I cannot believe what Thumbtack has turned into

I found this subreddit after finding out I’ve spent over $1000 in a two week period on their “leads.” I called the customer service which seemed to be a foreigner who just talked in circles. I have been a pro with Thumbtack for 10+ years and I’ve never had this problem.

When I actually talk to customers, they quite often tell me they don’t understand how Thumbtack works. Many of them think I work directly for the company and think I get paid through Thumbtack. None of them know I am charged when they contact me.

Now I don’t have an issue paying for real leads. However, it is obvious this year, that many of these people are just playing around or are fake and have no intention of hiring anyone. They don’t read messages, their phone numbers lead to a robotic message, etc.

I thought talking to customer service would help, so I called in, and the woman I spoke to was infuriating. She seemed to be from out of the country (not surprising today) and essentially kept talking in circles defending the company. I told her it was clear they are prompting people to contact pros without explaining that we are charged when they do so. I told her the customers I have talked to told me they were unclear on how the service works. I thought Thumbtack would refund some of the money they’ve taken in good faith, as I’ve been with them for 10 years, and I’ve been the most requested pro in my field for 2 of those years.

They didn’t help at all. They basically told me to submit individual refund requests. I told them that didn’t make sense because this is an overall trend as opposed to a problem with one or two requests. Then the woman suggested I could be secretly calling the customers and getting their work and then trying to get a refund from Thumbtack. I told her they have a specific message asking us not to call the customers without setting up a time to speak first.

They have really turned from a valuable service into a greedy unethical company.