After the five application limit was introduced, we were assured that if you had an application open and were filling it in at the time, it would be submitted, even if the five limit had been reached. So I was shocked minutes ago to have written a thoughtful application on the mobile app, and when I pressed Submit, got a message that the sit had reached five applications and mine would not be sent through. I was so surprised, that by the time I went to take a screen shot, the message (and my email) were gone.
It’s bad enough that we couldn’t even get to one of our favourite sits in Europe for Christmas because they all closed while we were sleeping, so we finally stayed home. This behaviour is just an added insult to the whole 5-application process.
I’ve pressed the Help button on the main dashboard of the desktop site to chat with someone directly, and it’s now been spinning for 10 minutes. So reaching out here seems to be my only option. Help Desk, please respond.
Hi @Breezylake I have forwarded to Membership Services apologies for the slow response on chat but we are experiencing high volumes of incoming … a member of the team will respond directly via email.
That’s the issue. I can’t reapply because the limit of five was reached while I finished writing my application!
Still waiting to hear from the Membership team.
The same thing happened to me, but on the desktop. I wrote here on the Forum, just as you have, and was promised that I would hear from @Ben-ProductManager, but I never did.
This is just awful. I don’t know how much more evidence they need to realise this whole debacle needs revisiting. I am so sorry to hear about your problems, Sledgejoyce and Breezylake.
I appreciate that if this happened it would be frustrating.
As mentioned should this happen to any member then it is best to reach out to the membership services team at the time. They can then access the individual’s account and inbox and are best placed to work with the tech team and see what is happening.
Please always email support@trustedhousesitters.com
Thank you for the general feedback, it has been passed on to the product team.
I am sure I am not alone in thinking that anything positive on the forum is left to run and run and any hint of a problem, frustration or negativity and it is passed on to support or quickly moved or closed down.
Hi @Twitcher there are issues connected with functionality, IT and other factors that we cannot answer or solve on the forum and in order to get members the help they ask for and need, we pass these over to the Membership Services Team, tech team and other applicable teams best placed to help.
As @Carla_C has already said we understand the frustrations these matters cause but the fact of the matter is the Admin Team are here to help and support but there are limits to what we can do. The forum was never intended to be an extension of Membership Services and any member can by pass the forum and take their questions and membership issues directly to the MS team via Live Chat or email support@trustedhousesitters.com
Thanks, Angela, that is a good point. It is difficult sometimes to disentangle technical from more general membership issues.
However, it is also true that such technical issues would not arise if it weren’t for the application policy change. Like Sledgejoyce and Breezylake, I missed out on a sit for technical reasons to do with messages not getting though - but this wouldn’t have happened if the owner had not been limited in the number of applications she could receive.
It does feel a bit like there is lots of evidence about the unintended consequences of this policy change, which is sometimes countered with ‘lots of people support this change, but you wouldn’t know them, they go to a different school’ type-arguments.
Thank you @ThePetProfessor, we appreciate your understanding and acknowledgement.
For clarity the Product team monitor the forum daily, they do see all of the comments across every subject affecting member’s user experience. They “read” the sentiment and we, the Admin Team pass all necessary comments through the the wider business via internal channels.
Thank you also for making your point in a fair, balanced and respectful way … we will pass on your concerns to the Product Team and ask for an update when they are back online, which for total transparency will more than likely be after the weekend.
I just applied for sit. When I started typing, there had already been 3 applications. I completed my application, pressed ‘send’ and a pop-up message appeared telling me that the listing had already reached the five max, was now paused and my application was too late to be sent.
You can imagine how furious I was as we have been told on numerous occasions that this cannot happen. I immediately started to create a complaint message and went back to the listing for details.
Surprisingly, the listing was still listed and now shows 4 applications.
I went to check my inbox and it seems my application has been received by the home host!
A similar thing happened to me a few months ago too. At the time I reported it to @Ben-ProductManager but I can’t remember how it was resolved
So, just a heads up really, if you get the pop-up message after sending your applications telling you that you are too late, check your inbox There is a good chance it has been sent no matter what the pop-up tells you!
As a follow-up, I got an email Member Services, sending me a template reply about how fair it is to have five people apply to a sit, then the sit disappears from view. In that template, it includes this line “Sitters who have started an application will be allowed to submit it.”
Sadly she did not read my issue about NOT being allowed to finish my application, and only focused on my comments related to the five-person limit. Looks like nothing will happen with this complaint, and recently @sledgejoyce had the same issue, with no response.
I am one of the people that voted with my feet and stopped commenting on this forum. There is no use, we are not heard.
Admin Notice: Post edited to remove sensitive information.
