What to do when your sitter won't respond in a timely manner?

Owner Questions, Advice & Chat
61

The people I’ve pet sat for made assumptions, and they had every right to. You are taking care of their beloved family member(s). Is a one-minute text with photo too overwhelming for a pet sitter to handle? Then they should not be trusted house sitters.

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62

It’s not odd, it’s selfish and entitled. She shouldn’t be taking care of anyone’s pets.

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63

That’s a gift, not compensation.

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64

Sitters aren’t at the beck and call of owners every single minute of the day. They’ll get their message, but if I’m out and about it won’t be immediate.

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65

Thank you @Juno1956 for clarifying that the compensation that you referred to was in the form of grocery store gift cards. I sincerely hope you are getting enjoyment from your holidays

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66

I don’t buy the once a week thing. I’m a sitter and all the pet parents I’ve sat for have wanted, asked for and been grateful for daily photos and updates. Communication is a universal solvent. It makes everything easier. You deserve to be communicated with!! You can describe this behavior in her review so that others can decide if this is the level of communication they want to deal with.

Edited to meet posting terms

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67

I’m with you, Juno. I’ve taken care of very sick cats who needed medication, couldn’t make it to the litter box, old dogs who needed a lot of care, etc. And no one thought to give me a tip, a gift card or the like. It seems most people were not taught basic goodwill skills.

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68

Totally agree, Ziggy.

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69

But sitters, and everyone else for that matter, can give a quick response so the sender knows the message has been received. This is Communication 101. You don’t read a message and take 3 days to respond to it. Leaving a thumbs up emoji takes approx. 5 seconds. “Got your message, will respond soon” also takes about 5 seconds.

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70

In the THS system, there is the read symbol. That is also in several messaging apps.

#certainunawareagegroup

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71

Bro, the OP was complaining about waiting two hours. The sitter could’ve been at the cinema down the road with their phone turned off in that time frame.

Also (and maybe this is just because I deliberately avoid neurotic HOs) a lot of HOs appreciate a couple of pics but err on the side of “no news means everything is ok” and would be fine with contact once or twice a week for a month-long sit.

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72

For a sit of over a week, I ask for contact every 3 days (after the first few days). This is to reassure me that the sitter hasn’t fallen under a bus or had some other catastrophe that prevents them from taking care of my pet.

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73

Many people – especially younger people, do not use phones that way anymore

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74

There are in fact HOs that only want updates/pictures once a week, especially for longer sits. I even did one sit that the HO specifically told me not to contact her at all unless there was a problem. In my experience most like updates either daily or every 2-3 days, but there are some HOs who just want to enjoy their holiday and not think about anything back home. That doesn’t mean they don’t love their pets.

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75

True, but it seems like the sitter was making it seem like that’s the norm and the OP was somehow asking for too much. That’s classic gaslighting.

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76

@marion We don’t know how many sits this sitter had done, it might have been the norm for her. We have no way of knowing. It sounds like it wasn’t discussed at all and both sides made assumptions regarding the frequency of communications.

It’s important to communicate about communications. :grinning:

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77

I agree. There’s a huge generational difference in communication preferences. I don’t know if my nieces and nephews ever check emails. They will respond to a text quickly, but might never listen to a voice message if I leave one.

Text is considered the fastest way of reaching a lot of people under 50, and even most of my friends who are older. Yesterday I was told (by a good friend) that I “suck at texting” because I don’t respond quickly!

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78

No @lolrj, the OP never complained about waiting two hours. (bro :laughing:)

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79

@MaggieUU yes, they did.

“I texted her the next day to make sure everything was OK and she finally replied after a couple of hours with two pictures”

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80

But that wasn’t the core of her complaint, it was when she didnt get a response after waiting over night and then no response after 12 hours. (bro :laughing:)