Many online platforms also provide customer reviews and claim to do background checks. But here’s a notice from an owner in southern Philadelphia. She has a history that will break your heart and make you skeptical of online recommendations.
“The roof should be finished. The floor should be finished, ”said Linda Bonigut. “He destroyed my house. He destroyed my bank account. He destroyed everything emotionally. And the worst part about it is that everything could have been avoided.”
When Bonigut needed a contractor to update her new home in southern Philadelphia, she went to a website called Thumbtack.
SEE TOO: How reliable are these sites that match you with professionals to hire?
“They combined me with Hodgden Property Services, Tim Hodgen,” she said.
“Did the contractor you hired have a five-star rating?” asked problem solver Nydia Han.
“Yes. He was rated very well,” she said.
Bonigut paid Hodgden $ 48,000 in the summer of 2019. She showed Han what her home was like before work.
“It was very good, certainly a lot better than it is now,” said Bonigut.
“How do you feel when you see this today?” asked Han.
“Very upset,” she said. “It is very different when you enter. Now I have no floor, ceiling, lighting, no functioning bathroom.”
The work should have been completed in six to eight weeks. But six months from the time the agreement was signed and after he did the demolition work, Bonigut said Hodgden had disappeared.
“He collected my money and, slowly but surely, stopped coming,” she said. “And I just stopped hearing from him.”
“I look around and I get angry,” she said. “Right now, my bank account is empty. I just need to pick up the pieces. I have nothing.”
Han asked Hodgden about Bonigut’s problem.
“She said she gave you $ 48,000 and you quit your job,” asked Han.
“I don’t know anything about it,” Hodgden replied.
“Why didn’t you do the job? We saw the contract. We saw the checks she gave you,” asked Han.
Then he got into the truck, closed the door and drove away.
The story of the contractor accused of wrongdoing is not unique. What makes this story different is that Bonigut also blames the website that recommended it.
“I thought I did what I was supposed to do,” she said.
“Are you as angry with Thumbtack as you are with your contractor?” Han asked.
“I’m furious with Thumbtack, they put me in this position. They set me up for failure,” she said.
On Thumbtack, Hodgden had a 5-star rating and was listed as a “top professional” with verified comments and a background check. Thumbtack said he passed a criminal background check in 2018 and had an active record for home improvement contractor in Pennsylvania. But it turns out that Hodgden has been convicted of several crimes since 1996 and 2003.
“Like bad checks, stolen by mistake, assault. I don’t understand why it didn’t raise the red flag,” she said. “So, all of this should have happened. And if it wasn’t, it’s a terrible background check.”
Our problem solver, a Call for Action volunteer, Lance Haver, checked out how Thumbtack works.
“Thumbtack does not do any research on the quality of the work that is done,” said Haver.
“I signed up as a life coach, something I have no experience with. I gave myself a fake degree from a fake institution, and Thumbtack put it on,” he said.
Thumbtack sent Haver more than 1,000 customer leads. What about comments?
“Our Call for Action team wrote reviews and the reviews were completely fraudulent. Thumbtack published them anyway,” he said. “You think they are looking out for you. You think they are matching you with the right person when clearly all they are doing is trying to make money by selling opportunities to contractors.”
Thumbtack said: “We have high standards for service professionals … In rare cases, we receive a negative report … our team will investigate immediately and take appropriate action.”
He also said, “Thumbtack customer reviews are labeled ‘verified’.”
“The fact that they allowed him to pass, I think it’s shameful,” said Bonigut. “You are bringing into my home someone who has been convicted of something for which I am paying the same way he was convicted. I want people to know that they should not use Thumbtack. I think the company sucks,” she said.
Following Bonigut’s complaint, Thumbtack permanently removed Hodgden from his platform. In 2019, he also offered her $ 2,500, which was the maximum amount allowed by the Thumbtack Guarantee at the time.
Meanwhile, Bonigut has already filed a lawsuit against Hodgden.
And please be aware that Hodgden had several trade names and currently serves T&B Property Services.
Read the full Thumbtack statement posted on Action News:
“We have high standards for service professionals who use Thumbtack to find customers and we expect them to provide excellent customer experiences.
In the rare case that we receive a negative report about a professional, our team will investigate immediately and take appropriate action.
When the client, Ms. Bonitgut, contacted us in November 2019, we responded immediately and immediately started investigating what had happened. In response to his report, Mr. Hodgden was permanently removed from the Thumbtack platform in November 2019.
For reference, here’s what we know about Mr. Hodgden:
He passed a criminal background check administered by a nationally accredited background check provider on April 21, 2018.
It had 13 reviews and an overall rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars on Thumbtack
At the time of the complaint, Hodgden Property Services had an active HIC through the State of Pennsylvania (# PA139828)
Promoting trust and security for professionals and customers is very important to us. We have a dedicated team of trust and security experts who constantly monitor the platform and act when appropriate.
Ratings and ratings appear on a professional’s profile for future clients to read and consider when making a hiring decision. We ask customers to rate and comment on the professionals they interact with or hire on Thumbtack. Thumbtack customer reviews are identified as ‘verified’.
You can learn more about how we enable customers to confidently hire Thumbtack by visiting our security page. “
For more informations:
Pennsylvania Attorney General
Home Improvement Consumer Information
Copyright © 2021 WPVI-TV. All rights reserved.