Hi all, I had a sit from 26 Dec to 1 Jan and had two cancellations - one on 20/12 and another on 22/2. Neither provided reasonable justification (they have ‘something to do’ so can’t travel, and location didn’t suit (even though I told them before they booked!!))
I upgraded to premium on 19/12 so am expecting to be covered by the premium cancellation guarantee but wanted to see what other people’s experience has been?
As you can imagine it’s a super busy time so I’ve ended up messaging 60+ people trying to get something to work so I don’t want to deal with any more applications, especially as everyone now has no references/experience through the app. As such after the second cancellation, I unconfirmed the sitter and thought it was paused but then got 2 applications which were not suitable and I’ve since deleted the dates. I’m a bit stressed this might compromise my cancellation access but I think there’s a reasonable list of reasons why this wouldn’t have been suitable (stress and uncertainty due to multiple cancellations, low or no references, no app experience etc)
It’s been hugely stressful and THS support have been pretty slow in responding and not provided a lot of clarity. We’ve now booked them into a local dog day care which is doing overnights during this holiday break.
Grateful for any advice on a) accessing insurance payout for cancelled sitters, and b) do I need to agree to THS investigating cancellations for the insurance claim to work.
I’ve been super stressed and want to make sure that I will get the insurance funds because we’re not in a financial position to cover them. Is there potentially a complaints team I can go to?
Read the terms carefully.
I’ve never claimed and am not currently a home-owner so don’t really know the terms that well but I think notifying THS within 24 hours of the cancellations would be key.
You absolutely will have to assist THS and the insurers in investigating as the terms give the insurers the right to go after the sitters who cancelled to recover their costs. You may have to give then access/copies of communications to verify what the sitters have said if it is done through whatsapp or other non THS platforms.
You said you upgraded to get the insurance on the 19th Dec and the sitters cancelled on the 20th? I would expect the insurer to express an interest in that timing but if I read correctly you had a second sitter booked that then cancelled 2 days later on the 22nd?
I would expect the insurance to takes absolutely ages to pay out (some people say 9 months or more) and be very vague beforehand about what they will cover and in what circumstances. Pretty much how insurance works in all things - put your claim in and we will decide later if we will pay. THS don’t do the insurance so I don’t expect they will advise much either.
Please do report the sitters cancellation fully to THS as canceling over the holidays because location doesn’t suit or they found something else to do is flaky behaviour and they should not be on THS.
Good luck and I’m glad you found somewhere for them
I don’t see anything in the terms of the insurance that require that nor would I see why that would be the case. Even so it seems from what the OP said they upgraded 19th, got a cancellation 20th, got a cancellation 22nd which implies they got another sitter after the first cancellation which would mean the sit was arranged sometime between 20th and 22nd.
One term does say this:
“Alternative Pet Care” means boarding the pet in a licensed kennel or cattery, or paying someone to look after the pet at the Pet Parents home.
So I hope the doggie day care is licensed in some way. You could also use a paid house-sitter if you preferred.
@Kj5 I understand why you unconfirmed the sitter as you were looking for a replacement. However you will need to contact member services and provide screenshots to prove that it was the sitter that cancelled and also to prove that you did not agree to the cancellation ( which is one of the terms ).
The other terms are that you will need to provide receipts etc . Member services will talk you through the price and as long as you notified them in the required timeframe ( even if this was by e-mail ) use this as proof of the validity of your claim .
I’ve heard from someone who used this either on this forum or another that the payment could be made to any sitter who isn’t a relative. It doesn’t have to be a “licensed” person. Maybe one of the mods can clarify?
Hello @Marion I think that you are right about that one, but as it is the holiday season the team are not available to double-check. As a general rule as Insurance is such a specialist subject it is probably best to reach out to the Membership Services team and they can get answers directly from their Insurance Team, who work with the third-party providers.
I would not want to give incorrect information, but I am always happy to pass on information from the team if I hear more in the future
Thank you! I’ve been in contact with the membership team since the first cancellation and they’ve withheld from giving me much information on the basis that the insurers will make decisions. So now it’s the waiting game!
Thank you! I’ve sent them all the receipts of cancellation reasons, so am now waiting for further information. Yes I could make the case for why they were unsuitable I believe if required
Thanks for your reply! I upgraded as I was concerned about the sitter as they actually cancelled, and then uncancelled before cancelling again. I think the timing might have been an issue because I’m in aus so all the time stamps are wrong ie it says 11 hours ago instead of 11 minutes ago. That was pretty stressful and ThS just said it’s a known issues and they would go by date which wasn’t very assuring. Given I had the second cancel I’m hoping there won’t be any issues. But I reported super quickly and have given them all the docs so I’ll just wait to here now! Gosh hopefully it’s not 9 months…
Sorry I should’ve clarified. The first sitter accepted/confirmed the sit through the system. She then messaged me to cancel, then messaged me again to say she could still do it, but then sent me another message to cancel it.
Quick question, are sitters getting more or less cancellations at the moment? And if you do, are they giving a valid reason?
We have just been notified about a cancellation in 6 weeks time. Not a major catastrophe but irritating as we are going up to Aberdeenshire for the gliding wave season and see grandchildren. Everything was arranged that they could stay with us. The listing was a family friendly one. The sit was cancelled with no reason. I reached out to them asking if everything was ok. It hasn’t been read. Obviously we have had cancellations before - a dog died and another, their house was damaged in an earthquake. And we have cancelled due to a family tragedy but never anything like this. We can’t even warn other sitters about their behaviour. Does this happen a lot?
From what i understand, there is no legal contract to actually do the agreed sit so cant understand how any sitters that cancel can be forced to pay.
Apologies in advance if i am wrong
We’ve only had one cancellation out of about 12 sits in the last year with a good reason of the HO having a bust knee. As I understand it you can flag the cancellation to MS and ask them to give the HO a warning as cancellations are for “exceptional circumstances” only. At least that goes some way to protecting a future sitter and making the HO think about others a bit more. #sendingnewsitvibes
