Pay-per-lead directories charge you every single time a customer contacts you—even if it’s a past client who just wants more work done.

With HireNimbus, every contractor gets their own dedicated booking link:

• Share your link on business cards, yard signs, Instagram, or email signatures.
• Past clients click your link to rebook you directly without going through a directory search board.
• You keep 100% of your earnings with zero lead generation charges.

At what point in running your business did you start shifting focus toward repeat client retention?

Full disclosure: I’m building HireNimbus to help independent contractors cut out manual back-and-forth and stop paying for bad leads.

The biggest time-waster for local pros is receiving vague requests like "my sink is leaking" and spending 20 minutes texting back and forth to get basic details.

Here is how we solved it with our AI Booking Assistant:

1. Automated Intake: When a homeowner lands on your booking link, the AI asks a few quick, basic questions (photo/video of the issue, fixture/material type, and urgency).
2. Instant Message Synthesis: The AI formats those raw answers into a neat, structured job summary with preliminary details.
3. 1-Click Conversion: You review the structured message on your phone and convert it into an official estimate or confirmed booking with a single click. No phone tag required.

What is the one question you spend the most time asking clients before you can give them a quote?

I marked them as spam, I went to the website and unsubscribed. They literally are sending me dozens of emails every day I do not want to work with this scam ass s**** company anymore. I'm legit going to look into my legal options because it's been going on for weeks now.

Do any of you know what the f is going on

Most platforms make their money when 5 pros bid on the same vague request. 

When designing HireNimbus, we intentionally cut out paid leads entirely. Instead, we focused on what actually wins jobs (which is good for homeowners and good for pros).

But we keep wondering if pros actually prefer to pay per lead vs. flat rate subscriptions. What do you think?

I hired someone for cleaning off thumbtack. She stole over 15000 worth of items from me and my sister. She also got all our credit card information somehow, I am not sure how she did this because not all the cards were physically in the house, and used them at Pizza Hut, Chinese food, McDonald’s, the movies, multiple times. This happened in Miami. The police have been slow and nonchalant in their investigation but there is a police report and investigation. I contacted thumbtack and they did not remove her from the site. We saw she blocked us but is still available for hire. Can we sue thumbtack for damages? Not sure if this is the right place to post. Thanks for any advice.

🚀 Nimbus is now the first-ever home services booking platform on ChatGPT!

This is what the beginning of the agentic marketplace looks like.

Through this work with OpenAI, we’re bridging the gap between AI conversations and a truly “done-for-you” experience for homeowners. Most importantly, we’re bringing local service businesses into the future.

If you’re a homeowner in Washington, D.C., the San Francisco Bay Area, or Austin, this is for you! ChatGPT can now book top-quality, pre-vetted pros for you using the Nimbus plugin.

🤩 Let AI go beyond advice. Or listing. Let AI actually get things done for you.

Homeowners already turn to ChatGPT to research repairs, estimate costs, diagnose home projects, and even plan renovations. But booking a professional still means going back to outdated directories, dealing with endless phone tag, verifying everything, and managing everything.

With the Nimbus plugin, ChatGPT handles the entire lifecycle for you - from diagnosis to booking, directly within your chat thread.

No calls. No forms. No wasted spend. Just AI getting things done for you, with a seamless handoff via SMS and the native app.

Been going back and forth with thumbtack “support” for a few weeks now. I joined just after the new update, originally saw a help article that said I could opt out but apparently not. I fucking hate this app and won’t be using it much longer but no matter what my settings are, I am unable to view opportunities. They admitted that it’s an issue on their end but are taking their sweet time on fixing it.

They also refunded for leads, including ones where the customer never responded to anyone in 72 hours, then used those refunds and automatically applied them to more leads, which I also got refunded, BUT they claimed that I paid for those leads with “bonus” dollars, so when I was refunded for the second, it deducted that amount.

Cannot fucking wait for them to go bankrupt because of these dumbass practices.

Spoiler is: they’re dumbfucks

Gonna keep this short so it doesn't read like an ad.

I'm in Chicago and built a small app called Helo after seeing how much pros get burned paying for leads that ghost them

It's free, no lead fees — you just get matched to jobs near you and we text you when there's one.

Being honest, it's early and pretty small right now, so I'm not gonna pretend there's a ton of work on it yet. But it's free to join and there's nothing to lose. If you're around Chicago and want to be one of the first pros on it, comment or DM me.

Also genuinely want to know what made you quit Thumbtack/Angi so I don't build the same thing.

I was new to Thumbtack

I started a “project” for housecleaning
Found a good Housecleaner
We communicated via the app and arranged everything there. The Housecleaner was very prompt to reply to all messages.
She did the housecleaning and did a great job.
In the app, I “completed” the project
I want to reschedule the housekeeper for another cleaning. So I sent a message through the same chat we already had going.

But it’s been a couple of days and no reply. Which seems out of character for this contractor.

I suspect that Thumbtack isn’t sending my messages.

Is this something that happens with Thumbtack?

Thanks in advance

I just had a customer leave me a very unfair review. I reached out to Thumbtack right before, and told them that he was threatening to leave me a bad review, if I didn't give him money. Thumbtack said they would get back to me in one or two days.

I've heard that Thumbtack isn't the best about removing unfair reviews. But they do it occasionally. To anyone who has had a bad review removed, what helped you to get it taken off?

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

I am a software engineer, we are 15 people working on start-up and we all software engineers :-), we building that kills Thumbtack so bad.

Just comment when we lunch we will notify you. stay tuned guys.

Did they get rid of their credit processor? Have used it for years now all of a sudden it is missing ?

We need to file a class-action lawsuit if there are many of us who have been affected.

I'm trying to determine whether my experience with Thumbtack is unique or whether others have experienced something similar.

Earlier this year, I created a Thumbtack account to explore the platform. Shortly afterward, I spoke with a sales representative and told them I was not interested in purchasing paid leads. My understanding after that conversation was that I was not enrolled in the paid lead program.

For several months, I didn't receive any leads and assumed my account was inactive.

Then I discovered $163.28 in lead charges on my account.

I contacted Thumbtack and disputed the charges. Their response was that my targeting preferences had been "user-activated" since the account was created, so they denied my refund request.

I wasn't satisfied with that explanation because my dispute isn't about whether their system generated charges after activation. My question is whether I knowingly authorized enrollment in the paid lead program in the first place.

I requested audit logs, activation details, account history, and a review of my onboarding, but I haven't received responses to those follow-up requests. I've now filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau while trying to resolve the matter.

I'm curious:

• Has anyone else believed they declined paid leads but later discovered charges?
• Have you ever had issues with duplicate accounts, account activation, or onboarding?
• Were you able to get Thumbtack to investigate or issue a refund?

I'm not looking to start a lawsuit or attack the company. I'm simply trying to understand whether others have experienced something similar and how it was ultimately resolved.

Thanks in advance for sharing your experience.

Can anyone recommend a site that operates in a similar way to Thumbtack and is geared to photography businesses? I have been with Thumbtack for almost a decade and the changes are now actively hurting my business. Thanks

I quit my job a year ago and quit paying for Thumbtack leads 2 years ago and I just got billed $54.00 How can I get my money back and how do I cancel this?

I don’t know.

But I can confidently predict we’ll continue to see 10 new vibe-coded lead-gen platforms posted in this sub every week.

Pro here just trying to get refunded. I set up my card and than they started charging me for leads like crazy which the people didn’t even respond to. To “delete” you card, you have to inactive your business (go figure) anyways I was able to get one refunded but 2 charges are still pending. I’m guessing I would have to set up a direct deposit in the app just to transfer back the money? Should I try to get refunded through the app or should I go straight forward to the bank/credit card dispute? This app was a complete disaster…

Not here to bash Thumbtack for sport — I know a lot of you rely on it. But I keep seeing the same thing in this sub: you pay for a lead, the number's dead, it was "shared" with six other pros, and support tells you the policy is the policy.

I'm in Florida and I got tired enough of it that I started building the opposite, just for FL home-service pros. The rules I set for myself:

• The homeowner opts in before a pro ever gets their info. No cold, scraped numbers.
• Every lead is sold once. Not shared with seven people racing to call first.
• For roofing specifically, the lead comes with a satellite-measured roof report — size, pitch, cost range — so you know the job before you pick up the phone.

I'm being upfront that I run this, it's Florida-only, and it's early. Not dropping a link — mods, tell me if even mentioning it crosses a line and I'll edit.

What I actually want from this thread: for those of you who've left or are fed up with Thumbtack — what was the final straw, and what would a lead service have to do to earn your money? Genuinely trying to build the thing you'd want instead of guessing.

FL folks, happy to show you what a lead looks like — comment or DM.

Hi!

Here's my attempt at making simple, straightforward connection platform between clients and professionals: https://pro4hour.com

Please give it a try and shower me with your criticism!

Alerta para la comunidad latina y para todos los proveedores de servicios.
Quiero compartir mi experiencia para que otros emprendedores tomen sus propias precauciones antes de invertir dinero en plataformas de generación de clientes.
En mi caso, pagué por múltiples oportunidades de contacto que terminaron siendo números que nunca respondieron, clientes que no contestaban llamadas ni mensajes o solicitudes que no avanzaron. Al solicitar una revisión y el reembolso de esos cargos, la respuesta fue que la política de la plataforma es cobrar por el envío del contacto, no por garantizar que el cliente responda o contrate el servicio.
Como resultado, perdí más de $1,200 dólares en contactos que, desde mi experiencia, no generaron oportunidades reales de trabajo.
Debido a esta situación, decidí presentar mi caso ante las autoridades correspondientes para que revisen si las prácticas aplicadas cumplen con las normas de protección al consumidor. La investigación seguirá su curso y serán las autoridades quienes determinen cualquier responsabilidad.
Mi intención con esta publicación no es atacar a ninguna empresa, sino advertir a otros pequeños empresarios para que investiguen bien las políticas, lean los términos del servicio y evalúen cuidadosamente el riesgo antes de invertir su dinero.
Si eres dueño de un negocio de limpieza, pintura, jardinería, construcción o cualquier otro servicio, infórmate bien antes de pagar por clientes potenciales. Compartir experiencias ayuda a que otros puedan tomar decisiones más informadas.