Hi
I just registered as a sitter a few days ago and have encountered a very annoying issue with the references. One of my referees is quite pedantic and a stickler for being absolutely correct. When completing the reference he came across some sections he didn’t feel qualified to confidently comment on so he didn’t rate 5 stars in those sections . Consequently his overall star rating became 4 stars despite the fact that all his comments were positive. As he was the last of my referees to submit, his is unfortunately the first one to be seen!
Hi @Home firstly congratulations on registering as a sitter. I can completely understand how you feel. Have you tried speaking to him since and explaining the importance of the references to start your housesitting journey. If he is in agreement, this can still be amended so it is certainly worth speaking to him.
Can I just check, did he leave the stars blank on the sections he didn’t feel confident to comment on or did he dock a star and select 4 because of this?
I have had a peruse of your profile and it looks great, I am sure it won’t be long until you secure your first sit.
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Unfortunately I have discussed this with the (very efficient and friendly) help team and the reference cannot be amended or deleted.
Hi @Home
The referee will need to email support@trustedhousesitters.com and ask for their star rating to be amended. It does have to come from them though, as you cannot ask for the change yourself.
Hi @Home as @Therese has also just mentioned, the reference can be amended but the referee will need to do this via email to the address shown. This is why I suggested if maybe you could speak with him and explain the importance to him and see if he will agree to change it. I hope you manage to get this sorted out.
I’d suggest you just ask the guy to request that his reference be removed. That would save you the trouble of going back and forth with him if he’s pedantic and he doesn’t have to feel uncomfortable rating you on elements he can’t speak to.
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Thank you for your advice. This solution wasn’t offered by the help team?
We had this experience too. A friend gave us our first reference and he too marked us down in 2 categories because he thought 5* everywhere was too ‘perfect’! He’s right ofcourse! We surely can’t all be perfect 5* all the time! But that’s the way THS works. Anything less than 5* is a red flag in this community. We explained that and he immediately contacted THS and got it changed. I suggested you do the same. Explain the reasoning to him and if he is willing THS will change it. If he’s not willing it would be better to ask for his reference to be removed. It just produces unnecessary doubt.
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It sounds as though THS’ help team will not remove it or allow it to be changed in any way, unless I’ve misunderstood.
Sorry, OP, that’s really annoying. I’d be tempted to start over in your case–cancel the membership (hope THS would refund you!) and create a new profile.
Hi @Katie as explained previously, (please see previous conversation on this thread), the reference can be amended but only if the person who gave the reference is willing to amend it, and they would need to contact the team by email to support@trustedhousesitters.com who can then amend it on the sitters profile. There is no need to cancel the membership and start over as you suggest.
OP said the Help team did not offer that as an option.
Thanks.
Hi @Katie unfortunately the information given by the help team was not correct on this occasion but we have now explained the correct procedure to get the reference amended.
That happened to me but I wouldn’t worry about it. As soon as you start doing sits, the HO reviews will move to the top. Mine was my sister who has OCD cleaning - and as I don’t come up to her exacting standards (i.e. I don’t hoover, clean, polish, dust for 5 hours every day), she gave me a 4 in that area! I was a bit upset as I am extremely clean etc, but once it is up there you can’t alter it. I’ve since had two lovely sits and both HO have commented on how clean their houses were on their return - so personally (and I’ve not read the other comments), I wouldn’t worry too much about it.
FWIW, other potential sitters can avoid this scenario by showing potential references the ratings chart and asking whether they’d hesitate to rate five stars on all elements.
This happens with references when interviewing for jobs as well. Some folks don’t check and references backfire on them.
I was told that references cannot be removed!
@admins can you clarity please as there seems to be a lot of differing opinions on this thread. 
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@MarieHuggins The admins have already confirmed that the reference can be changed but only by the person who wrote it making a direct request to THS. We have had one reference and 2 reviews successfully changed after publishing- all different reasons. You cannot get it changed yourself. The writer must agree and then request THS to change it. Its a bit of a hassle but can be done & is worth doing.
Wow - some friend of 30 years he is 
I’d have have been livid.
Fortunately it is just a reference and not an actual homeowner review so hopefully you can move on but I agree it’s not great and such a shame.