A new refund experience

[nojoh]

Our support team is amazing, but you have better things to do than contact us over and over for help with charges.

Pros like you asked us to update our refund process, so now you can dispute a charge right from your account. Just go to your Payments and click the Help with a charge link.

No more waiting on hold while we research your case, or searching through our help center for the right link. The Help with a charge link is the best way to dispute a charge.

While our team looks into your case, you can focus on running your business. We take our time to review each case fairly (and quickly!) so you can feel confident we’re not cutting any corners.

Remember, you must dispute a charge within 30 days of paying for the lead to qualify for a refund. Here’s what falls under our refund policy:

• The customer’s first contact is a “no thanks.”
• The job details changed significantly.
• You got the same lead twice.
• A lead violates our Terms of Use.
  

Have you tried the new way to dispute a charge? Let us know how it went in the comments.

[ReeseTee]

hi Nojoh:

Some of us Pro's, who have NOT opted into PROMOTE, could use a little CLARITY about the JPSY (Job-Poster Selected You) leads where we pay to respond, and then are ghosted by the Job Poster.  My Thumbtack profile stands out from much of my competition, and I am getting a lot of these. The times I have been ghosted, are beginning to add up.

Does this new system have an option for that?

thanks, Reese Turbin

[Meckell]

@ReeseTee This update is here to help save you time when requesting refunds. You'll see that there's the option to select customer stopped responding. Keep in mind that this doesn't by any means promise a refund, but if it's within our refund policy, you'll see that refund in your account. 

[Lar]

Thanks for sharing this update Nojoh.

This is a welcome feature. The ability to request a refund online without having to pick up the phone and contact support every time is a welcome feature. Having a well defined and streamlined refund process will save Pro's a lot of time. We will have to see how effective the new refund system actually is in practice. If it is effective then it will rebuild some of the lost confidence Pro's have with Thumbtack as a result of recent changes to the platform.

There are a couple of suggestions I would like to make.

1. When selecting a reason for requsting a refund you can only select a single option. Sometimes there may be more than one reason for requesting a refund. For example, the 'Job details changed' AND 'The customer stopped responding' and both reasons that could simultaneously apply and be the reason for the refund request. Restricting the number of reasons that a Pro can actually choose to a maximum of three would cover virtually every situation in which a Pro would request a refund. It would also help Thumbtack get a better understanding for why the Pro is requesting the refund.

2. You should add an option for 'Customer never responded'. This would be the situation when a Pro responds to a 'conversation starter' message like 'Check availability' or 'Request a Call' or the very first message that the customer sends to a Pro and the customer doesn't respond.

If a Pro responds to the first message from a customer and the customer doesn't respond then as far as the Pro is concerned the 'Customer never responded at all'

If a Pro responds to the first message from a customer and gets a reply then a conversation has actually started. If during that conversation the customer stops responding to the Pro then the Pro would specify the reason for the refund as being, 'Customer stopped responding'.

It may seem like a small distinction but I think it's an important distinction to make. When specifying a reason for refund the 'Customer never responded at all' and 'Customer stopped responding' options would of course be mutually exclusive.

Regards,
Laurence. 

[Daniel_O]

@nojohI just tried to dispute a charge, and found this system has a major flaw. Why does this it not show any leads from the current week for possible refunds? Are we expected to wait a week before requesting a refund? This is not helpful; almost every refund I've requested has been within a day or so of getting the lead.

@Meckell I have a lead in need of an obvious refund - customer's name is Lucia. 

[Meckell]

Thanks for expanding on this @Lar! As you know, your feedback is always super helpful for us to hear. 

[Meckell]

@Daniel_O thanks for sharing that with us, we'll be sure to pass along the feedback. 

Upon that, you'll see your charge from Lucia was refunded. 

[Daniel_O]

Thank you @Meckell

Hopefully they fix this issue with the refund system. As is, I would likely never use it, since most refunds are going to be requested within a day or two of receiving the quote, not a week later.

[East15]

We do not accept any leads unless a phone number is provided

This will help you drasticallly reduce your the amount of refunds you are submitting but also saves you a ton of money'

We always also have promote turned off because of the amount of trash leads that come through which you have no control of.

Hope this helps

[Lajoliechef]

I hve been given a credit as customer did not even read my response letter and I paid. You told me I had a refund of $25.12  So I figured when I paid for next lead  u would use credit and I would pay the diff only of $5.

I

My account has been down for two days.  No business so I am losing possible business. So now I would like you to reimburse me for new lead and old lead to the tune of $55 as I hve been kicked off site due to your processing inept management ability.

[DustiO]

@Lajoliechef If you go to your account and click on your "payments" page and then click on your pending charge of $30.79, you will see that the refund was granted and covered the charge for the lead in question - $25.12 was charged and then refunded - the $30.79 is for a new lead. If you need help finding that page in your profile, here is more info. Hope this clears it up! Have a great day and sorry about the confusion.