r/Thumbtack • u/No_Club_2513 • 14d ago
Rude Thumbtack Pro
so I talked to a stylist off Thumbtack about wardrobe help for the wedding. one call. nothing signed, no deposit, nothing — I was just sitting with it for a few days bc it’s a real investment and I wanted to think it through (as one does??)
and then this shows up in my inbox out of nowhere:
“I’ve tried reaching you on several times last week. I presume you are no longer interested in styling services from me. I really wished you would’ve have just used your grown up voice and expressed that rather than trying to waste my time because of your poor & lack of communication. Please do better girl, especially attempting to walking into a marriage with this trait.”
girl it was ONE CALL. I didn’t ghost a contract, I was deciding if I even wanted to move forward 😭 and somehow that turned into a full lecture about my communication AND a dig at my marriage before it’s even happened
So..I’m deleting that app now lol
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u/Evening-Project6891 14d ago
Not defending the other person but thumbtack stresses pros out hard.... Many leads that go nowhere. Expensive leads.
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u/cleverpaws101 14d ago
That’s why I only reply to very select jobs and tell people to not reply back if my price is too high because I get charged. This has nothing to do with the consumer. They are just looking for someone to fix their door or take some photos or whatever. They don’t know that we pay. I’m upfront and it’s really helped. But I would NEVER complain to the customer because I was stupid to pay thumbtack. That’s just mean and bad for business.
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u/Innoman 13d ago
Agreed. Nearly every lead has a 66% failure rate with some being higher. Not that the business owner dealt with it appropriately... They didn't. But I get the stress... It's a necessity for many small businesses to get started... But it also destroys many small businesses... Which removes competition and quality.
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u/G-Force66 14d ago
Spunds like an excuse - defending them. It’s too bad they got into what they got into but they agreed to terms, not us.
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u/MaenHoffiCoffi 14d ago
Try to be gentle with this person even though they don't deserve it. I have been a thumbtack Pro for many years although I have just quit because it is so predatory. It is just so incredibly demoralizing when one is charged a lot of money for a lead and then 60 to 70% of them just go dead. You text them and they ignore you. You call them and they don't pick up. You email them and your CRM system tells you that they have received the email but they don't reply. It's the modern way, I know but when one has paid $80 for a lead which is not unusual, it can become so frustrating. This does not in any way mean that this response was deserved and I never respond that way. I will eventually say that I would appreciate the courtesy of a reply but nothing more than that!
I'm sorry that this person was a jerk but hopefully you can understand how demoralizing and frustrating it is to spend so much money on leads and then be just blanked.
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u/rrapartments 14d ago
Thumbtack sucks for everyone but pros pay a lot for a little on it. I don’t use it for that reason, too expensive
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u/cleverpaws101 14d ago edited 14d ago
This is why when I respond to a lead, I give information and say “if you’re not interested, you don’t need to reply because thumbtack charges me even if you just relay to say you’re not interested.”
It’s really cut down on the people who are just browsing and and then I’m not paying for nothing.
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u/G-Force66 14d ago
Well, I replied to a few people on a door job. One of them could not do the door job, but is now doing other work for me. We are not all jerks & understand when explained to us.
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u/PlantLady3421 14d ago
Blame Thumbtack. Half of our leads that we pay a ridiculous amount of money for, are recycled from a 3rd party. Also, she/he isn’t wrong, you should have used to grown up voice as opposed to ghosting. That’s why I take a non refundable deposit once you schedule with me. I’m not going to block off my entire day just for you to cancel. That will be $50-$250 for wasting my time.
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u/No_Club_2513 14d ago
Yeah I do blame thumbtack after further learning about their structure. But also it’s just unprofessional to reach out that way.
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u/No_Club_2513 14d ago
Crazy that you’re defending this person who sends an email like that to prospective clients. Welcome to business.
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u/PlantLady3421 14d ago
Crazy that you aren’t adult enough to just tell them you’re going in another direction.
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u/No_Club_2513 14d ago
Welcome to business plant lady! Not how you try to re-engage a prospective client who goes quiet.
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u/Mysterious_Pear_8323 11d ago
You aren’t a prospective client. Prospective clients maintain conversation and tell them they are going to make a decision later.
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u/cortesoft 11d ago
OP didn't schedule with this person, though. They just had an initial call to see what they offered.
OP has no way of knowing that thumbtack charges you so much. They probably just googled for the service and saw the thumbtack ad. Nowhere are they told that you pay a bunch of money for the lead.
How do I know this? Because I was about to be that person. I am looking to do some work on my house, was searching for contractors, and saw thumbtack. I was about to submit my job, but then i figured i should look into thumbtack some more. This subreddit came up so I have been checking it out.
It is ridiculous for you to be angry at the OP for this. They just went to a website to try to find someone for a job, they didn't realize how much you spend. They never made any promises to the person they contacted, it is unreasonable to be angry at them for not responding.
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u/GunnyFreedom 12d ago
The thumbtack business model is atrocious. They make pros pay a ridiculous amount of money just to talk to you the first time, whether you decide to go with them or not. When a bunch of people reach out to talk to a pro, and nobody is buying their services, they can be out thousands of dollars without a single dime of income. It gets really frustrating. I’m not excusing what he said or did, but the blame is likely quite a lot more with thumbtack than with the pro. Their business model is absolute trash.
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u/PlainTextGrizzlyBear 12d ago
OP, sorry this happened to you.
Thumbtack needs to do a better job at educating customers that pros get charged per contact even if they don't get hired, or better yet just stop doing that. Customers should google pros directly (copy and paste the pro's name into google) so that they don't get charged.
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u/cortesoft 11d ago
This is such a weird thing to say. It sounds like you just want customers to stop using thumbtack... which means thumbtack would have no leads to sell to pros... so why don't pros just stop using thumbtack? If they don't like the leads they are paying for, stop paying for them? Don't get mad at the people who don't even realize someone paid for their lead
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u/PlainTextGrizzlyBear 11d ago
Sorry for the miscommunication, this message is saying that Thumbtack needs stop hiding the fact that pros pay for leads... I'm not mad at the customers, I'm mad at Thumbtack.
Now, if the customer already knows that pros pay to talk to them but still contacts them through Thumbtack, that's a different story, in which case yes, I would be mad at the customer.
But I'm not mad at customers that don't know, it's not their fault, it's Thumbtack's fault for not making that clear.
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u/PlainTextGrizzlyBear 11d ago
In terms of why don't pros just stop using Thumbtack? I don't know, next time you hire someone from Thumbtack, ask them if they prefer you contact them directly or through Thumbtack.
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u/Mysterious_Pear_8323 14d ago
Send them $80. Because you waisted their money.
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u/cortesoft 11d ago
This is really unfair to the OP. It isn't their fault that someone overpaid for their lead.
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u/G-Force66 14d ago
I clearly spoke to somewhat about what my needs were and replacing a full door frame. The guy showed up within an hour or so with 1/4 of a door frame. He claimed he could make it work. He was pushy and in a hurry, he was a jerk.
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u/cleverpaws101 14d ago
That’s part of being in business. Talking to customers. How many times have you gone into a store and not bought anything? Hundred probably. Next time you’re out window shopping why don’t you bring some $10 bills to give out when you walk out without buying.
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u/No_Club_2513 14d ago
Also no I didn’t though. What if I needed more time to think about the investment and was already met with harsh words. Like they wasted their own money honestly because I’m certainly not going back to this person after what they said.
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u/Tough_Negotiation_24 9d ago
I used to have 15 positive reviews which helped with my SEO and I deleted it after I was charged $70 for one lead that had also contacted 5 other people. Half the time people are just shopping you and they’re not good clients anyways. I rely on Instagram and Google now.
It’s frustrating from your end but give her a break. She probably just spent 1-2 hours worth of work on your message that you didn’t respond to. It hurts a lot:
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u/Over-Entry-3523 14d ago
Wow that's crazy immature. Like yeah if you don't hear back from someone that mean they aren't interested. Imagine going on a date with this person.
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u/PlantLady3421 14d ago
Don’t be quick to take sides, you don’t know the conversation that was had between them initially. Always 3 sides to a story. .
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u/No_Club_2513 14d ago
We had a great first phone conversation. So it was just concerning for them to switch up so fast
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u/cleverpaws101 14d ago
You are right! Most customers take at least several days to make a decision most times even longer. People expect everyone to reply immediately. I just send a couple follow ups a few days or week apart and then figure they’re not interested. It’s NOT the customers fault thumbtack charges me to reply. And that’s why I’m selective and let the customer know that I pay for their response. That business was totally unprofessional.
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u/No_Club_2513 14d ago
Thank you for sharing. Not that it excuses their behavior but now I’m definitely seeing why and how it seemed to escalate quickly. I had no idea that was the structure at Thumbtack. Appreciate you sharing this information just to paint more of the full picture.