This article starts by talking about pythons , goes on to state that they are the third most popular pet and finishes with a paragraph that says
â If youâre looking to add a furry, feathery, or scaly friend to your family, ensure you welcome them with a safe and nurturing environment, and consider reaching out to one of our many weird and wonderful pet-loving members at TrustedHousesitters who are ready to give them all the love they need while youâre away!â
This seems very misleading since Pythons (constrictors) are not permitted on THS sits. Articles like this donât help but add to the confusion around what is permitted.
Proof of this confusion is that just this week I have seen 7 x live listings with pythons , 1 with a boa constrictor and two with âsnakesâ whose appearance in the photos shows they are constrictors !!
Iâm not a snake fan. Iâve got enough aversion to not take a snake sit, and there is no world where I would ever feed a live mammal to a reptile. However, THS allows sitting for all sorts of potentially dangerous pets, so I donât really understand the restriction on constrictors. (Iâm guessing insurers!)
Hello, @Silversitters Thank you for spotting this and sharing it! I have passed it on to the Marketing Team and will let you know the outcome.
Also to update you Membership Services has been doing an audit on listings with any pets that are outside of the terms (posting here for those reading as reference)
5.2.11. not have any inherently dangerous pets (such as venomous snakes or constrictors, primates, wolves or wolf hybrids, non-domesticated cats, alligators), banned dog breeds, or any animal with a history of attacks on pets or people;
Thank you to everyone who has spotted listings like these and reported them to Membership Services, itâs appreciated!
I really appreciate you are personally doing your very best @Carla but I am beginning to feel there is a serious issue within THS. First it seems there is a reliance on sitters reporting sits which donât meet the T&Câs rather than a thorough, proactive checking process before sits go live on the site. Multiple sits have been reported and it seems unlikely there is a ânetâ through whcih theyâve been slipping but rather no ânetâ at all.
Now it also appears there have been incredibly misleading blog posts - two have been reported in the last day or so and again sitters are being thanked for alerting the âteamâ to these. Is this acceptable for an organisation that takes membership fees and is looking to expand further? I do think there needs to be a root and branch review of the operation to ensure it is able to fulfil its key functions rather than focussing on introducing changes such as the 5 application limit and overlapping sits neither of which appear to have been thoroughly thought through and have resulted in unintended consequences.
Hello, @LizBCN Thank you for your kind words and helpful feedback. I have passed it to the relevant team who owns the blog and also as general feedback to the wider company. If they share anything with me I will let you know.
Feel free to also raise any concerns about listings etc directly to Membership Services as they are likely to know more as the Approvals team is part of Membership Services, so having that feedback directly will also help.
@pietkuip The previous thread was closed as the issue was resolved with that particular blog, if you would like to raise a new issue feel free to start a new topic as the OP did here or reach out to Membership Services.
Thank you for all having keen eyes and finding these things, it is never expected but always appreciated! As a growing company, this type of feedback is very useful. Thank you
@pietkuip Just a quick update for you, the dead link you identified has now been removed - many thanks!
@Silversitters The team are looking into this one a bit more to confirm where the data came from and if it is general state data for unusual pets rather than THS members. Thank you for bearing with us!
@Carla it appears to be general information but the final paragraph goes on to say that if you have any of these pets you can use a pet sitter from THS to look after them when you go away âŚâŚWhich is not accurate and very misleading
Yes @Peonie19 I was disappointed to see that description of sitters too !
âIf youâre looking to add a furry, feathery, or scaly friend to your family, ensure you welcome them with a safe and nurturing environment, and consider reaching out to one of our many weirdand wonderful pet-loving members at TrustedHousesitters who are ready to give them all the love they need while youâre away!â
Hello, @Silversitters Just an update for you that the blog post has been updated.
I can confirm that it does reflect general pet data across the states rather than THS members data, but now the blog has been updated to include more details at the bottom to make this clearer and also includes the link to the terms regarding what pets are allowed on THS.
@Peonie19 This part has been updated as well. Thank you both for raising this
The edit is a slight improvement on the previous version . However , if the aim of the blog is to improve communication then why has the relevant clause of the T&Cs not been quoted in the article?
The article does not clearly state which pets are not permitted and I can still see that a pet owner could sign up and pay for membership only to find out later that they canât get a sitter for their python. Does the writer really think that the reader of the blog will actually trawl through all of the terms and conditions ( from the link ) to try to find out what type of pets are not permitted?
Hello @pietkuip & @Silversitters. Iâm sorry to hear you still have some concerns about the blog. I can certainly pass on your additional comments and I will get back to you if there are any more updates.
https://forum.trustedhousesitters.com/t/your-place-or-mine
