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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 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.
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After using Care.com for one month, I cancelled my account and moved on with my life. Little did I know, they continued to siphon over $400 from my account without my knowledge or consent!
When I confronted them about these charges, I was told that they never refund anyone for any reason but they would give me $35 back... this refund was posted to my account AFTER they charged me another $35!
I contacted the BBB and Care.com's response to my complaint was simply 'we don't have records of you cancelling your account (no proof offered) and we are sorry you are upset that we took your money'... that's it!
These guys are crooks! Stay FAR away from Care.com if you don't want to be robbed!
I used care.com and hired a nanny and my boyfriend had an inappropriate relationship with her. I came across telephone conversation at 1 am for an hour long call. I ended up firing her do to the many of times she had my autistic twins by the swimming pool with no safety device. Despite me telling and providing her with what the kids needed. She would actually send me and their dad pictures of our kids at the pool with no protection.
Hi Sharise,
We are so sorry to hear about your experience with this care provider. We do run background checks on all of our members, as well as give additional screening tools to our members to help make the most informed hiring decision. This is definitely someone we would want to hear about directly- did you report her to our Safety Team? You can do so directly through your account, or by calling or e-mailing us anytime. We encourage you to do so, so that we may be aware of these types of situations, and can act accordingly.
Again, our apologies, and we hope you have now found a more responsible care provider for your children.
Regards,
Care.com Member Care Representative
I signed up for Care.com about 3 months ago. I have all the qualifications of a wonderful caretaker and have applied daily for job postings. Despite this, I have had only one family contact me - ONE. Last week, frustrated with the experience, I signed up with a local Nanny service and was found a job in that same week. Reviewing the job postings on Care.com, I can't help but feel that many of them are written in the same tone and use much of the same language... very suspicious site. I cannot recommend their services.
Hi Sara,
We’re sorry to hear that you were not able to find a job through Care.com. We know the search can be difficult and can sometimes take some time.
Ultimately, we are a self-service website and it is up to our members to be proactive in their search and managing their profiles. We offer many helpful articles on our site about how to best utilize the tools available to you, as well as helpful tips to get more responses to your job applications.
Some of the job postings may appear similar because we offer a tool to our families on the site called the “Job Wizard” which asks some basic information about what the family is looking for, then will create an automated job posting on the member’s behalf. We appreciate your feedback, and have heard similar feedback regarding this feature. It is something that will hopefully be changing soon to make the jobs more individualized!
Regards,
Care.com Member Care Representative
To Care.com
You have terrible ratings. Everyone complains about the same things, auto renewals, not being able to get out of memberships, felons arriving to care for your family or caregivers not getting jobs.
You write back with these corporate apologies that you insist are good practices and that we all don't understand your fine print but you do not listen to your customers complaints as a outline to change these annoying practices,. People hate auto renewals.
You are defending a sinking ship. No one is at all pleased or understanding of your apologies. They are vacant of logic and show no interest in changing policies to make customers happy.
When Care. Com goes belly up soon, remember this at your next job.
Hi Marian,
We’re very sorry about your experience with us. Care.com is an automatically renewing subscription service, which is stated clearly on the Upgrade page as well as in our Terms of Use. This is a setting that you can manage on your own within your account, or you can call or e-mail us any time before the renewal date to make sure that the subscription is canceled. We would not want to interrupt the search process or communications between members. Additionally, many members find the auto renewing feature useful because it gives them constant access to a database of caregivers in their area.
We apologize for your experience, but do hope you were able to find the care that you family needs!
Regards,
Care.com Member Care Representative
I am a "premium member" on the site as a care giver which means I pay annual dues to the website to get job postings faster than the non paying members and I show up higher in search results to local families looking for help.
Everything was fine until I paid my annual dues a couple weeks ago but my background was not updated.
Not only was it not updated, but my social security number was suddenly coming up as "non verified" which makes me look like a liar I guess.
I tried to pay the $9 fee to update it... four times... and got a message each time saying that there was an error and it wouldn't work.
However, I did get charged $9 four times on my bank statement... for a service I never got.
Now families will not even respond to me once they see my background report because I don't look like a trustworthy person.
I've messaged the care.com 8 times now and still no response that is not completely automated.
I have filed a complaint with the better business bureau and will not be recommending the site to any more of my friends and family... I have gotten many people to join this site over the years and I am starting to regret sending them any business because when you're a paying customer and you need technical support...
THEY ARE NO WHERE TO BE FOUND WHEN YOU NEED THEM.
HANDS DOWN WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE I HAVE EVER NOT RECEIVED ANYWHERE FOR ANYTHING THAT I HAVE EVER PAID FOR.
Hi Ava,
We’re sorry to hear about your experience with Care.com. The featured membership for a caregiver includes lots of great benefits besides the background check. In addition to getting job posting notifications before non-paying members, you are able to contact more families with the membership. The featured subscription includes one free background check, so if you had gotten a background check for free with a featured subscription already, you would not be eligible to renew that for free again.
In terms of your billing, we’re sorry that you were having issues processing the payment. Cards can be denied for a number of reasons. Each time you attempted to purchase the background check it would have taken the $9 on hold, but we do not charge that money unless the payment goes through. Sometimes charge attempts will remain as “pending” on your bank statement, but those pending transactions will drop off typically within 3 business days.
Please refer to our Safety Center to find out more details about our Background Checks, what is covered, and for a list of reasons why a Social Security Number may come back unverified.
We hope that you were able to resolve any issues that you have had, and wish you the best of luck in your job search!
Regards,
Care.com Member Care Representative
I'm jabbing this site because I am absolutely sickened by the commercials, which show bratty children tormenting their caregivers while cutesy music plays and the company owner shrugs and laughs. Is it really funny when a child says "NO!"? Can't we find a proper balance between the uber-strict 50s children-should-be-seen-and-not-heard method and the current laissez faire mentality? I once watched a busy Manhattan mother come home from work and immediately fetch some crackers that her toddler was screaming for before she even removed her shoes... even though the very patient and kind nanny had just told him it was almost dinner time and he couldn't have the crackers because he'd just had a snack. Any idiot could see this was out if guilt, but what did she think she was teaching her son, that mommy loved him? No, she was teaching him that he was more important than her and could always have anything he wanted. So what happens when that little boy grows up and learns a much different lesson from the world? Read Think! By Lisa Bloom and set a standard for healthy boundaries and discipline that will actually create good human beings, not entitled, egomaniacal monsters, PLEASE! And Care.com owner, if you're listening... stop dumbing America down!
DO NOT fall prey to the deceitful business practices of this website company. They offer a one month subscription but hidden in the fine print is an automatically recurring charge unless you cancel. Why would you cancel something you only signed up for one month!
Customer service representatives useless and once they have your money "there's nothing we can (WILL) do"
Hi Sharon,
I’m very sorry about your experience with Care.com.
Care.com is an auto renewing service, as stated clearly on the upgrade page. You are also notified of this policy in your enrollment confirmation email, and it is in our terms of use that you agree to upon enrollment. This is a setting that you can manage on your own within your account, or you can call or e-mail us any time before the renewal date to make sure that the subscription is cancelled. We offer auto renewal so that communications with potential caregivers is not ended prematurely, and it is ultimately up to the member to manage their account. Many members like this feature of our service, because it gives them unlimited access to a full database of caregivers.
We apologize for your experience, but do hope you were able to find the care that you family needs.
Regards,
Care.com Member Care Representative
As others have pointed out, awful experience. Recurring charges, difficult time cancelling them, couldn't get supports help.
Care.com - Where we care about your taking your money.
Hi Adam,
I’m very sorry about your experience with Care.com. Care.com is an auto renewing service, as stated clearly on the upgrade page. You are also notified of this policy in your enrollment confirmation, and it is in our terms of use that you agree to upon enrollment. This is a setting that you can manage on your own within your account, or you can call or e-mail us any time before the renewal date to make sure that the subscription is canceled. We offer auto renewal so that communications with potential caregivers is not ended prematurely, and it is ultimately up to the member to manage their account. Many members like this feature of our service, because it gives them unlimited access to a full database of caregivers.
We apologize for your experience, but do hope you were able to find the care that you family needs!
Regards,
Care.com Member Care Representative
I've used care.com to promote myself as a tutor. It's a very low cost way to get some web presence, the site is user friendly both for those looking for help for their families and those offering their services.
Hi Chris!
We’re so happy to hear about your experience with Care.com! We always appreciate positive feedback about our site. I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors, and with finding future employment opportunities through our service!
Regards,
Care.com Member Care Representative
Stay away from this site. There are other ways to find great care givers for your loved ones. Finding care through a local home health agency is the way to go. They do all the screening, finger printing and check references before hire. This site charges customers to even write a review for care givers and or anyone that have used their service. What a disappointment, I would not use this site or recommend it to anyone.
Hi David,
We're sorry about your dissatisfaction with the Care.com service.
Caregivers can request families to write reviews on them, without paying, through the “My Connections” page on the caregiver’s account. Premium members are also able to write reviews on any members who they have communicated with through Care.com.
We offer our premium subscription service for families looking for care. This service includes access to our monitored messaging system, access to any contact information on members they are interested in hiring, the ability to run or request preliminary checks on any members as well as purchase more comprehensive background checks on members, and the ability to view written and recorded references.
I hope this helps clarify our subscription service for you!
Regards,
Care.com Member Care Representative
They charge both the job poster and the job seeker to contact each other. If you are seriously looking for reputable child care, pet sitter or house cleaner this IS NOT the site for you. The job posters are inexperienced and most lie about their experience level. Which will be made abundantly clear when they arrive to do the job. I basically "paid" to be ripped off. After I spoke to a CSR, who escalated the call to a supervisor, I was denied a refund. They do not care about either customer. Their only concern is getting paid for their scam of a service. Horrible candidates, even worse customer service and UNETHICAL BUSINESS PRACTICES!
Hi Kay,
I’m sorry about your experience with Care.com.
To clarify, for members to contact each other, they would not both need to be paying members of the service. Caregivers can apply to any jobs that have been posted for free, and families looking for care can post jobs for free as well.
If you had a poor experience with a member of the site, we highly recommend that you write a review on their profile. As Care.com is not an agency, we do not hire the caregivers on the site, they are all individuals, like yourself, who have created their accounts and are looking for jobs. We do run preliminary checks on all members, but also recommend that families check out potential caregivers on their own as well.
We apologize for your experience, but hope that you were able to find the care that you needed!
Regards,
Care.com Member Care Representative
Care.com can be useful but BE CAREFUL of recurring charges. I used the site to find someone to take care of my dad during the day, and found a couple good people, but forgot about the billing fees. Ended up paying more than double what I thought I was going to pay.
Hi Penelope,
We are sorry about the confusion regarding billing on your account. All of our subscriptions are set up to automatically renew as stated on the upgrade page, and in our terms of use. Our service is set up like this because we would not want to interrupt anybody in the middle of their search process, or while they are attempting to communicate with possible candidates. You can edit this setting at any point after upgrading in the Account & Settings page, or by calling or emailing us at any point before the renewal date.
We are glad to hear that you were able to find some good caregivers through our site!
Best Regards,
Care.com Member Care Representative
Care.com is a great website to find local work in your community. It is free to join or you can opt to purchase the upgrade for a very minimal fee. Even without the upgraded version it is still very user friendly and works great. It is not like many sites where when you do not upgrade your use of the site is very limited. It gives you the ability to advertise your services and uses email as a base for communication with potential employers. It is very easy to navigate and is a great community website.
Hi Marvin,
We are happy to hear about your experience with Care.com! We try to keep our service as user friendly as possible, regardless of if you're a paying member or not! Care providers can create full profiles, and apply to jobs free of charge while families looking for care can create their family profiles, search for caregivers, and make jobs, also for free!
We wish you the best in your search for care jobs!
Best Regards,
Care.com Member Care Representative
I signed up at care.com as a tutor in Feb 2010. Since that time, I have not connected with a single student through their service.
Perhaps care.com isn't to blame for that. Maybe my profile is just not very appealing to potential students and their parents? This might be true except...
I used nearly the same profile information at a competitor's tutor-student matching service, and I've been connected with several dozen students in the same time period. In addition to the intrinsic reward of helping so many people, I also earned over $35k since Feb 2010 from tutoring students I met through the competitor's site. Using the competitor's site, my students are happy, and I'm happy.
For me, Care.com has failed miserably in the exact same situation where others have succeeded.
Maybe if my profile stood out by purchasing a "premium membership" from care.com, I would have met more students from the service. Maybe if I purchased a highly suspect "tutor certification" from the woefully corporate-compromised American Tutoring Association or National Tutoring Association, I would have worked with more students from care.com. But after nearly two years of receiving nothing, I'm not prepared to pay to receive more of nothing. As of today, I'm removing my profile from their site.
They are receiving two stars instead of one because they only wasted my time and didn't take any of my money.
Hi Marc,
We're sorry to hear that you were unable to find the jobs you were looking for through Care.com. If you look through our Articles and Resources page, we have a lot of suggestions of ways to make your profile stand out more.
Additionally, we have a "Profile Strength" feature that helps show what you have and haven't completed on your profile. Having a complete profile, as well as being active on the account (responding to every message you receive, logging in every day, and applying to new jobs every day) helps boost your search result ranking.
Of course, purchasing the Premium Membership is another way to help your profile stand out; you show up as featured in search results, and you have access to messaging even more families looking for care, but this isn't the only option.
We again apologize that you weren't able to find a tutoring job using Care.com, but are happy to hear that you were able to find a job!
Regards,
Care.com Member Care Representative
I signed up to find a care provider thinking I signed up for one month of service ($35). I failed to see the fine print stating they would charge my card every month until I cancelled service. Yet, I clearly checked the ONE MONTH button of service. I used the site less than a month, clearly shown in my transaction history that is set up on THEIR website. Because of family health problems, I have been behind on my credit card statements. Today, I realized Care.com has been repeatedly charging my card even though I have not used the site. I called, only to be told they would only refund the last two months (not the four I had been charged after the initial charge). So, in the end, it cost me $105 for my ONE month of CARE.com. Had I been using the service, I would not mind the charges, however, that is not the case and CARE.com can clearly see that was not the case. Buyer, beware of this scam company that has their site set up to appear you will only be charged for ONE month! I hate people who run websites that SCAM the trusting person via subtle text! You suck, Care.com! You only CARE about the money you are making!
Hi Karen,
We're sorry to hear that you misunderstood our subscription service. All of our subscriptions automatically renew until cancelled, as stated clearly on the upgrade page as well as in the terms of use that you agree to upon enrollment. As soon as you upgrade the account, you will have an option in your Account and Settings to set the account to downgrade so as not to be automatically renewed if you do not need more than one month of service. Many of our members like the auto renew features, because it gives them constant access to a community of caregivers. Additionally, we do not want to interrupt conversations, messaging, or the hiring process between subscriptions. I hope this helps clear up any confusion, and we hope you were able to find the care you were looking for!
Regards,
Care.com Member Care Representative
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Hi Nick,
I’m very sorry about your experience with us. Care.com is an automatically renewing subscription service, which is stated clearly on the Upgrade page as well as in our Terms of Use. This is a setting that you can manage on your own within your account, or you can call or e-mail us any time before the renewal date to make sure that the subscription is cancelled. We offer auto renewal so that communications with potential caregivers is not ended prematurely, and it is ultimately up to the member to manage their account.
If you had cancelled your subscription, you would receive an email as well as a message in your Care.com inbox. If you have copies of either of those, please pass them on to our Member Care team so we can look further in to the account.
We apologize for your experience, but do hope you were able to find the care that you family
Needs!
Regards,
Care.com Member Care Representative