Charged for leads who stop responding

ZerianProPainting

I would like Thumbtack to improve its lead charging policy. I have paid for several leads where the customer sends only one message, such as “Hi,” and then stops responding. They don’t provide an address, schedule an estimate, or confirm that they actually want the job, but I am still charged for the lead.
As a small business owner, these charges add up quickly without giving me a real opportunity to earn the job. I believe pros should have better protection and an easier refund process when a customer does not continue the conversation or provide enough information to move forward.
I hope Thumbtack considers changing this policy to make the platform fairer for professionals. Thank you.

EricGilletteDOTcom

I second this. Thumbtack makes it too easy for the customer to simply disappear - or to "race" pros against one another. I've had that happen several times, where I'm booked a week out, and the customer will schedule with me, only to have another pro come and do the work before our scheduled appointment. What's worse is the customer nor Thumbtack notifies you this has happened, so you block off the time on your calendar only to be met with a "dead appointment" the day of. You call the customer and they tell you: "Oh, yeah - so and so pro did the job already." It's worse when you arrive at their location to be told this at the door! I wish Thumbtack would stop making customers select more than one pro to encourage customers to race pros against each other. It helps Thumbtack's bottom line since they get to charge a fee to more than one pro, but hurts ours as pros since customers are encouraged to "race" us against each other with absolute impunity.

ArvinC

Hi @ZerianProPainting , thanks for sharing this, and @EricGilletteDOTcom , thank you for adding your experience as well.

I hear the distinction you're making around a customer technically engaging with a Pro, but then becoming unresponsive before there's a meaningful opportunity to move the project forward. And Eric, the additional scenario you shared around reserving time for a confirmed appointment only to learn that the job was completed by someone else adds another helpful perspective.

Under the current refund policy, customer engagement can affect whether a lead qualifies for an automatic refund, so I don't want to suggest that every situation where a customer stops responding would qualify.

That said, the broader feedback around customer engagement, no-shows, lead value, and when Pros feel they had a reasonable opportunity to win the job is clear. I'll include the specific scenarios you've both shared as we continue surfacing feedback around the lead and refund experience to the appropriate teams.

I also encourage submitting specific examples through your account when they happen so those individual leads can be reviewed with the full account context.

Kris

I have had it even worse. You get a client request to hear from 3 or 4 pros. At first they don’t seem to respond to any. So I text with a second message only to have them respond and say I’ve hired someone else off the platform. So because they responded just to say they didn’t want to talk to anyone from Thumbtack, we all got charged for the lead. Now all of us get charged for the lead with no opportunity for a refund even though they were not going to hire from the platform.

Dimples_construct

this is the source of revenue drain for business, when I calculate how much I make from Thumbtack in comparison to how much I , business is not breaking even, most times have free wheel to do anything they like on the website, opportunity to choose up to 5 pros for a simple task and then all of you get charged at the end of the day, none of the get the job, increases revenue for Thumbtack, our own business. I think Thumbtack should where it’s only one or maximum of two pros per led , this will bring integrity to the brand, and more opportunity for the pros to win the lead

MyCleanCharlotteMaid

I understand this concern. A lead only has real value if there is enough customer engagement to move the conversation forward.

For cleaning services, one short message is usually not enough to quote or schedule accurately. We need details like home size, bedrooms, bathrooms, service type, condition of the home, pets, preferred date, and whether the customer needs standard cleaning, deep cleaning, move-out cleaning, or recurring service.

If the customer disappears before providing that basic information, the pro is left with no way to complete the estimate or book the job.

I think there should be a clearer difference between a real qualified lead and a customer who sends one message and never responds again.

Pros are willing to pay for opportunities, but the opportunity should be actionable.

Unknown

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