I want to know if there’s an actual phone number to contact Trusted Housesitters? A friend, who I referred to THS, has had a terrible experience with a sitter who lied about who she is and, after committing to a sit and the owners were already gone, told them she wanted them to pay her $50 a day. And this after having already left her $140 on this sit and on the previous sit $100.
How much do the sitters pay to be on THS?
There’s an urgent helpline number on your dashboard if you’re a member @AreYouThatWoman - same for your friend if she’s a THS member. Sitters pay the same membership fees as owners. She needs to report the sitter and send a link to her profile and screenshots of the payment demands to MS. Totally outrageous! #reportherasap
Thanks. I called the number but this doesn’t qualify as an urgent matter. I don’t agree - it should. They want us to email which we will do.
@AreYouThatWoman when your friend sends an e-mail they need to put “member dispute” as the title .
This thread discusses the member dispute/ complaint process .
It’s important that it is the host who raises the dispute ( not you as a third party )
https://forum.trustedhousesitters.com/t/member-dispute-process
Sorry this happened to your friend @AreYouThatWoman .
Sitters can’t ask for money to sit. Hope your friend will both leave an honest and factual review (reviews are blind, so the sitter can’t see theirs until she has submitted hers or the 14 day window is over) and file a member dispute.
This seems to be happening more and more. The “no payment “ rule is buried deep in the Ts&Cs, and i think some newbies don’t know about it, and are taken advantage of by unscrupulous sitters. It should be displayed much more prominently when a sit is confirmed.
I’m confused… They already left her $140, and they previously paid her $100 to sit for them before…?? 
Kind of sounds like they brought this on themselves by previously paying, and sounds like neither party fully understands the nature of the THS exchange. And the sitter is now trying to squeeze more money out of it.
Yes, the owners need to sort that out with THS.
Are these payments to do additional tasks not included in house/pet sitting or were previous payments for specific costs eg cleaners/gardeners/groomers etc. It sounds odd.
Yes, I was just trying to help her navigate this process. It isn’t always that crystal clear especially for someone new to THS.
Thanks
Sitters pay a membership fee of approximately $130 - $200 USD or so, based on which type of membership they choose. Annually.
Owners can voluntarily tip sitters, but sitters should never ask for any form of payment (cash or other).
Sorry, but my friend just thought she was doing a kindness to provide money for mileage, etc. She is new to THS and I told her (after the fact) that she shouldn’t have done this. That being said, there was no agreement on the second house sit for her to be paid $50 a day. And I”m sure she thought that since they were already gone, they wouldn’t have any other option. The other thing is that we have since found out this person is not who she claims to be. So one must ask what kind of due deligence is THS doing to make sure people aren’t frauds?
Is she using someonelse’s profile ?
I gave my passport (UK), but in the US there is an extra level of checks too.
They aren’t really doing much “due diligence“, as far as I know… They did not check the external references when I joined. In Canada at least you did not have to have a police background check; I recall having to upload a driver’s license. That was pretty much it.
Such a shame that people like this are spoiling the THS experience. It sounds like your friend needs to cancel that sit and send the person packing. I hope they will get help from member services and guidance on whether to involve authorities if there is any fraud involved with the person not being who they said they were. Best of luck to them.
No. They were able to do a search through a legal friend’s phone app that provided her real name and city where she lives. Neither were what she provides on THS. Unfortunately, the legal person cannot provide this information to THS.
Where she lives, or where she’s traveling? Travelers currently enter where they’re staying. Which, as travelers, is often not where they live or hold permanent residence. There’s a significant difference.
She could have six different names and still not be doing anything wrong. Many use AI-generated photos, aliases etc to protect their privacy, especially since all profiles are currently used in public due to marketing.
Did your friend join with the intention of finding a long-term setup outside THS, or were both sits confirmed through the platform?
It’s not unusual for hosts to offer use of car or cover transport. The real issue, for both sides, is if that turns out to be untrue. If cash-in-hand labour is involved and reviews are based on that.
Unfortunately, this is one of the sideeffects of using real-work language in the platform’s processes and marketing. It creates a misleading impression of something it’s not.
In the end, the real losers are those reading these false reviews in good faith.
So curious about this. What information did the friend’s friend use to discover the alternate identity? Reverse phone search? Photos? I wouldn’t even know where to start.
Where is your proof of this in relation to THS, @buttercup ? I have seen no actual data on this so would be very wary of generalising, considering the many thousands of members there are.
@temba Never said all..and I think it’s fair that some people are privacy-conscious and want to protect themselves, whether that means using AI or an older photo.
The real issue in that context, in my view, is that profiles are visible to the general public, not just paying members, but that’s a different topic.
In this case, the point was simply that some value their privacy more than others. It doesn’t necessarily mean anything beyond that.
To be honest she may not have lied about her identify. For example the name I use day to day and on my profile is different from my passport/legal name and I also change my profile location frequently to reflect where I am or where I wish to be. The address THS have for me is my legal registered address, because I had to provide something but I live a nomadic life so am never there! It’s a friends address. However I am not hiding anything or lying to anyone. This could be the same for this sitter if she was asked directly.
However she certainly should not be asking for payment. Either she doesn’t understand the THS concept or she is deliberately trying to extort money. Either way she should be reported to THS and, if necessary, have a member dispute raised against her.