Hi! Just looking for advice. I’ve been using Trusted Housesitters for two years now. Generally I’ve had great experiences with sitters, minus a couple that were below-average but ok. But I just got home from a 2.5-week trip, and I’m furious.
It took me hours of cleaning, reorganizing, moving furniture, and doing laundry to get my apartment back to normal, plus I’m missing a few things and found at least one thing that’s broken. Question 1) Is it worth the hassle to try to use TH insurance for a couple hundred dollars worth of missing towels and broken pots?
Even worse, I don’t think the litter boxes were changed more than once or twice the entire time I was away. (For 3 cats.) The litter had turned into this heavy black sludge that had to be scraped off the bottom of the litter box. It was completely disgusting. Poor cats. They could have gotten sick, or started going outside the litter box. Also, one of the cats has a small injury. It might not be the sitter’s fault, but he was so negligent otherwise that I’m suspicious. Question 2) Is there anything I can do, other than leave a bad review? This person should never be in charge of a pet’s welfare.
If you have any suggestions (or similar stories) I’d love to hear them!
Hi @Anna2 - sorry to hear of your experience, never nice and the litter trays sound disgusting. A few things you can do - talk to HQ either on the chat bot (ask for a human) and/or email support@trustedhousesitters.com for some assistance and to report the sitter. Hopefully they’ll get at least a warning or be kicked off the platform. Do you have photos of when you returned as they would be handy as evidence? Write a full, factual, non emotional review of the sitter and your experience to warn future HOs and know it’s blind so you won’t get a retaliatory one. Did they have good reviews before your sit? Were there red flags you missed for next time? Hopefully your cats will recover soon as will you. There are 1000s of brilliant sitters out there, unfortunately this wasn’t one of them….
@Anna2
This sounds like an awful experience. Whilst a factual the review is very important and will warn future Homeowners about the sitter, THS don’t read them. So to make them aware - you need to contact member support as @Cuttlefish has said then there is a procedure for reporting members and they will investigate.
Did the sitter have any previous reviews from sits on the THS platform ?
With regard to the insurance claim
The THS insurance requires that you claim for your own home insurance first, it also won’t reimburse for (III 6 ) (e) “mysterious disappearance, loss, or any unexplained loss of Contents; “
So unless you have proof that the sitter took them ( other than they are missing ) it may not be possible to claim but again you can ask member services for clarification about what is covered and how to claim.
We’re sitters. That sounds like someone that has never taken care of cats before, and maybe hasn’t had the responsibility of having their own place before. I am so sorry this happened to you, it’s horrible.
Such a person shouldn’t be taking care of any living creature. Even had someone never taken care of cats before, they should have seen and smelled the litter nightmare. Plus, they could’ve asked or looked up a billion YouTube videos if they were clueless. And the missing stuff you described is not at all OK.
Please report them and write a factual review to spare other pets and homeowners.
Yikes….that is an awful situation (pets and home) to return to, after being away. Factual and honest review is best. The updated system lends itself to this very type of review, to nip this unacceptable sitter behavior in the bud. Hope this is a one-off and your next sitter is as great as all the others, excluding this last experience.
Thanks for the info! He didn’t have any reviews, but four references. For some reason this year it was hard to find a sitter for the holidays, so there wasn’t much competition. Otherwise he wouldn’t have been my first choice, but I thought it would be fine… I didn’t take pics, unfortunately. I was sick and had a million things to do when I got home other than cleaning up after him…
Thank you! That’s good to know about insurance and reaching out to THS. He didn’t have any reviews, just four references. He wouldn’t have been my first choice, but I didn’t get many applications for Christmas this year. There weren’t any red flags, so I thought it would be ok…
I know, you’d think, but he said he had cats and his own place. At first when I saw the mess I just thought he was a clueless guy who hadn’t gotten over his frat house lifestyle. (I’m really not sure that he realizes he screwed up.) But the litter box issue just isn’t ok. It’s a super easy sit - just make sure the cats have food, water, and a clean litter box…
I was sick and had a million things to do when I got home other than cleaning up after him…