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Bark

2.2

On SmartCustomer, businesses may not offer incentives or pay to remove reviews. Learn more about our Review Guidelines.

From the business

Bark is an online marketplace that connects customers with local and online professionals.

We take the hassle out of finding the right professional for any job. Whether you’re looking for a cleaner in Nottingham, a web design in Boston or a personal trainer in Auckland - with over 2000 professional services in 8 countries, you’re bound to find the perfect professional for your project on Bark. Simply tell us what you need and will send you a list of professionals - for free!

Need new customers? We’ve helped thousands of businesses of all sizes keep find new clients. We’re passionate about helping businesses of all sizes find customers for life.

Life’s better with Bark.


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Bark Reviews Summary

Bark has a rating of 2.2 stars from 1,644 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers dissatisfied with Bark most frequently mention customer service, phone number and potential clients. Bark ranks 9th among Service Marketplace sites.

service
316
value
296
shipping
101
returns
151
quality
263
This company responds to reviews on average within 18 days

We monitor reviews for authenticity

Kentucky
1 review
0 helpful votes
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Dog Obedience
August 5, 2020

Zach with Perfected Canine Obedience was professional and knowledgeable. We have just started our training, but I'm expecting great things after session 1!

Date of experience: August 4, 2020
Bark T. Bark Rep
over a year old

Hi there Linda,

Thank you for your review,

It's great to hear that we could help connect you with this dog trainer.

Kind regards,

The Bark Team

GB
1 review
0 helpful votes
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Fencing
August 4, 2020

Brilliant service. Quick and a great job done in such a short time. Would definitely recommend this company.

Date of experience: August 3, 2020
Bark T. Bark Rep
over a year old

Hi there Salma,

Thanks for your review,

It's great to hear that we could help.

Kind regards,

The Bark Team

GB
1 review
0 helpful votes
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Three lads of Bark.
August 2, 2020

A few problems of chainsaws miss-behaving at the start of the job, was soon over come, and the beast of our hedge was tamed.
Considering the heat of the day and the former problems the lads were so good natured, very hard working and I'm thank full that they were doing the work and not me.
Many thanks.

Date of experience: August 2, 2020
Bark T. Bark Rep
over a year old

Hi there Alan,,

Thanks for your review,

It's great to hear that we could help connect you with this professional.

Kind regards,

The Bark Team

Ireland
1 review
1 helpful vote
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Bark garden work
August 1, 2020

A big thank you to Pat O Hara and his great team. What a great surprise they gave us, our big back garden was like a jungle, but Pat and team turned it into a fabulous garden to be enjoyed again. They arrived when they said they would, and worked sooo hard, they cleaned up before they left. Leaving the garden looking superb
We recommend Pat and certainly will call on him again

Breda O Farrell and family.

Date of experience: August 1, 2020
Bark T. Bark Rep
over a year old

Hi there Breda,

Thanks for your review,

We're glad to hear that we could connect you with Pat O Hara.

Kind regards,

The Bark Team

GB
1 review
28 helpful votes
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Scam city
August 30, 2020

Bark creates fake jobs for tradesmen, they make up jobs with dead numbers, no way to contact so that you waste your credits,
They also took £120 from my bank without my permission to add more credits.
Fraud basically...

Steer well clear if your in the trade, this is without doubt the worst of the sites, my builder is the best imo, don't think Iv ever had a fake job on there. Was getting 3 a week on here...

Bark attempted to help this customer through the SmartCustomer Resolution Center, but the customer did not respond
Date of experience: July 30, 2020
Bark T. Bark Rep
over a year old

Hi there,

We're sorry to hear that you feel this way, but we refute the claims that you have made against our business.

We tried to reach out to you directly however we received no response.

If you would like to understand more about our platform and receive support, please email us directly at [email protected].

Kind regards,

The Bark Team

Washington
1 review
1 helpful vote
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Billed on the front end, and not too sure it's monies well spent. I get no direct leads because I don't show up in searches. Recently learned that you have to be subscribed to the Elite Pro service for an extra $30/mo to show up as a provider. 'Opportunities' can still be purchased and contacted, but I wouldn't consider them classifiable as warm leads. There is no indicator of a read receipt, and I am measuring only 8.5% response rate from leads I have responded to: 40% of those just to say "no thank you". Prospects are technically 'warm' but the Bark traffic seems to be mostly 'looky-loos' that are completely unaware that there is a fee to providers, because they don't even bother to respond. Also, Bark advertises Elite Pro includes a 1-on-1 consult from their advisers to optimize ROI, but all the agent did was say, "yup, your profile is completely set up. You're good to go!". The first month for Elite Pro is free, so I highly recommend signing up for that at the onset to see if there is any potential benefit investing in Bark - instead of 2 months and $hundreds later.

Bark attempted to help this customer through the SmartCustomer Resolution Center, but the customer did not respond
Date of experience: July 30, 2020
Bark T. Bark Rep
over a year old

Hi there Jaye,

We're sorry to hear that you feel this way.

We tried to reach out to you directly to explain how our system works however we received no response.

If you would like to understand more about our platform and receive support, please email us directly at [email protected].

Kind regards,

The Bark Team

GB
1 review
0 helpful votes
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Very helpful and will use them again

Will send another when job has been complete

With photo before and after

Date of experience: July 30, 2020
Bark T. Bark Rep
over a year old

Hi there George,

Thanks for your review,

It's great to hear that we could help.

Kind regards,

The Bark Team

GB
1 review
0 helpful votes
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SP Developments
July 31, 2020

James and his team were very efficient and friendly. They arrived early in the morning and worked hard all day. They paved a path from my back garden to front garden and it looks really great. I am very happy with the standard of the work and the team were very professional

Date of experience: July 30, 2020
Bark T. Bark Rep
over a year old

Hi there Eve,

Thanks for your review,

It's great to hear that we could help connect you with James and his team.

Kind regards,

The Bark Team

Ireland
1 review
1 helpful vote
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The concept of Bark is fantastic, but the experience is poorly executed to say the least.

As a business trying to gain leads you're paying a seemingly random credit value (8-14 from what I've seen) to respond to a customer that's only looking for a quote. These are cold leads, there's no two ways about it. It costs just under 100 for 4 replies, 5 if you're lucky with the randomly assigned credit vale on each response. This credit value is based on the average spend of each customer and the level of work they're looking for. Prices fluctuate far too much for this to be a viable system.
Elite Pro is a monthly subscription that's only function is to put your profile and contact details in front of the lead, so they can contact you, however the Bark website is actually setup to direct the lead to use Barks own internal messaging system which Bark have said allows them to track messages and issue credit refunds easier. This means you will have to pay a premium of 12-14 credits to reply to these leads yourself, as the lead isn't directed to your contact details at all unless they click through to your profile and then click to view your details. In summary, you're paying a monthly fee to make your lead responses more expensive.

I was happy with Bark and I think the concept is fantastic. But after arranging for their Elite Pro team to call me, which they never did, I had to then contact customer support to ask why I didn't receive my call. When they rang me I explained the credit system and Elite Pro cons for my industry and the tone of the customer service agent changed entirely. I was trying to give healthy feedback and constructive advice, but I was quickly spoken over and informed Bark deal with over 2000 industries and the system is setup to do that. I'd advise keeping this "2000 industries" stance from Bark in mind. The customer service agent, instead of accepting I was giving feedback to try and help Bark instantly offered to cancel my Elite Pro membership and then reverted to one word responses to end the phone call. What I was hoping would be a positive experience about my Elite Pro membership turned into a really embarrassing experience at the hands of one of the customer service representatives.

Their Elite Pro offering is shown to customers as "professionals that have shown their commitment to Bark" but the actually professionals paying for this service are told they're no more important to Bark than any of their other 2000 industries are.

TL; DR: Credits are overpriced, credit values are randomly assigned based on 1 of 2000 industries making them overpriced for may industries, Elite Pro is a farce that increases the credits required to respond to leads and you do not matter to Bark as their customer service team made abundantly clear on the phone.

Bark attempted to help this customer through the SmartCustomer Resolution Center, but the customer did not respond
Date of experience: July 28, 2020
Bark T. Bark Rep
over a year old

Hi there Ronan,

We're sorry to hear that you feel this way.

We tried to reach out to you directly however we received no response.

If you would like to understand more about our platform and receive support, please email us directly at [email protected].

Kind regards,

The Bark Team

GB
1 review
0 helpful votes
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Roof cleaners
July 28, 2020

The service was so quick it was almost unbelievable; Almost immediately I had posted the j job I had many many replies and those to whom I spoke could do the job immediately. There are currently people up on our roof doing the work; Covid19 has obviously caused many problems as there were so many replies, some from long distances.

Date of experience: July 28, 2020
Bark T. Bark Rep
over a year old

Hi there Elizabeth,

Thanks for your review,

It's great to hear that we could help connect you with roofers so quickly!

Kind regards,

The Bark Team

GB
1 review
0 helpful votes
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Needed a cleaner
July 28, 2020

I had a very quick response from the companies I contacted. Got the cleaner that I needed. I'm a very happy customer. Thank you Bark.

Date of experience: July 27, 2020
Bark T. Bark Rep
over a year old

Hi there Kerry,

Thanks for your review,

It's great to hear that we could help connect you with a cleaner.

Kind regards,

The Bark Team

GB
1 review
0 helpful votes
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Gutters cleaned
July 28, 2020

John Heath who did the work was prompt professional polite and efficient. Would and will recommend to neighbors friends and family

Date of experience: July 27, 2020
Bark T. Bark Rep
over a year old

Hi there Paul,

Thanks for your review,

It's great to hear that we could help connect you with John.

Kind regards,

The Bark Team

Massachusetts
1 review
0 helpful votes
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Excellent
July 27, 2020

Thank you for promptly sending caring professionals to choose from. They emailed, called and hen came to tour our facility.

Date of experience: July 27, 2020
Bark T. Bark Rep
over a year old

Hi there Scott,

Thanks for your review,

It's great to hear that we could help.

Kind regards,

The Bark Team

GB
1 review
1 helpful vote
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Scam
August 25, 2020

Very friendly on the phone until I requested a refund as the lead's came to nothing, every time I rang or txt a potential customer I'd get no answer or reply? I'd even text a few customers asking them to please reply as I think I'm being scammed and still got no response. Oh as for the refund I got it just call apple and they'll refund you if you think your being scammed too

Bark attempted to help this customer through the SmartCustomer Resolution Center, but the customer did not respond
Date of experience: July 26, 2020
Bark T. Bark Rep
over a year old

Hi there Ben,

We're sorry to hear that you feel this way, but we refute the claims that you have made against our business.

We tried to reach out to you directly however we received no response.

If you would like to understand more about our platform and receive support, please email us directly at [email protected].

Kind regards,

The Bark Team

France
1 review
0 helpful votes
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EXCELLENT
July 27, 2020

Cab was in advance and texted me politely and waited for me. Arrived fresh at the airport and quickly despite early in the morning. Perfect service. Will use again.

Date of experience: July 26, 2020
Bark T. Bark Rep
over a year old

Hi there Philippe,

Thanks for your review,

We're glad to hear that we could help connect you with this professional.

Kind regards,

The Bark Team

Canada
1 review
0 helpful votes
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Sofa cleaning
July 26, 2020

The process was user friendly and fast.
Gilberto did an amazing job. My sectional sofa looks refreshed and very clean.
I will use this service again.

Date of experience: July 25, 2020
Bark T. Bark Rep
over a year old

Hi there Christine,

Thanks for your review,

We're glad to hear that we could help.

Kind regards,

The Bark Team

GB
1 review
10 helpful votes
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Excellent service!
July 26, 2020

We had our 10 year old patio cleaned & regrouted by David of Magic Cleaning services. He did a fantastic job, was quick & reasonably priced and we are delighted with the end result, which far exceeded our expectations.
We also had some carpets cleaned, which have come up like new.
Would not hesitate to recommend David for any cleaning jobs.

Date of experience: July 25, 2020
Bark T. Bark Rep
over a year old

Hi there Peter,

Thanks for your review,

It's great to hear that we could help connect you with David of Magic Cleaning Services!

Kind regards,

The Bark Team

GB
1 review
0 helpful votes
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Very happy with the way they listened and conducted themselves.
They assessed our roof problems and provided costed options for our consideration and delivered successfully and on time with a 30 year guarantee

Date of experience: July 24, 2020
Bark T. Bark Rep
over a year old

Hi there Brian,

Thanks for your review,

It's great to hear that we could help connect you with professionals who could help.

Kind regards,

The Bark Team

GB
1 review
0 helpful votes
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I had 3 sessions of subscriptions and had about 4 jobs most people do not reply they seem fake. I get dozens per day yet the industry is dead this seems wrong also.

Bark attempted to help this customer through the SmartCustomer Resolution Center, but the customer did not respond
Date of experience: July 24, 2020
Bark T. Bark Rep
over a year old

Hi there,

We're sorry to hear that you feel this way, but we refute the claims that you have made against our business.

We tried to reach out to you directly however we received no response.

If you would like to understand more about our platform and receive support, please email us directly at [email protected].

Kind regards,

The Bark Team

GB
1 review
0 helpful votes
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Oven clean
July 24, 2020

Great job done, excellent job, clean worker, can not find anything wrong to say 10out 10 would use him again and again

Date of experience: July 24, 2020
Bark T. Bark Rep
over a year old

Hi there Derek,

Thanks for your review,

It's great to hear that we could help connect you with this professional.

Kind regards,

The Bark Team