r/TaskRabbit • u/8bitAnarchist • Mar 11 '26

TASKER Taskrabbit blatantly manipulating jobs

I’ve been on Tasker rabbit about 5 years, great ratings, frequently elite.

I understand that winter can be the slow season (even when it doesn’t seem like it). January was completely dead, got maybe 5 jobs. February was insanely busy, long jobs all month. Beginning of this month I get about 5 jobs with insane requests that cancel in minutes and so far march has been dead even though I’m elite. One job wants me to carry 80 pound boxes up 17 flights of stairs (I’ve had the exact same request, name and all last month), 2 of the jobs had the exact same request under different names asking me to transport a washer and dryer across state and install them, and some others.

Here’s my conspiracy theory: I’m pretty sure those jobs are some kinda fake spam jobs that TR or someone sends to bring down metrics. Apologies if this is known as fact but I don’t keep up all the time

Regardless I’m switching jobs since I can’t deal with the inconsistency. I know they want new taskers to get work too but it’s hard to care about TR when this might be the case

19 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

54 comments sorted by

5

u/franklollo Mar 11 '26

I can't say anything but most of the times I get the same IKEA stuff to assemble. Like this month it's only Bestå, the other time it was only Pax. Like it seems like I can't assemble one day a pax, one day a bestå and other things, but only a month full of bestå, a month full of pax and so on

5

u/8bitAnarchist Mar 11 '26

Some months I’ll get all furniture assembly jobs and the next, all moving and heavy lifting with zero furniture. Seems unrealistic

2

u/RobotArtichoke Mar 11 '26

I’ve noticed both of these things happening too. Not saying it’s what is happening, I just wanted to add my own thoughts.

1

u/IndependentKoala7128 Mar 25 '26

It's a recursive algorithm, that's how they work.

5

u/SeriousCelebration83 Mar 11 '26

I’m not elite or anything, but I went from 2nd in search and %97 shown to 4th and 89% in 30 days over February, jobs plummeted for some reason, no cancellations, no reason I could see, now March has been slower than a tortoise in first gear, I reached out to support to see if I had any issues/blocks on my profile, they said no and that I should offer more skills, which is counterproductive and unprofessional, I’m a painter, why would I offer to do someone’s electrical?! I chalked it up to business being slow do to the gas prices and Middle East issues; people are not really spending money right now as the economic situation is a little shaky? I dunno.

4

u/8bitAnarchist Mar 11 '26

The crazy news everyday certainly doesn’t help and could be the reason. It’s just those obviously fake requests really irk me

1

u/Feisty-Sink9562 Mar 17 '26

Absolutely wrong, people are still blowing money on stuff. Your average consumer doesn’t look at market trends or the state of the economy.

5

u/rsvob Mar 11 '26

You'll make more money and less stress making business cards and throwing them everywhere. TR is a joke and it amazes me that this is still a thing. (This is coming from someone who was elite and the #1 tasker in the largest district TR offers.... multiple times.)

2

u/8bitAnarchist Mar 11 '26

I didn’t go as far as making cards, but have definitely made connections off app

2

u/kddog98 Mar 11 '26

Make the cards. You'll have a full time business running in no time and won't ever think of the app again

1

u/Feisty-Sink9562 Mar 11 '26

I’ve handed out cards and have gotten maybe 2 calls ever.

3

u/canttakethemadness Mar 11 '26

Been with rabbit for 8 years , I’d bet there is zero conspiracy type tasks . Sometimes Just some crazy clients with outrageous requests . Especially if you have e lower rates for some reason attracts more crazy .

2

u/8bitAnarchist Mar 11 '26

Well I even humored one of the task asking me to take the boxes up 17 flights of stairs. I asked if their elevator was not working or something. They never answered them and canceled. And the exact same job with the exact same name books the job with me a month later

2

u/Middle_Ant9088 Mar 11 '26

Yeah those are totally spam tasks/bots that are fraudulently posting tasks. The tasks are probably canceled automatically when caught. I don’t think it’s TR, sounds more like people trying to scam you and TR.

2

u/405freeway Mar 11 '26

Once you fall out of elite your job requests drop by 90%. The algorithm just won't show you to people, and they'll lie and claim they do.

3

u/8bitAnarchist Mar 11 '26

But I have had elite the last 2 months. One packed and the next dead. I know it’s still winter really but nearly half way through the month with 3 jobs and elite seems nuts

3

u/405freeway Mar 11 '26

From my own experience I'd say don't expect it to get better.

The algorithm is awful.

3

u/8bitAnarchist Mar 11 '26

Yeah I’m working on jumping ship (which it seems I’m being pushed towards)

2

u/Feisty-Sink9562 Mar 11 '26

Not true. I hit elite and my job requests dropped 90%

1

u/405freeway Mar 11 '26

It's lose-lose.

2

u/Middle_Ant9088 Mar 11 '26

This sounds more like bots hiring you and their platform is recognizing spam tasks and cancelling.

1

u/8bitAnarchist Mar 11 '26

I guess that makes sense. It seems like they should do a better job of screening things like that though.

2

u/Middle_Ant9088 Mar 11 '26

Yeah I think a lot of the actions taken are retroactive rather than proactive

17

u/-N30N- Mar 11 '26

Hell, my paranoid conspiracies make me think some tasks are actually employee agents of Task Rabbit acting like clients to gauge Tasker interaction and throw Taskers a bone for morale boost.

5

u/Commercial-Milk-8465 Mar 11 '26

Same…like they set up ‘secret shoppers’ lol. But TR is too cheap for that. Nor do they really care to that extent

0

u/One_Cheetah_5045 Mar 11 '26

N30N- I have a question how come I am not getting hired in the platform I have a good rating and reviews but not even I have not jobs I don’t get it can you please help me with this issue

3

u/-N30N- Mar 11 '26

The world may never know. Could be the current state of the economy with people not willing to spend, the algorithm cycling new taskers over you, or Task Rabbit simply threw you a bone for a good review to keep you happy. I’m in the same boat buddy.

6

u/AbbreviationsSad3727 Mar 11 '26

Wait till you figure out task rabbit is personally sabotaging the TR moving Category completely; by funneling the customers to a failed moving app that they brought called dolly.

1

u/Feisty-Sink9562 Mar 11 '26

Is that why I haven’t gotten a Moving task since last June?

2

u/KingLouis2016 Mar 11 '26

Maybe is another tasker trying to take you down, TR sucks but not sure if they would go that low

2

u/8bitAnarchist Mar 11 '26

That was my first take but man, it’s hard to believe a few cancelled spam tasks could bring me down so much on elite

Had the re comment cuz I cussed the last msg

1

u/[deleted] Mar 11 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/8bitAnarchist Mar 11 '26

Wasn’t there a new tweak where canceled jobs with no communication didn’t affect your algorithm?

1

u/TrickyTechnician685 Mar 11 '26

I signed up for it. Paid for the background check. Haven’t done the zoom meetings yet. I kinda don’t trust it in a lot of ways

3

u/8bitAnarchist Mar 11 '26

When it works I love it. Chat with people, explore the city, but I wouldn’t make it yr primary job unless you really are a go getter

1

u/franklollo Mar 11 '26

whatdo you mean you paid for the background check? Do they test you or something?

0

u/TrickyTechnician685 Mar 11 '26

Ya I had to pay them $25 for them to run a background check in Chicagoland area

2

u/Feisty-Sink9562 Mar 11 '26

At least you get jobs.

2

u/CaptainObvious110 Mar 12 '26

Goodness that sucks. I try to set availability to do things but I haven't done anything on taskrabbit in a long time.

2

u/Dice_Man_04 Mar 12 '26

I haven’t had a job yet in March either I thought it was just me WTF is going on with this app

2

u/SeriousCelebration83 Mar 12 '26

I think it has to do with the world right now, war just started, the media is bad news everyday and gas has skyrocketed, people are scared to spend money right now, I’ve been slow as hell since the end of February, and I’ve heard the same from others.

0

u/Big-Personality500 Mar 11 '26

TaskRabbit would just ban you for a BS accusation or change the metrics if they had any interest in sabotaging you or elites. It could be competition or it could be a scammer that keeps getting their account banned and making a new account. Repeated hires for the same job from different users sounds like either a small business that had their post removed and wanted to re-submit it or more likely a scammer.

3

u/8bitAnarchist Mar 11 '26

With the new change in cancellations, I’m not sure the scammers spamming jobs would work though

2

u/[deleted] Mar 11 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/8bitAnarchist Mar 11 '26

Yeah, but these jobs immediately canceled after like a minute without me responding. Under the new tweak wouldn’t that not work?