015/07/20) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)

Thumbtack claims to connect business with customers. My experience is that Thumbtack is actually creating false leads within Thumbtack itself and charging business for these leads.

Thank you for reaching out to us through the [redacted] about your concerns. I would like to address these concerns here.
 
A review will not be deleted on Thumbtack unless it is out of compliance with our Content Policy, which can be seen here:[redacted].
Maintaining these standards is what gives legitimacy to our entire review system, including positive reviews.
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 [redacted] or email at [redacted].

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2014/08/20) */
Dear [redacted],
I am writing in response to your Revdex.com complaint with Thumbtack. I appreciate the opportunity you've given us to resolve your situation. I know that we have already resolved your concerns over the phone. However, to ensure...

that we addressed each of your concerns, I will respond to them below.
I would like to first apologize if your first experience with Thumbtack Support was not positive. We are obsessed about the satisfaction of our customers, and we failed to meet that goal in your initial contact with our support team. We love helping our customers find professionals who can complete their personal projects. Thumbtack's role is to introduce customers to professionals; we do not vet or endorse any particular professional on our site. We believe that the customer knows their needs best and is, therefore, the best individual to decide which professional is right for their project.
We take your concerns about safety on Thumbtack very seriously. When a professional signs up on Thumbtack, we review their profile, verify their email, and check their name and address against the National Sex Offender's database. Once a professional is approved, we give them the tools to demonstrate their professionalism and expertise. Each professional has a profile that includes not only a description of their services but also reviews, credentials, photos of their work, and licenses. All of these help customers like you to better understand the quality and trustworthiness of each professional.

That said, we take complaints from customers about professionals very seriously. Introducing customers to quality professionals is our goal. If a dispute between a customer and professional on Thumbtack arises, we reach out to both parties to investigate the situation, and encourage both parties to communicate in order to reach a resolution together. I apologize for the poor experience you had with 44 Flagstone and the hassle you experienced. I am, however, very glad that we were able to find a resolution to your situation, and that you will now be able to complete your landscaping project.
I appreciate you contacting me so that we could resolve your concerns and, most importantly, help you in the process of completing your landscaping project. Please do not hesitate to contact us directly if you have any other questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

What a great website! All I can say is it's truly a great system/network of professionals. For a small business owner I must say that because of site like thumbtack, our business is able to thrive. Thank you for creating this amazing site for people across the U.S.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/12/03) */
Hello [redacted],
Thank you for reaching out to us through the Revdex.com about your concerns and for corresponding with our Marketplace Integrity team as well. I am glad that your situation is being handled by one of our...

experts.
At Thumbtack, we expect our professionals to offer quality service and to treat their customers well. Though these types of situations are rare, if a customer has a poor experience with one of our professionals, we encourage them to reach out to us immediately so we can look into the situation. We take these types of instances very seriously and will address them promptly.
Our goal is to keep a marketplace where customers and professionals feel safe. Customers and professionals may feel free to contact us at any time if they have questions by calling XXX-XXX-XXXX or emailing us at [redacted]@thumbtack.com. Our highly trained customer support specialists will ensure that they are taken care of.
I encourage you to continue to communicate with our team and let us know if you have any other questions or concerns. We're here to help.
Sincerely,
[redacted]
Thumbtack Support
[redacted]@Thumbtack.com
XXX-XXX-XXXX
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 8, 2015/12/20) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
In speaking to Thumbtack we discussed my concerns that there are individuals posing as "professionals on their site and thus duping people out of money. In my case they person I had been scammed by via Thumbtack had one other person who had given her a negative review in regards to not receiving the services paid for. Thumbtack's response to this is that they would simply flag the account and therefore allow at least one more person to be scammed by this woman before taking any action, which they were not explicit in what action that may be. Niether did they make the decision to remove the false reviews that she had friends write on her behalf. Their solution is to continue to support con artists and profit from deceiving people through their website.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 10, 2016/01/05) */
Hello [redacted],
I assure you we approach situations like these with the utmost concern and care. Our goal is to prevent these cases from reoccurring, and to maintain a honest and safe marketplace for all of our customers and professionals.
There are a lot of factors that go into our decision to remove or flag a professional. We know that our actions can deeply affect people's businesses or livelihood, which is why we consider every angle of each individual case. We have a highly trained team here who investigate professional accounts thoroughly before taking action. The professional's interaction history with customers and overall customer satisfaction is just one of the things we look at. In order to protect the privacy of the individuals on our site, the results of cases are not something we can disclose publicly. However, we do take measures to ensure that the appropriate action has been taken.
I can see you have been working with one of our agents, and I want to encourage you to contact him with any additional concerns or information you may have on the case. Situations like this don't happen often on our site, but when they do we want to make them right. Please let us know if there's anything else we can do for you.
Sincerely,
[redacted]
Thumbtack Support
[redacted]@Thumbtack.com
XXX-XXX-XXXX
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 12, 2016/01/11) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I spoke to a representative from Thumbtack and my dispute was not resolved. I was told that the scammer on their website is required to scam at least one more person before they would take any action against her. They also did not offer to compensate me in any way. I would like this dispute to remain unresolved so that others can make an informed decision whether to do business with this company with a TRUTHFUL review. Something Thumbtack fails to provide. Their business model is arranged around customer reviews, and for them to allow and protect deceivers who manipulate the rating system is disgusting and completely unethical and people need to have knowledge of this. The online marketplace of today is just about completely review based. Sellers take their reviews seriously as well as customers, considering there is a fine line between receiving what you paid for and getting scammed. Thumbtack has clearly shown how they value the customers that book services through their website with their indifferent attitude and lack of action in regards to my situation. My life has been significantly affected by this, but the profit they made from the $800 fee I was charged, and did not receive a service for, is obviously more important. I encourage anyone who has had a similar situation to speak out and take further action as I intend to do because this is a matter of helping to make the online marketplace a safer and more honest place to purchase and sell services.

I lost a lot of money to Thumbtack by purchasing bids that never amounted to any jobs. To test if they were a scam business, I even paid for bids and offered free photography services and received 1 real customer...who turned out to be the most difficult person I've had to deal with. I don't think Thumbtack is 100% a scam...maybe 50% scam, but they need a better customer screening system or a better overall system.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2014/05/13) */
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 I've processed your refund request and the funds will post to your bank account within a few business days. Your account has been removed from our system as well.
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.
In regards to our review policy, customers are able to leave a review once they've connected and communicated with you on Thumbtack, regardless if the professional has been hired or not. We allow and encourage these types of reviews since our customers are not only interested in the quality of work performed, but professionalism and responsiveness as well.
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 have any other questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
[redacted] CRS
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2014/05/20) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I never received a refund it's been 2 weeks!
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2014/05/22) */
Dear [redacted],
I'm so sorry you haven't received your refund yet. Would you mind double checking your records? I looked into these transactions and can confirm that your refund has been processed. I will send you an email that shows the refund verification our end. If the issue continues, I'd be happy to call Braintree, our financial intermediary to have this resolved.
Please keep an eye out for my email so I can get this resolved for you soon as possible.
Thank you,
[redacted] CRS

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 8, 2015/11/12) */
We appreciate you taking the time to reach out to us through the Revdex.com about your concerns. I'm glad we got a chance to talk on the phone and discuss this situation. I'd like to address each of your questions in order, and help you better...

understand Thumbtack as a business.
Thumbtack is an advertising and introductory service. Professionals pay a small fee to get their information in front of customers, similar to a TV advertisement or radio broadcast. While it's not guaranteed that every person who views the ad is going to pursue it, Thumbtack is a way to directly market your business to people who are already actively looking for someone to hire. We give customers the option to indicate if the status of a project has changed. It's up to the customer to notify us and the professional if they no longer need the service. When customers don't view the quote within 48 hours, the professional will be automatically refunded because an introduction wasn't made.
Our terms of use covers Thumbtack's right to charge fees for transactions and for services rendered. Every person on Thumbtack has agreed to these terms of use. As you have stated, there is implicit risk with every kind of marketing and investment. Professionals have the freedom to choose how much money they want to use on advertising on our site, and the investment they make is in their own business. Thumbtack credits never expire, and there isn't an obligation to respond to the requests that we send you. Different forms of advertising work for different companies, and we have the tools available to help new professionals understand the site and how it works. It's important that professionals make the educated decision on which marketing channel will best benefit their business.
Our customer support agents strive to be understanding and empathetic of professional's concerns. Each support agent has been trained on Thumbtack's policies, and know that all transactions are final. As we had discussed on the phone, we realize there were some inconsistencies in the answers you were given and we're using this as an opportunity to improve and create a better experience for pros in the future.
Refunds on the Revdex.com are done on a case by case basis as every situation is different. When a professional submits a complaint, we try to address and resolve their concerns. Details of specific complaints are private between Thumbtack and the individuals who bring their concerns to the Revdex.com. We do our best to reach a resolution that best fits each case.
Individuals agree to Thumbtack's Terms of Use when they sign up on the site, and our internal policies correlate with what is outlined in our Terms of Use.
Thumbtack values transparency in all aspects. We're always working on ways to educate professionals and customers on how Thumbtack works. Any changes we make will always be to improve and create the best experience possible for everyone on our site.
We respectfully decline your offer to debate these questions, as we feel that the Revdex.com is a sufficient channel to publicly address professional's concerns.
Thank you for the feedback you have given us. I appreciate your understanding about how quickly Thumbtack is growing, and we want to continue to make changes that are in the best interests of our professionals. We know that the best way to improve is by implementing suggestions made by experienced business owners.
Please let us know if you have any additional questions about our site; I'd be happy to speak with you again. We're always here to help.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/12/08) */
Thank you for reaching out to us about this. We know that when you're running a business every dollar counts.
I'm glad I was able to talk to you over the phone about this situation. It's great that one of our representatives was able...

to work with you and refund the credits you used for this quote. It's important to us that professional's credits are well spent.
If you ever come across a similar situation, please feel free to reach out to us. Your success is important to us and we're here to help.

They owe our company around $28,677 in damages due too unpaid invoices.
Unpaid invoices $13,500
Total amount around $45-50,000
Can give more info and proof upon request.
Also can provide proof of thumbtack generating false leads and also not protecting Pro's who use their services and for fruad.and moneys fruad.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2014/11/17) */
Hi [redacted],
We appreciate you reaching out through the Revdex.com in regards to your recent experience with Thumbtack as we take complaints very seriously. I have attempted to contact you, but unfortunately we have been unable to connect. I...

apologize that you feel unsatisfied with the services Thumbtack provides, we strive to create a positive experience for both our customers and professionals in every way we can.
Our goal is to help professionals grow their businesses while making it easy for customers to find professionals to hire. It is fundamentally against what Thumbtack stands for to send fake requests. As a business, we can only succeed if our professionals do - this is why we work hard to provide guidance to increase the amount of times they are hired. We spend a considerable amount of time and effort to ensure we are connecting our professionals with real, serious customers. Through our extensive verification process we flag suspicious requests, then manually check those that have been flagged. Only requests that clear these processes are forwarded to our professionals. Every system has it's imperfections, this is why we are constantly improving our site.
The frustration of sending a quote to a customer and not hearing back is understandable. In our role to create introductions between customers and professionals, we want to know why customers are not responding just as much as you do. Once a quote is submitted to the customer, we send emails to ask if they have any updates in regards to hiring someone. It is then up to them to update the status of their request. In an effort to share as much information we receive from the customer as possible, our system reflects the reasoning behind a customer's request status change. Our hope is that this will improve our professional's experience and help them in getting hired in the future.
We take pride in creating a platform that professionals and customers enjoy using, with similar feedback about notifications we have made many updates. Customers can now log into their account and choose how they want to be notified. I apologize for the inconvenience of receiving text messages when you had opted not to. In looking over you account, the notification option for text messages was turned on. I have changed the notifications on your account so going forward you will not receive text messages. We appreciate when our customers bring these concerns to our attention so that we can fix them.
Thumbtack cares very much about providing our customers with a positive experience. It concerns us as well that you were contacting by a DJ about a request you did not submit. We can confirm that there was only one request submitted on your account for a DJ. When a professional is responding to dozens of requests it can be easy to confuse phone numbers or request details. Whether this was a simple mix-up or a complex issue, we would like to get more information so we can further investigate.
We would appreciate the opportunity to resolve these concerns with you as soon as possible. I will personally work towards a satisfactory resolution for you if you would contact me as soon as you are able.
[redacted].
Thumbtack Support Team
Phone XXX-XXX-XXXX
Email [redacted]@Thumbtack.com
www.thumbtack.com

Do not use this service!! You will get ripped off and they don't care about anything but getting your money! STAY away!! Worst company out there!!!

The cleaning service that I received from [redacted] was excellent. Very professional and did a thorough job. I would highly recommend her to clean your home.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 6, 2015/02/09) */
Dear [redacted],
We appreciate you reaching out to us about your concerns through the Revdex.com. I am glad we were able to talk over the phone about your concerns and come to a positive resolution. I wanted to take the time to write a short...

outline about what we discussed.
Thumbtack truly cares about the professionals who use our site. We strive to help them grow their businesses by sending them real and serious customers. Our extensive verification process helps ensure these requests are valid. Just like any system, we know ours is not perfect so we are continually trying to improve it. We also encourage professionals to reach out to us if they feel they have received a questionable request. Once we are notified, we can investigate the request and refund credits if applicable.
In light of wanting our professionals to succeed, we are here for them with helpful tips and tricks to increase their hire rate. We have learned that customers look to a vibrant profile and reviews to help them determine which professional to hire. I apologize that you were having issues uploading pictures to your account, per our discussion I have uploaded the images for you. We also discussed getting reviews from past customers to help increase your credibility. If you have any other questions, please feel free to reach out to us, we will always be here to help.
[redacted]
Thumbtack Support Team
Phone (XXX) XXX-XXXX
E-mail [redacted]@Thumbtack.com
www.thumbtack.com

Thumbtack is a bogus company who hire there own people to rite job quotes , they abuse pro thumbtack get money for points and never dies anyone get hired! This company should be closed as soon as possible they are scammers!

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2014/03/05) */
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 help answer your questions and concerns.
I do want to strongly convey that we are not in the business of scamming our service professionals. We do not create fake leads and only send real customer job requests. 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.
I looked into your Thumbtack account was able to find your bidding history. I understand your concern 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. Although we are working hard to improve customer communication through product updates and adding new features, it is ultimately up to the customer as to whether or not they would like to send a response. We acknowledge this issue and hope you'll stick with us as we work to improve customer non-responsiveness.
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 have the option to leave 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 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. The guidelines are not pointed enough for our agents to be able to apply them uniformly. Therefore, we recently revamped our guidelines so that they can be implemented more reliably. We appreciate your patience as we are working hard to fine-tune this process. For more information about 'Suggested Questions', please visit the following link:
http://www.thumbtack.com/pros/how-to-suggest-a-question
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'd like to continue using our services, please let me know and I'd be happy to apply a few complimentary credits to your account. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
[redacted]