Yes, there is frequently a problem with messages taking a very long time to arrive. I know for a fact that a while back now I had been in touch with an owner and we had excahnged whatsApp nubers. I had been asked if I had recieved message through the site that she had sent and I hadn’t. It arrived almost 24 hours later. We had by that time arranged everything on WhatsApp. If not, she would have been wondering why I had not replied and maybe even thought I had changed my mind. . I have had messages arrive late a few times now. Maybe the wind blows them, off course at times. : -) Or a gremlin in the works?
Messages lag.
Messages are hard to see because of the way older messages from the same person are displayed, so it’s easy to miss a message.
You can’t delete messages. You can put them in “archive” and stick a label on them.
You can’t INITIALLY send a message to another member unless you are a Homeowner sending a private invitation for a date, in which case you can send a message and then receive a reply. After that contact has been established, I believe both parties can message each other.
It’s important to establish another way of communicating quickly in order to chat more easily, arrange a video call, have the video call etc.
If the sit is arranged it’s super important to use something else: text, facetime if both have apple, whatsapp, etc to communicate easily during a sit.
If you are a homeowner who put up your listing publicly and sitters are taking a while to get back to you – as in more than a day – that’s on them, may have to do with timezones, work schedules, etc. If you sent a sitter a private invitation based on perusing profiles, they may not be checking their inbox or even recieving notifications. Public invitations are generally more successful.
@weirdholyman Apologies that there was no update on the other thread you posted here. The Product team are aware of the feedback about the GMT time zones in the inbox and there is now a dedicated team working on the inbox. Any future updates will be announced on the forum. You can find more information here: Messaging & Applications please feel free to add any more feedback to the post.
As you can see from this current thread, your users consider this a bug preventing them from properly communicating. I, for one, do not understand why it takes a special project by a dedicated team doing “research” to fix a bug.
Hello, @Cronmoax Thank you for reaching out, just to reassure everyone that although the time stamps in the inbox shown in GMT (UK) the messages are not delayed across time zones and there should be no delay in anyone sending or receiving messages. The system sends the messages instantly to the other member.
The inbox was designed to only show GMT when it was first set up as the company is UK-based, with lots of members now using it in many countries the team are looking at adding other timezones. So it is not a bug, it is an original design feature and there are no issues in the messages working as they should. @weirdholyman I will tag you here to help answer your question as well
I just did a quick test and sent a message to one of my owners (I am USA-based) and it went straight through. There are no reported issues with messages being sent or received or any delay in sending them. Apologies if the times in the message being in GMT make it confusing. This thread might also help Hours-long lag on receiving messages and notifications
If anyone is experiencing any issues of this nature, outside of what I have described above please reach out to Membership Services at support@trustedhousesitters.com and they will be happy to look into it for you.
The inbox is being updated by a dedicated team and you can see more here:Messaging & Applications
@Carla We may have to agree to disagree on this issue.
It may have been designed that way, but the day THS realized they had a growing number of users outside GMT this became a bug. If not that day, then certainly the day THS began to specifically market themselves outside GMT.
Like any service, your users and usage dictate what is an impediment to functionality, and therefore a flaw that needs to be repaired. In this case your users have been complaining about this for at least a couple years. Simply labeling it “not a bug” does not make it any less of an impediment to us.
@weirdholyman Thank you for your feedback. The team have definitely taken your concerns on board.
Apologies if there is any confusion, my mentioning it is not a bug is not to downplay the importance of the issue to members, but rather my understanding from the team is a bug is something that is no longer working as it is designed to and is broken and needs to be fixed.
This function is working as designed (an inbox with GMT) so it can not be fixed as a bug by the team (nothing is broken) but rather would need to be redesigned to incorporate multiple timezones in the system. This is to help manage expectations that it is not a bug that will be fixed as the multiple time zones were never there in the first place, but hopefully something that can be incorporated in the future inbox redesign. I would hate for anyone to think it will be fixed as a bug very soon and be disappointed when that does not happen, that’s why I hoped to clarify it a bit better.
The team redesigning the inbox is aware of this and will consider it in future updates. We have also passed on how important adding this feature is to members who have raised it on the forum. Thank you for championing the changes that you want to see
