On the website it says that if you apply for 5 sits, and don’t get accepted within 14 days of applying for the last one, you can get your subscription fees back.
Which I did. But THS refuses.
I’m sure I’m not the only one that took that as a deciding factor when subscribing. They just refuse, saying I should’ve cancelled within the first 14 days. (which is a different policy all together)
Anyone else having the same problem?
Hi @Lenie
I can see that you’ve spoken to Membership Services about this and they’ve confirmed our policy which is:
I can see that you’ve requested to escalate your concerns around the wording of the policy within Trusted Housesitters, and someone will be in touch with you soon.
Jenny
@Jenny said it’s if you are “unsuccessful in confirming a sit within 14 days of making your 5th application”. So that’s what you signed up to, so THS is totally right on this occasion… so you may as well make the most of it, just apply for more sits and embrace the whole experience, because it’s fantastic!
We love sitting with THS, it’s a brilliant way of life for us. We joined THS around 2 years ago, and in that time we have pet-sat in our own country 30+ times, and we’ve completed 6 overseas sits too, with more booked in for 2025. So embrace it!!! You’ll love it once you get started!
There’s loads of tips on the forum to help you get your first sit, by improving your profile, and the types of sits you have a higher chance of getting with having no THS reviews at the start.
I hope you get your first sit soon.
Glad you are having a great experience!
I was unsuccessful in confirming a sit 14 days after my 5th application, so what I signed up for gives me a refund under those circumstances.
For most of the sits I applied for, it seems that they had a high volume of applications, or wanted someone more experienced or they were already finalising things with someone else. Where I am it might just be more competitive and harder for a first time sitter to get in. Which is fine, but knowing this might be the case, I actually wouldn’t have applied if it wasn’t for the money back promise.
Besides, if they won’t keep there promise on this, would you trust them on anything else? Great if you do, but I can’t
Hi @Lenie
I’ve double checked our correspondence with you, and can see that we’ve confirmed that the refund request was to be made within 14 days, but that you’re disputing this and have asked to speak to a manager.
I’d recommend waiting to hear from one of our Managers who would be happy to go through things again.
Jenny
(post edited by Jenny to correct information previously given)
Wow, suddenly there is responses if you say something on a forum. I haven’t been contacted yet though, so find it hard to believe.
Hi @Lenie
The Forum isn’t connected to Membership Services, so our response times may be different.
As I’m sure you’ll understand, an escalation to a manager means that they’ll need to take some time to read over any correspondence that’s been sent over, so that they have a full picture of what’s happened.
I’m happy to confirm though, that after letting the team know about your Forum post, one of the team has confirmed that they are looking into things so I’m hopeful that you’ll hear from someone soon. 
Jenny
Thanks for checking on that, I’m eagerly awaiting to talk to someone.
@Jenny said:
@Lenie said:
@Lenie, you’ve worded it differently to @Jenny, as though you thought you had 14 days from making your 5th application. Is that right, or was it a typo? If that’s right, you don’t have 14 days after your 5th application, you needed to make your 5 applications within 14 days of signing up.
Response times - When I’ve raised something with THS sometimes I’ve received an answer within 4 hours, and other times it’s been the following day, it just depends on their workload.
Hope you get it sorted.
Nope, that’s not what it says. English is not my first language, but even so, there clearly just trying to get out of paying members back.
I got a reply from the team. As I was saying they were trying to say I don’t qualify under cooling off period while I was asking for the money back promise.
They will process the refund.
If you are in a similar situation, just make some noise on the forum and on review sites, that seems to get a response.
Hi @Lenie
Thanks for popping back to let us know that you managed to get things sorted out
Hopefully the feedback that you shared about your experience with my colleague will help make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else.
Jenny
I would suggest to try for less popular sits to get some reviews under your belt. I think only applying to 5 and wanting to quit is giving up too easily.
I would question if some incident happened at a sit would you want to leave and give up the sit or figure out how to fix the situation. It won’t be rosy every day on the sit.
You may want to link your profile so you get some feedback. A tweak here and there may make the difference.
Somehow, I have the feeling that TrustedHousesitters can almost be glad to have one less troublemaker if that’s your approach to problem-solving. “To make some noise in the forum”… giving up so early… For THS, you really need a decent amount of resilience and a solution-oriented mindset, and not always assume that someone means you harm. I also don’t believe that THS really cares about the few dollars/euros or whatever, it’s a simple cost-benefit calculation. The stress probably isn’t worth it to them, not because you make noise in the forum. That’s just a bit ridiculous, sorry. Typically, the travel and effort to have a sit cost more money than the annual membership fee.
Good luck
Pet sitting is hard work. Not just the actual pet sitting but the process before, during and after. A cannot list the skills a good pet sitter needs to succeed.
Communication skills and patience are two we all must have. Being able to communicate with each other is a must and I don’t just mean writing pretty applications and replies, I mean really communicating - reading so everything is understood, listening to everything that is said, writing clearly your needs and expectations.
After reading through this thread I realise there are faults on both sides. Some people see this as an easy option to travel …… free accommodation! They don’t take time away and think about the implications of looking after a strangers pets and home. THS has brought some of this upon themselves with their advertising regime so they are not blameless.
Then we come to patience. Waiting for the correct sit to be listed. Understanding that the host may not have a pet sitter high on their list of priorities (why do they list then, I ask myself that almost every week). Even finding a convenient time for the video call which suits both parties. The whole application process takes time and patience. It’s not an instant thing. We don’t get everything we want. We have to work for it.
I’m in a very lucky (not the correct word because I’ve had to work damned hard for it) position with over 120 reviews and a good reputation in the community we sit in most of the year. I know it’s hard for newbies, I can remember but the work and patience is worthwhile if you want THS to work for you. Giving up at the first hurdle is not the way forward.
What isn’t immediately clear (and perhaps should be more so) is whether, in order to benefit from the money back guarantee, you need to have applied unsuccessfully for five sits WITHIN THE FIRST 14 DAYS of joining THS. The fact that the wording states that ‘this applies to your first-year membership only’ implies not, and that at any point during your first year of membership, if you found yourself in the position of having applied for five sits (and presumably more), and not been accepted for any, you could activate the money back guarantee within 14 days of your most recent application.
I agree with Becca. The wording is unclear and should be looked at and revised.
Hi everyone,
I just wanted to pop on and provide some clarification, as there are a couple of different types of refund, and a little confusion based on the initial advice that brought OP to the Forum.
The refund that OP was asking for was our money-back promise for first-time members, who must be unsuccessful in confirming a sit within 14 days of making their fifth application - but they do not have to apply for the refund within those 14 days. This is the screenshot I shared previously from the website:
The other kind of refund is where we can offer a refund to someone who is within 14 days of joining THS (and who doesn’t have to be a new member), and who have not applied to any sits. Here’s a screenshot from the relevant web page:
I understand what you’re saying about the wording of the Money Back Promise, and we’ve fed that back to the team, as OP had to escalate their enquiry to get the correct confirmation that it applied to their situation.
I hope this explanation makes sense!
Jenny
Glad that you got it sorted @Lenie and thank you for coming back to update the forum with the outcome.
@Jenny forum members previously noticed this ambiguity in the wording and commented on it last year - April 2024
