Bark for Professionals

Don’t get your hopes up if you’re looking for gigs. As a musician I was excited to start using Bark. After number of months it’s clear that it’s used by venue and party people for price discovery, with little intention of hiring anyone on this platform. I have responded to countless posts looking for bands. The majority of the time I am ghosted. A few times I’m notified that my services aren’t needed but only after I follow up a number of times.

The app does not work. I have a bark account and I can’t log in. The only thing it prompts me to do is create a new account.

90% of the clients are fake and won’t respond. Waste of money. Better to invest that money into marketing

The policy states that if you don’t get hired when you buy the starter pack there’s a money back guarantee however customer service denied that claim even after I sent in proof that 1 used all my credits to get 14 leads which are all still pending to this very day with zero response and their customer service is basically giving me tips on how to use my now non existent credits I can’t believe I fell for this scam and now it’s obvious all the leads on this platform are fake and I ignored all the red flags in hopes it’ll work out but it didn’t, thumbtack pro is way better option atleast they charge you only when the client replies. I would not recommend Bark at all I highly suggest anyone looking for real leads find a different alternative and do not make the mistake I made

Bark is 100% scam. They make you spent a lot of money on leads just to sent fake possible clients. 3 different customers requested a quote saying that they have a big project with 14 properties to clean but before you can get the done you need to make a deposit to get access to their security lockbox (doesn’t this sounds stupid) Don’t waste your money and time with this scammers

Update (July 2026): After Bark publicly responded to this review asking me to contact support, I reached out again in good faith, believing my case would receive a fresh review. My initial response was AI-generated and requested information from a case that had already been reviewed. After providing the requested details, Bark reaffirmed it’s original decision: no refund, and my account would remain permanently locked because I disputed the charges through my credit card company. This experience left me with the impression that the public response was intended to acknowledge my review rather than reopen my case for meaningful consideration. I used Bark to generate leads for my coaching business and deeply regret spending money on the platform. To be fair, when I reported certain problematic leads, Bark did return credits according to its stated policy. However, that did not solve the underlying problem: many of the leads I paid for were low quality, unresponsive, or appeared to have little genuine interest in hiring a professional. Most concerning was that I was nearly phished by someone who contacted me through the platform. The experience raised serious questions about Bark’s lead verification process. In my experience, a “verified” lead is not necessarily a legitimate lead, nor does it provide meaningful protection against bad actors. After spending approximately $294 on credits, I concluded that the service did not provide the value that was advertised. I requested a refund and was denied. I then disputed the charges through my credit card company. After doing so, Bark permanently locked my account. What frustrated me most was that the financial risk seemed to fall entirely on the customer. If a lead is unresponsive, low quality, or even fraudulent, the customer is still out the money while Bark has already been paid. Based on my experience, I cannot recommend Bark. Between the low-quality leads, nearly being phished by someone who contacted me through the platform, being denied a refund, and ultimately being permanently locked out of my account, I would strongly encourage anyone considering Bark to steer clear and invest their marketing budget elsewhere.