I have been A member for 3-4 years but this past year I have been having a hard time finding good applicants for my sits. For this latest one, it took me really long to find one good person who I had a few video calls with and finally organized her to come stay a night before so I could personally familiarize her with everything. She was great and we left the next day and she was doing very well with my pets and the house … she too was having a great time. We even thanked her with a pizza delivery.
here’s where the problem is… she started having migraine issues mid sit and went to the emergency. She was advised to not be alone and hence had to leave. I am a 19 hour flight away from home , in a different time zone and am forced to make sudden arrangements for my pets … last minute and chaotic . And expensive. I had to request a friend t Immediately make time while I found a paid sitter who is now going to take over. Pets are stressed, I am stressed and stranded by THS. What if my friend couldn’t have made it … what if I couldn’t have found a paid sitter…I am so worried about how sideways this could have gone for our family.
I have a standard membership and THS is not offering to help in any useful way. Their solution is opening the sit again and finding me a new sitter for the remaining 7 days… which I told them to try and do and since then they are lost. No response. I am feeling cheated and frustrated. I think THS should bear the cost of my paid sitter …feeling robbed of the trust I had placed in this service.
I empathize with our sitter but it is THS that should step up and help out in this unique scenario. per THS I don’t have a sitter…this is how concerned they really are about us and our pets and our homes. they have not even reached out to ask what I did, how I am managing ..
Sorry to hear about this stressful situation @Suhani . Unfortunately illness resulting in a curtailed sit could happen to both sitters and hosts .
When there is an Urgent Situation the quickest way to contact THS is by the 24/7 phone line .
If you didn’t pay for Premium cover then you would be responsible for paying for any costs for an alternative sitter . Whilst Premium members can reclaim part of the costs of a paid sitter from the Sit Cancelation Plan they still need to make the alternative arrangements themselves.
This would be exactly the same situation if you had initially used a paid sitter rather than THS platform- you would still need to make alternative arrangements if that sitter became ill mid sit.
THS is just a matching platform - think of it like a dating App - if your date became ill and didn’t turn up the App wouldn’t be responsible for finding you another date .
What you can do is advertise your sit in the last minute section of the forum . There maybe someone on the forum who will be available to sit for you .
There is no guarantee by THS unless you have Premium membership. It’s spelled out when you sign up.
That sounds stressful but you always need a back up plan whether for a paid or unpaid sitter.
I’m not sure what you are expecting from THS. It’s not like they have some hidden pool of sitters that can show up when something goes wrong. They can readvertise, but that’s about it… They are a match-making service; the responsibility of taking/offering/leaving a sit is between the owner and the sitter. And it’s up to the owner and sitter to have a plan B.
As others said, with a premium membership you might have gotten some money back for a paid sitter, but you opted for the standard one, where that isn’t the case.
I hope you’ll find a solution and that you will soon be reunited with your pets again!
Hi @Suhani
I’m so sorry to hear about this.
Someone from the team should be reaching out to you - please update us whenever you can.
Jenny
I am really sorry you’re going through this. It is really stressful to be so far away and have to cope with this situation.
THS tier system is very clear about what they cover and what they don’t. Just think that THS is a company which offer a service for a cost. Paying for your sitter would be far more expensive than the cost of your membership. Why would they do that? Did you really trust they would? They don’t make that promise at all. Never have. If you read the new T&Cs, they literally say:
17.4. We try to make sure that the Platform is accurate, up-to-date and free from bugs, but we cannot promise that it will be. Furthermore, we cannot promise that the Platform will be fit or suitable for any purpose.
Again, I am really sorry for your sitter, for you and your pets and I hope you will soon find a solution. It’s worth following @Silversitters advice and advertise on the forum.
Good luck.
Sorry but sitters are not employees of THS and therefore THS would not be reimbursing you in this situation. Sitters are in essence volunteers. Sitters pay the same to THS as you do and they would not be paying sitters for their plane fare when hosts cancel as many have had that experience. It sounds like the sitters condition is chronic and unfortunate her condition occurred on your sit. Maybe she could have asked someone to join her if the doctors did not want her to be alone.
I could be wrong, but is this a tier issue? It would seem to me if you had the premium reimbursement plan they coud offer you reminmbursement for the 7 days (minus the deductible). What would you want them to do? They don’t have sitter-employees who they can send to complete the job, so the alternatives would be that you come home, you have a friend or relative take over, you hire someone, you relist and try to arrange a new last minute sitter for as soon as possible (not very practical for 7 days).
I’m concerned about your sitter, was she ok once she left? Was your home causing the migraines maybe? Strip lighting etc can set off migraines… it’s not your fault and not their fault but the cause might be important to know.
I hope the sitter is ok and your pets are being cared for. This is the exact scenario that the cancellation plan is for. Anyone, sitters and hosts, can have an emergency that would require a sit to be cancelled. Since THS is just a matching site they can’t provide another sitter or another sit, so we all need to have a backup plan. THS offers the cancellation plan for those who choose it by paying for premium. But, like any insurance, you have to buy it before you need it. You can’t choose not to pay for it and then expect to have it anyway.
I had a sit cancelled last minute when I was in Europe one summer. I was very glad I had premium since last minute accommodations in an expensive country for the duration of the sit was over $2000. I eventually was reimbursed $1500. If I had not purchased premium, I would not have expected anything from THS.
Hey. She doesn’t know the cause as she says it is a new diagnosis. May even be something else. We don’t yet know. She was very happy and comfortable .
ThanK you for your elaborate response. Agreed! We signed up for standard and we got standard. Makes sense. And, I do understand that they won’t have alternatives. I did expect them though to respond timely and check on the situation. Or renew the listing. They haven’t reached out till today! Anyway, what’s done is done. Agreed that there should be back ups and one only gets what they signed up for.
Ok must’ve been very scarey for your sitter though. I feel for them.