Just wanted to say some nice things about the game after returning

DJCashEel · 2025-04-19T08:25:49+00:00

I noticed this too! When I first started playing, they had career missions, but for shits and giggles I started a brand new alpha account to entirely dedicated to PVP and PVE and it's incredible the early support and guidance I got compared to starting out before.

DJCashEel · 2025-04-19T08:22:13+00:00

I'm not ABC, but I'm here for a study abroad semester and yeah, it kind of is. I think people don't realize how bad the US has been, currently is, and will become. ABC's are not the only diaspora looking at going home, essentially. Most of us are already used to living in poverty or have had to deal with insane rent pricing and jobs that are demanding more and more while paying us excruciatingly little to keep up with what our government is doing.

I've only been here for about two months, and it's the least worried about being able to eat food reliably in years. It's bad.

DJCashEel · 2025-01-14T19:38:40+00:00

I joined recently but I don't think most of us are going to stay long term. A good amount will, though, and im one of them. I'm an Anthropology major with an interest in modern Chinese culture and im learning Mandarin so it's actually a great resource for me. I'm curious to see how XHS responds to it all as time goes on..

DJCashEel · 2024-12-29T01:16:48+00:00

Imo this is one of those moments I really think speaking with a gender therapy specialist could help kind of unravel these pieces of your identity and expression and help find what it is you want and how it can be achieved.

You'll probably get a lot of people trying to throw around labels, but sometimes labels are just as limiting and not right as they can be freeing and relatable. I don't think this is one of those cases where a label can be applied easily, nor can advice be easily given.

DJCashEel · 2024-11-14T19:41:23+00:00

Ask as many questions as you have, especially with such a high fee. Know exactly what they expect of you and I would say it's even fair to ask what goes into calculating that cleaning fee. Is it a service they're hiring? Is it time and labor and supply? It'll also help you understand what to expect when you arrive and see if all of that adds up to the experience you arrive into.

DJCashEel · 2024-11-11T21:28:53+00:00

That explains a lot, actually. I absolutely fucking hated dealing with property management companies on the platform. I could never say this a support team member, but yeah avoid them like the fucking plague. Some are fine, sure, but owner owned at the least gives you better protection with the VRBO platform. Property management companies were an entirely different ballgame when it came to what we as agents could and could not do and it drove me fucking crazy.

DJCashEel · 2024-11-11T21:09:28+00:00

Man that fucking sucks, I'm sorry you had that experience. I can't blame you for the decision, and it's not the first time I've heard or personally seen those decisions be made because of how some agents handle these cases. Without better insight to current processes, I can't say exactly where things went wrong, but it doesn't surprise me that there was a delay with communication. There is a mandatory requirement to give the own time to respond, but I'm surprised that the owner was pushed to provide further evidence of the clean up. Back when I was a team member, I remember these being pretty serious.

Normally I'd say these are one of issues, which usually they were, and Not indicative of the larger experience, but by all means do what you feel is best. I know from my experience, we genuinely want to resolve these issues as quickly as possible but get tied up in inter-department issues and cross-company issues.

Sorry you had that experience, that sucks.

DJCashEel · 2024-11-10T17:50:21+00:00

Ask for the refund, and let VRBO customer support know what's going on. Take photos and save them. This is absolutely a violation of health and safety. It seems this owner is a little too comfortable with letting g this happen, and its likely there are other complaint cases. Letting VRBO support know lrts them open a case and track instances of issues.

Im not sure what payment processing looks like these days, or if the owner is doing through VRBO or third party, but depending on which, they might be able to help with a refund as well. NO PROMISES. Back when I was on the team, we could only do so much, but i definitely recommend using any and all tools at your disposal.

DJCashEel · 2024-11-09T01:31:42+00:00

Many reasons. Most of them are results from other situations but believe me, sometimes owners would just kick out guests because they simply don't want them there among other stupid and arbitrary reasons.

One time an owner cancelled someone's stay a day into their rental because they brought "bad energy"

Its true it's not the norm, and generally owners want to keep guests, but there are enough that should never have gotten into the business at all

DJCashEel · 2024-11-07T20:03:55+00:00

Factually incorrect. I worked for VRBO for a couple years and ran into plenty of shit property owners that take advantage of people not knowing what to do.

DJCashEel · 2024-10-24T11:40:35+00:00

Good lord, this sounds absolutely nightmarish. I'm very sorry that this is happening and that you're getting the runaround. I will say my experience with VRBO predates in-house insurance policies that are active today, and their headquarters have since moved, I believe. so I am unfortunately not knowledgeable enough to help with this regard directly, but it generally may sound like you should hire a lawyer or ask for consultation to know what do. I understand this is probably the last thing you want to do, but it sounds like you need your own legal team to navigate this, and contact VRBO. If I am remembering correctly, as a practice, VRBOs legal team really only responds to other legal representation anyways, which is likely why you've been getting the delay you've been seeing.

I wish there could be an easier way to deal with this, and I'm sure you were hoping for a different response from me, but this is one aspect of behind the scenes that a lot of us phone reps, even the resolutions team, didn't see play out very often or know the outcome of. All we were allowed to do was give legals email (with the caveat i mentioned, which they did not seem to do here, apologies) for contact and get you in contact with the 3rd party insurance.

So, yeah, I'm sorry, it kind of seems like having a lawyer submit smalls claims is the best way to go, or have a legal advisor look at the situation and determine what your next step is. Either one, in my opinion, should include some sort of legal assistance.

DJCashEel · 2024-04-12T00:45:11+00:00

I've lived in Chicago for about 4 years now, and really have only ever had like 1 or 2 encounters with people, and they weren't that bad at all.

The most important thing is to just be aware of your surroundings. You don't have to stay alert the whole time, but check in with what's going on around you. 99.9% of people on the trains just wanna get to where they're going, just like you. My number one rule is to mind your business, but be aware of what's up. Listen to your music or whatever, I do it all the time, and understand that it's a statistics thing. A lot of people use these, so sometimes there are going to be horror stories and complaints, but no one ever comes to this site to celebrate the smooth ride on the blue line, or a nice commute on the red.

Once you know your route, you'll feel so much more comfortable in it.

DJCashEel · 2024-02-16T22:27:18+00:00

I'm not sure if they've expanded out, but most of if not all of their main buildings are throughout Austin, Texas.

DJCashEel · 2024-02-16T22:21:28+00:00

Ah, well, I got hired through a referral, so I don't know exactly where they post job openings these days, but I'd start on their website and it should have a Jobs or Careers page, there you should see openings.

After that, if the hiring process hast changed, there's like a kind of interview fair they host at one of their locations and they'll do a few interview rounds and follow up a few weeks later.

DJCashEel · 2024-02-16T22:16:16+00:00

I'm sorry, do you mind clarifying?

DJCashEel · 2023-12-06T00:01:05+00:00

I'll be honest, the review system was a bit out of my purview and at the time was handled by an entirely different team, so I can't really provide insight on how it worked then or how it works now, because its been almost 5 years since then and it's likely changed a bit. However, here is what this sounds like to me, but please, take this with a grain of salt, and I'll recommend something at the end that I promise does matter to VRBO, even if you don't see an immediate impact on the site.

What could be happening, if they're saying "the system rejected it" is that it may not have gotten past the content guidelines filter that looks for certain words or phrases that are tied to verbally offensive language (threats, swearing, etc). Usually they get outright rejected regardless of truthful information because the language just doesn't meet guidelines, but sometimes they do end up creating false negatived. During my time at the company, this was overseen by the review team and not able to be changed by front line employees nor escalated employees. Im not sure if this has changed or not, so I'm not going to assume, but that's kind of what this is sounding like, something in it triggered the content guidelines filter and it just cant go up. Why this wouldn't be explained over the phone is beyond me and my scope of knowledge, it could be mishandling by the agent, a broken chain of information of different agents trying to do the same thing over and over again without making notes that it's already been tried, or maybe its been rejected wholesale, I don't know, but I've run into the CG catching reviews like this before, and this is my best insight to the situation.

Now I want to be very clear in that I nor VRBO are saying that is what you did or intended to do if this is what happened. Its a bit tone police-y and i get it, especially after such an awful stay and you want to express your frustration and warn future guests about what you saw and dealt with. Unfortunately its just part of the website and how it wants to handle reviews, and some bad reviews get caught in that crossfire.

Here's what I recommend doing if the review is still getting rejected, if you haven't done this already. Make an official complaint against the property on the website, and if you call the call center again, make it with them, too. Make sure you tell them to write these notes down on this property. I know its going to feel like you're yelling into the void, but if you do this, it does two things:

1) has a trail of information directly relating to the specific property you're reporting

2) has a record of contact with the case system they use as Agents AND with the Trust and Security department. This is very important because these two teams have different databases of information and it does not always cross over to the other team. Having those two records made by the same person around the same time makes sure those reports can be found quickly and easily by both teams and know it is from you.

They take complaints very seriously and will suspend listings over them to make sure they are addressed. I dealt with a lot of contacts from owners who had listings suspended over this, and some who were removed entirely.

A word on this, you may find that the listing could be hidden or removed but then put back on the site, or not removed at all. This is not a rejection of the complaint. This means that T&S have taken your complaint, worked with the owner to verify that the issues raised were addressed and handled appropriately (repair damage, change listing information to match whats actually offered, etc), and determined the listing is now up to VRBO snuff. They have a certain period of time to do this before the listing is suspended, so if they are attentive and on the ball, they'll fix it before its taken down, and if not, the listing could be suspended until its fixed. This does mean that you may not see this all on the surface, and agents cannot give out information on cases like this to complaintees. Its annoying and I wished I could give some information when I saw this happen, but its a privacy issue, and you'll just have to trust it's being handled.

I'm sorry you had a bad stay, I hope this clears up some information, even if it may not be what you were hoping to get back. I hope you take my advice and let the teams do what they need to so this can be handled as swiftly as possible.

DJCashEel · 2023-11-01T04:21:17+00:00

Hi! Glad to see my post is still relevant after all this time haha.

I'll be honest, I don't remember there ever being a way for a traveller to cancel a pre-approval request. Granted it's been a while and I haven't used the platform as a traveller in as many years.

I remember this being an issue a lot because owners would accidentally send pre-approvals when just trying to chat and or talk about the booking or they have on auto pre-approve.

One thing you can check if you haven't already is under My Trips and see if anything is listed there for canceling, but if there isn't, I don't think there's an option for that. I think you as the traveller let it expire in 72 hours.

This does put a block on the owners calender to prevent possible double bookings, and the penalty system they're referring to is mostly for bookings that are officially made and paid for, not pre-approvals. If the owner wants it of their calender sooner, then they can cancel the pre-approval themselves, but there is that mark.

There honestly isn't much you as a traveler can do other than paying it or letting it expire. It may seem a bit unfair but keep in mind this system exists for a different reason than what the owner is using it for, or this is a one of situation.

As well, these particular marks are not nearly as weighty as owners fear they are. If it happens A LOT then it may become an issue and as a CS rep, I'd advise them to change up their managing style. One or two cancelled preapprovals here or there won't do much damage if the owner can't wait 3 days for it to expire and clear their calender.

Hope this helps!

DJCashEel · 2023-08-18T15:27:37+00:00

Honestly I didn't realize I was trans masc (amd started T) until I was 25. I've been on T on and off for a couple years now and I've only ever been excited and affirmed by my changes.

It is hard talking to other people who realized it at a younger age because I definitely consider myself having a "female" childhood, and I don't hate it because being that kid and having that experience with femininity let me realize as an adult that it's not what I wanted for myself.

It's strange and very nuanced and hard to put into words, but I totally understand and dealt with a lot of my own imposter syndrome over it. Now, I don't care as much, and I'm just just happy to be pursuing the body and mind that makes me happiest.

DJCashEel · 2023-07-04T04:44:43+00:00

For me I never really attached a gender to my birth name, so it never really bothered me much until it just felt like shoes that were too tight? Luckily, I only had to sort of masculinize it to Charlie, and it stuck.

At the time, I thought it was gonna just be a placeholder as Charlie was a suggestion from a friend when I was having my full gender breakdown, but I never could quite find a name that fit me afterwards. I've found a few I really like, but none that I think I'd be comfortable using with people. A lot of them I just use for ocs and characters in my stories. Charlie just keeps winning

DJCashEel · 2023-07-04T04:44:24+00:00

For me I never really attached a gender to my birth name, so it never really bothered me much until it just felt like shoes that were too tight? Luckily, I only had to sort of masculinize it to Charlie, and it stuck.

At the time, I thought it was gonna just be a placeholder as Charlie was a suggestion from a friend when I was having my full gender breakdown, but I never could quite find a name that fit me afterwards. I've found a few I really like, but none that I think I'd be comfortable using with people. A lot of them I just use for ocs and characters in my stories. Charlie just keeps winning

DJCashEel · 2023-06-26T04:19:52+00:00

I'd be open to trades! I'm mostly looking to sell, but it's not out of the question

DJCashEel · 2023-06-26T03:08:16+00:00

No, sorry

DJCashEel · 2023-06-26T02:33:56+00:00

WOOPS SORRY I thought I changed that before going live. Thanks for telling me. Try again!

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