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Thumbtack is terrible. Some guys are crushing it like @Bretdouglas and he will give you awesome advice and key points. But what I am about to post clearly outlines the immoral direction thumbtack has become. Specifically because of Marco, who doesn’t care about the opinion of pros, and everyone on the advisory board knows that. Here is a screen shot of a recent lead I had, called and replied within 6 minutes. No response, charged me $50. But the main point I want to talk about is control. I have set my leads to minimum prices and a got an email today saying that I’m not in control of what I spend. Despite the videos that were sent earlier claiming that we had control over lead prices. Not sure who directed that but please if your going to do an instructional video or talk about your company look at the camera and try to show any emotion if possible. It’s pretty obvious that they were just reading a script. Regardless this whole thing about how they will automatically “adjust” my prices is just wrong. I have really tried to make this app work again after quitting it because of the number of bad leads I kept getting. But this issue really crosses a different line and it’s no longer just about the money, or is it an investment. When you choose to business with someone or an entity. Character matters. The repeated actions of abuse from thumbtack to its pros and refusal to pay attention to even the best pros thumbtack has to offer. I am recommending all pros shutdown their account. Cancel your card on file and move this type of system to google local services or just google in general. Again I’m not attacking any pros who are doing well on here and I hope you continue to do well, but I am against the leaders of thumbtack. Specifically Marco who I can’t even tag because he’s not on here. The future is not bright for thumbtack
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I definitely feel your pain. I got the same message today and started working on figuring out damage control.
I truly want Thumbtack to succeed and I also want all the pros to succeed. So it puts me in a strange situation to try to be the go between. However as a user just as impacted as anyone else sometimes I think the message is lost in the way it's presented. Too many of us are living on the knife's edge right now and any type of intrusion on our finances causes us mental stress. I wish that thumbtack would take into consideration maybe having some type of spokesman that when these changes are brought forth could explain it in a pro contractor down to earth way. That if we set our prices at the lowest end that maybe they will rise one to two to three percent in times of need for thumbtacks pricing. Instead of just saying they'll set our prices or adjust that seems a little scary. We all want to make it in this crazy environment and I just think if they took a little more time to explain things before they rolled it out we'd all be in a better world. Point in fact before I lay down for a nap this afternoon I was at less than competitive on all my categories they sent that message out it must have freaked out the entire community because as soon as I woke from a nap I'm now financially as the more competitive category how did I go from less competitive past competitive and land on more competitive and I didn't change my prices at all. They're certainly things that we're not understanding as pros and I wish they'd explain them a little bit better. Other than that I'm going to continue to put my faith in thumbtack and the other pros and anyone who's trying to Make a better living for themselves in 2024. Heads up we can do this we can survive in these difficult times I believe in you I'm Brett Douglas a simple man and I'm still moving forward one day at a time
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I’ll update my post. The lead did respond several days later. (Today) so it’s thankfully not fake and hopefully we can actually turn this into a job.
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That's awesome sir I too have had a couple suspicious leads this week and then finally about 4 days later they responded so at least I'm grateful that I get a chance to go and visit with them. I think one of the hardest things to do is when you pay 50 to $100 for a lead and they ghost you then they say they hired someone else and you never even had a chance to get in front of them that is a hard loss of money either way about it
Keep on fighting the good fight sir your work and your quality are always going to be there for you I'm praying for your future success and if you ever need anything please reach out I'm always here
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I've been with Thumbtack for 7 years and was just notified that lead prices were going up and I was not competitive any more in writing and editing services. I just tallied what I spent on Thumbtack last year and how much I earned from them and the ratio was not good - spent between 25 and 30%. I'm really tired of paying for and crafting custom responses to leads and then the client never even looks at my response. If all Pros would go and change max lead prices to least competitive and lower their weekly budgets that may send a message to Thumbtack and it may help reset their algorithms to what we are willing to pay. Marco is on LinkedIn although he probably doesn't read comments from us, the people who pay his salary.
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I totally agree with your assessment. I have set mine at the lowest setting and yes they do remind me all the time the unless competitive. But I stand strong in my conviction that I'm the number one rated pro in all Central Florida area. They have me ranked as little as number seven and I just laugh at them. Do you think a client is going to hire someone based on the fact they only have 30 or 40 reviews maybe five or six reviews and someone like us have 500 hires in over 350 verified reviews and we're ranked number seven. In that sense it's a little sad that Thumbtack would put somebody who pays more for lead ahead of a qualified bona fide pro. But the joke is on them it looks bad for Thumbtack not for me. I keep my prices low and I'll continue to make the business work for me
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Simply more evidence of "Thumbtack 2: The Sequel - The Search for More Money." This platform seems to have changed virtually overnight from what it was. I used to be delighted with it. Now I'm starting to look elsewhere.
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Thumbtack is just not consistent with anything. We as pros fight each other for leads that are coming regardless of what Thumbtack does. TT is pitting Pro’s vs. Pro’s for how much we are willing to spend for a lead, and most of the leads are not viable or curated in a way that could justify the extended cost.
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I've got no problem with the pro versus pro aspect. That's healthy competition. What irritates me most is that Thumbtack was working so well for me until they made the change. Now they've pushed me to where I must look elsewhere for a viable platform for promoting my business. I can no longer recommend Thumbtack to my friends in business.
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Marco it seems has tripled-down on Instant Booking. He is REALLY sure it is a good idea.
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Sad!
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The way its going to hurt them in the longer run that I think their genius team hasn't thought of yet is that- they are going to become a platform filled with newbies trying it out before they get burnt out and its going to run all the real experts off. Then their customer base will only have sh*tty options to choose from so they will go seeking elsewhere. It will become its reputation. It no longer will be a place where you can find real professionals, but rather a bunch of people with 1 -10 ratings on their profiles with a 3.5 star average.
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By the way, have you guys tried using it as a customer? I had to go and do a little of my own testing and many times (most of the time) when you put in the information for the job you want done, it recommends profiles to you and then it says "sorry this pro is not available to do your job".... then it goes on to show you all 3 of their new pros with 2 reviews on their profiles. It's just losing it's credibility so fast how are they not catching all of this?
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20-30% is a bargain on Thumbtack. I pay 100-400% every time I turn my leads on. 😂
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Fortunately my business can't use Instant Bookings so I'm spared that headache. I think they tell you a pro is not available and shows you new pros, because those new ones are the ones who have set a higher lead price. Or the unavailable ones have used up their weekly budget.
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Sad!
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This is the same in our area. I am ranked like number 7. I have the highest number of hires and reviews. Been top pro for I think six years in a row.
I see everyone less than 20.reviews ranked the best. I am sad thumbtack doesn't realize that makes them look horrible. It's a joke. All new vendors
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