Lead location preferences is bugged but they won't refund you

Beyondgazephotos

This is a warning to all pros out there, If you ever get a lead outside of the location preferences you have set you will not get anything refunded.

I was asked to provide proof of setting up my distance as 25 instead of 50 miles before I got the lead in order to provide a refund. Its asburd to expect vendors to be recording their screens on setting up their preferences but that's the only way they would refund you.

They blatantly just lied that the zipcode was within the exact lead preferences I have set. I had mine set to 25 miles while the lead in received was 50 miles away. An obvious bug but After this incident I completely shut everything off last year. Thumbtack support are con artists and nothing else.

"You can provide us a proof that you originally set it for 25 miles yet it was change to 50 miles resulting you receiving this lead." - thumbtack support Desiree

"But since you mentioned you have it set in 25 miles but it was then changed to 50 miles, we need to make sure no technical issues in the background thus we ask if you were able to get a screenshot or a screen recording" - thumbtack support Desiree

It was set to 25 miles and never changed to 50 miles. It's on me to provde proof it was never set to 50 miles. I've been using thumbtack for over a year at this point, i am well aware on how to setup tragetting locations.

Bark's customer care is 100 times better. They refund first and then figure out the problem. Thumbtack support probably gets incentives to decline refund requests.

DustiO

Hi! Thanks to pro feedback, we’ve made several key updates to our refund process over the past several months. These include a revised list of refund request reasons and customer phone number verification. Plus, in January, we introduced the option to submit attachments with your refund request, so you can provide all necessary evidence upfront.

We also added a direct email address for refund disputes refunddisputes@thumbtack.com where you can reach out if you were denied a refund and want to dispute that.

These changes have helped boost refund approval rates and reduce the need for support inquiries — saving time and hassle. You can learn more about our refund policy here.

But, before the need for refunds arise, I would recommend really dialing in your preferences, including your availability (as recommended above), your pricing information, your travel areas, etc. to ensure the best possible match.

Hope this helps!

PS worth mentioning that they were likely asking for screenshots if you had them in order to submit a bug report, but nonetheless, I am sorry you had this frustrating experience!

Beyondgazephotos

Asking for screenshots of past as proof of my statement doesnt make any sense. No pro is taking screenshots everytime they set their targetting preferences. Yet this is what is needed for the support to issue a refund. This is the problem. Am glad there are some improvements on refunds and updates but I've not had 1 good interaction with thumbtack support over emails.

There is a whole another issue regarding the availability that actually doesnt work. "flexible dates" or " allow pro to suggest other dates" which still seems the same as last year on your return policy. Leads have no idea what these actually mean, several leads i have talked with that mark their dates as flexible have fixed dates in mind. If I am offering an alternate date my chance to land this lead is immediately gone to someone else available on that day. You gave availability feature to pros and also gave option to "flexible dates" to leads that would effectively negate the availability feature. This entire feature does not work as intended and hence useless. I just turn off targetting entirely for long periods when im unavailable, the calender marking of availability does not work. If im marked off for 2 weeks, ill still get the lead if the person marks "allow pro to suggest other dates". deeply flawed feature overall and chooses to not refund either. - this is another support conversation thats equally frustrating.

I stepped away from this platform not because of 1 frustrating interaction but several. I'm thanked everytime i contact support for being thumbtack gold reward holder but this title is meaningless when issues are ignored even after spending 100s of dollars. There is seems to be no sense of priority on customer satisfaction.

- this guy spent 200 bucks this month on us. asking a refund for 20 bucks cause of some issue with targetting preferencing. Not sure if he is at fault but he's more likely to spend with a positive interaction. - This is some basic customer support thought process which does not seem to exist in thumbtack. Or does it now ? I'm genuinely curious if the attitude is different now towards experienced pros.

I'd highly recommend you to look at customer interaction emails of Thumbtack vs Zola vs Bark. Both Zola and Bark are 100 miles ahead in this.