Speaking from an advanced data recovery service provider perspective... Also attached a snapshot of Google results below.
Although from Thumbtack's and other portals' marketing perspective makes sense, there are several problems:
1) What does "best" mean? If it is the best in data recovery locally (even nationally), then it does NOT make sense at all - completely misleading. The "best" for me would be having the proper tools and expertise to carry out the job (not the cheapest nor the closest even regionally close, which is sort of what Thumbtack emphasizes on in the description links posted above).
2) In my opinion, from the customer's perspective, there is a major misunderstanding, thus misleading situation, when it comes to data recovery company service VS. computer repair/IT company offering data recovery service. There is obviously an issue with the extend of ability to recover data from all sorts of problems by computer repair/IT outfits, which typically manage to recover data from devices with very light/mild problems. As result, this reflects accordingly in their quotes, namely prices on the low end. This is what I believe is one of the main drivers for what drags down significantly the Thumbtack average price. When there is a customer with a device that sustained major failure(s), naturally the price will be much higher, which in turn will cause the customer to freak out and become confused and/or suspect of what should be a more realistic quote on the higher end quote. This would naturally result in low conversion (at least for the data recovery companies).
3) I doubt that, when choosing the price on a Thumbtack drop-down price menu, Thumbtack can differentiate if that price is for a diagnosis only, for the service only, per a specific amount of hours, for either diagnosis or the actual service, etc. Therefore, leading to an entirely disappointment of price misrepresentation in the sense of customer price expectation. Once again, this is leads to low conversions.
4) Obvious lack of details presented by the customer in the little form leads inability for a service provider to honor the same quote ONCE the contact is made and details are discussed and/or discovered during the diagnosis phase. Again, leading to an unpleasant state for both service provider and customer, often leading to no conversion as far a paying job goes.
There are other that I missing, but will stop here for now.
I have used Thumbtack, but with a high degree of selectivity. I have had some success, but also disappointments.
I have run some experiments, where I sometimes seen exactly identical requests (namely in the free typing area) in different locations in the country, which brought in question the authenticity of a service request. It would be nice if other were willing to pay attention to the requests and make notes of this and provide feedback here. No need to quote them, just check on the requests.
As a community here, we can rule out who is real or not and potentially drive those portals to complete transparency and better customer education.
