Instant Booking
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They allegedly (like Angi, Angie’s List, and HA) base the pricing on data they receive from what’s imputing in their system. I’m sure there are other factors that go into it, but that’s the gist.
Personally, I never post numbers for anything. What might be 150 one day, might change after a walkthrough/bid.
Sadly, TT has chosen to fall in line with their competitors.
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Will you show us the data that proves this is effective for Interior Architects and Interior Designers please… I just received this at 3pm.
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The 15 minute time frame is a joke. I get half of my bookings in the middle of the night..so by the time I respond the 15 minute window is up. There needs to be some stake for the customer to make an instant booking--pass the fee on to them!
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You can't pass the fee on to them. This is their reasoning.
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Informing clients of fees or options is construed by thumbtack as this:
Unless you want your account banned, don't do any of these things.
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So Let’s get the record straight here… Thumbtack is claiming to provide a service to customers at no cost, while the customer is promised a free quote from a selected pro of their choice. The pros are then charged a fee on a sliding scale(which is entirely up to Thumbtack). This is borderline unlawful in many states. And on top of that, the pros are being coerced into giving up their rights to freely set their own prices for each job as well as communicate directly with the customers who requested their services, all BEFORE being required to put a set price on the quote? Every job is different, but Thumbtack thinks they should all be priced the same? There’s So many elements that are wrong about this scenario. There is a whole process to setting up a job with a customer, but Thumbtack thinks it’s beneficial to cut out some of the (obviously)essential steps of the process. And to force every pro to make this change, abide by it, and have no bargaining power whatsoever. This completely eliminates free market, because complete control is put in the hands of Thumbtack; Sure the pros can set their own rates. But by being required to do so ahead of time, Thumbtack can set their own commission rate based on the Pro’s pricing, eliminating the pro’s ability to make anymore money. Thumbtack ends up taking more for themselves…. This format makes it no longer a service, but a taxation. I suggest reading the laws in your states regarding business fairness policies, coercion and market pricing regarding monopolies.
This is one of the many new methods That these large companies are trying to enforce to gain more control over both their clients and customers. Luckily, we have Fair Business laws to prevent such behavior, because lets be honest here, this is far from anything that’s fair and beneficial to the Pros. Its difficult to justify it being defined as a service to the Pros anymore at this point. The fact of the matter is Thumbtack has the ability to set their own fees on the pros, change them whenever they want to, without any real reasoning, or structure. The Pros have zero negotiation power because Thumbtack is essentially the competition, not the other Pro’s(who are also being charged likely for the Same leads). Now requiring the pros to have fixed rates for their services so Thumbtack can take the most off the top possible is only something that an employer should be able to do, because it hinders the pro’s ability to operate in a free manner, setting up their own rates to increase profitability, and function in a competing market…. Thumbtack is walking on very thin ice right now.
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@DustiO i was denied a refund for this even though it was from a rival company and phone number provided was for a directory service. Thumbtack has turned to garbage get rid of the ai and hire people with common sense
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If I was losing money with thumtack before this crap of instant booking, because of the scam lead, bunches of it. Now much less am I going to continue using Thumtack knowing that they also increased the prices because supposedly instant booking is much better hahaha they are greedy and want to get rich at our expense. Honestly, all the pros, we should run away from this application.
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Anybody else get one of Thumbtacks self serving surveys yesterday? If you do and want to provide honest feed back you need to answer the first question positively. If you don't, the survey is "closed". Home Advisor used to do this. Once I got to the survey I answered as negatively as possible, and left my contact info for future communication. I doubt they will reach out. The questions were all about instant book and other integration tools.
I am pretty sure they can find their answers here if they actually cared. Again, this was a great platform for years. It still can be, for all sides, if they would just kept working to improve the experience, not just the profit.
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Thumbtack does not care about the pros all they care about is the money. Instant book is nothing but a cash grab that is crazy overpriced leads. I’ve talked to pro support about this till I’m blue in the face and all I get i from the thumbtack robots is same paragraph script they taught to say adjust max lead prices. We all need to remove our businesses from this platform until they stop price gouging lead prices and remove instant book feature.
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@Average_joe1 so sorry I missed this earlier - I am looking into it right now.
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you're right, doesnt matter who you talk, they dont pay atention, even you showing they evidence about the scam leads, your always get rejected about refund, and now with the mandatory instant book, for sure will be worse. and more expensive!
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this situation si very common. theyre trying you taking apart from the list, hitting your budget, and until you wait for a refund or put more money to more leads, you will be out of the results.
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I hope we can do sominting about, we need legal assitance to go agains thumtack.
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We don't want it.
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If the customer does instant book they should have to place a non refundable deposit with thumbtack towards the job. If they canceled they loose the deposit off but it goes towards the job. I bet no Customer would do instant book any more unless they are for real.
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Any updates with this? This thread spans months and everyone is just left in the dark. I'm assuming the update that we'll be getting is not through here, but an app-wide official statement talking about the "benefits" of keeping the mandatory bookings, some sort of medium ground or wishful thinking- they just get rid of it altogether.
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I feel like they’ve been doing this for a while. TT as a whole is not practicing good business, at all. Now, they’re suspending and deleting accounts if you don’t pay your balance. Which, one lead should not trigger a negative balance and or need to pay your balance before a new lead is generated.
If this is there practice going forward, they’ve lost a pro in me and I’m sure others will work to do the same.
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They charge for leads instantly now
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Which is not cool.
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They've been charging me leads instantly since I started. That was 2 years ago. I wouldn't have known any different.
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I didn’t start getting charged instantly until a couple of months ago. I’ve been with them since 19.
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I find it shocking that the vast majority of the Pros think instant booking should go away, and yet ThumbTack ignores that.
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And they will keep doing!
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I think at this point TT is just trying to "save face" for the biggest misstep since Filling the Hindenburg with hydrogen.
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