HO clueless about THS policy

Thank goodness!

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You’ve done the right thing @kirstyS and her response just proves that. Hopefully Membership Services will now do their job and contact her, supporting you. As to waiting for her to set a date, no, you set the date. You will be leaving in 48 hours. You’re in charge now!

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I was going to say, that the “your thoughts?” at the end, sent to the type of HO this is, is just going to cause explosive verbal abuse. But the letter is good in that you can prove you tried! And I’m not shocked that it resulted in a blow up that forced you to finally cut and run.

At some point you do have the right to block communication from someone being so verbally abusive, just for your own sanity.

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Yes, I’m thrilled that we will be out of here on Saturday, though I feel really bad about the dogs. We’ve bonded and everything.

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Ah yes, the ‘your thoughts’ was for you guys :grin:

she got verbally abusive last night, so THS made contact on my behalf. It’s bizarre how one person can ruin the experiences of so many other people! I’m really excited to leave.

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Do make sure you leave an honest and unemotional review @kirstyS. No doubt she may leave you a nasty review but as THS has been in touch with her now, she has been warned so may not even review you.

You’ve gone over and above your responsibilities to her and suffered stress from her. Staying till Saturday is even far more generous than required.

Wishing your next sit to be wonderful and that the HO appreciates you. :hugs:

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Thank you so much :pink_heart::pink_heart::pink_heart::pink_heart:

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Update:

She told me we need to leave tomorrow. I said the sit ends Saturday and let her know I would be blocking her. I’ll attach the screenshots of the convo here, and hopefully they’ll stay attached :joy:

I counted the screenshots of our communications - there are 60 pages on WhatsApp. For 6 days :joy:

(Screen shots removed as per the posting guidelines)

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Update, HO sent colleagues to bully us out of the house yesterday, and we are currently trying to process the trauma in a b&b booked last minutes in high season :roll_eyes:

This is my review. Anyone with a couple of minutes cast their eye over it? Too emotional? Not emotional enough? It’s extremely difficult to convey the distress we’ve had these last few days.

REVIEW: First off, the dogs (yes, there are three), are some of the loveliest, absolute best dogs I have ever met. H is a young rescue with a significant hip problem, but it doesn’t slow her down and she is full of fun. D is super smart and very obedient. S is a bit older than the other two, and had a hard life before her recent rescue, but is super-loving and very chill. All three are very sensitive, easy on their walks (they need to be driven to their walks) and just lovely to be around.

The cave house is such a boon in the very hot weather and the pool was easy enough to maintain and offered a welcome respite from the often excessive heat.

Unfortunately, S, who is new to the platform, had not acquainted herself with THS policy or the Code of Conduct, had provided inadequate communications prior to the sit and was in breach of multiple policies, as we discovered only when we arrived. My partner and I were willing to overlook these, but S’s excessive and unreasonable demands, constant monitoring of ourselves on her outdoor camera, and excessive and unclear communications rendered the sit untenable after only a few days. What was supposed to be a sit of over seven weeks, ended in bullying and extremely unpleasant circumstances after only a week.

I cannot condone the placing of sensitive and loving dogs in a kennel when loving and caring people are available and willing to look after them.

I do not recommend this sit.

(edited by Forum team to remove names as per Community Guidelines)

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I Like the how you start with the positives of the pets and home .

I’m am unsure what this sentence means ?

This is too vague - As a sitter I want to know the specifics of which policy so that I can make an informed decision. ( eg had a third party staying in the home, had internal cameras which were not disabled , had a dangerous or aggressive pet ) My suggestion would be that you state the facts that demonstrate which terms were broken.

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Oh good point, thank you. I don’t know how to state unemotionally that she put her dogs in a kennel for six weeks rather than admit she was wrong. Despicable.

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She’s also slandering me something wild.

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I am out so haven’t much time to reply but I think you should also mention the people coming to put you out of the house.

That must have been awful for you :face_holding_back_tears:

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Genuinely traumatising

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I agree that you need to specify what policies she breached and be more specific on other details. “Excessive", “inadequate”, “unreasonable” are subjective, for example. One sitter might think that 2 messages a day is excessive, so clarify in your review.

Also, your sentence about putting dogs in a kennel seems out of context to someone who doesn’t know the background. Either remove it or explain how it relates to this specific sit. Are you sure that the dogs don’t like the boarding place? Some dogs love them. I haven’t read every post here to get the full background, but neither will the THS members who just read your review.

Sorry you had to endure this.

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You’re right - it is a bit subjective and the kennels bit is out of context. Thank you all for the constructive feedback. So grateful for the forum!

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Write out what happened, as emotional as you like, but with lots of specific detail. Then copy and paste your text into ChatGPT and ask it to rewrite in a factual, unemotional way.

Here is a big hug for you after the trauma you went through!

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That’s a great idea, but I’ve still never used ChatGPT :joy:

I had just finished a second draft of the review when I saw your message:

Review

First off, D, H and S (yes, there are three. S is a foster and a recent addition), are some of the loveliest, absolute best dogs I have ever met. H is a young rescue with a significant hip problem, but it doesn’t slow her down and she is full of fun. D is super smart and very obedient. S is a bit older than the other two, and had a hard life before her recent rescue, but is super-loving and very chill. All three are very sensitive, easy on their walks (they need to be driven to their walks) and just lovely to be around.

The cave house is a boon in the very hot weather and the pool was easy to maintain and offered a welcome respite from the heat.

Unfortunately, the homeowner had not acquainted herself with THS policies or the Code of Conduct, had provided inadequate communications prior to the sit and was in breach of multiple core policies, as we discovered only when we arrived: An undisclosed pet, booking her return to overlap the end of our sit by two days, a tidy but dirty home, and not disclosing her outdoor camera and then using it to monitor us and communicate with us about our actions. My partner and I overlooked most of these issues - just gave the place a good clean, loved the third dog to pieces, started making plans to stay elsewhere for the two nights before our flight home (though we weren’t happy with having our actions on camera commented on), but the homeowners ever-changing demands, constant monitoring on the camera, and excessive and unclear communications rendered the sit untenable after only a few days. Over 5 days, the two of us generated 30 pages of WhatsApp messages, and I was expected to be available at all times for phone calls, her preferred method of communication. Because of S’s needs, and because the homeowner had not organised enough medication for S before she left, or left me with any of the dogs’ documentation, there were another 40-odd pages of WhatsApp comms over the same period with the dog rescue centre (officially S’s owner) and a friend of the homeowner, living locally, trying to coordinate actions for the dogs.

The homeowner expected us to pay for the dogs’ treats ourselves, as she hasn’t left enough, and wanted constant updates. I willingly obliged with updates, but the sit was over long before the treats ran out. She stated that it was only a few euros for the treats, and she had left us lots of food. She had indeed left some food and drink, but had also told us to replace it. We didn’t touch any of it.

There were far too many (changing) demands to list here, but the homeowner also expected us to do jobs around the house and outdoors that she hadn’t got around to since she moved in a year or two ago. We were actually going to do some of them to be obliging, until the nature of the situation became clearer.

What was supposed to be a sit of over seven weeks, surrounded by loving doggies, ended in bullying and extremely unpleasant circumstances after only a week, when the homeowner sent colleagues over to get us out of the house, without warning, under the guise of taking her dogs to a kennel, the day before the newly agreed end-of-sit date. My partner and I helped with transporting the dogs to the kennel (a truly heartbreaking experience), gave the homeowners cave another clean, and got out of there. At enormous expense.

It is far too long a story to tell here, but it is incomprehensible to me that someone would place their sensitive and needy pups in a kennel, as she did, when loving and caring humans are available and willing to mind them in their home, rather than adjust her behaviours to be more in line with the platform’s recommendations.

It felt like the homeowner considered the use of her home an enormous favour, and that we were staff rather than pet sitters. I do not recommend this sit.

(Post edited by the Forum Team to remove names as per the Terms of Service).

@kirstyS I’m so sorry you have had to endure this traumatic sit and I’m so glad you are now out of it. Getting the ‘heavies’ in to remove you physically is really a step too far. What a horror story.

If I were in your shoes I would be a great deal stronger in my review. She deserves it. I would take the sandwich approach. In this case negative/positive/negative. And drop a lot of stars.

You have stated all the positives first then the negatives. I would actually start with a strong negative statement then say the positives.

E.g “Unfortunately this sit, which was scheduled to be 7 weeks long, descended into a nightmare due to extreme and unreasonable behaviour from the host. My partner and I did our absolute best to accomodate the host as far as we were able, and to reason with her, but we were forced to leave after a week. Details below.

But first, before expanding further I would like to say.. “

Then add all the positives..

Now the details of the negatives with more specific examples of how the HO broke the terms and conditions. Maybe make bullet points?

Finish with something like. “I absolutely do not recommend this sit to anyone”

If you are lucky she will not review you at all. That would be the best case scenario. Better no review than a bad one on your profile. But If she does review you negatively you will need to defend yourself with a calm, non reactive response to her review.

I hope THS takes your complaint (Member Dispute) seriously, acts on it and removes this host from the platform.

I wish you many wonderful sits in the future. This is a crazy situation and it is absolutely not the norm. Please don’t let this experience put you off from future sitting.

Sending you a hug! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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What a fabulous opening paragraph! Thank you so much for the guidance. I could possibly secure another sit around here, I think, but I’m so frightened :sob:

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