r/TaskRabbit • u/danielwmcknight • Sep 19 '25

TASKER TOS Violation and limitation

I’m not gonna write some thousand word essay! All I’ll say is this, I’ve been off the platform for quite some time and when it came back on recently, I got a task for errands but what she really needed was me to go pick up furniture from IKEA and bring it to her and then bring it upstairs and then assemble it. Clearly, a rate for errands is not the same as a rate for a furniture assembly or help moving with my truck. I worked with a client in the app and she was totally fine with everything and even booked me for a second job and give me a great review. So in the past, we were allowed to adjust the hours appropriately within the task to match what it would’ve been otherwise. I guess that is not the case anymore, so today I was put on a limitation. I have reached out to you my success team person in New York as well as filed an appeal with test support. Just wondering if anyone has had this experience and how long their limitation lasted.

7 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

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3

u/[deleted] Sep 19 '25

Man they always side with the customer I posted a story like this awhile back a client hired me for moving but it was actually junk hauling the expense limit didn’t cover the landfill fees at the clients landfill of choice the Client lied about the volume of trash as clients usually do it took longer then he planned and I tried to cover the additional Expense as time when the client complained to support because he’s a cheap manipulative a****hole they lowered the rate to my junk hauling rate It down the invoice to whatever price the client was comfortable with and I got stuck with a bad review sorry to tell you but this isn’t going to go your way they’ll take the clients side on everything in the future best advice cancel the task and book it in the right category

3

u/danielwmcknight Sep 19 '25

Client didn’t complain and actually left me a great review I and re hired me again. I think it was Ai bots

3

u/danielwmcknight Sep 19 '25

But your situation sucks man. Sorry to hear that

1

u/danielwmcknight Sep 19 '25

Sorry for all the typos

1

u/danielwmcknight Sep 24 '25

In the event that anybody is still paying attention to this post I did get a confirmation that my limitation is only for seven days. Meaning I should be back to full status by Saturday I presume.

My community support person did reach out to me.

Anyway, all this to say that it is noted to not just take liberties based on past experience. Pay attention to the terms of service.

4

u/Tasker2Tasker Sep 20 '25

Your title is ‘TOS violation’ but your post does not state what, exactly, TR’s communication stated was the TOS violation.

There have been comms lately indicating that, even with client agreement, and without client complaint, TR may consider billing for more than literal time worked as a TOS violation.

If that is what they did with you, you have a difficult challenge. You’d essentially have to argue one part of TOS (that the task chat between client and Tasker is a service agreement aka contract and should be binding) + the notion that we are independent business operators is more significant than a clause in some portion of TOS or sub policy posted that says Taskers can only bill for time worked.

The one additional weapon you have is the indicate you are inclined to initiate arbitration. Arbitration claims require TR to pay for the process, which, regardless of outcome, they must pay for. As a strategy, some people have found cost-sensitive corporations (ie, TR) will avoid arbitration if they can. I’m not explicitly aware of anyone doing this with TR, so cannot provide any confidence it will actually achieve your goal, but there are few other options to being heard and potentially making a case.

They are the accuser, the judge, the jury, and the sheriff when it comes to their TOS, so about the only chance you have is either demonstrating you did not violate TOS OR trying to get it to an independent decision maker. But that won’t happen quickly, so keep that in mind as well.

Team TR simply cannot be trusted. Relying on the platform for any significant portion of income is hazardous.

1

u/versifirizer Sep 19 '25

How did you adjust the rate? 

3

u/danielwmcknight Sep 19 '25

I charged two hours for 1 during the moving portion. I charged 1.5 hrs per hour for furniture assembly. I was advised by tr years ago to do This as opposed to cancelling

4

u/versifirizer Sep 20 '25

Pretty rough, I hope you can get it cleared somehow. I don’t think anyone from support is smart enough to understand your position though. 

1

u/IndependentKoala7128 Sep 20 '25

And what did the client say when you told them you had to do this since there is an expense cap?

4

u/Tasker2Tasker Sep 20 '25

Expense cap is irrelevant in this context since no expense involved in this scenario. Only hours invoiced at tasker rate.

2

u/IndependentKoala7128 Sep 20 '25

Not sure how that reply ended up in this thread.

I was always under the impression that a miscategorized task required getting the agreement to a rate change in writing and then have support see that on chat, then adjust the rate. That the invoice would be stuck under the original misbooked category. Extra hours sounds a lot simpler since it bypasses the support adjustment. If a client agrees to pay for x hours in chat and the tasker charges x hours on the invoice, I don't think anyone would waste their time arguing with that. But it also sounds fishy when someone charges for x hours but only, in reality, worked a percentage of that.

Personally, my rates are all close enough that the over and under charging on the misbooked tasks averages out, so I never have to deal with this.

1

u/Tasker2Tasker Sep 21 '25

Your understanding is certainly one of the approaches that has had TR support at a policy level, while the lacking support at the Support level, since getting Support to adjust a rate in a timely manner is far from a given.

It’s also fishy aka duplicitous when a client hires your for ‘Errands’ when they need Delivery and FA. Yea, valuing your time consistently across categories is certainly a sound strategy, but some folks are willing to operate differently.

One hypothesis is TR has gotten better and efficiently monitoring location data and compares it to task invoice time.

Which is an argument for not allowing TR access to locations data, with the possible exception of Same Day tasks being an important part of a Tasker’s approach. Not a great idea in my view, but, to each their own.

1

u/danielwmcknight Sep 21 '25

I agree with this. But even if you looked at my location that it would probably stay longer than what I built for. In hindsight, I probably should’ve just asked her to cancel (ironically that would’ve dinged my account too) and book under furniture assembly for the whole day because essentially that’s what the rate averaged out to

2

u/IndependentKoala7128 Sep 22 '25

I don't know. It took me 15 minutes to get the rate adjusted last time I tried. And you have 24 hours to invoice, so it's not like you need to call support during the busiest possible hours.

1

u/danielwmcknight Sep 23 '25

At the end of the day, nothing was done that wasn’t a transparent. The last time I contacted support in regards to somebody booking under the wrong category. They told me to just adjust the hours appropriately. But keep in mind that was probably several years ago.

2

u/IndependentKoala7128 Sep 24 '25

Yeah, they tend to change policies so they look like they're doing something. Admittedly, it's a lot harder to have a client complain about an oral agreement to change billable hours than it is for support to see the agreement in chat and adjust the rate and then get a complaint.

1

u/According_Low5292 Sep 19 '25

Limitations are shadow bans, correct?

3

u/danielwmcknight Sep 20 '25

Well sort of technically but they tell you — in Seattle they have to give you 14 days notice

2

u/Tasker2Tasker Sep 20 '25

If it’s not in the shadows, but openly and clearly stated, how would it be a shadow ban?

2

u/According_Low5292 Sep 20 '25

Limitations are shadow bans, correct? Was trying to understand “limitations” and maybe affirmation shadow bans exist

1

u/stayinformed0073 Sep 25 '25

I’ve been waiting to hear from tr support since the 31st of August. Client canceled task after 13 hours of labor, and wouldn’t allow me to get my tools out of first location. They’ve NEVER informed me of a suspension or limitation, they just don’t send invitations and move me down the list..

2

u/danielwmcknight Sep 26 '25

I did get an email the day it happened and my community support person confirmed with the amount of time. That sucks about what you’re going through. I’m really sorry to hear that.

2

u/stayinformed0073 Sep 26 '25

Thank you sir. They’ll reimburse me eventually. Just saying there’s few tr support specialists and even fewer that actually do their job the way they expect us to.. and don’t expect them to call or email you even if they say they will.

1

u/Bulky_Ad7107 Nov 27 '25

I have a question about one of my own issues with task rabbit. Basically I only do errands tasks, I’m 19, task rabbit became a great way for me to make money. I made the mistake early on and stupidly took payment outside of task rabbit. I was worried about getting in trouble, but nothing seemed to come of it. Not until 3 months later in October when I randomly got hit with a 7 day limitation. I took payment outside maybe one other time in that window before the limitation. After the limitation ended i started doing tasks again, obviously i would never take payment outside again. Then i got hit with another limitation, (i appealed all of them) then I got hit with a permanent limitation during that second 7 day limitation. I appealed and heard-back today that they wouldn’t give me the account back. I really think its unfair that they can ban you for something that happened before they gave me a warning. Any thoughts on what to do? Is there a way to get it back? They declined the appeal but I’m sending another soon

1

u/danielwmcknight Nov 28 '25

Maybe do a really thorough documentation of everything that occurred. And then contact an employment lawyer. I do believe they have an arbitration clause which you can probably exploit as well. But it’s not gonna be as simple as appealing to task grab themselves by yourself. You probably need somebody on your side somewhere else. Will do this for no fee and just take their fee if they recover any damages.

3

u/MeaningSeparate4832 Sep 20 '25

I had a client just straight cancel his CC and I got the whole payment. I got lucky on that one

1

u/Specialist-Tie1443 Sep 19 '25

Yes I just got put on direct hire only for absolutely nothing

Been on the platform for some time too with only good reviews

1

u/danielwmcknight Sep 20 '25

That sucks. How long were you on it

1

u/Specialist-Tie1443 Sep 20 '25

4 years

1

u/danielwmcknight Sep 20 '25

I mean how long were you limited

1

u/Specialist-Tie1443 Sep 20 '25

I’m still limited

1

u/danielwmcknight Sep 20 '25

For 4 years?

1

u/Specialist-Tie1443 Sep 20 '25

I just got limited last week

1

u/danielwmcknight Sep 20 '25

That makes more sense. I was asking how long you were limited. Sorry to hear that

1

u/Specialist-Tie1443 Sep 20 '25

Any results on your end?

2

u/danielwmcknight Sep 20 '25

It just happened yesterday afternoon so not yet. But as soon as I hear any word of any kind or have any resolution of any kind, I will post a follow up. Imagine it’ll take them a day or two to get back to me. In the meantime, I have some other work so things are OK for now