I am a service provider, "G. Gold Designs" on the Thumbtack website. We perform many de...

I am a service provider, "G. Gold Designs" on the Thumbtack website. We perform many design and build services as an Oregon licensed contractor, license number ******. We have been a subscribing member for awhile, nearly since beginning of Thumbtack, we have a profile on the site and, we have weathered the growth storm of pricing policies and the associated changes at strange intervals with challenging access to real-time information required in order to navigate and control actions. I have spoken with representatives both by phone and the semi-useful "chat box" within the site, depending on portal via iPhone or desktop computer. The pricing policy and associated "lead targeting" are what have been at issue and are partially in play for this refund request*The point of this call (which I am still on hold with customer service line at the time of this message) is that these idiosyncratic compliance issues for qualifying services or "lead" services are not clarified in the by lines nor on the site for customers or service providers. The specific issue is somewhat "refund" related and somewhat "other issue" related. *REQUEST: refund the $***.** fee for a kitchen remodel located in Vancouver, WA. *WHY-A*: it is out of my contractor's licensed jurisdiction but, not out of my Thumbtack project designated but, requested to be changed unsuccessfully, work area.*WHY-B*: I was auto-charged in an unauthorized manner pathway (PayPal). Not sure how Thumbtack gained this info but, thumbtack is NOT authorized to utilize this payment method. Thank you.*I have on multiple occasions with limited success, requested to be on a "pay-as-we-go" method for lead fee payment as it used to be. As a small shop, it is preferable to choose budget at the time of the lead "interest" NOT, a "weekly budget" which we cannot utilize in an efficient manner as allowed on your site for the following reasons in part: *** we are small company with changing seasonal budgets, *** since we are a diverse office and shop that does a variety of services, the bandwidth of the company cannot always be accurately assessed by the team member working on that biz develop issue*project acquisition at the time the lead interest is sent. As you may be aware, your leads have a timeline and if they are a desirable-listed service, that team member must first verify with management that the company is able to successfully execute that project in a timely manner based on a number of mission-related criteria too complicated and lengthy to list her in this format. We were just charged for the lead without an ability to respond that we are not interest in the project due to licensing conflicts. We instruct our staff to NOT reply to the auto-generated messages by Thumbtack to our company email because they are sent regardless is we have presented interest or responded to that lead and could trigger an auto-fee for that lead before the internal vetting process for that project is complete. This "please respond to.." type email was generated for this lead in question which we did show initial interest in as well as many similar emails to project we have not.*WHY-C*: Similar to a number of recent leads we have responded to, we did not receive a response from the pending customer to set up the obligatory initial consult generated by the "not enough information" drop down in a timely manner, (potentially Covid-** related?). As Thumbtack will see upon investigation of this matter, it is not possible to provide a meaningful quote for a kitchen project based on the customer info provided. ***side bar potential pertinent* -- I have received many questions from existing and new Thumbtack customers of a service they sought concerning this issue. The pertinent ones for this request are as follows: ** 'it was complicated to respond to the contractors in terms of setting up the initial consult.' ** 'I (the customer) didn't know an initial consult was necessary for a cost*bid*quote for my desired project. ** I (the customer) have had previous contractors quote*bid me a price for a similar service request in the past. Each contractor may have a different path to project delivery and successful completion. By mission, G. Gold Designs and GCDC llc are companies that exist for awhile now, we have a reputation to uphold, we must be compliant in our state and, we provide a call-back free service, a guarantee when applicable, and a positive outcome by the end-user customer of our service rendered, as a minimum standard including but, not limited to, the aforementioned. If these components of our project vetting along with our basic process criteria are not met, we CANNOT proceed with the project. As per nearly every message sent to a potential lead we are interested in, we request the customer contact us directly to confirm their initial consult time. This is done, not to circumvent the fee structure but, to explain some of or more of the aforementioned and any Q&A that may arise by that potential customer of that said "interested" lead generated by the Thumbtack site on our behalf. Thank you. This project lead failed this vetting as explained above since we were unable ina timely manner see the project and conduct initial consult Q&A. To date they have yet to respond to our initial consult request, either via direct company email or through the Thumbtack app portal which we do use when we can. (I am still on hold with customer service line at the time of this message)*Please refund the $***.** **- fee as well as for similar though not identical reasons of that of the paid lead produced by a Conrad Eaton. Thank you! .** hours spent