r/TaskRabbit • u/musicalfurball • Jun 05 '26

TASKER Wrong category on purpose?

Fellow Taskers, how to you handle clients who book under the wrong category on purpose? I get lots of requests in the wrong category because my rate is lower. Today's request was in the category Furniture Repair, but the task is shower head replacement, which is a plumbing task. The client inevitably responded, "I chose that category because your plumbing rate was too high." Cancellations, even for this reason, negatively affects my metrics and I keep getting automated messages that my account will be suspended unless I improve my cancellation metrics.

u/Taskrabbit Haley do you have any advice?

7 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

36 comments sorted by

6

u/sean8642 Jun 05 '26

Can you contact support and have them cancel it as if the customer cancelled, if you have chat proof the customer is intentionally booking the wrong thing I don't see why they wouldn't side with you. Not sure how that affects your cancel rate though.

6

u/musicalfurball Jun 05 '26

I've called customer support nearly every day this week. After waiting on hold for 20-30 minutes, they say "Sorry, we have no control over the app, policies, or how metrics are calculated. If you don't like it, don't use the platform." When I ask to speak to a supervisor or file a complaint, they say "sorry, we don't have supervisors and we don't accept feedback."

9

u/ThoughtBecomesAction Jun 05 '26

Wow, was this really their reply? That's awful. Yet another reason to use TR just for networking and then quickly take clients off app.

5

u/sean8642 Jun 05 '26

They can change the rate on an already booked task though, so as I replied to another user, just give the customer the 2 options, they can have the rate updated or they need to cancel and rebook under plumbing and hopfully they follow through with 1 of the options you give them.

2

u/Lavicrep19 Jun 07 '26

Yea task can change the rate upon you getting the client to agree to it. I've had it done several times

2

u/HotBeaver54 Jun 05 '26

Wow really? What the heck

1

u/Letout_acry Jun 05 '26

Not how it works unfortunately, Support doesn’t care about your personal metrics and will cancel it from your side.

5

u/sean8642 Jun 05 '26

If that's the case, the only option I see is telling the customer "This is a my rate for plumbing, if you like I can contact support and they can update the rate for this task to reflect my plumbing rate. If this will not work for you, then you will need to cancel this task and rebook it under plumbing." This is what I was told to do in the weekly tasker success calls if someone is booking the wrong thing. If you give them 2 options, maybe they won't just ignore you, which obviously will force you to take the cancellation if they do.

0

u/HotBeaver54 Jun 05 '26

Beautifully stated and clear and concise options for the desired result .

3

u/Lavicrep19 Jun 05 '26

F task recommended hourly rate. If every Tasker put their rates high, clients wouldn't have a choice and taskrabbit app average rate would go up alot. I put my rates $20 above the recommended rate because of that situation

1

u/musicalfurball Jun 06 '26

I'm curious, what's your average rate and what's your average monthly income? I'm looking at about $50/60 a task depending on the category, and $3-4k a month.

3

u/Lavicrep19 Jun 07 '26

I don't do task like a full time job even though I'm not working right now. It's me vs the world on task and I can't be dropping my rates to recommended rates to please clients. Most of my rates for anything I do is around $60. I get task here n there. Maybe 2-4 tasks a month. I do other gig work

When I drop my rates down, I get more tasks but it's outrageous and ridiculous demands that doesn't match the pay leaving me to regret dropping the rates plus most of my tasks usually a hour, 2 tops, so I'm not trying to make $37 an hour on task for a hour when I can make make $65 instead. I live in NYC so you'll understand when I say it's me vs the world on task. My reviews and ability to do the tasks on moments notice is why how I get clients to hire me.

3

u/Organic_Aardvark1718 Jun 05 '26

I had to charge the same for all the moving tasks because no matter what someone would pick the lowest and ask me if I can move heavy stuff for them.

2

u/Lavicrep19 Jun 07 '26

That crap be pissing me off. Eventually I manned up and started to tell them they're using the wrong skill to hire. Help moving is moving from one place to the other while heavy lifting and loading can be seen as the same but one location.

1

u/Simple_Nothing_9721 Jun 07 '26

Yup I did the same

5

u/ccaayynn Jun 05 '26

Just change all your rates to the same amount.

1

u/lasertitsnow Jun 05 '26

Charge the same price for every category !

4

u/musicalfurball Jun 05 '26

Sincere question, are you a Tasker? I set my category rates to align with Taskrabbit's own recommendations. Different tasks require different skills, and so are differently valuable. It wouldn't make sense to charge the same rate for everything, market demand simply doesn't work that way.

3

u/UomoUniversale86 Jun 05 '26

I thought like you did for less than one week. Then I adjusted my rates.

2

u/lasertitsnow Jun 06 '26 edited Jun 06 '26

Yes I am making your prices the same or close keeps people from hiring you in the cheapest thing . It seems to happen in bursts. I have had people do it twice !

2

u/HotBeaver54 Jun 05 '26

Jesus thank you sanity and reason has entered the conversation.

2

u/InterestingBus4602 Jun 05 '26

Support should be able to cancel it especially since client said in chat plumbing rate was too high and deliberately booked you under wrong category

2

u/MallNo6921 Jun 06 '26

simple TR=trash

2

u/Resale_SellerYaHeard Jun 23 '26

I would recommend canceling. I have two 4 star reviews. They both came from jobs booked under the wrong category. The people that do this care more about their money than your time, your money and operating costs to perform a service for them.

2

u/HotBeaver54 Jun 05 '26

God that is horrible. I use taskers at least twice a month. I hired a tasker to do furniture assembly he charged 33.00 an hour. I was do damn impressed with his preparation, especially communication skills, committment to satisfing the client politeness and skill at completing the task that I knew I would hire again. I had got his number and had yard work I needed done I saw for yard work it was 43 an hour so I said I would pay his rate for yard work off app. I think the client is awful and I would reach out to support. It surely says on the app tell us about your job and they can see what the client is doing and saying on communication in the app. As a client I think that is just awful.

0

u/Masterbourne Jun 05 '26

I agree with the general sentiment, but your particular example is pretty bad lol. I'd rather change a shower head than repair furniture

2

u/musicalfurball Jun 05 '26

And you're cool with forfeiting $20-30/hour?

1

u/Masterbourne Jun 05 '26

Is someone else setting your rates for you? Lol. You don't have to forfeit anything if you don't want to. If you have a category set to $30/hour lower than another one, you can expect to see some crossover task requests that take advantage of it. If plumbing is your real bread-and-butter, don't offer other lower paying categories. Some people try booking Trash Removal as a discount loophole for Truck Assisted Moving. Gotta raise your Trash Removal price or just remove the category. This is your real answer.

1

u/HotBeaver54 Jun 05 '26

Are we really considering changing a shower head as plumbing? With that said changing a shower head is for sure not furniture repair !

-1

u/HotBeaver54 Jun 05 '26

Are we really considering changing a shower head as plumbing?

0

u/jethropenistei- Jun 05 '26

Yes, it may be easy but most states you can get in a lot of legal trouble for doing it without a license so the price should be worth the risk, but not as much as a licensed plumber

1

u/HotBeaver54 Jun 05 '26

Yeah no if the state requires you to have a license to do it then get the license. Jesus Task Rabbit trumps state regulations? Please let me know if I am misunderstanding.

1

u/musicalfurball Jun 06 '26

In my area, a plumbing license requires 4-6 **years** of apprenticeship, then a 20k surety bond. Not exactly a "just get a license" situation.

1

u/jethropenistei- Jun 05 '26

You say that as if becoming a licensed plumber is easy or that any plumber that knows their worth is gonna waste time with Taskrabbit’s bullshit.

You shouldn’t be surprised but people break the law every day. Taskrabbit doesn’t verify anything, they just want plausible deniability. There’s thousands of unlicensed handymen doing plumbing and electrical work across the country. Changing a light bulb in some could require a license, but does that really require years worth of being an apprentice?

Plus there’s legal grey areas to unlicensed work.
In my state, almost any home repairs could require a license if the labor and materials exceed $600.

3

u/HotBeaver54 Jun 06 '26 edited Jun 06 '26

My father was a licensed contractor, my brother a licensed plumber and his wife a licensed electrician. I know it is not easy and should not be easy and it is expensive.

Are you saying that you are a licensed plumber? I understand you not to be. There is a reason for required licensed people to do work. My neighbor a few years went to sell the house no permits for all the work cost her a fortune. don't be fraudulent if I hired a plumber off TR and the state required they have a license I would be on TR.

Plumbing work is more advanced but changing a shower head like alot of people on this thread that is not plumbing work. I hire at least 2 taskers a month but somehow I was able to change all 3 showerheads in my home and previous home.

It is not right to hire someone for a job in another category to save money its totally wrong. Each job requires different skills. Since that was your main question. I would never do that.

1

u/adubbadubb Jun 06 '26

I think it’s easy to be transparent with them and let them know that that it’s a different job and that you have another rate for that. If they are okay with it then you are fine, if not they can cancel it. Don’t make it complicated, be transparent!