Thumbtack Reviews 6,474

They required a minimum of $185 a week for leads in order to show as a vendor that can help consumers, otherwise it tells people browsing their site that you can't do the job, even if you are able to. While not paying, it also shows our "most relevant" review as one from 6 years ago that is 1-star. This is a scam website trying to squeeze businesses for money.

Thumbtack is a big SCAM. I will let the world know that thumbtack is just that.SCAM

I recently had a poor experience with a contractor on Thumbtack. I decided not to write a review because of extenuating circumstances.

The next day, Thumbtack sent me an email asking for *private* feedback on the contractor, and telling me it wouldn’t be shared with them. (see picture) They *lied* - they made my private comments into a public review. They’ve violated my trust and made me look bad.

I immediately contacted them and asked that they remove the review. They refused; it’s against policy. I said I didn’t authorize that review; I asked whether there was some new definition of ‘private’; I even turned the caps lock on. It did no good whatsoever.

Okay, sure, fine. I don’t delete reviews either.

A Word to Business Owners…Thumbtack is a complete rip off. We’re paying $50 - $97.50 per name they send us. Here’s the real problem, at least 90% of the “leads” we’ve received can never be reached, even after multiple attempts. You only receive 1 contact method, a phone number, no email, no address. I’m starting to think Thumbtack is using a bot to generate bogus requests to steal money from business owners? In addition, there’s no recourse for the business owners. There’s no refund process. In the past few months we have paid thousands of dollars to Thumbtack for ONE legitimate job. I hope this review saves other businesses owners from making the same stupid mistake we’ve made.

This site is absolutely a scam with occasional real leads.
You are expected to set a service area for your leads. Mine was the metro Atlanta area, and 99% of my leads (budgeted) were in states like Michigan, California, Nevada, ect. You have to select each charge and dispute for every lead they routed to me. I tested the platform for 2 weeks and found it to be garbage.

This platform is a SCAM

It is structurally designed to steal money from you, while making it nearly impossible to track where your money actually goes.

I run a business and have 25+ years in operations and financial management. I had to spend over 5 HOURS reconstructing my account ledger for just 7 leads because no clear transaction view exists.

Here is how you will be scammed:

• You preload money → it gets consumed by FAKE leads, who are not going to respond you. EVER
• You then get charged AGAIN on your credit card → different dates, no clear mapping. You finance Thumbscam and still unable to work
• Refunds are NOT returned to your card → only internal credits
• “Pending” charges remain for weeks with no resolution
• Receipts bundle multiple leads together → impossible to reconcile one by one

Result: you cannot track who charged what, when, or from where. This is financial intransparency made on purpose, to drive you crazy.

Customer support make it worse. I asked repeatedly for a basic ledger showing: lead, charge, payment source (balance vs credit card) refund

This is the minimum standard for any platform handling money. Right?

Wrong.

They refuse over and over to provide it. Instead: generic bla bla replies, links to irrelevant help pages
no direct answers to simple questions, I was forced to do their job and manually rebuild the entire flow of money.

On top of that:
• 90% of leads are unresponsive and fake
• Refund requests are denied even with proof
• You are charged regardless of outcome

You are not paying for jobs but for “contacts”, whether they are real, interested, or even reachable.

This means that you pay multiple times before even earning once. You are effectively financing their platform while taking all the risk on you.

This is not a marketplace but a project designed by some San Francisco scammers, that will extract money, has no lead quality, and lacks transparency.

Avoid unless you are willing to lose money, time
and do forensic accounting just to understand your own account
Good luck and STAY AWAY!

I am giving one star because I am not able to give zero.
I sis so frustrating... I am dealing with this for so long time, they charge me for leads when customer never responded, what make me think they are making fake leads just to make money on us. I have called the phones they provide as customer and people never answer, or answer and says they are never in this site. Another one was another cleaning lady looking for jobs like me and they gave me her phone as a customer... And charge me for!!!!
You can't speak with nobody, you ask for refund and it is denied and they simply take your money.
Very very unhappy! I don't even know how cancel my account. Had to cancel my credit card or they still charging and charging and charging, for nothing.

Had 2 contractors at appts with me, one was a no show and the other was months or to attach a small piece of siding that came off. I still have the piece that came off.
Will NEVER use, refer to anyone!

I’ve been a handyman for 14 years. I moved to Wilmington North Carolina a couple years ago and wanted an avenue to use to be able to get my name out and to meet new clients. I’ve tried Angie, next-door and thumbtack, of which thumbtack and Nextdoor have started to work together which you actually do not know where the lead comes from as Nextdoor is sending it through thumbtack of which leads have doubled in price if not tripled on some jobs. If you decline a lead, you are still charged for it. When you look at competition that a customer has reached out to. there could be 6, 7, 8 service providers that a customer could have reached out to which seriously impacts a service providers opportunity to meeting and talking with a customer. You’re able to set a weekly budget however, the first lead of the week can meet that weekly budget which inhibits any opportunity to getting any other possible qualifying leads. It forces you to raise your weekly budget impacting your return on investment and still have to deal with the excessive competition. The leads are not reliable and they are very volatile. Some leads don’t align with your business model.

Today I went and looked at the lead prices. The lead cost to replace a fixture in a bathroom is $62 that can be equal two or more than an entry level fixture which cuts your profit margin in half or greater. Which means you have to increase your service fee dramatically to recoup the cost of the lead ultimately, forcing a customer to have to hire a less qualified and competent person. I respect the three rule. A person should have the right to talk to three service providers when you exceed that amount, a service provider and a customer start getting misinformation and disinformation which causes greater complications and distrust and customers having harder time to hire the right qualified candidate to do their work.
I am all about making a good living where I can thrive and not just survive to pay my utility bills, but if I have to start raising my price 20% to 40% to help offset the cost of a lead, It will impact my business, enforce me out of using lead systems which leads to a customer, losing a competent, respectable and trustworthy person.

Poor leads
Unverified leads
No responsive leads
Lead costs
Charged for declining a lead
Highly volatile leads
Set lead budgets being used up on one lead impacting your return on investment forcing you to increase your weekly budget impacting your return on investment.

I tried to hire someone to help me build some furniture in my new apartment . They kept texting and calling me off the app trying to negotiate times and money off the app with cash ! I understand the economy is hard , but as a woman living alone this feels very unsafe. I had no problem tipping for my services but not cash off the app and WAY higher than quoted originally by a few hundred dollars

Thumbtack charged me $106.25 for two “leads” that I never saw and never responded to.

Years ago when I previously used Thumbtack, you only paid for a lead if you actually reached out and chose to pursue the job. Now they automatically charge you the moment a lead comes in — even if you never see it or never intend to take the job.

One charge was only refunded as platform credit instead of back to my bank, and the other refund was denied entirely.

DO NOT under any circumstances waste your time. I’m convinced the people saying they have success on here aren’t real and or paid to say that but that’s just me. Scummy practices.

Terrible company to deal with, unscrupulous. I will never deal with them again. Avoid at all costs.

As an electrician using Thumbtack to find customers, I unfortunately feel that the platform is very unfair toward professionals.

In many cases, I’m charged for leads that never respond. I would estimate that around 70% of the leads never even reply, yet the platform still charges the full price. For small jobs like replacing a pendant light, the lead can cost $10–$15, and the same lead is often sent to 3–4 electricians at the same time. That means Thumbtack may collect $40–$80 for a single small request, even when no one ends up getting the job.

Most of the jobs on Thumbtack are small electrical jobs — replacing a few lights, installing outlets, or similar tasks. Those jobs usually pay around $150–$300. However, the problem is that contractors often have to pay for multiple leads just to get one job.

For example, if I receive 3–4 leads, I may only get one job or sometimes none at all, but I still paid $15–$30 per lead. By the time I subtract the money spent on leads that didn’t convert, a big portion of the earnings is already gone. There have been times when I completed a job but after paying for all the leads, I practically earned nothing for the day.

Another issue is that customers can select the option that they are “just exploring.” Even in those cases, professionals are still charged for the lead, even though the customer may not actually be ready to hire anyone.

I’ve also spoken to some customers who told me they did not realize contractors are paying for their contact information, and they assumed we were employees of the platform.

Finally, when I believe a lead was charged incorrectly and send a complaint, customer support often doesn’t respond, which is extremely frustrating.

Thumbtack could be a great platform, but it needs to be much more transparent and fair toward the professionals who are paying for these leads.

Very disappointing experience with Thumbtack.

I paused all services on my account, yet somehow my roof replacement service was reactivated without my authorization. Because of that, I was charged four different times for leads I never even had the chance to respond to.

The worst part is that I never received any email notifications or warnings that these charges were happening. When I recently reviewed my statements from last year, I was shocked to discover that I had been charged over $1,000 for leads that never turned into any communication with customers.

When I tried contacting customer service, the experience was just as frustrating. Calls were disconnected and no one seemed willing to properly address the dispute.

Beware: If you stop using Thumbtack, make sure to remove your credit card from the billing section. Otherwise, their system may reactivate services and start charging you again without proper notice.

Very frustrating and disappointing experience.

We hired a Contractor (DLA Painting & Drywall, LLC) and they did a lousy job. We attempted to take them to Court but was unable to serve the Owner and Thumbtack was absolutely no help. Not recommended!

Worst experience ever they will tell you what you want to hear till you give them your money after that forget about it. You set up your preference area and will get lead from other state and wont be able to get refunded because they'll tell you that was your area!

I rarely write reviews but this has to be shared. PLEASE DO NOT USE THIER SERVICE! As a Pro, I had them in 2020 and they were great!!! But a year later, it got worse. Then progressively worse thereafter. I was hoping they would have improved and gave them another chance a week ago. Nope. Still bad. and I am $170 from 2 leads that could be AI generated for all I know. I really didn't think it could get any worse. But it did. If I could rate a - (NEGATIVE) 5 stars, I would. Even though the company will say the leads are real, they aren't. Seriously. They will still charge you because their fake lead reached out to you. Then remain quiet and unresponsive to their reach out.

In addition, Thumbtack Customer Service will reply to this review with "I'm glad it was awesome in 2020" then apologize it's been bad. And that's it. They give you a form that goes nowhere to nobody. I am 1500% confident Santa would respond to me and include a selfie that has the Easter Bunny, and Grimm Fairytale characters in the background playing corn hole.

Personally, I think there should be a class action lawsuit against them. I actually would not be surprised at all if it is in the works.

Actually, just checked. They have a history of them.

Approach with caution. If you value you your hard-earned money, stay away.

I’ve been extremely disappointed with my experience using Thumbtack as a contractor.

The customer service has been unresponsive and difficult to work with when trying to resolve billing and lead quality issues. I’ve been charged for multiple leads that did not appear to be serious inquiries, and in some cases felt like fake or recycled leads. Getting refunds or meaningful explanations has been frustrating and time-consuming.

Another major concern is that the platform allows unlicensed contractors to create profiles in categories that typically require licensing. This creates an uneven playing field for licensed, insured professionals who invest heavily in compliance, insurance, bonding, and maintaining proper credentials. It also puts homeowners at potential risk if they unknowingly hire someone unqualified.

As a licensed contractor who values professionalism and accountability, I expected stronger screening, better customer support, and more transparency around lead quality and billing practices.

I hope Thumbtack improves its verification process and customer service standards to better support legitimate businesses and protect consumers.

Steven Klunk of SK Services and Property Management ripped me off for 600.00. He got material payment and this is theft of service. He is listed on thumbtack. His number is 254-644-0546.

This app is more or less a SCAM for pros. I've used it to find pros, but as one, I highly DO NOT recommend this platform. I paid a ridiculous amount to get a "competitive" lead that didn't even reply. Literally threw money away on not one but two "qualified" leads who didn't respond. Absolutely horrible business model and pricing.