Thumbtack’s Refund Policy is a Lie

mayadcar

Thumbtack claims to protect pros with their refund policy, but in reality, they ignore their own rules when it benefits them. Here’s what their policy says vs. what actually happens:

🚨 Thumbtack’s Policy: "A lead that violates our Terms of Use qualifies for a refund." ✅ Reality: I was charged for a lead that NEVER opened my messages. Their Terms prohibit fake or misleading inquiries, yet they refused a refund.

🚨 Thumbtack’s Policy: "If a job changes significantly, a refund should be considered." ✅ Reality: A lead requested bridal and family portraits - services I don’t offer and have never advertised. Thumbtack still denied my refund.

They expect pros to pay for leads that are either non-existent or completely mismatched, all while hiding behind vague “case-by-case” excuses. This is an exploitative, unethical system.

If Thumbtack actually cared about its users, it would follow its own policies, refund bad leads, and stop forcing pros to pay for their broken system. Until then, they are just another pay-to-play scam.

Thumbtack, fix this now.

#ThumbtackFail #FalseAdvertising #UnethicalBusiness #LeadScam #ThumbtackFraud #PolicyAbuse #SmallBizSupport #ProCommunity #FixThumbtack

DustiO

Hi @mayadcar I took a few moments to look at your account/profile. I can see a request for family portraits - but it looks like you have "portrait photography" enabled. I am not able to look at the granular settings for that service, since your business is hidden. But, if there is a preference there that says "family portraits" and you don't have that checked, I would recommend reaching out to refunddisputes@thumbtack.com and you can follow up with the team there. This is a new update to the refund process, and has been really helpful to a lot of pros since launching.

There is nothing in Thumbtack's refund policy or Terms of Use about non-responsive customers, so those would not be eligible for a refund. However, we recently had a great discussion around the topic of non-responsive customers in a recent CommuniTEA session and the group of pros had some really amazing tips for how they have been able to get customers to respond. Here are all of the tips they shared:

• Refresh your profile intro once a month using chatgpt, to mix it up and test what resonates more with customers (from @1_gold_hands, a handyman who has grown to 7 locations using Thumbtack)
• Reach out via the Thumbtack messenger, and then text and call - different pros suggested different timing that works for them like text immediately, call after 1 hr or 2 hrs, etc (several pros suggested this one)
• Leave the message on a positive note and follow up with "nurture campaigns" - reaching out to customers every 30 days/60 days/etc with a refresher message (both @ShaquealThomas and @SOUNIQUE007 use this tactic and have multiple customers hire them at later dates)
• Try a contest/sweepstakes - tell them even if they have used another pro and don’t need your services they can gift it to someone else! But put a deadline on it to add some urgency
• Leave on a positive note, leave all of your contact info if they come back later (from @ShaquealThomas)
• Message people during off time like evenings and weekends, when they will have time to respond to the message right when they see the notification, vs if they are at work) (from @AR2i, who has had a lot of success using this tactic)
• Send them a note with all of the services you offer, in case they have already figured out that job, they can return later to hire you for other things (also from @1_gold_hands)
• Last, but certainly not least, we did just have the Pro Summit with a lot of great tips, especially during the pro panel. The recap post is here and the full panel is linked there as well (linked above, but figured I'd add it here too).