I recently had a very bad experience. Booked someone who was very keen, did a lot of house sits, reviews were pretty good. When we had a video chat the sitter said they would need to pop out to work for a few hours which was not an issue. Turns out they were barely here (neighbours noted the sitter’s car was gone most of the time), the dogs were not walked (they only need two short walks a day) and on the last day they left early in the morning fully aware I would not be back for another 11 or 12 hours. I actually cut my weekend away short, paid for another train ticket and came home at lunch time on my last day.
I just didn’t know what to do about a review as the person had my key, knows my house, knows my pets etc but by the time I decided to actually do a review I realised their account is inactive. That was a little surprising as they had a lot of bookings…
What do people do in such instances? I am not massively demanding, the pets are extremely easy going but this was shocking. Oh and they were overfed on something as they were like little pooping machines (they are normally fed raw so they poop rabbit pellets).
If it’s after the fact, all you can do is leave a factual review and I personally, also would have reported them to TH. I still would now even if the account is inactive just so there is a record of the issues if they ever come back.
If you do not leave a review, there is no way for anyone else to know what happened or for them to be held accountable.
Past that, all you can do at this point is move on.
Sounds like a horrible experience. =(
This has definitely not been a good experience for you @HTFG. I’m trying to work out whether it was just a weekend sit or whether it was for a longer period which makes the situation worse because of the time away from your dogs. Did your neighbours alert you of the sitter leaving early, hence you returning home earlier? Had you tried any communication with this sitter through your inboxes prior to the commencement of the sit as this would have perhaps alerted you to whether they were inactive or not? I would follow this up with THS, especially where you mention they have future bookings which now should be invalid.
Maybe the Sitter got kicked off the Site based on a previous Owner’s complaints? I hope so. That is horrible.
Please be sure to report them to THS and leave a review.
Does this person still have your key?
If so, I hope you know what to do and asap please.
Even if the account is inactive, I suggest you report the sitter to member services so that there is documentation of this sitters actions.
The sitter has your key? This sounds bad.
I would immediately report that to THS. It could be that the sitter asked THS to deactivate his account. Perhaps to avoid any bad review. But it’s absolutely forbidden to deactive an account during an active sitting or the review window of two weeks. I would investigate further what happened.
The sitter does not have my key, I mentioned they had it and they could have had a copy cut.
The account got deactivated at some point after the sit, I only noticed it yesterday.
I emailed about the whole experience THS today so hopefully they won’t be able activate it again.
@HTFG thanks for the update.
Ok…I’m off the key thing other than mentiong it seemed a big concern, as here too with a copy.
I guess if I even thought that…I would change my locks.
We have key pads and can add and delete codes as needed.
(A bit off topic…)
An update: I lodged a formal complaint about the sitter with THS and after they investigated it they wrote to me that he has been permanently struck off the website and they also gave me extra three months of membership.
I know it does not stop him from doing what he does via other platforms but I feel I got at least some justice.
I currently have a lovely young Aussie sitting for me and they are absolutely amazing.
@HTFG thank you for the update .
It is reassuring to know that in this case the THS formal dispute process resulted in a full investigation and removal of this member from the Platform.
Unfortunately member services frequently do not advise members who contact them with a complaint about how to raise a formal dispute .