A house sitter has applied who says she is very experienced but has no past reviews. She says “I’ve been a member of TH for a few years however I made a new profile a couple of months ago when I signed back up so I do have references! Despite it not looking like I do and I’d be happy to share them with you at your request.”
Is it possible that she had some bad reviews with her previous sits, and has started a new profile to clear the slate? Or possibly she house sat with an ex=partner? Why would an experienced sitter start a new profile? Or am I just being paranoid?
Maybe @Remaim but it also could be that she was being harassed or had a difficult HO so started afresh. Ask her directly and then your fears will be put to rest. She can add old references to a new profile so odd she hasn’t done that already. #honestyisthebestpolicy
Someone on this forum said that even if you don’t pay your membership for some years, when you get back, you still have your reviews.
If it was a shared account with an expartner, I would add the link to my profile.
If that sitter looks like a good fit, you can always have a chat with them and see if their explanations seem honest. Otherwise, I would not consider them an option.
It does sound a bit strange. If they are experienced in THS, how can they ignore the importance of reviews?
I’m not sure if MS could help you clarify this situation, at least they would tell you if the old reviews disappear after a certain period of discontinued payment or if it is a member’s choice to start a new account.
The 25% discount when being referred by a member could be a reason but for me it would not be an important incentive at the expense of losing my reviews unless I wanted to hide some reviews or I had been expelled from the platform.
Ask her! She won’t take offence if she’s a good person, just ask. She may not have realised she could use her old profile, because without being on this forum I’d be totally unaware, I think most would be unaware.
She was sensible enough to take a copy of the reviews, so she must have known she would be returning at some point, but that could be for good or bad, or it was her ex’s profile. So simply ask her, it’s the only way to know, if she’s a nice person she will completely understand why you ask.
It could be that this sitter has taken a break of 2 years or more, in which case her online reviews will have disappeared into the ether. The reviews she has offered to show you may be screenshots from her active time as a sitter. There’s only one way to find out, and that’s to ask her.
@Remaim I agree with @Happypets she may have made screenshots of all her reviews and then taken a break from THS. I recently made screenshots of all our 100+ reviews incase, for whatever reason, we lose access to all those hard earned reviews! We were suspended for a while during a member dispute and our account was blocked so I made the screenshots immediately after it was unblocked again-now they are safe! phew! If a member stops paying or takes a break THS will erase the account after about 2 years of inactivity. Perhaps that’s what happened to this lady. Just ask her!
UPDATE - Thanks for all of your responses. I wasn’t aware that Trusted Housesitters deleted reviews for inactive profile after two years. Anyway the sitter has ghosted me, and hasn’t responded to a direct question about if she is still interested and available. I wonder if she read my original posting and took offence? Guess we will never know…
No I can’t imagine any decent sitter taking offence at all, your query was a completely natural one, totally understandable. So if she did notice it and take offence then she’s likely to have been bad anyway.
I would be a little leery since I almost hired a woman that was new and when I later looked back on her reviews, they were horrendous. I often wonder if they can come back and create a new account.
Just a note. If you think a “new” member may have had a previous profile on TH, please pass this information on to Membership Services via the CHAT function. Alternatively, you can send the profile link to a Forum moderator.
