Bad reviews

[Guardian]

I'm the owner of a local small pool business in Phoenix az. We have had nothing but great experience with thumbtack. We also carried a high profile rating. We recieved a review from a person that is very negative. I had messaged this person and told him he had been mistaken about his review and that we where not the company that came out to bid his project. Here in Phoenix there are a lot of pool companies some with very similar names with slight differences. He gave our business a 1 star review. I reached out by messaging him and responding to the review and recieved nothing from him. So we contacted thumbtack to let them know this had been a huge mistake and this review is going to hurt our business. Thumbtack would not remove the review. So now my business has had very little work recieved due to this review. We have a lot of profile views but that's about it. How do we get our reputation back? How can we get this mistake removed? Thumbtack was a huge part of our business and it's been amazing to see what one review will do to a company reputation.

[Meckell]

@Guardian We understand how important reviews are for pros, so I can see how this is frustrating. To keep the authenticity of our site, we don't remove or alter reviews in any way unless they go against our Content and Review policy.  You took all of the right steps by reaching out to this customer trying to figure things out. Please keep us updated with that.
Some other pros have been in your situation when it comes to receiving a negative review. Go here to read their tips and tricks on how to overcome it! 

[cherylwenzel]

I received a non-review from a customer. You ask customers too soon for a review. Most of them wait until they have received their service. But this one customer just wrote in her review "I don't know. I haven't met the Professional yet." So, she gave me 3 stars. All of my other clients have given me 5 stars. Her non-review is hurting my excellent rating. Can you please remove it?

[Meckell]

@cherylwenzel thanks for reaching out about this! I am looking into this review and will reach out to you here in a couple of days and let you know what can be done. 

[HVACPRO]

We were marked hired by a customer named Tenzing Palmo who then gave us a one star review. We never worked for him. We only gave him a price, which he refused to pay. We told him to contact someone else as he was trying to get free service from us. How is he allowed to review us with out us working for him. Thumbtack refuses to help us. I’m very close to closing my account. If they allow this it’s an absolute joke.

[Meckell]

I'm sorry about the experience @HVACPRO, I understand how important reviews are for pros. However, we don't remove reviews unless they go against our Content and Review Policy. I took a look into this review, and you were given the right information in that it's not something that we can remove. However, we do give customers the option to update their review. I'd suggest reaching out to the customer and see if you guys can come to a resolution and ask them to update that. If you have any other questions or would like to discuss this further, please send me a private message. 

[DJStevie]

@Meckell 

Perhaps the Review Policy needs to be changed. If a potential customer left me a negative review for a job that I wasn't hired for, I would be more than livid.

Change the policy so that customers need to leave reviews AFTER a job has been done, and that reviews can be removed if customer left a review for the wrong Pro. 

[HVACPRO]

Exactly on point. Great idea. How the else should you be judged. Customer doesn’t like our prices then do not hire us. That’s how they can complain about prices. Not leave a  bad review for not liking my price. 

[bonnie_bill]

The policy of allowing someone to review a Pro that has never used that Pro's services is nothing but wrong. There is nothing right about it and just "another" show stopper for us. 

Review us when legitimate. When not legit, remove the erroneous review !!!

[Tdd1964]

I am in appliance service and had the same thing happen to me. I am shocked at the lack of support for the pros that are earning revenue for Thumbtack.