I found a really exciting petsit that just got posted. I stayed up late to draft a long thoughtful email and sent it in to try to get in early in the homeowner’s queue.
But it looks like the message has not yet been sent, and that it won’t be for some time? What I’m seeing:
- In app: the message’s timestamp in the app reads “In 8 hours”
- On web: the message timestamp shows “Oct 16 ()”, when in the parenthesis I expect to see a note showing how many hours / days / months ago the message was sent.
I don’t know why my message appears delayed, and I can’t find any information about this topic in the help center or forums. Does anyone else experience this?
Hello @AyAndEl and welcome to the forum. That’s not something I’ve seen before, but I just checked my inbox as I sent a message this morning and on the web you re right it shows today’s date with message sent 2 hours ago.
My immediate response would be that it’s an internet issue in that the message hasn’t been able to be delivered, but I’m sure you’ve checked this. I’m going to message you as I need a bit more info to find your account to be able to have a look. Once we’ve done that we’ll pass the info to membership services so that they can advise. Please look out for a message shortly. All the best, Vanessa
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at night computers are very slow or a lot of times no service. When I called my cellular service, the answer was 5 G problems
Thanks for the note, @Vanessa_A. You probably already recognize this, but the problem here is that THS received my message but appears to have decided to not forward it along to the homeowner for 8 hours.
Other possibilities I can think of: 1) the message was sent immediately but that the app and website displayed things incorrectly for some reason, 2) there’s a setting on the homeowner side that blocks messages overnight. Both seem unlikely to me.
Looking at the website, it now shows “Oct 16 (19 minutes ago)”, so I suspect the message was indeed queued and only delivered to the homeowner after 8 hours.
I also attempted to call the 844 support number here in the US and immediately got an automated message that asked me to write in instead.
The sit went from “0-3 applicants” when I first submitted our message to “8-11 applicants” when it finally got sent, so our thoughtful note may now get a little less attention than it would have had it sent immediately 
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@anon36831737, thank you for the thoughtful note! I now suspect you are 100% correct here, that my messages are getting sent instantly, and that this is a display / user interface issue. More details:
- I’m writing from California, which is 8 hours behind the UK / London
- To further experiment, I went into my operating system, changed my computer’s clock to an hour earlier, and refreshed the conversation page. It went from showing “Oct 16 (44 minutes ago)” to showing “Oct 16 ()”.
I now suspect the page’s logic does not account for the user’s timezone when it determines what to display in this field. I have an open ticket with THS support, and will update this thread when I have a clearer answer. I’ll accept your solution if it turns out to be the correct one!
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Support got back to me with the following response:
Our website is based on GMT time so if you are not in this timezone the website thinks you have sent an email in the ‘future’. I can assure you this does not affect when your emails are sent. I appreciate this is not convenient and is something we are looking to get fixed in the future.
This confirms @anon36831737’s theory – messages are sent immediately, and the strange timestamp is a display issue with the site and app.
I hope this thread helps others in the future who have the same question. Thanks to all of those who chimed in here!
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Thanks for the feedback … definitely good information for other members crossing time zones around the world. We’ll keep any eye on when this gets fixed by the product team and report back here when it does. In the meantime… enjoy your time travel 
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I wanted to check in on the message timestamp issue. I’m aware of the “reason” THS has given why my messages display the time as they do, but this is seriously confusing and honestly ridiculous … every other app or website i use knows how to figure this out and show me the time i do something, rather than this ridiculous “8 hours from now” stuff. When will this be fixed!?
Hi @paula.june this is a Product via Membership Services question and I will tag Forum team member @Lucy-B who will take this up for you when she is back online.
Hi @paula.june I can check in with our product team regarding this. I will say though, I think it is unlikely I will be given a timeframe at this stage as this is likely part of a much bigger piece of work that our dedicated team will focus on.
I completely appreciate your frustration though and will update here if I receive any new information.
All the best
Lucy
This issue is truly annoying for anyone outside of GMT. THS has been aware of it for years, and can’t fix it? Every other web service, social network, service provider solved this years ago.
@Ben-ProductManager
whats the issue here?
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@Ben-ProductManager
Your users deserve more information as to why this issue persists and when it will be fixed. Ignoring your users only breeds more distrust.
Please answer my question: What prevents THS from properly displaying times based on location? Every other web based service I use does not have this issue. What is unique about your service that makes this not possible?
Edited by moderator.
18 days and absolutely no response from @Ben-ProductManager , or anyone else.
@Carla @Therese @SophiaK
Can someone please explain why THS cannot provide information? Otherwise we can only assume that there is general disregard for your members.
Hi @weirdholyman apologies I missed being tagged in this conversation.
Thank you for raising this issue and will look into it further.
Thanks, Ben
“Thank you for raising this issue and will look into it further.”
@Ben-ProductManager What did you learn? It’s been 12 more days with no information.
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