When I started with Thumbtack it was just a few jobs a month for me, local repairs around Indianapolis. I’ve been a Thumbtack pro for about 4 years and have received 106 reviews (4.8 avg) out of 157 hires. I consider myself a high-quality technician and work very hard for my clients. I began to transition to a remote computer repair format last year, and my launch coincided with the launch of the instant match system. For the first couple of months business boomed, but over the last 5-6 months or it has come down to a trickle of instant matches and even fewer actual jobs. Even though I mark myself clearly as a remote repair tech, a large portion of the instant matches I pay for end up being folks looking for a local repair tech. Another large portion of the matches are people who never respond in any way. Maybe 30% of the instant matches are both a real person and also looking for a remote technician. I am not happy about this, but am doing my best to roll with it. However, a few days ago I got a message from TT saying I’ve been listed in search results or something, I dunno. What interested more was the example listing they showed which presented my pricing against like 8 other techs. I HAD NO IDEA! I am competing against $15 computer repairs, $20 repairs?! I was always a reasonably priced tech, maybe even on the cheaper side, but I have a well thought out pricing structure that works. I can’t compete against pricing like that, and who could run a business like that anyway? I saved a screenshot of the listing and researched the insanely cheap competition. I traced one to a call center in Lima Peru, and traced another to India but couldn’t prove it’s a call center. Several other weren’t listed anywhere online except for thumbtack (I have 150 other reviews sprinkled around the web, not just on TT) Doesn’t thumbtack advertise as a service that connects you with local pros? I just checked thumbtack.com and its right at the top of the page. I feel this is very disingenuous on the part of TT. While I myself am no longer a ‘local pro’ in the strictest sense, I started that way, and I am definitely a freelance pro based in the US, not some overseas call center. I think this is not only disingenuous to thumbtacks customers, but I’ve heard absolute horror stories from my clients about some of the ‘computer repair mills’. I bet those poor people will never use thumbtack again. $15 is just a sucker price. Are there any other US based techs who’ve had a similar experience? I’m open to any input, am trying to find some perspective about the over all situation.
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