Appalling mailing system -disappointed

Thanks for your feedback @Jazzys.

The product team are aware at the limitations of the current inbox on the website and would like to make improvements to it in the future. In the meantime, the app inbox is a better experience and whilst not having everything you mention, should hopefully help you in replying to messages.

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Hi all. I am finding the Inbox not to be all that efficient or user-friendly. Looking for any tipsā€¦

  1. I find it hard to glean WHEN I have a new message from someone. Iā€™m not a fan of individual email ā€˜notificationsā€™, so I typically just go to the site and my Inbox, then look at the list of messages. I may have up to 15 conversations going on at a time, and while it SEEMS that the font of a new message may appear SLIGHTLY darker in the Inbox list, itā€™s still hard to glean. I shouldnā€™t have to open up every individual conversation to see who may have written a new message. Is there no way to set the order in which messages appear, or by Unread messages?

  2. What if I have three upcoming sits where Iā€™m trying to confirm a sitter, and letā€™s say Iā€™m now ready to focus on sit #2 that is further down the road. Is there no way for me to filter my Inbox so that I ONLY see those sitters/conversations that are applicable to THAT particular sit (i.e., my sit #2)? Right now, it seems that again, I have to open every single conversation to try and find the particular folks who are interested in a particular sit.

  3. As far as ā€˜Labellingā€™ folks whoā€™ve written me, as Like, Possible or Got a Weird Vibe (I think thatā€™s how the labels are)ā€¦ Iā€™ve noticed that, while thereā€™s an implication that we can EDIT the labels or ADD one of our own, that none of this ever works for me. I simply cannot edit or add labels.

  4. I found that once I confirmed a sitter for a particular sit, that the TH system automatically sent a blunt ā€˜Declinedā€™ message to all the other people who expressed interest in those dates. Is there any way for me to remove such a default message? I was rather upset that the TH system sent out such a message. I found it very rude, especially since Iā€™d not yet had the chance to communicate directly with any of these folks. (I then had to take the time to follow up with a group message, apologizingā€¦)

Thanks all.

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1 - are you on the app or the website? for me on the website there is a distinctly different background color for new messages and they move to the top of the list. so itā€™s very obvious when a new message has arrived. I do with that there was an alert in the dropdown nav that showed there are unread messages though rather than having to go into the inbox page.

2 - no, there is not

3 & 4 I canā€™t comment on.

I can only see access messages on the web not on the app. Dont know whether that apples to all here.
I also have an issue now when my message is unread whether receiver knows rhey have a message & hasnt read it or whether its not visible to them. This is due to messaging and accepting a sit that the HO hadnt got or wasnt aware of.
So i think there are some issues.

As @CreatureCuddler asks, are you on the app or the website?
Like others, I hate the app and cannot fathom out how to use anything on it. The only reason that I have it on one of my devices is to see and be notified of Favourites which I cannot see on the Website.
So I recommend that you just use the Website, it is easier (not perfect) to navigate

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I only use the website, not the app. And for new messages, I have no distinctly different background colorā€¦just that the font is SLIGHTLY darker to indicate that there is a new message from the particular sitter. But again, the font is so slightly darker, that even then, itā€™s hard to know there is a new message.

I also donā€™t like that thereā€™s no way for us to include Private notes to ourselves, so that we can recall, for any particular sitter. So for e.g., before sits, I like to have Zoom calls, and then I make some quick notes on my thoughts of the conversation. I wish we could attach private notes to ourselves, related to various sitters we communicated withā€¦

I changed my post to a more friendly comment and I hope that it goes with the forum rules.

Thank you very much for bringing this, in my eyes, completely unnecessary, request, back up.
It seems that there are not many members here sharing your complaint and your post had me thinking of you saying: ā€œhop!ā€ and THS has to jump.
It also seems like changing the mailing system isnā€™t a priority to THS, because other matters are currently more important.

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This is ā€œhop!ā€ to me.

I donā€™t have any complaints about the mailing system, so yes, I am fine with most of the site.
As long as I renew my membership automatically, I donā€™t pay more.

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I am not a native English speaker.
I donā€™t want to pet sit and will not do so in the future. Maybe you read the other post about platform praise. I donā€™t seem to be the only one, who is content with THS.
If youā€™re not satisfied here and others are better, you are free to move on.

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as a native english speaker, we 100% use the word hop.

Letā€™s talk again in a few yearsā€™ time when you are in the sitterā€™s shoes and doing this often.

As someone whoā€™s been sitting here for a few years, iā€™m in those shoes and I think most of your requests are pretty unnecessary and over the top. If your mailing needs are so high maintenance, perhaps you need to reassess your work flow.

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I have been with them for 4 years and seen many changes, some good, some bad.
I know they are working on several improvements at the moment. We were one of the couples interviewed asking our opinion. I found the whole video talk very worthwhile and it was good to hear the challenges the team are facing.

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I know what to do thank you for your concern
feel free to move on yourself

A Community Rules reminder:

Francine,
Voluntary Forum Moderator
Tag: @Angela_L

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yes. It is. in the context it was used, it means to get started right away. ex: ā€œhop to itā€. You demanded change and expected them to hop to it. Now youā€™re upset they didnā€™t. @anon39388349 used it correctly.

this is not about me

This is correct, which is why admins prioritize needed changes so that the changes that will help the most people will be done first and the changes that only a few people (or one person) needs, go to the bottom of the very long list.

Thank you @Snowbird for reminding members to be ā€œKind and Courteousā€

There have been too many occasions over the past few days where it has been necessary to post this reminder ā€¦ May we also remind everyone that we reserve the right to delete any offensive comments and will take even greater steps to protect the integrity of this forum and our members who come here expecting courteous, mature and respectful conversation, even when disagreements around points of discussion occur.

This forum is not Social Media, it is NOT the street where anything goes. The forum is the fine dining restaurant you enter off the street, where there are rules for and standards of behavior in place so that other diners may enjoy the time they spend dining.

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Maybe we should keep this forum for productive comments and/ or replies instead of opinions or useless comments such as: donā€™t know , cannot comment etc.
Unfortunately it IS social media, in theory, button course we should keep courteous and respectful. We are 1000s in this web (maybe that is the problem?) so sometimes it does get overcrowded, - wouldnā€™t really compare this to fine dining, prefer to think of it as a walk together in a park ( keep within the spirit of the subject)
I was going to write more here, then decided to put it as a new postā€¦