Care.com

My beloved and I don't get out much without the little angel and with each other.  This is because we only know one babysitter.  She rocks, the little angel loves her, but she's just a bit younger than me and a PhD student, making her $10/hour fee a little steep.  Totally worth it, but we're also looking for a younger, cheaper alternative when she's busy with adult life.

Enter Care.com.  I got a reviewer's three-month-upgraded subscription from MomCentral Consulting.  I admit I procrastinated a bit (which is why I can never find a sitter) and just got in there yesterday, right before I had to post my review. I entered a job, but nobody has begged to babysit for me yet.  We'll see.  I did, however, find five or six people in my area who looked nonthreatening and friendly, had background checks posted online and references, in some cases.  I was saddened to see most of the references were from their family and friends (I think references should be limited to those for whom they've actually worked, quite frankly - this is a job situation, after all, and whose parent is going to write, "My daughter sucks with kids!" on a babysitting site?).  However, I loved how they posted their schedules, had checkboxes for whether they'd do light housecleaning or crafts or what have you, had checkboxes for whether or not they would supervise swimming or knew CPR. I really, really liked this site.

I also liked that it was populated, as a lot of new sites that we're asked to review are not, making it hard to judge whether or not that service would be valuable.

The site also has opportunities to post jobs for tutoring, pet care and elder care.  We've needed an organized site like this for quite a while. I think it's a FABULOUS idea, and the usability of the site is good. A lot of thought has clearly gone into this site, from the private message boards to the job postings. I'm really impressed.  And I hope to find another babysitter soon, so my beloved and I can talk about something other than monsters biting toes in the very near future.

Would you like the same deal that I got?  OF COURSE YOU WOULD.  Click here to find your ultimate sitter/eldercare helper/tutor/pet lover for a free three months!

Comments

[Juanita Rockwell]

hi - do you have any updated info on care.com now, nearly a year after you wrote this? I'm thinking of using it to find help for my folks, and would love to know about people's experience with this site... thanks!

[Juanita Rockwell]

hi - do you have any updated info on care.com now, nearly a year after you wrote this? I'm thinking of using it to find help for my folks, and would love to know about people's experience with this site... thanks!

[Juanita Rockwell]

hi - do you have any updated info on care.com now, nearly a year after you wrote this? I'm thinking of using it to find help for my folks, and would love to know about people's experience with this site... thanks!

[Juanita Rockwell]

hi - do you have any updated info on care.com now, nearly a year after you wrote this? I'm thinking of using it to find help for my folks, and would love to know about people's experience with this site... thanks!

[G. Hogan]

Don't waste your time with this site. Most people listed are not active. Most people did not respond. Most were not interested in babysitting because they already found a job and I was supposed to be charged $25. for a one month subscription but I was billed $40 instead.

[T. Pinnock]

Care.com repeatedly charged my account even though I bought a one-month membership. In my account activity area for example, it states "Membership Plan 1 Month - Your account will be closed on 10/13/2008." Yet, the last line at the bottom of the same pages states "Next Payment 10/13/."

You can see that they will never cancel the account. Because the day it is supposed to be canceled is the same day they charge my credit card which they have on file. There is no access to cancel the card on file. Their system only allows updating of card information.

I sent a cancellation and refund request through the care.com site and a month later I still received no reply other than the automated acknowledgment. Later I responded to a care.com survey by replying to the sender, smola@care.com and still, another month has passed that they have not replied to my email.

I bought the one month membership on June 13, 2008. Now, I'm forced to have my card number changed and have the charges disputed through my credit card company because Care.come illegally charges my account, ignores my requests for cancellation/refund, and has a system that prevents the customer from ending their membership, or even removing their credit card information.

[Kathy Schneider]

I am a provider and have looked for caregivers on care.com and jobs. I signed up about a year ago when everything was free. It sounded like a great idea to have caregivers and jobs at your fingertips. However, the caregivers that I interviewed did not turn out. Some of them didn't even show up for the interview. Now, on the flipside I was listed as a caregiver and had some potential opportunites, however those never panned out. For example, I had one job that came up for pet sitting and the client had a 6 week old yorkie. She didn't want to mess up her pretty house so she decided she would feed the dog once a day. I couldn't take the job. It was disheartening to feel the puppies bones from lack of nutrition. I tried to talk to the owner in a professional manner explaining that small breeds need to be fed 3 times a day because they could experience a sugar low pass out and eventually die.

Then, I noticed about a year later that I couldn't apply for jobs because I didn't have access. It required a $25.00 charge a month. I understand the need to profit, however it seemed like a slight of hand to have access and then pulled away overnight.

I, then, paid a $25.00 fee so that so that I could actually see caregivers phone numbers and call upon them. I was not under the impression that it would be charged monthly. Then, I started seeing a monthly charge on my account. I contacted them and they sent me a message back saying that "I was violating there terms of use because I was a provider looking for caregivers". My understanding of their fee was that it was for anyone, including providers. I obviously didn't read the fine print, or maybe they added that rule in later, kind of like them adding the 25.00 fee in secretly overnight.

Obviously, they weren't going to remove the charge from my credit card but they said that because of my 'violation' they are going to terminate my account. I just don't understand their volatile email. It was as if they are accusing me of something that I did intentionally, and by the way, we aren't going to refund your money either. I had no intentions of violating their terms and feel that they were very unprofessional.

By the way, I didn't find any caregivers from their site. Half of them didn't show up for the first interview and ther other half were not hireable.

I really thought their site was a good idea and hope them the best but the way they handled the $25.00 monthly charge was unprofessional turning around and throwing some rule back to me that, who knows, could have just been added. They may have some good caregivers on their site, because I believe we are responsible and very reputable in our area, however we are now terminated from their site. They are growing and making things up as they grow. I guess if they do that to thousands of people it could be a profitable business.

[Valerie Kneeland]

I have had the exact same thing happened to me as the above posters. I signed up, discovered that the service was useless for my area. Then I canceled my account. Care.com reopened my account without my permission and charged my credit card. This site is run by SCAMMERS! DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR CREDIT CARD!

[J.W.]

Care.com is horrible. I've reported them and have been working with the BBB. I suggest you all do the same or they won't be made to stop. I even did a screen shot, as I also do when purchasing an item online, and it stated one month at a $25 fee. Well it was $40 on my card and the same $25 repeating fee that you all mentioned. I also mentioned to BBB that care.com has not commented once regarding my additional concerns besides the $40 dispute so it’s obvious they have no intentions of improving their online receipting policy- every other web site gives you the printable receipt option after a purchase showing your final amount, their blank references for caregivers across the board- something I was supposedly paying for yet is never required by any caregiver to actually post, their generic green checkmarks supposedly passing as a background check- no details given which is something else they state you are paying for… and so on. Overall care.com is a waste of money and has the worst customer service I’ve ever dealt with. Celeste Jones with care.com was rude to me more than once and it was from the start! Everything was so unethical it caused me to contact the BBB which is something I’ve never done. They are closing my complaint as consumer not satisfied because care.com is refusing, due to “internal policies”, to refund the addition $15 which caused the initial $40 instead of $25 charge, and the secondary $25 which was never to be charged- totaling $40. I did get the information on where to go under your profile to end the charges only after the second charge hit and I had contacted the BBB. For a company connecting families to caregivers this business should be having huge red flags to other agencies and watchdog groups. One can only hope also that these watchdogs will get word out to consumers that the ‘service’ provided by care.com is a waste of money. It still infuriates me!

[brittany]

WOW, thanks for posting everyone. SO glad I read this before I signed up. I've googled searched a lot of companies, b/c the internet has alot of scammers. Glad I was able to find these reviews, and I won't be signing up for care.com!