ElderHelpers.orgReviews 212

I have been volunteering with Elderhelpers for approximately one (1) year. It's a fantastic program, and a great way to help the community. I have dedicated much of my life to volunteering and community service, and in fact I am the President of a non-profit corporation. I can say without hesitation that Elderhelpers is one of the best organizations I have been involved with. The staff is caring and attentive, and the elders with whom I've worked are thrilled to have a program which focuses on their needs.

My experience with elder helpers is good, they are serious and screen people. They do ask for the help of the subscribers to warn of disconnected numbers but most of them are current and the people listed on the site are real. Took me a good half an hour to get in touch with Veronica and she helps here and there. In my area I have a lot of other volunteers to choose from so if she becomes unavailable I can get back to the site to contact others. Overall very satisfied subscriber.

I'm a registered volunteer with Elder Helpers. I was matched with an elder not long after signing up, and we've been together for a year and a half. I only gave the website four stars because when I realized there was a fee to sign up, I chose not to. Somehow I was still entered into the system. So the site was confusing. I also wish the geographical breakdown was a bit more granular. I'm in New York City which is comprised of five large boroughs. I receive calls from folks quite a distance from me looking for a volunteer yet have to turn them down, which breaks my heart. The people at Elder Helpers have always impressed me with their timely responses and their dedication to their mission. It sounds crazy, but there are actually real people at the other end of this organization. AND, they support you throughout the process. I am enrolled in other volunteer organizations to work with the elderly in New York. Elder Helpers is the only one that actually cares about both the elder AND the volunteer, at least here in New York City.

I am a social worker with a social service agency in Los Angeles and arranged in early 2013 for a client to have an Elder Helper volunteer. I was told that the one-year membership could be canceled at any time and the balanced pro-rated and refunded. At that time, the service itself contacted potential volunteers, who then contacted the client. I received only two calls. Happily, one of them worked out very well, but six months later, the volunteer announced that she was moving out of the area. I contacted Elder Helpers about obtaining either a new volunteer or a refund for the remaining months of the subscription and was told that all I could was go to the website and start over--at a higher rate than what I had originally paid. After a frustrating month of back and forth e-mails with a nameless "customer service," I gave up on the refund. In December, the client died. I followed the instructions on the website for canceling the subscription (which were hard enough to find), as I certainly didn't want to pay again for another year. Our agency just received the January credit card bill--with an automatic charge for another year of Elder Helpers! I've again tried to contact "customer service" and, well, here we go again. Based on my experience, I would not recommend Elder Helpers.org to any of my clients or their families. It's a shame, too, as a viable service such as this one purports to be would be of such great value to our elders.

My name is Lisa and I have been a volunteer for elderhelpers.org. I personally chose to donate and pay for my background check but the tips section of the site and the customer service makes it very clear: "donations are not mandatory to volunteer" despite what some of the reviews here mention. I got called up many times by elders and family members and I help out here and there when I like the people asking for help and when my schedule permits it. That site really makes it easy for people like me to help out elders without jumping through hoops and dealing with bureaucracy of more traditional often religious brick and mortar nonprofits that have huge administrative costs. Amazing concept and I wish them the best for the future.

I signed up for 3 months and called all the volunteers within a 10 mile radius. Any farther away, and they would have to drive a treacherous mountain road. NO ONE RESPONDED, or if they answered my call, they said they were no longer volunteering. The person at elderhelpers said I had to look within 20 miles, and I "should" pay the volunteers. 75/mile. None of this was mentioned when I signed up. He refuses to give me a refund. I would steer clear of this company. Instead, research other volunteer organizations in your area who are truly volunteer with no strings attached.

All new kind of service so it is probably why it is getting so many fake reviews from people who have obviously not used the site. My name is Jill W. And I have found good volunteers through the site after an easy search and a couple of phone calls. I signed up for a month at first and then switch to a year to save. The customer service is blazing fast and to the point and the volunteers I work with absolutely wonderful people. Thank you to whoever came up with this service and to the volunteers listed on the site.

I am hesitant to volunteer for them as they are not BBB accredited. Also, when I did a search for their phone number, it also shows this website, www.healthyyears.org which links back to elder helpers. The testimonials on their site look fake to me and there's just something that doesn't give me the warm and fuzzies about them. Its almost as if they are taking advantage of volunteers desire to help and definitely a subscription based thing for the elderly, a reoccurring cost, is just what the elderly don't need. But then again, look at the nursing homes and assisted living, they charge a fortune. And if you had to have someone come to your house a few hours a day, that would cost you way more than $49 a month. They have 5 complaints on the BBB in 12 months and a B rating which is OK at best. They need to raise it to an A. The real issue and question is. Can they provide enough volunteers in your area and if they don't have volunteers in your area, they should be upfront about it, and shouldn't charge you. I don't want to volunteer for any practice that is shady. They have no staff so thats why they can charge only $49 a month but they might not have enough volunteers from what some of the ads on here suggest. I've never seen them advertise anywhere to get volunteers other than their website and I wonder how many more web domains they own? Its a good concept if they can get enough volunteers, but like all volunteers, you have to keep replacing them because their lives change and they stop doing it. They seem to be relying on a workforce that they have no control over.

After paying the $319 yearly fee, I was unable to find any volunteers to call me back after contacting over 25 volunteers listed on the website. Two people called back, and one declines saying she didn't even know her name and info were being listed as she denied volunteering or applying to volunteer with this organization.
When I emailed ElderHelpers for assistance in finding a volunteer, they kept emailing me their link to FAQ's and did not help. When I asked about a refund due to their volunteers not calling me back, they wouldn't help me until I gave them a list of all the volunteers I called and their respective responses.
Basically they use these paying customers to weed through their volunteer lists for them, and they do not help in any way finding anyone.
I finally demanded a refund and they would not give it to me until I threatened to report them to the Better Business Bureau, and then deducted a prorated monthly fee for doing absolutely nothing but putting up a volunteer list of people who don't want to volunteer.
SCAM

Elderhelpers.org disregards its own motto: trust promise generosity honor truth dependable respect responsive integrity ethics. I was charged $49 in September 2012 to locate "volunteers" to help me care for my 85 year old mother and eventually for me. The one volunteer that I managed toconnect with through Elderhelpers.org provided absolutely no assistance. When she arrived at my home, she sat down to discuss the type of assistance that we need and then proceeded to tell us how much she charged.

I discovered in December that the $49 charge was a recurring quarterly charge. I contacted the bank and Elderhelpers.org and explained that I had only used the service once and the reason why I would not continue to use the service. The gentleman I spoke with and communicated via email promised to refund the $49 charge and cancel my account. He refunded the charge which was posted to my credit card account on January 7,2013. Since he did indeed refund the charge and he had promised to cancel my account, I archived and deleted the emails. I discovered this weekend a pending charge for $49 from Elderhelpers.org on my Bank of America account. And to make matters worse, I pulled up all the electronic statements from BOA for 2013 and discovered charges for $49 had been posted to my account on March 16,2013 and June 17,2013.

I was beyond anger when I discovered that Elderhelpers.org had continued charging my credit card account despite the fact that I had been assured that my account was closed and that no further charges would occur. The phone number provided by BOA and which appears on the Elderhelpers.org website *******734 accepts only voice-mail. So far, my voice-mail messages have not been returned, but they did respond to my emails with request that I provide them with the emails from last December. Not only is this an inconvenience but an insult since they are questioning my word. They are a business, which I can only assume, would have in place easy access to their email traffic. They certainly have disrespect me by questioning my integrity and honesty. The fact that they refunded the charge made last December should be proof enough of my previous contact.

I give Elderhelpers.org only one star since they were responsive in December 2012 and promptly refunded the $49 charge. But they have failed miserably to live up to their own motto as shown on their website. My advice to anyone--especially another elderly individual--to avoid this company. They will only take your money again and again. My last resort is to request Bank of America to change my account number. My advice to anyone--especially other elderly individuals--is avoid this website.