New pricing

jajaja you're funny!

My company has been a Thumbtack Pro user for years and this year (2023) in particular has been ridiculous. The instant booking has been a massive inconvenience for my business— 1) I’m paying Thumbtack for customers EXTRA $$$ for scheduling appointments by checking off services they think might be something to check out or may be something they’re considering for future additions/changes, while all they want is a estimate for a fan or a switch replacement. That’s just one of the better scenarios, not including $120 booking fee I paid for some guy booking me (Electrician— not A/C Heater Tech) at 1:00 AM on a Saturday for Saturday 7:00 AM appointment to install and program a thermostat, but getting a refund from Thumbtack is nearly impossible at all times for any given situation. I’m at this point losing more money with Thumbtack’s crazy rates for just Leads alone now you add the instant booking and Thumbtack’s Lead generation excuse to not take any responsibility and refund obvious mistakes made with their booking system and of course the “Leads” take no responsibility whatsoever either, I’m the only accountable one for all scenarios here. It doesn’t work, it’s bad business practice to expect Pros to just suck it up and eat the losses. I have lost time for instant booking me therefore blocking my calendar, providing false information (name and address of appointment), non responsiveness to messages and calls, and of course I’m trying to maintain professionalism and send Techs to address provided to us for the appointment and paying for fuel, mileage and time to complete requested appointment and the guy who answers the door says there is no one by that name living in the neighborhood that he knows of and no one from his residence needs nor called for an electrician… Numbers of fake/scam leads are insane. Just one of the instances which cost me more money than I made with 2 leads following that. And then I get a Direct Lead to call and schedule an appointment with, so I messaged the person and didn’t get a response, of course within 5 minutes I called the number and it turns out I was calling ‘The CRYPT KEEPER” (not sure if any of you remember the Tales from the Crypt show, but this person sure seems rather in character)… I thought maybe I misdialed and I called again, same thing—rang through to VM of the Crypt Keeper…. The whole thing with that was insane, but I thought well, Halloween just went by, must be a joke and didn’t get around to fixing it, but then the inquiry to install very specific type of outlets to support welders and other serious machine/tools and it being almost Christmas (we are way past Halloween…) I called again and called from a friends phone and got the very same Crypt Keeper obsessed VM recording… I made reports to Thumbtack and got big fat NO REFUND again, but in addition their e-mail states the Lead was legit, upheld to Thumbtack policy and safety requirements. I have been 100 % infuriated by their response to this ridiculous, potentially hazardous Lead incident, there is nothing anyone could possibly say to justify this mishandling of a situation by Thumbtack, and try telling me how I can make Thumbtack work for me if I work with it.