Thumbtack Tip

[SRobersonNotary]

Funny story, I paid around $7 just for a long lost friend to say “hi, I thought that was you” lol. Granted, she didn’t have my new contact info to call directly (nor did she need a notary) — I would’ve liked to not have paid money because someone recognized me. Nobody’s fault but possibly if there is some way the consumers can know the Pro’s are taking hits for conversing would be nice. Maybe charge them a small fee to request a service? That would eliminate many of the tire kickers in my opinion. Thanks for any/all consideration

[Troy]

A very valid point SRoberson!  I've usually been able to get my refunds when stuff like that happens, but not always.  Sadly, if customers had to pay ANYTHING, they would probably just go to another site like Angie's List or Home Advisor that was free to them.  What infurates me is most of the time we pay no matter what, and have no clue what we will be charged until after they charge us.  I have a customer that has posted the same request evey year, and I respond every year, then they go silent.  On the 3rd time I was able to get a refund.  I've also reached out to people that I know I can't do work for to give them some free information, knowing I'd be charged, but I've been able to get reps to go back and look at the chat history and get refunds for those few as well.  Typically if you ask for a refund and it is anywhere near valid, you have a good chance at getting the refund.  I got charged double what I normally get charnged for a job, with no explaination besides "the algorithm is complex" and "well make note of your issue and pass it up for review for future changes", but in the end, I couldn't talk to anybody that had any power to refund this gouging bill.

[AAW]

Every single person i told about us having to pay were shocked and didn't even know. Would be nice to have that presented somewhere when they post.

[SRobersonNotary]

@AAW that’s interesting. I’ve never been on the other side — I guess that small detail is only on the pro side of the ‘how it works’ spill.

[AAW]

I had to stop telling them how the pricing is now because they started feeling guilty...

I spent $75 on one quote, gave them a bid for painting the whole interior of their house (over an hour talking with them). I told them how much i had to pay and they felt bad but it seemed like they were going to hire me and would let me know the next day. So 2 days later i got a text from them saying that their daughter had a friend who paints....bye bye $75 and a lot of time. This has happened a lot of times. So even the jobs that reply and sound great don't always work out, and it gets expensive. Bring back our old Thumbtack!

[SRobersonNotary]

@AAW that happened to me as well. I spent $62 just to answer questions. I was too outdone.

[AAW]

Most of the people who have a request are 'just looking', if they had to pay to send a request like we do, we would get a lot more serious clients on here. 

[Moose]

I understand the frustration. Worst thing I’ve experience so far was a record breaking day for heat here in Texas. Customer requested a quote for the sidewalk, driveway, and bricks in the front and backyard to be cleaned. I showed up and what usually would have been a 3 hour job turned into a 5 hour job. I sent the invoice and he replied with “job was not finished properly” because he wanted his “pavers” cleaned but he never told me, nor did he ever tell me to clean the pavers. I felt he used that excuse to get out of paying me. I made multiple attempts to contact him and advised I’d come back out and clean the pavers for free but he’d have to pay the invoice first. He then “cancelled” and “closed” the job on TT that I already completed and had marked myself “hired” for. This prevented me from reporting him or pulling up the details of the job request or further contacting him. He then gave me a 3 star review and I never heard from him nor did I ever hear back from TT. Frustrated to say the least.

[Meckell]

@Moose I definitely want to hear more about what's going on and see what I can do to help. Will you send me a private message with your email address, the name of the customers and more details on the project? 

[Moose]

Absolutely, I’ll gather that stuff right now. I must say though, the Thumbtack customer service does a solid job on both sides.