Thumbtack driving prices DOWN!!!!

luxor

Gonna try to write this to get straight to the point.

1. There are TOO MANY "pros" in thumbtack that are not properly registered, paying taxes, and employing people, therefore charging WAY LESS than a legit company does. - Why is this anyone's problem? Because these people are getting away with paying their workers under the table and therefore they don't have the other business expenses that a compliant company does> therefore they charge WAAAAYYYY less and they win the jobs> lowering the market value of what SHOULD BE.

2. Because of this, Thumbtack has somehow "figured out" what you SHOULD be charging for a job- as they suggest a price point to you when you are inputting your prices. They are suggesting something around $500 for a job my COMPLIANT business would charge upwards of $900 to be able to properly employ people and still make a bit of profit. Again, this is $500 they are suggesting for a job that can easily take 15+ labor hours to do. - Why is this a problem? FOR SO MANY REASONS. But also because naive pros come on here and see the suggested price so they are encouraged to work at that price point- resulting in more exploitation.

I have put $700 into leads this week. Thumbtack ate it up in 2 days. Guess how many jobs I booked out of 18 leads? ONE JOB valued at $250 because I had to bring my price down to get booked. You do the math!

I am filing a complaint with the FTC on this. If these platforms are going to advertise PROFESSIONAL services, they should make sure their "pros" are fully compliant and legitimately employing people. This causes a large domino effect of exploitation, lawsuits, driving market price down, and hurting other legit small businesses trying to survive