100% agree. The auto-reply process is a waste of resources when the lead 95% of the time goes dark. TT surely has the data around that. In a small business, every penny counts. I simply can't gamble on a 1 in 15 chance to be contacted. Especially when that 1 contact, if you can call it that, has a high likelihood of not responding to your follow-up.  If this model is successful, I'd sure like to know for who.  I started this thread 12 pages ago with hopes that IF enough Pro's voiced their displeasure with the current system maybe there would be change. Decisions are being made with no consideration for customer retention ( Pro retention ). I just don't get it.  ... View more

@Meckell - I have to take you to task on this response. "We made this change for pros too as we heard a lot of feedback.." Feedback where and how? I follow a few forums and I have never been posed that question. In this case, we are approaching 90 responses of REAL feedback. Who arrived at the notion "they" the service seeker, needed more options? Previously you had 5 qualified and motivated Pros ready to do the project. My customers were very happy and so were the majority of the other Pro's customers. I didn't mind investing in each lead, purchasing a credit package because I had a formula for success. The process was calculated. You reference "value" in your response? Are quotes more valuable now? Pro's don't even KNOW what we are quoting until you have charged our bank accounts. How in the name of all things big and small is that value?  I get you are doing your job and trying to appear attentive. E for effort for sure to the moderators.  I mentioned "canned" answers from staff and I think @JasonB had som about that. Honestly, I said that because these responses make no sense. You reference things that arbitrary and ask Pro's to accept them as truths. Here is a truth, once successful Pro's are dying on the vine in droves on your new system. There is lots of data to back that truth.     ... View more

@Frito1955, I could not agree more. Before the Service Seeker received 5 quotes from Pro's most on their game that day. They received a quotation from a Pro that had read their projects specs and evaluated the fit for their services. Those Pros were best engaged and prepared to help them at that particular moment.  Here is a laugh ( or cry ),  I once had so many projects going on from Thumbtack leads I would avoid quoting new ones until I could catch up! Those days are long gone and I think TT leadership are victims of the own success. Competition was good for business in those days. Competition is always good.  I think its a generational difference of opinion.  The quotation experience has been reduced to just a crap shoot for the service seeker with 15 quotes sent out for every project. How many would even LOOK at that many quotes? I wouldn't. What it does do is take the pool of Pros to potentially charge for lead services from 5 to 15. Since a service seeker might only reach out ( that's an entirely different conversation what "reach out" means ) to a limited few Pros, they had to radically raise the price for leads.  That leaves a whole lotta Pro's on the outside looking in for no fault of their own.  ... View more

@JasonB, I replied to your response as YOU requested and have seen no reply or acknowledgment to this point. 8 pages and counting with disgruntled Pro's. I'm still holding out hope your executive level can get out of its own selfs way and make changes that directly impact Pros for the better and start addressing concerns. Will it take over 10 pages and 90 comments? Eventually, this will get out on social media if it hasn't already. I'm sure when an investor voices concerns they are listened to. Ohh wait, we are your investors.... In the meantime, I urge all Pro's to take themselves off Insta-quote. To show me the default message that a "Pro's ON Insta-quote is 2.8 times more likely to be hired" is an insult to our collective intelligence.  ... View more

@JasonB. I know you refer to " short of changing things back to the way they were" often like that's off the table. At least realize what once was successful for Pros and acknowledge how your changes impacted that. You also refer to "we heard from Pros and customers..", by the way, those two would the same things to TT. I am pretty sure a service seeker has never had money drafted out of their bank account and into yours. I was never consulted or participated in a survey on changes. Your changes, however small, have an impact. In the SAAS world, they vet, quality check, beta test changes that have the potential of affecting customers (that would be Pros). Your protocol seems to be CHANGE first, make a nice innovation video and then see how things play out. That's got you where you are today. A large turn over of customers ( Pros ) is imminent because ROI has dropped out of the bottom with these changes. Is the loss of GOOD PROS, PROs with high review rates and high success rates, good for return service seekers using TT? You also mentioned my frequent hires thru TT. By the way, those new PROS will never have the success the first generation Pros did. Those days are gone with the current mass quotation system. My success came because I understood the ( old ) system and had my own formula for approaching quotations. I knew what I was willing to spend and the projects that were in my wheelhouse. I was also REWARDED during the times I could be "glued to my phone or computer" because it offered me a competitive advantage being the first of 5 quotations. My stats showed being in the first three responses for quotation greatly improved my chances of being hired. If the quote was over 3, wouldn't touch it. Kudos to the Pro's that got there first because there was enough business to go around. Every piece of that successful equation that allowed me to apply strategy is now gone in the new way of doing things. Force me to use a one size fits all quotation template and lump me in with 10..15+ other Pros to a service seeker, not interested. Insta-quote needed to be better vetted for potential issues before it was launched. It was a death sentence to the once successful Pro. Meaningful change that sure would be nice to see? Have a simplified schedule of charges for using your service all Pros can understand.  The simpler the better. Limit the number of quotations a service seeker sees. Consult your Top Pro's and solicit feedback on upcoming changes. I understand change and finding new ways of approaching business. Allot of success stories came out of the OLD THUMBTACK. At least consider those older elements that once had your Pro's trust and appreciation you were facilitating good leads. This new way is a cluster. - CM ... View more

I hope 4 pages of disgruntled "Pros / YOUR customers" warrants some kind of response from a C-level at TT. Clearly, you have a problem and it hasn't been just me over the last 6 months. I'm disgruntled because of the canned answers I get when I complain about changes from staff. I'm disgruntled because it seems TT ignores the very people that help build the business. I'm disgruntled because I remember what TT used to be and how it seemed everyone was profiting from an app that filled a void for small business owners. Your Pro's still care because you can hear the passion in these responses.  It's not too late to allow TT to work for everyone's benefit again.  A lack of meaningful response just means nobody on your executive level cares. How does that mentality play well with Corporate Vision? ... View more

It's clear you are being told the same things in your meetings because when I've used your support line to vent, I once cared, I was told the exact same thing you're trying to sell here. The problem the explanations do not add up in the least.  You are just either ignoring the problem or choosing to view it as not a problem. There will always be more first-year Pro's to milk money from because they will not know the difference.  What's tough for MANY of us responding, if you bother to read, is we once had a mutually beneficial environment. Beneficial for everyone including the prospects. Read some of OUR PRO reviews from the prospects you are so concerned about now. Everyone was happy. That you guys ignore that and offer poorly constructed answers is just sad.  ... View more

Amen. That's spot on. Before I had well-meaning, well thought out contact with a prospective client. I tailored my information to be both relevant and informational to their need. All that's out the window as the prospects get the firehose of quotes to the face all in the name of speed? Please. Now, on the rare occasion, a prospect does reach out to me, it cost me 15.00-20.00 ( based on only God knows ) instead of the 5.00-8.00 it once cost me. ROI? There is none anymore so I took myself off insta-quote.     ... View more

The problem with the new plan is I believe it saturates the potential client with too many options.  You are asking my services to stand out against more than double the options prospects had in the past. Then you handicap me by putting my quote in a cookie cutter, my quote fits all template and it just turns into a crapshoot for the prospect and radically declined my success rate with thumbtack.  I just hope you guys are making more money because you have killed this Pros business here. Check out my Stats before and after your visionary changes.  ... View more