I had a sitter apply for 3 of my sits which would have covered all of my travel for the remainder of the year. She sent a very nice intro along with her applications and selected the date for our Zoom meeting. I set up a meeting and sent to her the details via THS message. We both confirmed the meeting date/time which was a few days out from our original communication.
I waited on Zoom for 30 minutes. She has not canceled her applications and has not reached out. I sent her a message that has been left unread.
I’m very new to THS and wondered if anyone had any advice on how I should proceed? Two of these sits are for very important trips and I really want to lock in a sitter. Furthermore, I want to give the sitter the benefit of the doubt but I also am leery.
If you give them another chance, there will always be a part of you that is concerned they won’t show up for the sit.
That would disturb me so i would look elsewhere.
After good comms and an organised Zoom which you both agreed to it sounds as if something might have happened to the sitter. As in, out of character. You could jog her again and set a response time of say 48 hours and if nothing then cancel and relist. You could also ask THS support to check she’s okay. Is the messaging between you on the platform or what’s app? If the first then try the latter too. The system can be clunky. If you have what’s app then you could just call her and check in. If the relationship is going to work then good comms between the two of you is the most important element. #whatsappwins
Red flag if they didn’t let you know they couldn’t make it or follow up in response to your msg. I’d consider that you’d dodged a bullet. Decline such a sitter.
On the off chance that they had an unavoidable crisis or emergency, they can follow up later if able.
@legendvictoria that’s good you are keeping your listing live for other applicants. Incase you need to restart your search.
In future I would suggest you exchange phone numbers directly and use WhatsApp for your video calls. If you do prefer zoom that’s OK but at least you would still have a phone number as back up.
Also if you decide on the same sitter for all three dates then you need to be very sure and confident in them. We rarely do repeats and would always prefer to sit for someone once before committing to a second sit. It could be thst either you or they are not entirely happy with the sit and might regret a further commitment.
We have only once confirmed two sits before doing the first one. On the first sit we hot on fabulously with the hosts but the dogs were a real handful and the location not ideal. We regretted having booked the second, slightly longer, sit! But all worked out great- we got used to the dogs, loved this families company & overlapped with them each time. We ended up sitting for them 3 times over that summer and are still friends now!
But it is something worth bearing in mind! There are lots of great sitters out there.
Happened to me once where the HO didn’t show for a Zoom meeting, I waited and waited but ziltch. When I finally contacted her it was just oh I haven’t been well. No sorry, no nothing, just let’s do it another day, that was the full response. So I cancelled my application. If this is the attitude to begin with, chances are it is a definite red flag. I am not at someone’s beck and call and well or unwell, manners and courtesy cost nothing.
We’re sitters, please move on, red flag, red flag. If any sitter forgets about a zoom call, you’ll just be worrying while you are on holiday if they don’t reply with a message within a certain timeframe, save yourself the panic, and find someone with good communication skills, it’s not much to ask from any of us. If they really wanted to sit, they would have remembered.
Look stuff happens like losing your phone or laptop…. or being hacked. I prefer to assume techie issues in a situation like this until I definitely know otherwise.
I had a WhatsApp video chat organised waited half an hour- and nothing-so tried to message/call and nothing…. messaged the newbie HO on THS and she was all of a muddle trying to make WhatsApp work her end, as she’d not added me as a contact and her settings wouldn’t allow my call/texts through…. once we’d sorted this we had a lovely chat (starting with bonding over how we were both a bit challenged by tech at times but usually get there in the end!) We are doing the sit and it’s a lovely one in October….
Also check it’s not a time zone Zoom issue….
As per other advice re looking elsewhere, I agree. Also, as a sitter, I would never sign up for more than one set of dates with an owner until I’d sat. If that went well, then I may consider returning. I have done a few repeat sits but usually there’s been a year or so in between them
With nearly all online accounts, you typically can log on with any computer, phone, tablet, etc. So it’s irrelevant if you’ve had a device stolen as long as you can get to another device, even a borrowed one. And it’s highly unlikely that someone’s THS account gets hacked, because not worth the bother for hackers.
If you stick around and read more posts, you’ll see that flakiness is often a cause. Of course, you can do as you prefer and look on the unlikely side. Most of us don’t.
