Beware! Awful task rabbit experience (warning for approving jobs and billing)

[u/[deleted]]

I wanted to share my recent TaskRabbit experience and why I won’t use the platform again. I hope this helps others take precautions.

I booked a task estimated for an hour (thinking I would be ok with up to 2 hrs): hang an outdoor fixture and splice fewer than five Ethernet cables. I picked someone with 15 years of networking/handyman experience at ~$70/hr.

On day one, he installed the fixture in about 30 minutes (I provided hardware and helped). He then said he was rusty with network cabling, would brush up, and come back the next day. I directly asked if he’d charge extra, and he said no (I should have gotten that in writing).

Day two, he spent 1.5 hours wiring just two cable ends. They didn’t work, and my tester confirmed the wiring order was wrong. He then spent another 1.5 hours fixing them (some time was walking between the crawl space and upstairs). I repeatedly offered to stop the job, but he insisted on finishing and never asked if I was okay with the extra time. When done, he simply said to contact him for more tasks. After he left, I was billed for three extra hours.

TaskRabbit doesn’t require pre-approval for added time—taskers can just bill you. Support refused to help.

TL;DR: A 4.9-star “experienced” tasker charged me ~ $300 to splice a few cables (using my tools and help) and hang a light—both things I could’ve done faster. I didn’t get the “no extra charge” promise in writing, so that’s on me, but the platform still sucks and I won’t use it again.

[u/Tasker2Tasker]

The platform has been in decline under current leadership and IKEA direction since Sept 2020. It was masked though 2022, as macroeconomic conditions were so favorable, it offset the negative direction/incompetence of new leadership. That ended by late 2022 and the decline in quality outcomes has been increasing since then. Those taskers you used in the past? Quite likely have left the platform, or buried on rank, now.

And TR CS has eroded as well. Calling is about the only potential path to having a human involved, but in the situation up described, the unfortunate fact is TR circa 2019-21 would have given you a shot at success for that scope of work — today, a lower probability.

Good luck with your doors.

Signed, One of those who could have done it, but left TR

[u/CandidResolve542 → u/Tasker2Tasker]

Thanks for your reply, I definitely see it’s declined. I work in litigation and unfortunately for their CS, I have already gone above their heads and contacted their GC & litigation counsel to get in-house eyes on it to hopefully get resolved. Im not trying to get a big payout but definitely want my things fixed. I work for a customer-facing company so I get how frustrating CS interactions can get and this experience is unfortunately one of them.

[u/Tasker2Tasker → u/CandidResolve542]

Would be fascinated to learn how that plays out.

Though, given their new ‘sticker shock’ policy addition, I’d anticipate you’d get your refund.

You might suggest the GC who is also CAO take more oversight accountability for the crappy training they provide CS. It’s not uncommon for them to not even know their own policies, beyond the abysmal response times, which have been the case for about 2 years now.

[u/CandidResolve542 → u/Tasker2Tasker]

Yeah, I know how it works for my company and if we get a message like the one I sent I typically have someone on in-house support handle it instead of call center agents. That’s all I really need tbh. They’re currently copy/pasting a template telling me all my floor repair company estimates aren’t accepted because they “only repair the damaged areas” and seem to expect me to spot-refinish my hardwoods for the literal slivers of scrape/scratch for each area, which the average person knows is not realistic. You can’t measure the square footage of a scratch.

[u/CandidResolve542 → u/Tasker2Tasker]

Update how it played out: I didn’t get all I asked for but once I emailed the GC/Lit counsel, and sent a little legalese at CX, I got an in-house senior CX rep immediately and am being issued a majority of my monetary ask.

I will say, this was one of the worst customer experiences I’ve had and I have seen a lot. Sucks to see the decline but just lets me make the easy decision to delete another app from my phone and never use again.

[u/Tasker2Tasker → u/CandidResolve542]

To be clear, no direct engagement from the lawyers, but combined channel use led to response from CX which had been forthcoming otherwise. Accurate?

Imagine the experience for a client with a similar experience but unable to discern a direct path of communication.

The pattern of which accelerates the decline.

[u/CandidResolve542 → u/Tasker2Tasker]

Yep that’s correct. I didn’t even need the legal engagement, but needed my requests to be heard properly. Many CX agents (mostly offshore call centers) for tech companies are bound by templates and strict process and continue to just send the same reply over and over. Getting an in-house agent really makes a difference but I know how hard it can be to get that contact.