Was our housesitter a, for lack of a better term, [ditz]?

In My Humble Opinion
1

We were away for not quite three weeks. We paid a close friend of ours, “T”, to house-sit during that time. Okay, he fed the cats, he didn’t slob the place up, he didn’t eat us out of house and home, didn’t drink anything we didn’t okay him to drink, and nothing is missing or broken. However, there are two things he didn’t do that we are seriously displeased about.

First, we found out when we got back that he never once set the house alarm. Not “away”, not “home”. Okay, he only left the house a couple times, to go to the post office or bodega. But we’d asked him to set the “home” alarm after dark and after feeding the cats. (You know, so people inside can still move around, but the alarm goes off if someone opens a door or window.) See, he kept punching in the digital code “and nothing happened.” Of course not, because the code is to deactivate the alarm. :smack: Besides the fact that we showed him how it works before we left, he could have called or texted to ask us again. “Well, I didn’t want to disturb you.” :frowning:

Second, I was sending postcards to various people, and one friend, “R”, called the house to, I guess, thank me. I only found out that he’d called when I checked the call history on the house phone. Called him back, left a message, then texted T to ask if he’d spoken with R or let it go to voice mail. (Oh yes, T also managed to erase most, though not all, of our voicemails.) “Oh, you talked to him?..I wish you’d texted me to let me know…Because I could have called him on my cell…Right, you didn’t want to disturb me.”

Except, I heard back from R today, and he tells me that T refused to give him my cell number. Seriously? Mr. Rilch says, “To be fair, he never met R; he might not have know he was someone you want to hear from.” Maybe so, but if I’d been the housesitter, while I might not have given out the cell number, I darn well would have texted to say “Do you know a guy named R?..Okay, he called here, but I wasn’t sure I should give him your cell number.” :dubious:

TL; DR: Housesitter didn’t alarm the house, didn’t call or text to ask us how the alarm works, and didn’t pass on a message, on the grounds that he didn’t want to “disturb” us on our vacation. Spaz, or reasonable?

2
  1. Using “spaz” in this context is bad. Please stop.
  2. Your house is standing, your animals are alive, the place is clean. What you’re describing don’t seem like big infractions. The one I’d ding him the most for is deleting your voicemails. Other than that, I think he did well.
3

I can ask a mod to change it, but what should it be changed to?

4

I’m not hip to the definition of “spaz”

But the mere fact you hired a housesitter tells me you didn’t want to have to worry about things while you were away. So I totally understand his not-wanting-to-bother-you attitude, unless of course you specifically told him when it was and was not acceptable to do so. The alarm issue I guess could be kinda spazzy, I suppose. But everything is fine, so why dwell on it?

5

He did text us a few times. Once to ask if we were having a good time and so forth, but once to ask about a problem with the TV, and more than once, whenever the WiFi wasn’t working. IOW, when it was something that concerned him. Also, Mr. Rilch called when we got to our destination, which would have been the perfect time to say “Hey, how’s this alarm work again?” Mr. Rilch is serious about that alarm; wouldn’t have installed it if he wasn’t. And it’s kind of aggravating that he demonstrated it before we left, and his explanation seems to have gone in one ear and out the other.

6

id say reasonable…although the deleting the voice messages would of raised my brows a bit … but as you say other than those things he didn’t bring in coked-out street girls in your bed or leave the remains of a 3 day booze and blow fest in your living room and kitchen …why yes mom never invited that relative to stay at our house while we were gone

7

Seconded.

Sounds like your house-sitter was mildly imperfect, like most of life tends to be.

Out of idle curiosity - What did you pay him? Going rates for house-sitters seem to be pretty high, by my cheapskate standards.
.

8

Derelict in his duties
incompetent
careless

9

Ah, so the plot thickens. This seems like good information to have posted originally. But still, nothing is amiss. I wouldn’t dwell.

10

The OP grates me to no end.

I’m with Sunny on this.

And if you didn’t pay your friend to house sit, you have absolutely ZERO grounds to whine.

Try being more grateful.

11

Meh

12

It’s a derogatory term for people who have a seizure disorder. So it’s mocking somebody be equating them with somebody who is disabled. It’s the equivalent of calling somebody a gimp or a tard.

13

This. The word is derived from ‘spastic’, originally used to describe someone with cerebral palsy, a term which in itself is no longer an appropriate description.

14

Nitpick/tangent: ‘seizure disorder’ is really a different thing than spastic/Cerebral Palsy. Not that it matters

On the main point: I’d say C- employee. Wouldn’t sack before his work contract expired, wouldn’t rehire. I would personally give him WAY more of a black mark for buggering up the messages than the alarm thing, but that’s because I don’t personally care about alarms (and clearly neither does he). The alarm thing is “well, he should have turned it on because that’s what he agreed to” but not keeping proper track of messages is in the “who the hell does that??” kind of category

15

If anything, I would say you as customers are not reccomended in the future.
OP, the purpose of a house sitter is to esnure your house doesn’t burn down and keep it in good order. It is not to make sure your personal calls get through, thats your responsibility.

16

Sounds like the guy is pretty tech-ignorant. Not only did he fail to set the alarm and erased your messages, but he had trouble w/ the TV and wifi. So if having someone who can handle tech like your security and answering machine is important to you, this probably isn’t the guy for you.

And the thing about him not texting you to ask about some guy who called to thank you about a postcard sounds awfully petty to me. Good on him for not giving out your cell #.

House and belongings are still there, so don’t worry about it (other than to consider whether to hire this guy in the future.)

17

We paid him quite well. I won’t specify the amount, but it was more than he would have gotten for the same number of days at his former job. (He’s been unemployed for some time now.)

18

Give the guy a break. Everyone has shortcomings, and his apparently are technological. Think of all the things that could have gone wrong, but didn’t.

And don’t use the word “spaz”. Ever, in any context.

19

The guy didn’t rob you, trash your pad, and kept the kitties happy. The alarm didn’t get set, but it sounds like he was always present and available to handle an intruder (who, incidentally, would STILL have been able to break in, do the burgling, beat up your house sitter, and then split WAY before the cops would respond to the alarm, so no harm even there), and you suffered the equivalent of a missed phone call in the entirety of three weeks. Do you not have any idea how much worse a job this guy could have done for you?

You strike me as an ungrateful employer, and an extraordinary nightmare to work for.

20

It sounds like you’d be better off having a pro do this next time. They will be much more likely to do things exactly as you want then done. A friend will not be as diligent or exacting about following those rules. Using a friend also puts you in an awkward position of having these kinds of discussions when they don’t do things as you wanted them done. A pro would be easier since you could tell them without worrying about your relationship or just switch to someone else.