It’s hosts like you who respond on here as if I am personally attacking you instead of seeing it from a level head and clear and unbiased mindset that I am rightfully upset that I was not being respected with full transparency. Furthermore, I am sharing my story so that others who are in a similar situation (which one person did write they were) or who will be choosing a sit that has no prior reviews be careful of how they proceed to avoid any complications like mine. That is what I doing here sharing on this community and have a right to do so. So, you definitely did not read with comprehension or respond with any rational understanding. If you did, we would be having a more emotionally intelligent conversation. I’ve done multiple sits on this site and most have gone GREAT. So, not my first rodeo. I am allowed to share my disappointment to help others understand red flags. You do not help with your projections from a host point of view. You were NOT there in the interview process where I was told one thing and then the HO reneged. I do not like being misled and lack of transparency. If you have been so with sitters and came on here to vent at me, you are off base.
Aside from being a new host without reviews- what were the red flags pre-sit ?
Umm did you ONLY take the sit IF there was a useable working car? Was this the dealbreaker? Do you believe that the HO could’ve predicted that the car would break down? Is this why you’re angry because you feel tricked? I’m trying to drill down to the basics here.
As a sitter I don’t take sits where I would need to borrow the owner’s car. I also host. I live in a city where a car is not necessary. I own a car but don’t lend it to sitters.
You asked the homeowner who wasn’t crazy about lending you the car, but agreed to. Something went wrong with the car. The owner was dismissive of you at first. And said he “couldn’t help you.” Maybe you reached him at a bad time. Who knows?
I will concede he might have been rude, but your reactions and expectations of what a more “experienced” might have done are not in my opinon realistic. My own answer as a homeowner would have been: Have you tried to jump start it? But your suggestions of having a “neighbor” random person look at his car to help you is kind of in my opinion off. I can easily see why he got frustrated.
It sounds like eventually he gave you a good suggestion. Try to jump the car and take it to his mechanic. Yay! He tried to talk you through it.. There is a good chance you left some light on or something that drained the battery in the first place. Keepj v the car driving for about half an hour would likely have solved the problem, instead the homeowner suggested taking it to his local autoshop to have the guy look at it and replace the battery. Clearly he was frustrated and he was probably annoyed by your suggestions and by the fact that you insisted on him lending you his car even though you don’t know the most likely thing it is when the engine won’t turn and what to do about it.
Did you get the car started? Did take the car to get the battery replaced or not?If the car starts and you can get it to his mechanic to have them check the battery to see if it needs to be replaced then aplogize to him YES that is what I am saying. If the car does not start because you couldn’t figure out the jump start then I’d suggest nicely asking a neighbor if they could help you jump start a car. That is not the same as having them look at the car and try to fix it. It’s a thing neighbors do for each other. Then if it starts drive it to the mechanic as asked.
If you want to leave the sit, leave the sit. he gave you an out. You can both then write reviews telling your side. Your side might not go over as well as you think even with experienced homeowners.
In my opninion, it is not too late to save this sit.
What full transparency? Cars break down. Batteries get drained? Tires go flat. All kinds of things happen to cars The owner told you it was a reliable car. I’m sure it is. It’s also quite possible if it was the battery that you accidently did something that draiined the battery as usually cars don’t suddenly do this.
I don’t insist on HO lack of integrity and transparency. I based what I said on lived experience which you weren’t there to see. So, comparing a car issue to a pipe issue is not the same thing. I took this sit, that was based on misrepresentation of how the HO would truly behave after the sit started. I am managing those expectations with grace, and other factors like the HO behaviour of saying one thing and doing another. I’m sharing my story to help others consider my situation when choosing a sit that has no previous reviews and to proceed with caution so that they do not get caught up in a situation like mine. You obviously jumped on a bandwagon that wants to see me in the wrong. I don’t like being misled or misaligned answers that clearly did not support what was said before I agreed to the sit. If you want to support a HO with that kind of behaviour then we do not have the same moral compass.
You may not appreciate a HO’s point of view but the discussions I value most are those where both HOs and sitters participate, they are usually richer and show more angles.
In this particular case, you will probably want to write a review that, while shares your concerns with other sitters doesn’t put you in a bad position with future HOs.
I don’t think people need to be warned against new members, everyone deserves an opportunity to get started and reliability has nothing to do with being new. Some of my greatest experiences have been with new owners.
Did the HO promise to ensure that the car was functioning?
It’s actually quite difficult to understand the basic issue here due to your very long obfuscating replies. I’m very puzzled by your replies to everyone, and because of this I’d say the HO became curt if you communicated with him in a similar manner.
You’re absolute right. I was not there. I’m only working with what you’ve conveyed here. So far, you’ve not clearly conveyed how you were misled or where there was a lack of transparency. So, again, I recommend you “carefully crafting your review if you don’t want the review to backfire.” Based on my and most other responses to your OP, what you conveyed here is backfiring.
What the HO said prior to the sit and we agreed upon (not car related) was conflicting and misleading. Also, I know cars, so it was not something I did. The dashboard also gave indications that it was something systemic which I told HO after I tried to troubleshoot myself, even though I was told to reach out at any time if anything should come up.
I’m none the wiser- why not simply describe exactly what was agreed, is it a secret?
Nope. I also told HO to get another sitter if they are not comfortable with their offer of the car prior to accepting the sit, if car is not in reliable condition to drive. Also, what you think of as anger is not- that’s projection. It’s just my disappointment and being upset that other things were told to me prior to the sit (not car related) that was not transparent until after the sit began, which cost me money, time and energy. So, this is not only about the car issue as I stated. It’s about other things that were misrepresented prior to the sit but only came to light after the sit. How was I supposed to know he was not being authentic? I gave him the benefit of the doubt without him having any prior reviews and believing what he said.
I’m baffled by your projection to think I was curt with HO. It was the HO who was rude, curt and not at all the person I was presented with during interviews prior to accepting the sit. I shared that much but you want to misunderstand me.
Yes, you offered several options, all of which were very much geared towards getting the car fixed. This might have suited some home owners, but from what you’ve mentioned it sounds as though yours may have preferred to just enjoy their trip and deal with the problem once they were back at home.
An alternative option, which would have demonstrated the flexibility that I had in mind in my first reply, might have looked something like this:
Hi Mr Home Owner, I just wanted to let you know that your car wouldn’t start this morning. Apologies to disturb your trip with some not so great news - hopefully it’s something straightforward like the battery - but wanted to let you know in case there’s anything you’d like me to do to try to resolve the situation ready for your return?
A ‘resolution’ would obviously be beneficial to you as well as the home owner, but the above also gives them the option of doing absolutely nothing for now, and making the most of their trip. Less convenient for you, yes, but it’s just one of those things that happens in life and I certainly wouldn’t hound the home owner for a solution or hold it against them that it’s happened in the first place.
I’m just sharing for other pet/house sitters to watch out for sits with no previous reviews and to proceed with caution. You chose to see lack of clarity because you now admit that you weren’t there. So, to say that things are backfiring for me is interesting. I am not new to THS. I’ve had a lot of wonderful sits. This one just caught me out of left field with all of the pre-sit agreements being reneged post sit start date (not related to the car). My frustration with lack of transparency is a valid one. Some don’t get that.
Sorry you’re not having a great experience on this specific sit, but I’d just like to say to new sitters reading this thread: please give a chance to new hosts on this platform. We have all started with 0 reviews, and some of the new HO we pet sat for were the sweetest humans we met, and were eager to learn how to make this pet sitting thing work. Yes, some are worried, and need extra reassurance, but please give them a chance!
With all due respect, the car is the focus in your initial post. But the real issue is related to some changes in agreements made pre-sit that were not honored, that you have not shared with us. Can you share? thank you.
Are you training to be a therapist? You seem to have picked up a word salad of therapy language and btw I’m a retired experienced therapist and what I most notice is what you’re avoiding to answer and I’m curious about what you’re not saying. I believe many of us are ‘reading’ this absence of information.
Labelling and naming and analysing comes a poor second to simple descriptions when asking for advice. There’s a lot of good advice available here. In fact we had the experience of not only one car breaking down but also the second car!
So I ask again- what were you promised by the HO apart from the car? Was it money maybe?
I’m sorry you are going through this situation. It sounds like you only agreed to the sit because a car would be available. It also sounds like you did some trouble shooting on the problem.
I feel like reliable transportation is key for any sit. Of course, I don’t know if you are in a location where you have alternatives to having a car. On a sit this winter my husband and I were iced in. It was totally unexpected and obviously no one’s fault. Still, we were in a situation. We were on a farm with a long lane to the main road and no way to get anywhere if there was an emergency. The Homeowners knew about our situation. We were good for a week but after that we started to be more dirrect with the homeowners that we needed assistance. They finally asked a neighbor (who’s driveway has been cleared) to take us to the grocery store and got a guy with a tractor to clear our road so we could get out. It was frustrating because we were in a place we’d never been before and didn’t have the resources to deal with the problem. We were very glad when the homeowners finally took action. Afterwards they said that they’d be more prepared for a situation like this in the future.
I know that home owners are on vacation or working and preferred to not be bothered. I mean we all hope everything goes smoothly. But just as it is my responsibility as a sitter to put the pets welfare first, I think it is the home owners responsibility to be concerned the the pet sitters welfare. Especially if they are stranded which could impact the care of the pets.
LoL - We’re all therapists to some degree, if you think about it. Some better than actual therapists. You accuse me of a word salad of therapy language which I wasn’t aware was a thing until you clearly spotlighted your own word salad by labelling and naming and analysing me, which I didn’t ask for. I’m here just sharing my experience about this particular sit. I have received some advice that I have acknowledged is good and others that are projections, which I can point out without being a therapist. AND how you jumped to money is beyond me. I’ve never accepted money from a THS sit. I do these sit because I get pet companionship while I travel. It beats Airbnb any day.