@Jonathandonnell I agree, we should all be able to accept or decline a charge. it's not like it cost thumbtack more to give clients certain contacts, it's and algorythm, sure it takes a little tweeking here and there, but what at the end of the day what all the costs we are are paying for admount to is people answering our texts/emails/calls, which would probably decrease if it was more transparent and fair. write code/debug code/rewrite code. (rewriting takes less) on and on and on. now it's about bottome line and making an idea profitable without adds. i say make the clients watch adds. i would pay for ads.  ... View more

@Noah2002 it's fine if leads are too much, the fact is that we all state a baseline cost. clients can increase the cost with requests. are you going to do dinner with cavier for $55/person? is some one going to paint a room that was stated "just need paint" but wall paper has to be removed before hand? the fact is there is no transparency in the pricing structure/contacts reach out to/hired. we get to see competitiors, okay, great. i want my competitiors to see my pricing, but that fact is that pricing is project specific. we can all state upfront cost, the client can state what they want to pay, that doesn't mean that client expectations (somewhat set by the platform) are realistic. we all need to charge our clients a surcharge for the price we pay to get clients via thumbtack. ... View more

Brian! hi.    510.393.3093 ... View more

@Kameron i suggest, for legal clarity, that the statment say that all pros receive, not just from the second down. also, so a potential client thinks about it and after 15 min. contacts other pros. or after 15 reads the responses, never reaches out to any of the pros intially contacted and contacts other pros, the first group of pros only recieve a discount and don't get a refund? like, this wasn't well thought out at all. that was me riffing while writing this post. the amount of unclarity and amount of disinformation that seems to be purposfully misleading is really questionable.  ... View more

@Fleet @Meckell I agree. I think that thumbtack should let the client base know that the pro is paying for every contact. i also think that every service provider (pro) should add a line item to charge the clients for the charge they receive from thumbtack.  ... View more

@Meckell the problem is letting the pros decide what they will be charged for and won't be charged for. At this point the pros are not consumers but being charged for leads, sure it helps, but they should only be charged for leads they accept. the current model is like shopping around for a vacuum cleaner (the vacuum cleaner being the service). at this point, i am getting charged for every vacuum cleaner provider that contacts me, not the vacuum cleaner providers i choose. so anyone with a potential vacuum cleaner that i may want i get charged for. this leads me to being able to look at more vacuum cleaners....   okay, this anology is getting tired. we hate paying for leads that go no where or leads that are just shopping around and maybe not choosing anyone but being charged. you are creating a difficult work structure that will self distruct. charging the people that make your platform work more money than they are willing to pay is a faulty system and while you say you are listening, it appears you are just padding the bottom line and creating more revenue at the expense of the service providers you rely on. what happens when service providers find alternative platforms. from my expericene while you have deep market penetration (due to the new clients who have never used thumbtack, those that are more internet/online service provider savvy, are moving to other platforms). please, just make it fair enough for the service provider to make a living so that they can charge a fair price for their service while being to ay their bills and pay thumbtack. i don't have a problem paying for the service, i just need it to be transparent (like going to a store and knowing what i'm paying before i agree to pay). everyone needs to make a living, the current model just seem anithesis to that idea.  ... View more

@Notinsured the point is that if thumbtack wants to be our "partner in business" we shouldn't have to rely on work around to their system, it predatory and misleading. it should be easy to manage and easy to pay. they went away from the credit system that so many other platforms that i have started using are still using. i like getting leads, i don't like getting leads and paying for them for unresponsive clients. i also don't like the fact that now leads are more expensive, forcing me to increase my costs. I'm going to start adding a Thumbtack user charge so the client understands the costs.  ... View more

@Meckell  again, we are being precharged for jobs, sure you have to make your money, but it seems predatory to do it in this manner. there is no transparency about the client, who they responded to, have they responded to anyone, is the job real. everytime i dispute a charge, i get told, well the client read it...that doesn't mean anything. i didn't receive a response. when i'm told by a potential client that they went with someone else, okay. if i don't get a response i assume no job. and honestly, i do not trust thumbtack at all at this point with the everchanging price structure and the fact that my costs as well as all service providers costs has risen. we all now need to raise our prices to match the cost of doing business on thumbtack.  ... View more

@Kameron one of the manu issues with the "price assurance" is the fact that many clients, that i've prepaid for the contact< do not respond. Sure, maybe they read my response, but no response, how am I to know that they responded to any contact? it just seems like a cash grab to me. raise the rates, don't give more for the money given and give less back. so essentially i'm getting less for my dollar, i have to pass this cost onto the client, as does every service provider, so then the cost of everything goes up, then less people looking at Thumbtack because it becomes expensive. not really seeing the logic nor the benefit of hire cost to me or any other service provider.  ... View more

not only is the blind system hard, but also having clients contact us, having expectations and us giving them a real quote the compensates us for our time, all our time from creating menus, to planning, to ordering, to transportation, to preparing and cleaning up, it seems like the application is setting demands that no one can meet without lossing money, which no one should do. the pricing of $15 and under should just be removed for this service because it is unrealistic for any service provided under the "chef" catagory. It's just poor coding and a "one size fits all" mode that makes it unrealistic.  ... View more