Thumbtack.com Blog - Latest Comments

Re: Get paid instantly: Introducing Book It Now and Instant Invoice

Greta — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 13:54:34 -0000

Typically I like to get a deposit up front before I do any work and this is usually 1/3 of the estimate. I think it would be good to have a "Book it Now - Deposit" option would that be possible?

Re: Get paid instantly: Introducing Book It Now and Instant Invoice

audrey — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 18:48:05 -0000

I am trying to appreciate the service being offered by both Thumbtack and Poundpay but my issue lies in the amount of time it takes to actually receive payment. I would think that with a linked account for direct deposit and #pay conducting daily transfers, the money would be able to get to me within the first 24 hours--but alas, the service is free, hopefully when the service does end up being a fee based service (since it must be headed in that direction), that will be the option for paying customers***HINT,HINT***

Re: 250,000+ Professionals At Your Service

Justcassie101 — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 03:40:40 -0000

I am insanely grafteful for you guys, www.thumbtack.com! You have helped me get www.facebook.com/hedogtraining off the ground :) Thank you SOOOOOOOO much :) Muah! :*

Re: 250,000+ Professionals At Your Service

Chris — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 16:43:10 -0000

How do I edit my business profile? I only see options to change my personal profile. I need to change the radius for my business's service area.

Re: Santa’s business: An in-depth look at the thriving Santa industry

imitazione orologi — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 04:35:01 -0000

Mr Santa just give me a good lesson on event marketing with the most persuasive examples.

Re: Get paid instantly: Introducing Book It Now and Instant Invoice

A. — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 12:28:04 -0000

It's not "bad luck", Sander- this is really just a chipper way of you saying "we didn't do anything wrong". The leads system is inefficient for my line of business because I want people who want me, not people who want to tire kick and sniff around comparison shopping with ten or twenty other people competing for the job, which is what these people are doing in this leads program. Which as an advisor and the type of spiritual life coach position I find myself in says to me "these people aren't really serious about change and further more would blame me if anything bad happens in their lives."

People who don't want to bother to take the time to read people's individual Thumbtack profiles and read about what our individual strengths and abilities are in an advisory/coaching capacity for the services provided are not quality individuals willing to invest in my services. They are tire kickers and cheapskates who want someone other than themselves to solve their problems for them.

I'm not a plummer, I'm an advisor, but so far the leads you have been sending me are people who seem to think I can plug up a leak on everything and tell them what they want to hear- which is a recipe for bad matches and bad clients, essentially.

Re: Get paid instantly: Introducing Book It Now and Instant Invoice

Sander Daniels — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 11:07:23 -0000

Hi A,

Thanks for following up about the paid leads system (I think I responded to your other concern re: the Book It Now program above).

What in particular do you not like about the paid leads system? Have you heard about the subscription option? You can see that here: https://www.thumbtack.com/prof...

Do you think the subscription option might work for you?

If not, how would you suggest we improve our pricing and paid leads program?

Also, it sounds like there may be some confusion - we didn't change who we sent leads to after we introduced the new pricing program a few months ago. It sounds like it might just be bad luck that you used to get a steady stream of clients but haven't gotten many lately.

Hope this helps, A, and sorry about your experience!

Sander

Re: Get paid instantly: Introducing Book It Now and Instant Invoice

Sander Daniels — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 11:01:12 -0000

HI A,

You're absolutely right, this payment system doesn't work perfectly for everyone.

One thing you could do is not use 'Book It Now' when sending a bid. If it looks like you're going to get the work, you can send an invoice to the client prior to the work and get paid in full before the work is done.

Regarding the timing issue, thanks for letting us know about that. We didn't realize there were two contradictory messages - we'll get that fixed. In any case, it's the 24 hours one that's the correct notice.

Thanks again, A!

Sander

Re: Get paid instantly: Introducing Book It Now and Instant Invoice

A. — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 06:59:59 -0000

That is NONSENSE Sander- not everyone does business like this- I don't do business like this nor does Rhonda apparently- this in addition to your awful paid leads system has been disasterous for me- inititially I was getting a steady stream of work no problems, and then you introduced the "we thought this person might be good for your business" pay for leads nonsense- who you have been sending to me are people who are not good clients as they are also receiving notices from tens of other people competing for the business whereas before they would have just hired me. Now i rarely get work from Thumbtack- once my website is done (in about six weeks) I am leaving. There is very little if any incentive to stay the way things are going with your company. Further more, you've changed Thumbtack's way of doing business about 5 times in the less than a year I've been affiliated with you guys- make up your minds already! Don't do beta testing on a life site! Work the kinks out before you go live as a business model and stop yanking people's chains!

Re: Get paid instantly: Introducing Book It Now and Instant Invoice

A. — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 06:54:01 -0000

I require payment in full prior to doing the work- also I am trying "book it now" for the first time and accepting money from a client and I got two contradictory messages- one simultaneously stating that I would be paid "in about an hour" and then another stating "it will take 24 hours to process your money" or something to that effect. I am not liking Paypound at all, much prefer if I am going to get paid and there's a fee that Paypal be used as much as I hate them, at least payment is instantaneous- what is this "funds received in about an hour" while at the same time saying it will take 24 hours to process nonsense?

Re: 250,000+ Professionals At Your Service

Sander Daniels — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 16:00:58 -0000

Thrilled to hear it, Steve! Maybe you could be Mr. 250,001. :-)

Re: 250,000+ Professionals At Your Service

F. Steve Malloy — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 15:58:09 -0000

Congratulations Thmbtack.com...! Thanks for your continued support in my own Piano Service Business here in Puget Sound, WA State!

Re: Get paid instantly: Introducing Book It Now and Instant Invoice

Sander Daniels — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 22:20:50 -0000

Hi Rhonda,

The payment is authorized prior to the job's completion and released upon/after the job's completion.

So when the client books you, he/she will enter their credit card into our system and the payment for the full amount will be authorized. Then when the job's complete, the payment is released to you.

Hope this makes sense.

Sander

Re: Get paid instantly: Introducing Book It Now and Instant Invoice

Rhonda M — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 21:25:29 -0000

The customer pays after the service? What if they do not pay? In my photography business, payment is upfront...

Re: That daily deal you bought? Maybe not so great a deal after all

Will — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 08:44:21 -0000

You actually should hire Groupon services. What you don't know is that Groupon takes 50% of the deal so in reality the handyman is working for half the rate you think he is and he will probably give you a better deal (than the Groupon deal) in the future, which is basically the whole point with Groupon services (make a connection for future business). The measly $1-2/hr that you guys figured out as overpayment can quickly evaporate when your cheapest hire will also walk with your stuff or do a shoddy job. Services competing on price only are doing it because they have nothing else to compete on.

Re: Get paid instantly: Introducing Book It Now and Instant Invoice

Sander Daniels — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:52:10 -0000

Hi Patrick,

Our refund policy is this:
We will fully refund your payment - no questions asked - if you don't hear from the potential customer within a week after sending your message, if you learn that they never intended to have the job done by anyone, or if you learn that the job was done by someone outside of Thumbtack.Just email support at thumbtack.com and ask for a refund on the job. It should be refunded with a few hours.

Hope this helps!

Sander

Re: Get paid instantly: Introducing Book It Now and Instant Invoice

Patrick — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:49:09 -0000

Where is the information about refunds when a potential client doesn't respond to a quote?

Re: Get paid instantly: Introducing Book It Now and Instant Invoice

Sander Daniels — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 18:35:42 -0000

Hi JBC, thanks for the input.

Can you explain a little bit further about this? I think there may be a misunderstanding. We thought these features would just be a convenient way for you to accept credit card for services you offer. Would love to hear more about what you think the implications are for these features.

Sander

Re: Get paid instantly: Introducing Book It Now and Instant Invoice

Sander Daniels — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 18:30:41 -0000

Hi Tom, very perceptive!

There are two kinds of payments on our site now:

1. Payments from you to Thumbtack for products/services we offer. For example, payments for background checks, leads, or subscriptions. These are handled by Braintree.

2. Peer-to-peer payments between Thumbtack members. This is the new feature we just rolled out. These are handled by PoundPay.

And yes, bringing in PoundPay to handle these payments is a technology decision. Peer-to-peer payments (as opposed to payments from you to Thumbtack) is a world unto itself insofar as payments goes. It requires highly specialized technology (for example, to ward off fraud).

Does this make sense?

Sander

Re: Get paid instantly: Introducing Book It Now and Instant Invoice

Tom Winkleman — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:19:01 -0000

Question on the switch to this new payment platform - why was the switch made? Your FAQs state you were using BrainTree. Was it a technology decision?

Re: Get paid instantly: Introducing Book It Now and Instant Invoice

Jbcremodeling — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:55:22 -0000

Way to further flood the service industry with price shoppers, as well as helping to drop the expected cost of services.
The companies which truly charge the least expensive rates will be short lived. These companies fail within a short period of time, yet their discounted rates linger with consumers, with high expectations. Thumbtack has joined the ranks of Groupon, without the sucess.
Nice of Thumbtack to be looking out for small business owners interests.

Re: Thumbtack raises $4.5MM Series A financing

thumbtack_com — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:28:17 -0000

Thanks Tyler! We're really excited about this news.

Re: Thumbtack raises $4.5MM Series A financing

Tyler Hayes — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:45:31 -0000

There is no shortage of impressive numbers in this post. Big ups to everyone, keep up the great work.

Thumbtack rocks (coming from a current consumer and former local service professional).

Re: New data shows undergraduate degree likely worth no more than a technical college degree

thumbtack_com — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 15:46:27 -0000

That's a great point. We might publish another blog post in the future on this topic - would be really interesting to see!

Re: New data shows undergraduate degree likely worth no more than a technical college degree

Megkv2 — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 15:36:22 -0000

I would be a lot more interested to know the how many customers and return customers individuals with undergraduate versus technical degrees received. When it comes to advertising a service online, anyone can charge whatever they want, the question is whether customers also value those services at the same price.