When i read this i see a picky HO , if you have 17 good 1 bad i would go by your good. One bad review usually has to do more with the HO’S problem. Why would 17 sits all be wrong , then the bad review be the correct way you really care for pets and homes. Try not to take it personally, i know how that must feel, but you pick your head up high and be proud of the 17 ppl you made happy with your care. Some people are just never happy or like to complain. Maybe she wanted to try and tarnish your success, ppl are wacky today . Stay strong and do not leave because 1 sit tried to make you look bad.
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I wasn’t referring to your review of them. I was referring to your response to their review of you. There is no time limit for that. Did you already respond to their review of you on your profile?
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This sounds like a miserable sit. If I’m reading this right, the homeowner didn’t level with you about the dog’s cancer. Sounds like the cancer has led to a lot of other issues. Personally, there would be no circumstances where I would take a sit where there is a pee cushion on the couch. I could imagine being a pet owner with a terminally ill dog and making a decision to put a pee cushion on the couch, but I wouldn’t then invite someone to stay in my home in an exchange.
I don’t know if you wrote a response to the review, but if you do, you could lead with the fact that you weren’t prepared for the sit because the pets weren’t as described and you really didn’t know what you were getting into. You can certainly also take responsibility for the stuff you own, and write about the sit in the context of how challenging (and humbling) it was and what you learned.
The main takeaway I get and the one thing that would give me pause as a host, is mixing up the food. This can happen! I don’t know how the homeowners label the food. I live in a house where one guy is on a restricted diet and when we have a sitter I share various “tricks” for not mixing up the food. If I came home to evidence that the food had been mixed up or it looked like this might have happened consistently, I’d be upset, so if this wasn’t the case, you might explain that.
There are lots of sits with “easier” animals and maybe not the greatest locations, so you can probably bury the outlier review with a few new great ones, but yes hosts are going to question you, and you need to strike the right combination of being humbled but also making clear that this was not a typical sit and the homeowner’s communication and expectations may have been not the greatest here..
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Totally agree. This sit is one of the hardest I’ve ever read about… cancer suffering, up all hours, dealing with incontinence .. you were so lucky to be chosen ! Must have been a long queue!
Any failure in this is a team failure it’s not all your fault as the reviewer implies.
17 home owners weren’t all wrong about you.
If this had been me I would have shared it here too..
We all need to learn from this.
Thank you for your posting.
I like to think I’m great at this but there is always something new to learn and I find the forum is a great resource for teaching me more about the whole challenge. No one is perfect although some reviews suggest they are with consistently scoring 5 stars. That’s exceptional. Surely there is often some room for improvement? I like the idea of a private WhatsApp comment after the review if there’s any teaching point I could profit from..
I’d hate to get complacent and not be as great as I think I may be! These animals and Home Owners deserve 5 star service is the premise I start from.
And even if I think the Home Owner could have done more I’m not going to take it out on the animals or become ruthless in a review.
All one stars is utterly soul destroying. We are not intensive care vetenary nurses!
I’d question the fact the owner felt they could hand over such a difficult scenario for a temporary carer to deal with. Of course we all need a break in such circumstances, anyone would be exhausted by it.
Did the grieving owner give the sitter a fair chance?
Rarely is blame all on one side merited in this line of work.
I wonder what sitter would fancy taking over from this assignment.. I certainly would be treading very carefully with such a Home owner to deal with.
It would be good to have an inspector checking up some of these reviewers! I always try to draw positives as I make suggestions to the Home Owners if I feel they could do more to help the next sitter after me. Isn’t that also what reviews should be achieving and not just throwing light on the sitting experience from the Home Owner’s point of view?
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Their standards were higher, or expectations weren’t aligned?
It sounds like your error was in taking on a sit which was simply too demanding. It’s really important to choose sits which meet your own needs, as well as those of the HO. As others have said, get applying for short sits where you can be confident in meeting expectations of the HO, and bury that poor review!
After the dog had bad diarrhea she suggested I take them which was a very long walk outside, 2 flights of stairs. The details don’t matter. I felt so guilty that I had the dog poo upstairs that I wanted to do everything possible. And I think I didn’t have shame up until now. I didn’t know of this discussion board til after. I was very emotional and traumatized so thank you. To whoever is reading this, your words are helping me not give up.
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They also used their camera and would text me many times of what I wasn’t doing. I felt watched the whole time. Turns out they have a policy about not having internal cameras. I honestly felt like I had to be full time care. Even was expected to take them to walk 90 min vs 45 min twice a day. She made it very clear of the demands and all while working from home. So I am starting to feel angry and didn’t let myself feel it up until now.
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I did respond and it’s on my profile. I don’t think I can share my profile right?
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There is a way to link your profile. Sorry can’t remember the steps.
Did you leave a review for the pet parent? I hope it wasn’t 5 stars!
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Appreciate the deep compassion, everything you say mirrors my sentiments. I do feel before a 1 star review is considered to have a personal clearing conversation. We are not vetinarians. She is a licensed nurse, so my guess her coming from the health industry her standards are higher. I am sure if trusted housesitters shared a training to be better, we would, however, the point of this exchange is for it to feel even and chill, not full time work. There are dog hospitals and people that do this for a living. To be honest even when I was working from home, I felt guilty. I remember spending 3 hours cleaning the poo downstairs, taking them outside to poo, and only being told I am not trustworthy. I also acknowledge I could have done more. I cried my eyes out for days, and so I was hoping being here would help. Thank you. It’s really been healing me so I can move on.
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You seem like a really kind person. There are bad people in this world that will mistake kindness for weakness and try to take advantage of that. Your host did. Unfortunately in life we have to be our own best advocate. I had to learn so many lessons in life and still learning even as a senior. You know you will never allow this type of unfairness to happen again so be proud of yourself for that.
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Here are the instructions.
I finally shared the link to my profile under my FORUM profile.
Also on mobile it says 19 reviews but desktop says 15 reviews
want to be as honest as possible
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Well done @erikaabriones on your carefully worded response to the very brutal review you received. You have handled it with maturity and future owners will see that.
Hopefully future applicants for that particular owner will check out your review and response where you gave it 3*.
Just to clarify, the app counts both reviews and references whereas the website only THS reviews.
You are a caring and diligent sitter. Put this one behind you. You have already received 2 further excellent reviews since this one. May there be many more.
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Standing on the sidelines here - I, like many other sitters, always carry out due diligence with any potential sit. I will routinely check how the HO has handled the review of sitters. Anything that looks cruel, unfair or a rant - I will absolutely swerve, regardless of how sterling past reviews of the HO may be. Your response has come across as gracious - and most HOs will appreciate that. Also, as @temba says, you have received two further excellent reviews, and long may this tone continue.
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Onwards and upwards! Way to go. I totally agree
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@erikaabriones You’ve responded to a very harsh review with humility and grace. More so than i would have done under those circumstances, that’s for sure! I’m sure you will have sufficiently redeemed yourself! Good luck with future sits!
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I have been sitting for 5 years now and can share that you are not going to please everyone. I have 36 reviews, one that left me a very unfair and dishonest 1 star review at the beginning of my sits.
I recovered and believe me it will not effect you as much as you think especially sine you have 18 positive reviews!
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Lesson learned: run as fast as you can when you read some of these requirements. The owner should have put the dog in a kennel or put it down, not have insanely ridiculous requirements of the sitter.
Just my opinion. Please don’t send me hate responses.
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[quote=“erikaabriones, post:27, topic:61883, full:true”]
They also used their camera and would text me many times of what I wasn’t doing. I felt watched the whole time.[/quote]
Yeah, cameras in the house is a violation of TH terms. The sit shouldn’t even be on here if they won’t deactivate them. I think a potential sitter sifting through reviews and seeing that would give them a pass. It sounds like a pretty demanding sit anyway.
It looks like your couple of sits since went OK, and you wrote a pretty extensive response to the bad review, so I’d just encourage you to keep trying, and eventually more good reviews will dilute the effect of that bad one. And maybe make extra sure all responsibilities and expectations are covered before you accept a sit.
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