New to THS. My husband and I recently did a sit with a Jack Russell that kept biting my husband. This started with the owners present. If we had been more clued up and aware that we could have walked away from the sit and been provided with alternative accommodation from the start we would have done that. After finding out a few days into the sit that the dog had bitten someone locally we felt really cross that the owners hadn’t disclosed the biting beforehand. THS chat bot advice was to sort this situation out with the owners but the bot didn’t say we could walk away from the sit or give further advice. Without a THS phone number to call or an email address with fast responses (I have emailed THS twice and after a week am still waiting for a reply) I feel very disappointed with THS customer service. I’ve reported the dog to THS in my emails in the hope they remove the listing to protect future sitters. I’m going to email the CEO but otherwise there doesn’t seem anything else to do. I don’t really want to report the dog to the police. I haven’t left the HO a review yet. Has anyone else experienced similar?
Welcome to the forum @Annon111
Sorry to hear of your experience - a dog that has previously been aggressive is not permitted on THS so yes you could have left the sit for your safety.
“5.2.4. ensure that no pets to be left under the care of a Sitter have ever caused a person or animal any physical harm (no matter how minor the injury);”
“5.2.11. not have any inherently dangerous pets ….. or any animal with a history of attacks on pets or people;
Whilst on a sit or incase of any urgent situations you can call the Urgent Support Phone line which is a 24/7 phone number .
You can also ask the bot to schedule a call with member services
Here is a link to the member dispute process which explains how to report the owners of this agressive pet .
@Annon111 I am sorry you have not been in touch with membership services yet. We’ll pass this on, and they will be in touch shortly to help you.
Wow, I knew this bot was utterly useless from first hand experience, but this is just another level. If you don’t support a user with giving them a human point of contact in the case of bitting, what are we paying for?
Maybe someone should feed the bot the Terms of service of the platform.
Sorry to hear about your experience and the lack of Costumer support with your case.
I scheduled a call with member services but when they called my phone only rang twice and they rang off. Not long enough for me to answer. Then they emailed to say I missed the call.
I was not able to find urgent support telephone numbers on the website. These should be easy to find. I will wait for support to contact me, thank you for your reply
Whenever using the bot, write ‘speak with agent’, and do this TWICE. You will then be connected to an actual human being.
Has the bite broken the skin? Are your husband’s tetanus shots up to date?
P.S. Please do submit a member dispute, via the link provided by @Silversitters . This will officially lodge your complaint/concerns.
No the biting didn’t break the skin but thanks for the advice. Good to know how to get the bot to put you through to an agent, thanks. Hopefully they will call me today now I’ve raised it on here. I also sent a copy of my complaint to the CEO this morning.
I did that (twice) a week ago but still no reply. Marked the email as Complaint as per website advice
Does this actually work?
I tried this once. I am not sure if I asked for an agent or a human, but I was still speaking with a bot pretending to be a human. No joke. It told me they were human but it was 100% a bot.
I noticed as I was sent long replies within a split second, no chance to even copy-paste some prepared default answers or to even read my last message.
Maybe I used the wrong code word, but the bot lying to me about being human just made me give up.
Using the word human does work, at least it has for me. Sometimes there isn’t an agent available and I have had a message that someone will contact me by email, haha.
PLEASE mention all of this in the review, as well as the owners’ response. It may turn out to be academic if they get removed from the platform as one would expect them to be but it still needs highlighting in the review.
Just to be clear there is no alternative accommodation provided. You can be on Premium but even then you need to cover the accommodation yourself and maybe, THS will pay you out to a maximum of $1350.
Also the support is extremely slow. Had a situation with a dog lunging at me and was emailing back and forth over 5 days. In the end I just dealt with it myself.
But click the report button none the less and get the owner of the platform. They don’t deserve to be on a platform if they are willing to put others in danger.
There is an urgent THS support line. I used it about a year or so ago with an aggressive animal. I was the first sitter which is why I will never be a first again. Recent rescue and host said OK to leave although I offered to stay the three days left as they were in another country celebrating a big anniversary and they hardly travel. Dream of a lifetime. She wanted me to leave as I feel she thought this could happen and she was scared this would happen and I could get hurt. I think she was scared of a law suit. I was calm and factual when talking to the host letting her know the pet was aggressive, has cornered me, hissed, and is scary. I was then told the pet has bitten men but thought it would be OK with a woman. I told THS when I called the urgent line. A real person answered , asked for the text exchange between us. A relative was going to take over in four hours so I packed, cleaned and left. Host no longer on this platform. She never reviewed me. I reviewed her and mentioned all the positives but also mentioned the aggressive pet . They were a lovely couple. Keep that number in your phone incase you ever have to use it.
Yes, definitely the word is “human”. They call the bots agents, and give them human names. As @teya mentioned, they can change the “agent”, pretending they’re human.
This happened to me, when I was trying to get in touch with a human agent in KLM, the airline. It was frustrating but I must admit it was a bit funny when I challenged the “agent” with a hispanic surname, to prove it was human and it said: “ OK, OK, I am a bot but I am trying to improve” 
I tried to click the report button but it just says… There was an issue submitting your report. Try again.
Hi @Annon111
I’m really sorry to hear about this, I’ve dropped you a DM with some more info.
@Annon111, really sorry to hear of your experience. We have faced dog bites on a housesit only once. Taking family member to hospital to check tetanus/other was low point in our housesitting journey. Host noted - after incidents - in writing that dog had history of biting. With pet parent agreement, we isolated dog within house when not walked, agreed early departure and left. Then raised a Member Dispute with THS. We ensured to provide all info/evidence listed in Member Dispute page (per @Silversitters). THS staff scheduled a brief call. After maybe 2-3 weeks, THS advised that Pet Parent had been permanently barred from the platform.
Big hug. Applauding your dispute submission. Dogs that bite are expressly against THS Terms of Service and have no place on the platform harming volunteer housesitters.
When even the bots are gaslighting us, you know we’re in trouble.