hi all, i’m still relatively new to the platform, this will be my third sit.
i accepted a cat sit starting next week and met with the owner on video chat. however, soon after our call, their account went inactive. i realize this is all based on memberships and they can expire. it still feels weird, should i be worried?
i only noticed because i logged back on to look at their cat photos again and all content is unavailable.
thanks for any wisdom!
It could be a few things: they’ve not renewed membership, their auto renewal was switched off, their payment card was out of date, they’ve been suspended due to a member dispute, THS has suspended the account due to it not meeting the T&Cs…
You should not do the sit otherwise you’ll not get a review and won’t be able to leave a review either, and if anything goes wrong you’re on your own…
You’ll also have no access to the Welcome Guide….or the address either or emergency contacts.
Contact them and tell them you went to your dashboard to view the welcome guide and their profile is inactive. Tell them they will need to make it active for you to continue with the sit. It could be so many reasons but find out from them.
If you have alternative contact details for them e.g WhatsApp then make immediate contact with them and check out what’s going on. If you don’t have then you should contact THS and ask them to make direct contact on your behalf. Don’t just try & turn up there- Anything could have happened and you don’t want to go into a sit blind.
thank you! it’s weird that THS would describe an account with an active sit without sending any messages but i’ll reach out to the owner and hope they can reactivate soon. i’d hate to cancel on them 4 days before a sit…
thank you so much! i’ll reach out to them and hopefully this will get straightened out.
Well it’s an indication of at best admin carelessness but at worst they’re poor hosts. I’d cancel.
Ask the host why they are inactive, if it’s a good reason and you comfortable then go ahead with the sit. As others said there’s no reviews to be done so less accountability but even when stuff happens THS doesn’t always help.
You say you accepted the sit, @mosspigglet , do you mean you confirmed the sit via THS, so it appeared in your dashboard?
Since you did a video call, you’ll have their telephone number. I suggest you message or ring them ASAP to find out why their THS account is now inactive and to ascertain whether they still want you to do the sit. If they do, it’s up to you whether to insist they reinstate their THS account (otherwise you’ll have no opportunity to either leave or receive feedback) or to do the sit regardless.
Have they had THS sitters before?
i reached out to them and will insist that they reactivate. they had a few others sitters before me, yes.
i’ll give them a chance to reactivate before Wednesday otherwise i will cancel. thank you again so much for your help!
i’ll give the owner today to reply to my whatsapp before i contact THS. thanks you for confirming that this is not normal and it’s indeed quite serious to proceed without their account being active!
So the listing is still reachable but the all content is blank? Or just the photos are missing? Are you getting any sort of error message, like “Listing not available?”
It’s possible this could just be a temporary tech issue on THS’ side. I’ve been seeing some slow-loading listings & profiles of late, that sometimes eventually load but other times they time-out. Later on when I check again I’ve been able to reach it. In addition, some people have been reporting missing content sections within listings (
)
As others have suggested, please reach out to the host directly/off-platform — but I would also check with member services. As the sit begins soon, perhaps one of the moderators could also help you get in touch/escalate your query…?
@Maeve @Sam_F @Jenny @Mark_B
Hi @MerryPuppins and thank you for tagging me on your post.
@mosspigglet Just for reference, I have passed this across to the Membership Services team and I will update once I hear back from them.
Hi @mosspigglet
This recently happened to me, though I was on the sit at the time. The HO’s listing and profile became inactive with around a week to go, so I contacted member services. I was told I was completely covered with THS for the duration of the sit and, despite the inactive profile, I was still able to leave and receive reviews (which turned out to be true). In my case, the HO had just renewed their membership, so I suspect the listing was removed as a result of their most recent ad being reported, as they were requesting money. It did make me nervous however, and several weeks later, their profile is still inactive.
Hi @mosspigglet An update as promised. I have now heard back from the team and someone will be reaching out to you shortly to assist, so please do keep a look out for an email from them.
Sam.
The problem could be connected to the tech glitches that THS has with reviews. I had a lot of problems with the reviews of my last sit (if you search for my other comments, you can see more details). For about 10 days, while THS was trying to fix the problem, I could not click on the homeowner’s name to see her profile and reviews, including mine. It looked exactly the same as when somebody leaves THS - no clickable link. Her profile is hyperlinked again, even though my review is still incorrect 
Just an update that based on advice here, I talked to them on WhatsApp and indeed the credit card had expired. I see their account being active again, so all good. Really grateful for the support!
Really good to know for the future. I had assumed T&Cs still cover the sit since the matchmaking was done by the platform.
Such a relief! So glad it all worked out for you.