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Care.com

2.9

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Available in more than 20 countries, Care.com is the world’s leading platform for finding and managing high-quality family care. Care.com is designed to meet the evolving needs of today’s families and caregivers, offering everything from household tax and payroll services and customized corporate benefits packages covering the care needs of working families, to innovating new ways for caregivers to be paid and obtain professional benefits.


care.com
Founded in 2006
Dallas, TX
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Care.com Reviews Summary

The company generally receives positive feedback for its reliable service providers and the ease of finding suitable candidates for various needs, such as pet care and housekeeping. Customers appreciate the professionalism and attentiveness of the service providers, which enhances their overall satisfaction. However, there are notable concerns regarding service reliability, with several reports of no-shows and difficulties in communication with applicants. Additionally, issues with the website's functionality and billing practices have frustrated users. Overall, while the service shows potential, improvements in communication and reliability are essential for enhancing customer experience.

This summary is generated by AI, based on text from customer reviews

service
379
value
382
shipping
127
returns
186
quality
687
This company responds to reviews on average within 1 day

We monitor reviews for authenticity

Tennessee
1 review
15 helpful votes
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I tried to make an account (takes about 30 minutes each time), however it kept saying there was an error. I tried every day, multiple times a day for about a week. I emailed them, and they did not fix the problem. Not worth it.

Date of experience: November 15, 2015
MemberCare -. — Care.com Rep
over a year old

I'm so sorry for your frustrations, Ella. If you would like to call us at (877) 227-3115 between the hours of 10am-6pm EST Monday through Friday, we'd be happy to help you with your enrollment.

North Carolina
1 review
17 helpful votes
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Stay away from care.com
November 11, 2015

I signed up on their website and paid the fee so i could find a sitter for my child. After a couple of weeks i cancelled my account because i found a sitter elsewhere. They continued to charge me $45 a month even after i cancelled my account. Unfortunately i didn't realize they were still charging me until a year later. I highly suggest you go to their Facebook page and read the posts people are putting up there. This is a common occurrence.

Date of experience: November 10, 2015
Florida
1 review
27 helpful votes
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Scammers
November 6, 2015

Defrauded; given two counterfeit checks and a counterfeit cashier's check. Can't distinguish the scammers from people who genuinely are seeking your services. I have filed reports with Money Gram, the Feds, the Coral Springs, Florida Police Department, a Brooklyn New York Police Department, and a Houston Texas Police Department. I lost a substantial sum of money because although the bank said the first check was clear, the check was returned and flagged as "counterfeit". As of this date, I have to pay the cost. I don't know how long it will take, but if I get my money back, I will NEVER accept payment in the form of a check or even a cashier's check. I suspect that there are more than three people involved in the scam. If you want names, I have got them. I have locations, phone numbers, emails, text messages and I have had nothing but a bad experience on this site. I am sorry that I referred respected professionals to this site to earn supplemental money... The text messages from these low lives were relentless and I managed to avoid being a complete and total fool by asking for one of them to speak to me via Skype and meeting me at the bank... Of course, this never happened. One jerk off had the never to say that I was going to pay for insulting her (If it even was a woman) and accused me of being in cahoots with the bank manager to steal her money. Right. Trying to reach Care.com or tell them about what happened is a waste of time. When I deleted my account, I choose "other" and wrote out why but the site FORCES you to choose a less direct response such as "I had a bad experience". Yes Care.com, I had a BAD experience. The site has SERIOUS privacy issues. My new iPhone lite up like a Christmas tree after my profile was approved. Most of them were straight scammers. You are better off running your own ad on Indeed.com or some other site. Horrible experience. The site should do background checks on the people seeking services as well as the people who post their profile to serve.

Date of experience: November 6, 2015
Utah
1 review
26 helpful votes
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I used Care.com for about a year or so. After a few short-term nanny positions ended (crazy parents), I found a mother near me. This lady was a nut job. I worked for her for about 3 months then I was "terminated". On my last day after she got home, she showered and waited to let me know she was actually home (3 level apartment building and we were playing on the top level, her bedroom was on the bottom level). So working 45 minutes to an hour past the time I usually leave and after calling her 3 to 4 times, she walks upstairs and fires me. Doesn't give me a reason and tells me to leave... After the whole incident, I asked what went wrong and the way she handled everything was very unprofessional. She then threatened to write bad reviews on my account so when I got home, I attempted calling Care but took me forever to find a number to call. Finally when I found one and called, they were out of their offices. So I closed the account thinking it was okay to start back up. Nope. They never let me on again and wouldn't allow me to create a new account at all. It was a waste of time and the worst experience was finding mothers I thought were normal and were the craziest people I'd ever met. I never wasted money on upgrading. And I would never recommend anyone to. Or to use this site. Another thing, they do not get back to you in a timely fashion. And IF you get to talk to someone, they aren't friendly.

Date of experience: November 5, 2015
California
1 review
27 helpful votes
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Stay away from care.com
November 5, 2015

It was a terrible and scary experience! Without my authorization, it changed me at a monthly basis and total steal over $500 of my money. It just a scam with another scam and another scam. The website provides you with useless information and large amount of automatically monthly payment. Choosing this website is most worst experience ever!

Date of experience: November 4, 2015
MemberCare -. — Care.com Rep
over a year old

I'm sorry you had this experience, Melody. All of our subscriptions do automatically renew, and this is stated on both the enrollment and upgrade pages. I again apologize if you were unaware or misunderstood our policies. Please feel free to contact us at (877) 227-3115 between the hours of 10am-6pm EST Monday through Friday, to see if there is anything we can do for you. Thanks!

Arizona
1 review
31 helpful votes
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I saw what looked like a great ad on Indeed.com for a personal care assistant in my area (Joplin, MO) and clicked on it to apply. I was directed straight to the Care.com website, where I was forced to provide some personal information in order to apply. I started to get suspicious and attempted to call someone at Care.com. After a few attempts, I pretended to need to hire an attendant, since most businesses will always answer the phone for a potential new customer. I know that frequently fake ads are posted in order to build up a "stable" of possible employees, and also to generate some money in new memberships for the company. The *******115 contact number for Care.com has a very American-sounding recorded operator, but it turned out to be an overseas call center. The posted job was a fake.

Date of experience: November 4, 2015
California
2 reviews
27 helpful votes
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SO, just like everyone else, I signed up for a one month trial membership at a discounted rate back in April. I did not use the site since that time and was looking at my credit card bill in November when I realized they had been charging me $60 per month for 7 months! No phone # on website, had to get through my cc co. And then no options on automated system for billing issues. I chose another option, got a very composed but unsympathetic person who basically told me "too bad so sad". You know they hear this ALL day long, since their business practices are so deceptive. I am contesting charges. I feel there should be a law that whenever a company charges your card, they have to contact you- like how Netflix and other reputable companies send you an email each month. That way, they cannot get away with charging you for years before you realize it. The only reason a business would dispute notifying you is if they wanted to get away with something. Am spreading the word on FB, among all the parents at our school and wherever I can. Infuriating.

Date of experience: November 3, 2015
Illinois
1 review
20 helpful votes
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Scam
November 1, 2015

Watch out for the auto renewal. They do not send an email or paper statement reminding you they are charging your credit card and they will not issue a refund of more than a month, even if you never used the site. Also, it was very hard to reach someone via phone, I had to use google to find a phone number.

Date of experience: November 1, 2015
Maryland
1 review
22 helpful votes
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Stay away from care.com
October 31, 2015

Care.com lures people looking for tutors, babysitters, etc. into an expensive scam. Even if you don't choose to use them, you are on the hook for 3 "quarterly cycles" ie, 9 months -- they charge you once when you sign up, 3 months later, even if you have downgraded or deleted your account they charge again, and then again once your account is in dispute.

My credit card company worked with me to disconnect their charges from my account -- but not before I was out 180 dollars.

Stay away. Find a local sitter, tutor, etc. from your friends, family, etc.

Date of experience: October 31, 2015
New York
1 review
20 helpful votes
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Care.com is a total SCAM
October 31, 2015

I joined care.com on August 12th. By Aug 13th I decided to not pursue this avenue for finding help and canceled my membership. Low and behold I xwhck my credit card statements to find two additional charges two months following my cancellation. I tried contacting the company and there is no number to be found. I email them through their "link" and explained my situation asking for a refund. They proceeded to explain my account and the membership I had! Funny, I canceled it! I emailed again and demanded my refund as I had canceled and they could see that I didn't even use the account. They them stated that I renewed the account. I have since disputed the charge with my credit card company and will have funds reversed. Don't use this site. They will just steel your money and continue to charge your account.

Date of experience: October 30, 2015
Massachusetts
1 review
17 helpful votes
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Auto renewal
October 28, 2015

Discount codes to buy 1 month of service, about $25 and then the lovely auto renew and they charge you $39 for an additional month. You should have a grace period to cancel that. Even if its only 24 hours. Spent $64 and got nothing.

Date of experience: October 28, 2015
MemberCare -. — Care.com Rep
over a year old

Hi Caitlin S. I apologize if you misunderstood our billing policies. All of our subscriptions do automatically renew until canceled and you can cancel at anytime by downgrading your account or by contacting us at 888-227-3115, or via the contact us link located in our Help section. With that said, if you would like to contact us directly and discuss your membership we would be happy to review it for you.

California
1 review
33 helpful votes
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Care.com is a Scam!
October 27, 2015

I listed myself as a babysitter and tutor on that website. Payed for a background check and all the fixing to prove I was legit, with no contact from real people seeking help. I received SEVERAL phone calls, emails, and text messages from family who claimed to be interested but they were al frauds.

The emails were copied and pasted and the pictures they sent could be found on Google. ALL of them said they were from out of state and moving to my neighborhood soon. ALL of them proceeded to ask for my bank info so they could 'directly deposit' a check to me. Some even sent me fake checks, and the checks were from Palm Springs yet they said they weren't from California like I am. None of them could FaceTime or talk on the phone.

I messaged some of the families seeking a babysitter on the site, not a single response from any of them. The whole website is a scam and should not be trusted.

Date of experience: October 27, 2015
California
1 review
22 helpful votes
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Terminated without Cause
October 26, 2015

After paying for months and still finding no reliable help, we started telling all sitters that if they don't show up any one day of the week, then no pay for that week! Logic is simple... both my spouse and I operate our own businesses. No show by a sitter means one of us goes without pay for that day. And we make as much as $10 grand a day. So this sitter texted me in the morning with a lame excuse. My spouse had a patient to operate on and I was out of town on business. I had to buy last minute airfare home. The sitter complained to care scam. Com and we got terminated!

Date of experience: October 25, 2015
MemberCare -. — Care.com Rep
over a year old

Hi Jack C., We're very sorry to hear about your experience and would be happy to address your questions or concerns directly. You are welcome to contact us anytime by calling our toll free number at 877-227-3115, or you may refer to our Terms of Use for further information about account eligibility.

California
1 review
24 helpful votes
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BOYCOTT CARE.COM
October 23, 2015

I recently got my account terminated by Care.com for no apparent reason. I paid to renew my background check after 1 year of having the account. Next thing I know, my account is suspended and it wouldn't allow me to search for jobs. After a month doing a runaround contacting the third party, Sterling infosystems, who does background checks, they couldn't find or reveal anything negative on my report. They then gave me Care. Coms phone number (which they don't have on their website, HMM SUSPICIOUS!). Last week I got a hold of a representative who also could not explain why my account was cancelled and reviewed my background check which she too did not find anything incriminating. She told me someone from their "safety department" would contact me after the weekend to handle this matter. Monday morning I checked my email that was associated with the website and it said my background checks had been done processing (even though they had been processed already for MONTHS). It had a link to Care. Com so I could sign in and review the report then I COULDN'T LOG IN BECAUSE THEY TERMINATED MY ACCOUNT! They just swept it under the rug rather than taking accountability or just simply explaining in detail why my account had been shut down. I just wrote them another e-mail which they haven't replied to yet, probably won't reply to. BOYCOTT CARE.COM! I am a teacher and a student, and part time I work as a babysitter/nanny. I am going to broadcast this to all the parent/teacher communities in my area. BOYCOTT CARE.COM! Reading their negative reviews online stretches back for years! It's unbelievable how they are getting away with this scam yet the BBB hasn't done a thing, probably because they get a cut of $$. There needs to be a huge nationwide lawsuit against them.

Date of experience: October 22, 2015
Massachusetts
2 reviews
21 helpful votes
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Even after paying to use Care.com, you only have a first name and last initial of any potential hires, as well as a review or two if they have any, and you can't tell if those are legitimate either, since you can only see first names and last initials, and very limited information at all. Care.com notes if the potential hires email, telephone, and facebook has been "verified", but they don't give you that information, so you can't do any additional check on the person. You can ask for a background "preliminary check" for "free", but then it says, you will receive "within 1 day" after approval from the potential hire. Well, they must never approve, because I've requested 4 in the last few months and have not received one back. You can also request a Preferred ($59), Preferred-Plus ($79), or Premier background check ($300), for additional money noted to right of each, which of course they suggest - ridiculous. Any good leads don't seem to respond back either. They show the "response rate" and the last time they logged in to give you an idea, but I just haven't received many responses when I've reached out (Housekeepers in my case). I am also trying to choose wisely, based on picture, limited reviews, experience, and what they charge. With so many options and resources online, I expect much more from a site I am paying for. I am very disappointed with the lack of response, limited information given to me even after I became a paying customer, and background check option not really being an option, since I haven't received any when I've requested them (the free ones that come with the service I've already paid for anyway). Use thumbtack.com to find potential housecleaners, petsitters or handyman... it's free for the person looking to hire, and I've had great success! I don't know that I'd hire a child care person on there, but once you get the information, they are often legitimate people, with websites, and enough information that you can do your own background check if you wanted to (for a lot less money). You always get the full name of the person or company quoting on the job you want done, and an email and/or telephone # that you can quickly google or look up on facebook to at least get a glimpse into the person's life, to decide if you want to pursue their services. I am about to cancel my subscription to Care.com, and will update here if I have an issue (based on all the other reviews I read, I may).

Date of experience: October 21, 2015
Connecticut
1 review
21 helpful votes
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I had high hopes, and I tried Care.com for several reasons, cat care, elder care. It just doesn't work. The NUTS I have dealt with, no-shows, no response after contacting, its just one step away from Craigslist. Someone is making money off it! What a shame.

Date of experience: October 19, 2015
MemberCare -. — Care.com Rep
over a year old

Sorry to hear about your situation, Eve. We do encourage all members to be courteous and timely in their responses and I truly apologize if this was not your experience. I'm unsure if you had, but we do suggest that members who are searching for care to post a job, as this is the easiest way to find caregivers who are actively looking for a position in your area. I again apologize and wish you all the best!

Florida
3 reviews
25 helpful votes
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Total frustration
October 19, 2015

I reluctantly signed up for the Care.com website. For years ago I was horribly scammed by people who said they were seeking a caregiver and then they proceeded to steal $5,000 out of my bank account by writing me a bad check that bounced. I immediately called Care and they said there was nothing they could do. I had to file a police report with my local police, online security agencies and with my bank of course. The end result was it took me months to untangle. My bank closed my account and started sending me statements saying I actually owed them money!
So when I saw a post for another caregiver job I found on another job board, when I went to apply I was redirected to the Care website. I signed up and that has left me again regretting my decision.
First of all I think it's quite a disappointment that their Google Play app, their mobile site and their desktop site are all drastically different. I can't get my connections signed up and therefore my references have had a terrible time writing my reviews. I had three of them successfully leave one after many complications and I was able yesterday morning to read two of them. Yet later and now today it shows I have no reviews? Really, ridiculous. The worst part is their so called "best and most simple customer service" is a total joke! It's all automated and there is no way to speak to a live operator. I'm assuming if you buy their upgrades and other services that are supposed to make my profile 100%, maybe what they advertise they do actually does.
What a scam! I'm determined to write a review about their poor service on every board and site I can. I'm absolutely appalled and disgusted. Shame on them for being yet another company out for the money yet has zero to back up what they consider themselves to be.

Date of experience: October 19, 2015
Illinois
1 review
22 helpful votes
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New to this and am responding to job postings without a paid subscription and feeling frustrated and like I've wasted time and energy when my contact info is encrypted and communication with potential employers is nearly impossible. Exercise caution as the only person corresponding with me in this confusing triangle was a man pulling my heart strings about his wife dying of cancer and moving to the area with 2 small children and offering attractive hourly rates and hours and proceeding to say his circumstances required upfront pay advance to me from his employer and became obvious he was fishing for banking info. He researched real street addresses and claimed to work at a local company that really exists. Sheesh, I almost fell for it! The website is NOT user friendly and I couldn't figure out how to report this person and his advertisement is still active. At any rate, if I manage to connect with someone needing services without paying it might be worth all of the hassle but it's not looking hopeful and can only imagine how confusing this website must be to the elderly in need of assistance. Great concept, but horrible execution--worthless, time consuming fruitless experiment so far :/

Date of experience: October 18, 2015
Maryland
3 reviews
29 helpful votes
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TOTAL RIPOFF
October 17, 2015

They think you will pay $25.00+ per month to find a pet sitter! I paid the money, thought i found a pet sitter for one weekend. So spoke with her on phone, agreed on meeting date and time by text. So then stopped the 25/mo thing because it is outrageous ly expensive and I had paid it and thought i had a stop in sitter for my cat. Then the sitter was a no show, and now i have nothing for my money and they want another 35 dollars to speak to other sitters. Total rip off. AVOID.

Date of experience: October 17, 2015
Virginia
3 reviews
24 helpful votes
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Care.com can and will close your account for any reason. Even if you have years of experience using their site. One complaint from quitting, due to non payment and an overall uncomfortable working situation, and your account can be closed, which is exactly what happened to me. They will not investigate the complaint or ask any questions. They claim that they don't get involved between parties, but clearly do. They are unwilling to reconsider or offer to help make things right. I do not recommend this site, whether you're looking for a nanny or a nanny job. A complaint was filed with the Better Business Bureau, still nothing was done. Make sure you have a notarized contract that stipulates everything from pay cycle to quitting expectations.

Date of experience: October 16, 2015