I have decided not to continue with my THS membership when it lapses in a few weeks, and so have been trying to turn off auto-renewal. However, I get the message that I must cancel the pending sits I have - which I fully intend to cancel. However, I cannot see the facility for me to be able to cancel these sits as a sitter. . . . This means that there appears to be no way I can turn off auto-renewal at all, and THS appears able to just take this yearly member from me regardless, as it has my bank details. Is there a way I can stiop this?
If you are cancelling your already confirmed sits all together, like not do them, I do hope you have contacted the homeowners to advise them you are not going ahead with their sits and that they need to cancel YOU from their end in order for them to relist the sit. You can’t cancel a sit. But! Once you turn off auto renew and your membership ends, you won’t be able to see anything on your page, no past reviews, no confirmed sits, nothing. It will basically be like you were never a member. So please, contact the confirmed sits immediately, and then turn off auto renew. Don’t leave a homeowner thinking you are still sitting. Good luck for whatever reason you have for going down this track and I hope you are ok.
You can tell the HOs that you won’t be coming. Then they can cancel. Which they will need to do if they want to list those dates again, I think (but I do not know the HO interface).
The HO may also report you for canceling without good reason, and then THS may terminate your membership.
You need to inform the pet owners that you are cancelling the sits - only they can actually cancel the sit on the system . Once they have cancelled you will be able to cancel auto-renew.
It would be courteous to do this asap so that they have sufficient time to find a replacement sitter.
Thanks for the information and not running to judge or pile-on and make presumptions (as some posters have a tendency to do). I have good reason for cancelling.
I assume that this is a generic message that appears that doesn’t distinguish between a pet owner membership or sitter membership.
Pet owners can cancel on their dashboard- sitters can’t.
@Carla - It would be helpful if the message that notifies a sitter that they need to cancel sits to turn off auto renew also told them how to do it ( cancel sits that is )
@Silversitters Thank you and that is a great point to discuss.
I think the idea around this wording is that if a sitter needs to cancel a confirmed sit then the first port of call before cancelling their autorenewal should be to inform the owner so that the owner is made aware at the earliest opportunity. The owner can then cancel the sit and re-list to find another sitter, then the sitter will be able to cancel the auto-renewal.
I will pass the feedback on to the team and maybe the wording could be more descriptive about letting the owner know you are cancelling the sit before you cancel your auto-renewal.
However, it’s great to see the new feature is working and that members are not being able to cancel their auto-renewal before cancelling their confirmed sits.
@RosiePosie I am really sorry to hear that you need to cancel your confirmed sits, I hope everything is okay.
If you let the owners know first, they can cancel the sits and then you will be able to cancel the auto-renewal in your account. If you or the owners need any help at all please just reach out to the Membership Services team at support@trustedhousesitters.com
Yes I think this new feature is very reassuring for both sitters and pet owners.
This means that THS membership of either party cannot expire either before or during a confirmed sit ; which would leave the other party unprotected by THS.
I would also like the legality of these auto-renewal terms clarified - especially given that the balance of power currently appears weighted in favour of the HO. As things stand, it appears that THS has only granted the HO the physical mechanism to cancel a sit - while it seems that the sitter has to negotiate with the HO to cancel. If the HO decides not to ‘allow’ the sitter to cancel the assignment - does this mean the sitter is forced to pay auto-renewal for another year?
I had to cancel a sit one time due to the HO shortening their sit dates by five days. The change was significant and I asked THS member services to cancel the sit for me. They obliged.
@RosiePosie , a HO cannot force a sitter not to cancel. Simply inform your upcoming sits that you are letting your membership lapse so will not be able to sit for them but that the cancellation needs to come from them in order to free up the dates so they’ll be able to relist.
Fyi, your profile will be paused but still intact for two years after your membership ends so if you decide to rejoin before that time, it will be ready to go again.
