Thought I would share a "using TT as a customer" anecdote - we just bought a house in Austin that needs a little work. Of course everyone is suggesting friends, friends of friends, neighbors, etc. who do "great work." I even posted a few projects on Porch, Yelp, and Home Advisor. But I repeatedly find myself coming back to TT to find *Top Pros* knowing firsthand it's just not marketing fluff but a high bar to achieve and indicative of someone I can trust and who will do a great job.  BTW - we are still having trouble finding an electrician in ATX, so if you're out there, just sayin......   ... View more

@Hankster For me some of it has to do with how much notice you can give. If it's a couple weeks out, then full refund is a fine resolution. If it's within a few days or same day and you want to minimize the chance of a poor review, I would probably hire/pay someone else myself and let the client know about circumstances so there's really no impact on the customer (other than having a different person show up).  My work (furniture building) is not so time/event sensitive. Upfront I ask for a 25% non-refundable deposit to block time on my schedule but it's a very general timing promise (toward the end of September, as an example). Sometimes it takes me longer but I think customers are just so used to building projects running longer it's not been an issue. I've not had a circumtance where a customer cancelled a project, but if that happens I'd probably give them their deposit back because I just don't want the possibility of a poor review hanging out there. I've had one circumstance where a customer was just not happy with a piece (backstory is they wanted to double scope but not pay me any more), so I ended up charging them for materials only and not completing the project.  Hope that helps.  ... View more

Congrats everyone.  thelast10sf.com   ... View more

Nice post, thank you @DustiO !   ... View more

TOS not withstanding, there's really no valid argument to charge Pros for leads that do no engage in *any* conversations. I have no problem competing with other Pros for engaged customers. I've got no problem with customers that decide, once they've engaged, the project is too expensive. Occasionally customers do come back a few weeks later, great charge me at that time. I don't even get mad at customers who ghost us, life happens right? But to continue the arguments those customers might at some point become a customer is just maddening. In fact it keeps me from bidding on a lot of projects because there is no recourse for ghosting. I'll bet if ghosting refunds were automatic, TT would find Pros bidding on a lot more jobs knowing TT is guaranteeing we pay for only quality leads. Win:win for everyone.    ... View more