I applied for a sit, was very quickly and with no back and forth “accepted” - it is local, not far from here so about 10 days prior to the start of the sit I went and visited - met the pets and spent a good hour with the HO - she gave me a key and we said we’d connect again to choose a time for me to “move in”. This afternoon, the day before I am to start the sit, I went to retrieve her contact info and confirm what time to show up and the profile is GONE and I can’t even access our conversation. I am very concerned that I have a key and they have abandoned the conversation.
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Hi @Sati we are sorry you’ve had this experience and I know Laura from the Membership Services Team is helping you with this.
This owner’s membership has expired, we are sure it’s an oversight as they were not on auto renewal, once a membership expires there is no communication possible.
This unfortunate situation Sati finds herself in highlights the importance of communication, having alternative means of contact and managing one’s membership
We are helping both member’s with this situation.
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Thank you so much. I had not considered that as a possibility. Very glad to hear that it is less weird than I thought it was!
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You are so welcome, thank you for bringing this to the forum and I’m so glad we could help.
Lesson learned! Get the info into my phone!
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OMG that’s horrible I’m a home owner I would never treat anyone that way. I always talk a lot before I even confirm my sitter as I truly want my pets to be love & cared for otherwise I don’t leave. I wouldn’t leave a sitter stranded & also don’t mind at all if they come & stay at my home 2 days prior to leaving as I can show them about they’ll see the animals routine & ask any questions neither of us thought of even take them shopping when first arrive. I’m very grateful that they would stay in my modest mobile home & care for it
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I will admit this happened to me one time several years ago and it was completely unintentional! I was traveling for work and my credit card was stolen right around the TH renewal time. We had to cancel our card, and I did not recall that it was tied to my TH membership. I don’t recall seeing (but maybe I missed) notices about the TH renewal issue. I discovered the problem when I could not login to TH and had to contact TH support to get it all resolved. As it would happen, it was also during an unusually busy personal time and so it took me nearly 2 weeks to get it all sorted and back online - at which point I did apologize to a planned sitter for going “radio silent” on our conversation.
Health emergencies, weddings/funerals, unplanned out of town trips, children or pets who are in trouble, fires, theft . . . sadly these things happen and become unplanned priorities in life. In my experience, TH people and pet lovers are caring, compassionate individuals who mean well. Sometimes perfect storms happen and we need to show each other a bit of grace. 
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Thank you for this sentiment @pdr … Looking at situations from the other person’s perspective, showing empathy and when appropriate a sense of humor, can often make a difficult situation easier to manage.
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Excellent point @pdr
One of the greatest things I came to realize since I started doing this “work” is that most people really are kind and wonderful. We need to practice learning how to better communicate and be more compassionate towards one another.
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