Struggling to get feedback on a complaint from THS

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HNY All,

I wish my first post was more positive but sadly it’s not. I am seeking guidance on how I should proceed with this matter.

Back in May 25’ I raised an issue directly with THS, due to an mailbox issue I am facing on the platform (explained at the bottom).

The initial response was raised to the Tech Team to look into and would get back to me.

I followed this up for updates every other month, but feel like I’m just being fobbed off.

May “I’ll let you know once the tech team gets back to me”

July “I have reached out to the tech team about this matter and will let you know at the earliest Monday once they share more details about it.”

August (Update) “It is in their backlog to work on, but there’s currently no timeline on when it would be looked into further and a fix would be pushed”

December “The tech team mentions that there are no updates on the matter but that it is still in their backlog to work on.”

December exchange happened at the start of the month, upon receiving the update I asked for this to be logged as a complaint.

Complaint Response. “Yes, I will share your complaint regarding this with the relevant department in hopes that the matter can be looked into sooner”

Their policy states that complaints will be responded too within 14 business days.

On working day 15 (December 22nd), I followed this up, asking for my membership to be placed on hold while they look into this, as all the while I am paying for a service which I do not think is being correctly handled.

I was advised by their team.

“I understand you are looking to put your membership on hold until your inbox bug is corrected. Rest assured I would be happy to assist you. Regarding the pause. You can only pause the membership for a period from the renewal date and for 3 months.

At this time we do not have the capabilities to pause the membership anytime before or after then. I can also confirm your issue has been brought to our tech team, and you are in line for a resolution” (feels like to complaint element has just been ignored and they missed the point, and I’m back in this never-ending queue).

What should be my next steps? I’m not sure how to proceed, 7 months on from initially raising it do I just continue to wait, all the time I am paying for a membership I’m not able to use properly.

The issue:

I don’t want to go into to much detail on it, but fundamentally the platform appears to limit how many messages you can receive, I have reached my cap (around 150 I think). It will not allow me to delete messages, so older messages beyond the cap are lost/inaccessible, plus I am losing new messages as they’re not filtering in properly from what I understand.

Many Thanks

Stuart

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@stu this sounds very frustrating

This clause is in the recently updated T&Cs

“17.4. We try to make sure that the Platformis 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. Any reliance that you may place on the information on the Platform is at your own risk. We make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether express or implied, that the content on our Platform is accurate, complete or up to date.

For this reason we take most messaging off platform as soon as a sit is confirmed .

Sorry I don’t have anything more helpful to suggest.

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Have you considered putting a review of THS on Trustpilot with some details of your experience? Sometimes they will suddenly reach out on something that is actionable by them so that it seems like they are responsive.

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Ouch. That sounds frustrating, to say the least. I admit I’d not have had your patience in waiting so long for a resolution.

Out of curiosity, how are you using the service at all rn if you can’t get new messages? Is the problem only in the app, or on the website?

Have you specifically asked for the problem to be escalated? Sometimes I find that SW companies attach less urgency to an issue if they don’t hear back from a customer regularly…maybe they figure if you aren’t pushing it with frequent inquiries, it’s less urgent than other squeaky wheels or high priority bug fixes?

Perhaps you can ping the moderators to see if they can check into it for you?

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Thanks for the response. This effects both mobile & laptop functionality.

Regarding being patient, I’ve luckily not needed to use the platform that much since July, but this year I plan to use it more frequently so would be good if it was resolved before that time.

I think they have clearly understood this is a complaint request when moving forward with this case.

Edit: Emails were removed by admin.

But basically I clearly said mive this forward as a complaint, and they clearly recorded it as one.

(Edited to comply with forum guidelines - not allowing copy & paste correspondence)

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It didn’t even cross my mind to go down this route. I think I should allow a bit longer for the complaint to sit idle before I go down this path. Maybe (but I think unlikely) they are not responding due to the festive period.

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Sorry the pasted correspondence got removed, so the context is missing. I do think you’re likely right that not much will happen now until after the holiday, but the 9-month(ish) wait seems more than patient.

If they can’t or won’t definitively commit to a timely bug fix for your issue, I wonder if you could ask support about the possibility of them creating a new account for you (& preferably, transferring your previous reviews as well?) It’s not ideal as you’d lose some data, but at least you could move forward that way.

And tbh, I’d also be asking for a credit for the months you’ve been waiting with a non-working account. The ToS may say they don’t owe you working software, but ignoring the legality of charging for something they’re not providing, they are in the customer service business.

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My renewal is February, so I’ll probably leave for the month of January, but see if they can do something creative to help compensate for the months I’ve been experiencing the issue.

Thanks for the response, some good points!

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@Stu, welcome back to the THS Forum.
Wow, that sounds like a very frustrating experience.

Curious - in ballpark terms then how many historic applications/sits have you completed? do you also THS Message for all communications or use WhatsApp after sit confirmation?

We’ve seen no limitation of THS Message inbox when using iOS app or website. So seems an odd situation. Though made us think as we’ve completed 50+ sits and probably interacted with maybe 50 more applications. While we use WhatsApp after video call / sit confirmation then, even still, application plus initial replies is probably a good few hundred messages. We’ve had no issue.

Suggest, if not already done, give a clear actionable ask to THS … let THS MS or MS Technology teams solve a specific problem … for example, “please delete all THS messages more than one year old”.

We agree with advice from other members … firmly escalate issue within THS; try iOS and website (in case one works); in future, if not already, use WhatsApp for most comms. We can’t think of a single Pet Parent that has asked us to use THS Message after sit confirmation.

@Mark_B, @Jenny - this issue seems credibly generic in impact to many THS members. Welcome clarification on any technical limitations, e.g. maximum number messages, on THS Messages? Any easy remedial functional steps, e.g. archive or recommended delete. Any disclosures on iOS app or website to mitigate risk of THS members accidentally causing harm to their accounts?

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Hi, Thanks for the great feedback.

I’ve not completed that many, less than 10 sits. As a HO I was finding it frustrating that I was having low applicants. I was advised by THS support that I could also proactively reach out to sitters when I identified a good fit. Following this I probably sent around 20-30 (occasionally more) individual messages for each sitter, most who didn’t read/respond. From this perhaps I have inadvertently backed up my mailbox.

If there was a function to remove old messages obviously this would help but no such function exists on the platform.

I’ve tried using both IOS & Laptop in my quest to resolve this both hitting this invisible cap.

It might be a bug I specifically am facing, hence tge lack of enthusiasm from THS to resolve, but you are right asking them to clear my inbox OR as someone else said maybe migrate my account and reviews onto a new could help resolve this issue.

I just want a specific individual from complaints to say “I am dealing with you on this” so I am not re-explaining my issue to every ‘joe bloggs’ I reach out to for a update.

Thanks

Stu

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Given their lack of ability to help technically, maybe consider whether to create a new account.

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Shocking that THS T & Cs state “we cannot promise that the Platform will be fit or suitable for any purpose.”

Quite unbelievable that this could be in the T & C really. I mean surely that’s the point, the business IS the platform after all!!!

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This sounds like a big deal as I imagine many members may be at or near the 150 mark. Has archiving messages helped? I hope the moderators pass this along, but in your shoes I try telling your story on a public platform like Trust Pilot to get their attention.

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Sadly archiving them doesn’t appear to help. :frowning: