Contractor. San francisco bays thumbtack built a system to connect you with contractors you can trust, but we found many you cant trust, many breaking the law from the moment they make contact. When carrie paulik wanted to landscape her front yard carrie and then every year, i do a project on the house. Chris she went online to find a landscaper. She was drawn to thumbtack, the site that boasts, we bring you the right pros for every project. Carrie let me try thumbtack. Chris carrie found a landscaper and agreed to pay him nearly eight grand. But he bolted before the job was done. Carrie i feel like he stole from me. He ripped me off. Chris carrie hired a second landscaper through thumbtack to finish the job, and he did, for another 9,000. Carrie its been very painful. Im glad its done. Chris both landscapers carrie hired through thumbtack were unlicensed, even though state law requires a license. The first landscaper used to be licensed, but the state revoked it 10 years ago for the same behavior, abandoning a job after collecting most of the money. Yet thumbtack allowed him to solicit business. Carrie these services are not giving you pros as i would call a pro. Its kind of like anybody can list there, put their name up, hang a shingle, and there you go. Chris after carrie complained to thumbtack, it removed the first landscaper she hired from its site. Jeannine regalia it also doesnt shut all the way. Chris jeannine regalia hired a contractor through thumbtack to replace her garage door. After paying half the price up front, 2,800, that contractor bolted too. The state confirmed he is also unlicensed. Jeannine he should have been vetted to be not somebody who just scams people, i would hope. Otherwise, who are you letting on your site . This could happen to everyone. Chris it could. Because this service that says, we bring you the right pros, doesnt check the credentials of contractors. We wondered how many unlicensed contractors are soliciting work on thumbtack. So, we posted jobs, from landscaping, to garage doors, to cabinetry, and tile work. We posted 13 jobs and got 37 bids. Eighteen of them were from unlicensed contractors, and another four didnt carry the proper license for the job. Nearly 60 of the people bidding on our jobs werent legally allowed to do them. Rick lopes unfortunately, what you found by going online is what were finding all too often. Chris rick lopes is with the state contractors license board. He warns that sites like thumbtack might be a breeding ground for illegal contractors. In fact male five thousand eight hundred for that. Chris the states undercover sting operations male you got caught. Chris are set up using sites like thumbtack. Rick we know that theyre getting jobs because of these websites, so were out there looking for them too, to try and put them out of business. Chris lopes says the board has tried to work with thumbtack to help consumers check a contractors license at the same time theyre bidding on a job. He says thumbtack could simply add a link to the states license lookup. But so far, that hasnt happened. Rick we have an open invitation. We would be more than happy to sit down with them and show them how they could easily put the license check right over to us. Chris we wanted to talk to thumbtack about the unlicensed contractors on its site, as well as carries and jeannines complaints. But the companys ceo and attorney did not respond to our emails. Instead, its press Team Provided a blanket statement, saying when professionals sign up on thumbtack, they, agree to abide by the law, including licensing laws. But our Research Shows thats not happening. Carrie and jeannine both challenged thumbtack to make its site less risky for consumers because until it does, users must vet the right pros themselves. Jeannine really take your time to get the license number, check the license number. Chris thumbtack later told us it does verify licenses of some contractors, but didnt specify how or why only some are selected. Announcer coming up, a popular dna test gives you your family history. But what does it take in return . We scrutinize the contract. Plus, bay area singles say a local matchmaker didnt follow through on its promises, and theyre on the hook for thousands. The Company Responds. And later, a woman is overcharged by a penny, but is there a more costly question . We take her concerns to the state. Several consumers reached out to us with the same predicament. They each had spent hundreds of dollars to get a new drone before it hit the mass market, but this highflying dream crashed and burned. Chris this 2015 video touts the lily camera, a clever twist on the drone. Lily, you see, follows its subject and records life from above. Tech consultant Stuart Friedman saw lily online, and pulled out his credit card to land one 6 months ahead of everyone else. Stuart it immediately hit me, you know, they got me right where they wanted me, which is i have an immediate need for that. Chris lily was advertised as autonomous, and waterproof too. This 1,000 flying marvel is the brainchild of 2 berkeley alums. Their San Francisco company blanketed social media, offered presales at a discount, and collected more than 30 million, a financial feat lily touted to the website tech crunch in this 2016 interview. Female thirty Million Dollars. Antoine balaresque thirtyfour Million Dollars. Female thirtyfour Million Dollars in 2015. Antoine in 2015, and thats about 60,000 units. Female thats a lot of units. Antoine its been great. We have traction all over the world. Chris lily ultimately raked in more than 38 million from 61,450 buyers in 80 countries. Stuart well, i gave them 600. Chris but lily repeatedly pushed back its delivery date, leaving customers to wonder whether this dronemaking startup would ever get off the ground. Stuart while when i initially made my purchase, i was fully aware that it would be 6 months till i received it, were sitting now just about 2 years since i purchased it. Chris and you still dont have it . Stuart thats right. Chris faced with delays and excuses, thousands of fedup lily customers requested refunds, and got them, including one who enlisted the Response Team at our nbc sister station in washington dc. Female never suspected it was going to take 18 months. Chris but people like stuart, and kyra in milpitas, and james in san mateo, and gobs of others whove sounded off on social media did not get refunds. Stuart never got responded to. Chris stuart and others turned to us for help. We made multiple requests on their behalf. We asked where the 38 million went, and whether customers would get their money back. But lilys responses equal the number of drones it delivered, zero. The outlook was bad. Then the situation got worse. The San FranciscoDistrict Attorney sued lily, accusing it of false advertising and misleading representations. The suit claims lilys promotional videos werent actually shot with a lily. Some footage was allegedly shot by a competitors drone. And according to the suit, lily, failed to make any disclaimers regarding the true source of the video footage. The da accuses lily of knowing what it was doing was wrong. The suit cites an internal email the lily cofounders sent. It reads, i think we should be extremely careful if we decide to lie publicly. A lily lawyer declined to comment on the suit. Stuart is stunned by all this. Stuart i guess emotionally, its nice to see that theres some legal action taken. Chris a source close to lily robotics tells nbc bay area the companys staff has dwindled from 30 people down to just 4, the two cofounders plus 2 newly hired people, whose sole job is to shut down the company. Records show lily robotics has now filed for bankruptcy. A chapter 11 is often a bad omen for consumers, but this one might offer hope. We found the company has told the court it has 18. 7 million remaining. The same search showed 31,800 customers awaiting refunds. That would average out to 588 per person, about the same amount stuart paid. Lilys bankruptcy attorney told us, the company has requested Court Approvals to bring full refunds to its customers. The court will sort out who lily owes and how much. Itll then decide if consumers like stuart stand at the front of the line to get paid or at the back. Stuart and the crazy thing about it right now is i have no idea where theres a line, or a crowd, or a mad scramble. Chris to lily customers who are due refunds, if you have moved or changed your email address over the past 2 years, youll want to update your Contact Information online. There is a form to do that, and we have added a link to our website. Now, to a family that called us after buying a popular dna test. They were worried that discovering their roots would require them to sign away some of their privacy. A visit to a cemetery, for generations crossreferencing tombstones and vital records was required to unlock your lineage. But now, you can easily uncover some of the mystery of your family tree with dna. Larry i thought it would be a really good christmas present. Chris family intrigue led larry guernsey to buy a kit from ancestrydna for his wife, who doesnt want to appear on camera. Larry shes always been interested in genealogy. Chris the 99 dna test uses a saliva sample to trace family history. Heres how ancestry says it works. Female a simple test can reveal an estimate of your ethnic mix, like if youre irish, or scandinavian, or both. Chris for the guernseys, it was supposed to be fun. But their curiosity twisted to suspicion when they read the fine print. To proceed, theyd have to give ancestry a perpetual, royaltyfree, worldwide, transferable license to use their dna. Larry that entire phrase, perpetual, royaltyfree, worldwide, transferable, it just sounds like theyve left it open to do anything that they want with it. Chris larry was concerned the transferable license could put his familys dna in the hands of an Insurance Company that could later deny coverage. Larry you could get into some really weird Science Fiction scenarios. Hank greely thats not a crazy worry. Chris stanford law professor hank greely teaches and writes books about the intersection of biotech and the law. We brought him larrys concerns and ancestrys contract, including the perpetual, royaltyfree, worldwide, transferable license. Hank i think that was written by a lawyer who was probably getting paid by the word. Chris greely explained that a federal protection called gina, the Genetic Information nondiscrimination act, safeguards the public from your dna being used against you. Hank under current law, they cant deny you Health Insurance because of Genetic Information. Chris but greely says that protection doesnt apply to things like Life Insurance or longterm care insurance. And theres no guarantee gina will be on the books forever. In fact, a controversial bill in congress right now would strip away consumerfriendly parts of gina. Still, greely says human dna doesnt reveal as much as you might think. Hank our dna just frankly isnt that exciting for the most part. Id much rather let you have my dna than my credit card records or my Google Search records. Chris if thats the case, why do ancestry and other Companies Like it require a dna license to join . Money. Greely says medical researchers and pharmaceutical companies routinely need dna data to develop new products. And companies that have big dna databases, like ancestry, sell it to them. Hank some of them get a fair amount of their revenue by selling the analysis of your dna. Chris ancestrys website advertises that it has 3 Million People in its dna registry, and boasts the Worlds Largest consumer dna database. Were unsure how lucrative that data is because the company is privately held, and isnt obligated to publicly report how much it makes from selling dna data. We asked ancestry for an interview. It declined. In a statement, it said, we will not share dna data with third party marketers, employers, or insurance companies. Ancestrys website currently tells users they have a choice to later delete your dna test result or destroy your physical dna saliva sample. Ancestry also says it stores your dna sample without your name. Those statements are posted on its privacy page. However, theyre not in the contract you sign. Hank if it bothers you, if it offends you, if youre worried about what might be in there, then you shouldnt sign this contract. Chris larry didnt. He canceled. So now, the steps to tracing the guernsey family tree might include an oldfashioned graveyard walk instead of modern computer analysis, because handing over his familys dna to find his ancestors was just too much of a risk. Larry five years from now, maybe you know, evil corp or somebody like that decides to buy up all this Genetic Information. Announcer bay area singles on the lookout for love pay a local matchmaker thousands of dollars. But theyre still alone. The Company Responds to their complaints. And later, a woman scrutinizes her receipts and finds consumers are being overcharged one penny at a time. Award winning interface. Award winning design. Award winning engine. The volvo xc90. The most awarded luxury suv of the century. This july visit your local volvo dealer to receive sommar savings of up to 4,500. This july visit your local volvo dealer and i am a senior Public Safety my namspecialist for pg e. My job is to help educate our First Responders on how to deal with natural gas and electric emergencies. Everyday when we go to work we want everyone to work safely and come home safely. I live right here in auburn, i absolutely love this community. Once i moved here i didnt want to live anywhere else. I love that people in this community are willing to come together to make a difference for other peoples lives. Together, were building a better california. Hire a local matchmaker who knows the bay area dating scene. Yet those people are still alone. Online dating is popular, but it hasnt worked for maria payne. Maria its been very difficult. Chris so, an ad for Silicon Valley matchmakers caught her eye. The company touted itself as a personal and local dating service. She liked that. Even more important, the Success Stories she heard during orientation. Maria theyve linked up so many people, so many Success Stories. They showed me a few of them, you know, people that have gotten married through the site. Chris maria bought in. She paid nearly 8,000 up front for 16 months of matchmaking. But frustration soon kicked in. Maria says it turned out the service wasnt personal or local. She says she worked with multiple matchmakers by phone from a sacramento office. She says the matches they made were terrible fits. Maria im not being picky. Same mistakes over and over again. Its like, are you listening to what im saying to you . Have you looked at my profile . Chris marias membership is about to expire. She says her nearly eight grand fee to Silicon Valley matchmakers bought her four bad dates. Maria well, this is our lives, and theyre just taking advantage of that. I feel like ive been taken advantage of. Chris kim williams has a similar story, only she signed up with east bay matchmakers. She also bought in to promises of a personal and local service, plus a surplus of available men. Kim williams the reply was more than you could date. Chris kim signed a 3,000 contract for 6 months of local matchmaking. Its now up. She says she also had four dates, set up over the phone by people more than 100 miles away. Kim ultimately, what it is is, you know, very Little Service for a lot of money, like ive been totally taken advantage of, taken to the cleaners. Chris kim and maria went to different bay area offices, but they were dealing with the same company. It operates at least four bay area matchmaking companies, plus more than a dozen around the country, all from its headquarters in oklahoma. Its Vice President of operations flew here to address consumers concerns. Mike carroll one of the complaints you get over and over again is that they were promised some different schedule of matchmaking than what they literally just initially stating that they read. Chris hes right. Singles sign this contract that promises a matchmaking membership for a period of time. It says the company does not guarantee a specific number of introductions, does not guarantee any specific outcome, and cannot make a satisfaction guarantee. Mike i deal with professional, intelligent, articulate people. Theyre smart enough to understand the agreement that theyre entering into. Chris yet more than ten clients like maria and kim came to us with complaints. Carroll says that doesnt alarm him. He says more than 6,000 bay area singles have signed up over the past 5 years. And happy clients send letters every week. Mike we get invitations to weddings, and wedding videos, and cards and thank yous. Chris when we asked to meet one of those couples, the company introduced us to frank la patron from san rafael. Frank la patron when i walked out of there the first day, i said, what am i doing . Like, this is nuts, i cant believe i spent all this money. Chris frank told us he paid 4,100 for matchmaking that worked. A matchmaker in sacramento paired him with the woman who is now his fiancee. Frank we are engaged, we are happy, we are looking for a house to hopefully move in, and living the dream. Chris thats the dream maria, kim, and others feel they were sold, with testimonials like this on the matchmakers websites, and pictures of happy couples like these on the owners facebook page. But this testimonial from blake thanking Silicon Valley matchmakers for introducing him to his soul mate kristie also appears on east bay matchmakers, and even on one in nevada, where blake praises las vegas matchmakers for introducing him to his soul mate kristie. A quick search of those happy couple pictures