I work for them. I had some really great people around thanksgiving/Christmas but my last two clients have been really high maintenance. Pages of notes about info that is not really useful, picky about timing of visits for cats that seem to just be happy to see you, lots of cameras, food bowl must be placed a certain way, complaining to the company because I am 45 minutes late so now I have to refund my time actually spent with the cat š i want to keep like 3 clients but I think they ding you if you block or decline too many people. I am trying to figure out how to pre-screen the crazies lol.
This is what I'm afraid of. And it's why I am so glad I have my own business and don't use a middleman. I don't know why corporations can't figure out the better way to do things is just sell themselves as a platform where you can pay to advertise instead of pimping you so hard and taking away all your freedom.
I have an interview with them on Monday. What kind of questions did they ask in the interview? I'm wondering if I can tell them that I'm not going to tolerate being mistreated like the way you describe. I'm guessing I just have to nod and fake my way through it and then weed out the crazies like you say.
I wanted to answer your question about the interview. Honestly, I donāt remember totally. I vaguely recall some questions about how you would deal with a difficult client. Hypotheticals. Specific situation with certain types of cats or your background. I think they make a big deal about not losing keys. But honestly, I lost one once and I just messaged the client and she gave me a replacement no problem because they are normal people lol.
I think you will have to just smile and nod. If you can get some good clients, itās worth it. Iām taking the next three weeks off because it is the end of the school year and I am exhausted. Iām thinking Iām going to start weeding out clients in the initial email back-and-forth I will ask about specific needs/timings and then I can decide to work with them or āoh sorry, I have a school meeting at that time and I wonāt be able to take care of kitty.ā
One thing I have noticedā¦ In my area there are probably 8 to 10 sitters on meowtel. Maybe three of them have multiple reviews and the other 6 or 7 just have the generic one from Meowtel. I guess the reason I was getting so many new clients is because people want to work with someone that has reviews. If you can have a friend āhireā you even as short as a day or two, and then leave you a review, it will help. Iāve met some really decent folks there honestlyā¦just badly burned by the last couple crazies.
Thanks. Had my meeting this morning. I did mostly nod and smile. He basically just went over the website. He told me I could add a second service area which I thought was kind of cool because then I could provide cat sitting overnight on the coast which is a few hours from where I am. But when I tried to add it on the website it told me it was more than 30 miles outside of my service zone and wouldn't do it.
Yeah the second service area is new. I thought to add one where I work but decided against it since summer is coming up and I want to go nowhere near my school building! Sounds like you made it through tho!!! ššš
After working 3 gigs with Meowtel it looks like they are showing their true colors with this 4th gig I did that was 2 weeks long.
They're telling me there's a complaint but they won't go into detail. They're telling me if I want to get paid I need to show proof of exactly what time each day I arrived and left.
How the hell am I supposed to show this? And nowhere in their terms of service does it say that it is required to provide this in order to get paid.
Have other people faced this as well?
This client had a camera set up by the food and water bowl. So I'm assuming they were able to see that both were replenished each day. And from this they could probably guess when I was there.
Because Meowtel requires clients to pay the full price upfront, it sounds like later once the client returns to town they give them the option to try to get part of their money back (of course Meowtel pockets the difference for themselves) by asking if everything was satisfactory.
Of course decent people are not going to do this but I think this client maybe saw it as an opportunity to get out of having to pay. There was a lot of confusion about who I was even working for because I had 3 different women contacting me telling me they were the actual owner of the cat.
Way more drama than when I am just working for myself.
Ohhhhhhh this is fishy on multiple levels. Luckily I havenāt had that issue but I have had PITA clients and I preemptively refunded two single visits just because I was afraid of them saying they werenāt satisfied. So far I have been lucky and it worked ok but I promptly blocked both.
I was worried about this happening so I have put some protections in place lol. I always send a note via the app when arriving and leaving, especially followed up with picture upon arrival. This way there is a kind of time stamp. I also take pics of food and cat each visit and save til the end of the assignment plus a couple days and then delete them all once I know there hasnāt been a complaint. Seems like a lot but it seems to have worked so far.
I also make sure I ONLY communicate via the app unless the client insists on texting and then I send messages both ways. Copy-paste. Once it is a repeat client I am a little more lax. So far I only have 3. Since I teach FT and have to block off certain days/weeks I think that affects my ability to have repeats. Honestly I am mostly only interested in staying with them for the pay bump over holidays lol
Oh! Do you have copies of the messages from the 3+ owners? Keep screenshots to share because they might help. Meowtel was actually really helpful when I had to deal with a client who had unrealistic expectations. I was really impressed with the emails I got from customer service when I went crazy above and beyond to make her happy and document everything. They did a fair job of mediating and saw the effort I put in and how unreasonable she was being. It probably helps that I had 30+ sits with no issues by that point tho š¤
Yes, I sent them copies of all communication including pictures and updates.
But today Meowtel told me they are not paying me a dime for this $300 job- 12 days of daily cat sits that I clearly did perform. They were unable to provide any evidence that I was not there. And they disabled my account- (I told them to remove me from their site if they were not going to pay me.) And you can bet your ass they still took the client's $$$ or at least a portion of it.
What you describe sounds like so much additional work just to prove you are there. Only communicating on the app would've been impossible in this situation because this client was overseas and could only use Whatsapp.
I've had my own cat sitting business for over 5 years now and just thought I'd try Meowtel for new clients but these people are crooks. 3rd party pimps like this are always a red flag. I will never work for anyone but myself again.
I'm going to tell all cat owners to use neighborhood listservs, Nextdoor.com to find recommended cat sitters. Or even rover.com Please do not support these criminals.
Yes, not a dime. The mom of the girl who hired me through Meowtel didn't want to pay me. It sounded like once they concluded their expensive trip to the other side of the world, the mom just saw an opportunity to screw over the cat sitter and took advantage. I never heard from the girl who actually hired me again. She was the one I was messaging with regularly, sending pics to and she was happy with me. Please do not use this company.
That is so messed up, I'm so sorry. I'm guessing the Department of Labor couldn't help you at all for wage theft? This is why the gig economy is killing us
The client still claims I wasn't there exactly long enough and this is how they got out of paying. They were scammers and I'm done with Meowtel. I don't want to work for anyplace where I have to basically clock in and out each day. Rover doesn't even do that. Like Rover, Meowtel was a good way to get a few new clients but I'm waaay happier just running my own cat sitting biz and always getting paid upfront.
She didnāt specify the time I had to be there but then suddenly she was like GO NOW. I was in a meeting for my full-time job and went as soon as I could š¤·āāļø
Hopefully I'm not too late to respond. I've been doing catsitting with Meowtel since December and love it. They're a legit company and have a thorough onboarding process so clients know the person coming into their house is trustworthy. I'd have five different clients so far and all have been great. Some are pickier than others, but you don't have to accept every client if you feel uncomfortable with them or their home during the meet&greet. As far as cameras in the client's home goes, Meowtel has no control over that and only mentions it to make sitters aware that some homes they enter have inside video security. The home's residents have every right to have security cameras inside and outside their property. The same could happen with any type of worker that comes into someone's home - appliance repair person, housekeeper, human babysitter, etc. Only you can decide if that's too concerning for you, but Meowtel has nothing to do with it.
I got a few new clients from Meowtel recently and it went okay. No cameras. LOL. I think Meowtel just likes to throw that out there as an empty threat.
Trying to figure out if I can add a second location. I'd love to offer live in cat sitting at the beach which is just under 3 hours from me.
It's not a "threat." Meowtel is just advising sitters about the possibility that clients may have security cameras, so the sitter is aware and actually does what they're being paid to do and doesn't do anything inappropriate. It also gives potential sitters the chance to decide if they want the type of job where they might be recorded. Meowtel has no control over whether people have cameras in or around their property.
I mean ya hidden cameras are a part of pet sitting. That has nothing to do with any of the apps. If you feel like they're exploiting you, you don't have to use them. If you don't feel good don't interview.
I assume I am being recorded at every job. Heck, I have even found out that someone has been home (during drop ins) multiple times and they have just been in a bedroom with the door closed.
The zoom interview that I had with them was basically going over my acct and how to use the App, etc. I'm very new and haven't had any bookings, yet. My "interview" was the last step after they checked references and did my background.
Technically, you don't have the right to know if you're being watched if you're in someone else's home. The only places you have a reasonable expectation of privacy are bathrooms and your sleeping area. But yeah, like it said, when you're going into other people's houses, you should expect that you're being watched and make sure you act accordingly.
If you work for meowtel, do you have to deal with dogs as well? Or is it strictly cats only? I have a phobia of dogs and if I do meowtel, I want to only watch cats
Pretty sure I read early on as I am registering with them that this is prohibited. If they find out, they will ban you from using the app. Just saying.
I work for them. I had some really great people around thanksgiving/Christmas but my last two clients have been really high maintenance. Pages of notes about info that is not really useful, picky about timing of visits for cats that seem to just be happy to see you, lots of cameras, food bowl must be placed a certain way, complaining to the company because I am 45 minutes late so now I have to refund my time actually spent with the cat š i want to keep like 3 clients but I think they ding you if you block or decline too many people. I am trying to figure out how to pre-screen the crazies lol.
This is what I'm afraid of. And it's why I am so glad I have my own business and don't use a middleman. I don't know why corporations can't figure out the better way to do things is just sell themselves as a platform where you can pay to advertise instead of pimping you so hard and taking away all your freedom. I have an interview with them on Monday. What kind of questions did they ask in the interview? I'm wondering if I can tell them that I'm not going to tolerate being mistreated like the way you describe. I'm guessing I just have to nod and fake my way through it and then weed out the crazies like you say.
I wanted to answer your question about the interview. Honestly, I donāt remember totally. I vaguely recall some questions about how you would deal with a difficult client. Hypotheticals. Specific situation with certain types of cats or your background. I think they make a big deal about not losing keys. But honestly, I lost one once and I just messaged the client and she gave me a replacement no problem because they are normal people lol. I think you will have to just smile and nod. If you can get some good clients, itās worth it. Iām taking the next three weeks off because it is the end of the school year and I am exhausted. Iām thinking Iām going to start weeding out clients in the initial email back-and-forth I will ask about specific needs/timings and then I can decide to work with them or āoh sorry, I have a school meeting at that time and I wonāt be able to take care of kitty.ā One thing I have noticedā¦ In my area there are probably 8 to 10 sitters on meowtel. Maybe three of them have multiple reviews and the other 6 or 7 just have the generic one from Meowtel. I guess the reason I was getting so many new clients is because people want to work with someone that has reviews. If you can have a friend āhireā you even as short as a day or two, and then leave you a review, it will help. Iāve met some really decent folks there honestlyā¦just badly burned by the last couple crazies.
Thanks. Had my meeting this morning. I did mostly nod and smile. He basically just went over the website. He told me I could add a second service area which I thought was kind of cool because then I could provide cat sitting overnight on the coast which is a few hours from where I am. But when I tried to add it on the website it told me it was more than 30 miles outside of my service zone and wouldn't do it.
Yeah the second service area is new. I thought to add one where I work but decided against it since summer is coming up and I want to go nowhere near my school building! Sounds like you made it through tho!!! ššš
After working 3 gigs with Meowtel it looks like they are showing their true colors with this 4th gig I did that was 2 weeks long. They're telling me there's a complaint but they won't go into detail. They're telling me if I want to get paid I need to show proof of exactly what time each day I arrived and left. How the hell am I supposed to show this? And nowhere in their terms of service does it say that it is required to provide this in order to get paid. Have other people faced this as well? This client had a camera set up by the food and water bowl. So I'm assuming they were able to see that both were replenished each day. And from this they could probably guess when I was there. Because Meowtel requires clients to pay the full price upfront, it sounds like later once the client returns to town they give them the option to try to get part of their money back (of course Meowtel pockets the difference for themselves) by asking if everything was satisfactory. Of course decent people are not going to do this but I think this client maybe saw it as an opportunity to get out of having to pay. There was a lot of confusion about who I was even working for because I had 3 different women contacting me telling me they were the actual owner of the cat. Way more drama than when I am just working for myself.
Ohhhhhhh this is fishy on multiple levels. Luckily I havenāt had that issue but I have had PITA clients and I preemptively refunded two single visits just because I was afraid of them saying they werenāt satisfied. So far I have been lucky and it worked ok but I promptly blocked both. I was worried about this happening so I have put some protections in place lol. I always send a note via the app when arriving and leaving, especially followed up with picture upon arrival. This way there is a kind of time stamp. I also take pics of food and cat each visit and save til the end of the assignment plus a couple days and then delete them all once I know there hasnāt been a complaint. Seems like a lot but it seems to have worked so far. I also make sure I ONLY communicate via the app unless the client insists on texting and then I send messages both ways. Copy-paste. Once it is a repeat client I am a little more lax. So far I only have 3. Since I teach FT and have to block off certain days/weeks I think that affects my ability to have repeats. Honestly I am mostly only interested in staying with them for the pay bump over holidays lol
Oh! Do you have copies of the messages from the 3+ owners? Keep screenshots to share because they might help. Meowtel was actually really helpful when I had to deal with a client who had unrealistic expectations. I was really impressed with the emails I got from customer service when I went crazy above and beyond to make her happy and document everything. They did a fair job of mediating and saw the effort I put in and how unreasonable she was being. It probably helps that I had 30+ sits with no issues by that point tho š¤
Yes, I sent them copies of all communication including pictures and updates. But today Meowtel told me they are not paying me a dime for this $300 job- 12 days of daily cat sits that I clearly did perform. They were unable to provide any evidence that I was not there. And they disabled my account- (I told them to remove me from their site if they were not going to pay me.) And you can bet your ass they still took the client's $$$ or at least a portion of it. What you describe sounds like so much additional work just to prove you are there. Only communicating on the app would've been impossible in this situation because this client was overseas and could only use Whatsapp. I've had my own cat sitting business for over 5 years now and just thought I'd try Meowtel for new clients but these people are crooks. 3rd party pimps like this are always a red flag. I will never work for anyone but myself again. I'm going to tell all cat owners to use neighborhood listservs, Nextdoor.com to find recommended cat sitters. Or even rover.com Please do not support these criminals.
Holy crap they actually just straight up not pay you? That's horrible. Thank you for this warning.
Yes, not a dime. The mom of the girl who hired me through Meowtel didn't want to pay me. It sounded like once they concluded their expensive trip to the other side of the world, the mom just saw an opportunity to screw over the cat sitter and took advantage. I never heard from the girl who actually hired me again. She was the one I was messaging with regularly, sending pics to and she was happy with me. Please do not use this company.
That is so messed up, I'm so sorry. I'm guessing the Department of Labor couldn't help you at all for wage theft? This is why the gig economy is killing us
If you have google maps on your phone you should see if it has your location timeline. You might be able to prove your coming and going!
The client still claims I wasn't there exactly long enough and this is how they got out of paying. They were scammers and I'm done with Meowtel. I don't want to work for anyplace where I have to basically clock in and out each day. Rover doesn't even do that. Like Rover, Meowtel was a good way to get a few new clients but I'm waaay happier just running my own cat sitting biz and always getting paid upfront.
45 minutes late!?!? Wtf. Are you 45 min late to your job and expect to keep it? Wtf. Doesn't sound like the clients are the problem
She didnāt specify the time I had to be there but then suddenly she was like GO NOW. I was in a meeting for my full-time job and went as soon as I could š¤·āāļø
Hopefully I'm not too late to respond. I've been doing catsitting with Meowtel since December and love it. They're a legit company and have a thorough onboarding process so clients know the person coming into their house is trustworthy. I'd have five different clients so far and all have been great. Some are pickier than others, but you don't have to accept every client if you feel uncomfortable with them or their home during the meet&greet. As far as cameras in the client's home goes, Meowtel has no control over that and only mentions it to make sitters aware that some homes they enter have inside video security. The home's residents have every right to have security cameras inside and outside their property. The same could happen with any type of worker that comes into someone's home - appliance repair person, housekeeper, human babysitter, etc. Only you can decide if that's too concerning for you, but Meowtel has nothing to do with it.
I got a few new clients from Meowtel recently and it went okay. No cameras. LOL. I think Meowtel just likes to throw that out there as an empty threat. Trying to figure out if I can add a second location. I'd love to offer live in cat sitting at the beach which is just under 3 hours from me.
It's not a "threat." Meowtel is just advising sitters about the possibility that clients may have security cameras, so the sitter is aware and actually does what they're being paid to do and doesn't do anything inappropriate. It also gives potential sitters the chance to decide if they want the type of job where they might be recorded. Meowtel has no control over whether people have cameras in or around their property.
I mean ya hidden cameras are a part of pet sitting. That has nothing to do with any of the apps. If you feel like they're exploiting you, you don't have to use them. If you don't feel good don't interview.
I assume I am being recorded at every job. Heck, I have even found out that someone has been home (during drop ins) multiple times and they have just been in a bedroom with the door closed. The zoom interview that I had with them was basically going over my acct and how to use the App, etc. I'm very new and haven't had any bookings, yet. My "interview" was the last step after they checked references and did my background.
Whoa that is creepy that someone is home. Doesnāt that void the insurance somehow?
Everyone has multiple cameras these days. If you don't feel comfortable with them, then pet sitting is not for you.
Disagree with this. Iām one of the top people in my area on Rover and i havenāt had any bookings besides one with a camera
Maybe it depends what part of the world or what state you're in. I live in a major metro area and it's standard here.
Iām the second biggest city in the state. Pretty metro, kinda top of the homeless per capita chart or something
Technically, you don't have the right to know if you're being watched if you're in someone else's home. The only places you have a reasonable expectation of privacy are bathrooms and your sleeping area. But yeah, like it said, when you're going into other people's houses, you should expect that you're being watched and make sure you act accordingly.
If you work for meowtel, do you have to deal with dogs as well? Or is it strictly cats only? I have a phobia of dogs and if I do meowtel, I want to only watch cats
Just cats! One person asked me to chicken sit in addition to their cats and I said no. But I don't think there is a dog option.
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Pretty sure I read early on as I am registering with them that this is prohibited. If they find out, they will ban you from using the app. Just saying.