HO shouting and swearing at you?

Sitter Questions, Advice & Chat
21

At least there are categories now @richten1 where you may feel like deducting a star. Perhaps HO had had a long or stressful day and seeing the fridge door open was the final straw. None of us should be subjected to that behaviour though and I feel very sorry you were. Was there an apology together with the offer of coffee?

22

No. Just a day of biting at anything I said to him.

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23

His hospitality had obviously changed! Sorry you had to put up with this. I know you’ll review the sit fairly and factually @richten1. Hope you’ve got a great cat sit to follow this one.

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24

Did he just raise his voice and say something like, close the refrigerator?
I wouldn’t describe this at yelling at you.

25

I imagine you spent time reading reviews, getting to know the HO before the sit and must have had a positive impression to take it on. So when this shouting/berating occurred, It must have struck you as highly unusual behavior for any human being, particularly one whom you have vetted and had some interaction with.
The out-of-the-blue interaction you shared sounds horrible and bewildering. However, before grabbing a pitchfork and jumping on the bandwagon, it may be worth considering that perhaps something horrible happened to this individual just prior to your interaction that impacted his mental state.

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26

He shouted, swore and banged his fist on the kitchen top.

27

The HO only has 5 reviews but all 5 stars including sitters with 10’s of reviews.

28

I am quite confident that, having witnessed it, you are in a good position to know what happened and that you know what being shouted at is.

Also, I didn’t find any evidence in your posts of

I do get that people’s reactions may be the result of a difficult situation but that doesn’t mean they are acceptable or that we should tolerate them.

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29

I would dock a star for hospitality and say in the review that the HO’s mood swings unnerved me.

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30

Thank you. I’m certainly not trying to be sensational. I guess just trying to work out how to review this HO. I always look to the positive in people which makes this more difficult for me on this occasion.

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31

BTW interesting that the HO posted on this forum and was active but got banned due to his language and responses to posts so he told me.

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32

That’s bad, Run Forrest Run!

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33

Did he indicate whether he still reads the forum regularly? If so, he has the potential for a heads up re the nature of your review content. Just saying …

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34

Thanks. No he’s been banned from reading or writing on here

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35

Keep in mind now that you know he reads the posts here he will probably give you lower scores as you now know he reacts hastily to situations. I always like to score looking at all the positives as well. I learned that it is not fair to other sitters after me as I encountered situations that were not mentioned by sitters before me. I said I will no longer do that as I have always done in the past. You could also not review and just write a reply to his if you think this is a one off incident. It’s a tough call what to do. I would also struggle with that one.

36

As this forum is open to anyone, it could just be a switch of e-mail for logging in, one would presume.

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37

Good to know. I wasn’t aware that one could be banned from even reading it. Cheers for that

38

I wonder whether this would fall in the communication category. It’s true that treating people like that is not hospitable at all but, this HO showed several signs of hospitality like treating the sitter to dinners, cooking for them, providing groceries… I would say he doesn’t have adequate communication skills. It seems this was the case on the forum, too.

Anyway, I think what’s important is to state the facts so that others know what they can expect.

39

Sounds like anger issues or mood swings, which to me differ from communication issues. And having been blocked highlights a pattern.

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40

I had one of those. It was the wife who would jump down this guys throat on whatever he said in a yelling voice. I found it so psychologically abusive and so uncomfortable to be around. I arrived the night before and witnessed this the night before and all morning till they left. The cats were indoor, outdoor cats and I hardly saw the cats till they left, ha.

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