TH Obligations when a confirmed sitter does not renew their membership

@PVGemini My thoughts exactly.

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Hello @PVGemini Thank you for keeping the topic on track!

If a member expires or is suspended they will appear as ‘no longer active’ in the inbox, as mentioned by the OP, that might be why that has also been mentioned on this thread by other members and could be relevant as ‘no longer active’ could mean either has happened.

I hope that helps explain why it could be linked together if anyone sees a confirmed member who is no longer active. Membership Services is always happy to help clarify if you reach out to them.

@Carla

If THS believes that Owners and Sitters should NOT be notified when their future Owner/Sitter has NOT RENEWED THEIR MEMBERSHIP, I would love to understand the rationale!

So silly!!

Hello, @PVGemini Please see my previous post as I have passed that feedback onto the relevant team. As part of the forum team, it’s not my decision to make, but if I hear anything back from the team I will post it here. :smiling_face:

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I really feel for the predicament you’ve been in. That was indeed very irresponsible on the part of the sitter.

Perhaps I’m being a bit naive here but I’d have assumed a HO might have received some sort of autogenerated message from THS to alert them that their booked and confirmed sitter was no longer an active member. Clearly this is not something that happens.

I definitely agree with those who’ve suggested keeping the lines of communication very much open leading up to the sit to maintain that sense of reassurance on both sides. I do hope you have a far more positive experience next time.

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@Carla

I guess another way of saying this is,

“Why doesn’t THS currently notify Owners and Sitters when their pending Sitter or Owner does not renew?”

I really don’t get it. Utterly ridiculous. Please explain why this is the current practice.

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Thank you for tagging me @PVGemini As per my post above, I am more than happy to pass this feedback on and share any replies, but outside of that, I don’t have any more information about why this is the current practice. If I hear more I promise that I will let you know. :smiling_face:

I recently completed a housesit where the owner’s membership lapsed about two days before i was due to start the confirmed sit.

I contacted THS for support (as i didn’t know where i was going as a physical address had not been provided by the owner) and they were able to get in touch with the owner via email but only because i had provided my mobile number to the owner and been communicating via the message system of THS.
This was pretty stressful but I am glad it was sorted.

@MustLoveCats Are you saying that if you had NOT provided your mobile number, THS was not going to help you?

I believe that is correct.

Even mentioned in the email “It’s not up to them if someone chooses not to renew their membership”.

Hello, @MustLoveCats That sounds really concerning so I wanted to reach out to Membership Service and check for you.

Membership Services have confirmed that they do not need a member’s phone number to reach out on their behalf. In cases where a member seeks assistance to reach out to another member, they offer (with the members permission) to share a phone number to help the connection. Apologies if there was any confusion and they are happy to assist if you have any more questions.

It’s great that they managed to reach the owner for you :slight_smile:

Honestly, if there can’t be some sort of automated message AND update to a confirmed sit when one party has let their membership lapse, then the system should not allow sits to be posted or applied for beyond a member’s current subscription.

I know that would cause a whole bunch of other issues, as it seems there are at least a handful of sits that are planned more than a year out, but this is such a basic function of a site like this.

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@belluca That is a good point! I had to read your words twice before I understood what you are saying.

I think I understand: If THS refuses to inform their ACTIVE MEMBERS when other members don’t renew their memberships, then Owners and Sitters should not be able to post or apply for Sits beyond the date on which their membership could expire, if they choose not to renew.

The current system certainly jeopardizes the integrity of many Sits, both from Owner and Sitter perspective.

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For sitters, this is what I get:

But I assume that it is still possible to set it to auto-renew and then remove the auto-renew afterwards.

Did the host rejoin in time again for you to get a review?
We were recently invited for a repeat sit privately by WhatsApp. When I went on the site to revist the listing I saw she was not currently active. We contacted her and said we could not take the sit if she was not an active member as we would nit be able to review each other etc. She had not realised the importance of it immediately paid her membership & all was fine.

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Yes, that’s possible as far as I remember. We were in two minds about renewing or not, and applying for a sit after lapse, and I remember this was possible.

This is what must have happened with my sitter - she accepted the sit in July and must have agreed to autorenew then, and then cancelled her subscription when it became due in October.

Not cool, given that she assured me when we spoke on WhatsApp that she would not cancel and was definitely in!

+1
This is definitely a notification that should be added for the platform.

This is also another reason why it’s super important to always get alternate contact info I.e. a number or email for when the app comms fail, and as many others have said, to check in on the other party regularly leading up to sits.

I’d still be incredibly frustrated if I were you…it’s basically a no call no show, but it happened outside of the 14 day window…you just didn’t know because you got no notification of the fact that your sitter was no longer available…definitely should be an auto-notification for this.

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@botvot @PVGemini @pietkuip

There is a feature which was discussed in Nov 23 that stops auto-renew being switched off unless sits are first cancelled

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