Care.com
reviews and complaints

I am beyond disappointed with this company. We paid their $39 monthly service fee to try to find a nanny for our children. We paid the money, and within an hour Care.com terminated our account with no explanation. They still debited our account and have refused to return any emails or communications. This company might not be a scam, but they have horrible customer service, horrible account management, and are more than happy to take your money, terminate your account with no services rendered, and then completely ignore you.

My account was closed for not paying for a service that I was never billed for. When I asked them they replied it wasn't for that but one of ten different reasons listed on an email. I had reported a member that had contacted me with questionable offers of employment. Soon after they contacted to tell me that they had to remove that member. This is happened to me in the past and in reply I stated that I felt unsafe as another woman had contacted me with a similar offer and that I was considering closing my account if it continued but I am no matter plan to do that. It was not a threat that I was making it was a concern for my safety and my personal information and my financial information etc. after this I received three emails send them one thanking me for contacting them the other canceling my account and the last one asking me how they did? I have reported them to seven on your side and I am thinking of looking into legal advice as to what could be done. I had A very good experience with this website prior to this and have been able to secure several jobs and had excellent reviews and references. Now that my account is closed many will wonder why.. I feel that my reputation now has been tarnished as I'm struggling to look for work.

I have applied to so many and no one decides to reply back with "the position is filled" or " I do not need a nanny"
something better than nothing.
I have applied so many times and nothing, others want me to give them names and address and what nots. I wish this website helped people instead of waisting people's time.

After discovering that I have been continuously auto billed for a year after a one time charge.( Apparently there's small print stating it's an automatic subscription) I could not speak to anyone in billing department, you have to wait to hear from them through email and their refund decision is final! Customer service rep hung up on me after denying me the option to speak to a supervisor! And after I was denied a full refund I replied to the email and no response! They don't play fair! I have never dealt with a company that refuses to help you! They just don't care, they have your money and that's all their is to it!

Hi Sheila, I am a fellow HBS ’95 grad (you can see my LinkedIn profile) and entrepreneur & founder of my own company, and I applaud you for creating and building Care.com. Unfortunately, I had a very disturbing incident happen yesterday around 11am PDT with one of your pet care people in San Francisco. I have photographs and the name of the Care.com pet walker, Katherine B. I am not a Care.com member, just observed this extremely disturbing behavior of Katherine B. and most unfortunately, I cannot get through the bureaucracy and red tape of Care.com to file a proper complaint. I also found the difficulty of reporting a complaint to your company very concerning. Yesterday evening, I read your policy online under “General Safety FAQ’s” that states - What does Care.com do if it learns a member is unsafe or has acted inappropriately? If Care.com learns a member may be unsafe or has acted inappropriately, we immediately remove the member from Care.com. I would really appreciate an email or call to me at [protected], my personal cell phone #. If I don’t hear back from you or someone senior at your company in a timely manner, I will be filing a police report and posting the incident with photos on social media. My apologies for seeming harsh about this, but the combination of what occurred and the bureaucracy of Care.com has catalyzed the intensity of my actions and potential response. I hope to hear from you soon and that you live up to the name of your company and express some genuine care about the quality of the people you employ. Sincerely, Laurie Gottlieb

I hired a babysitter using the care.com website. The morning before she was supposed to care for my children, I received an email stating my membership had been canceled. The email was very rude and went on to say that they were not going to give me a reason and furthermore, they were going to notify everyone that I had been terminated. I checked my debit account and they terminated my account right after withdrawing my monthly payment. I thought this was a scam and since I needed to see if the babysitter was still coming, I called the company. They were unwilling to help, stating that my account had been deleted. They again repeated that they are not obligated to give any information. At this point I am very concerned about a scam, but now I realize it is the company that is doing the scam! I asked to speak with a supervisor and was told someone would contact me. Now I have to either cancel my plans, or hire another babysitter and fear that I might have two babysitters showing up because I have no way of contacting the original sitter. Of course, that "supervisor" never contacted me. Needless to say, I had a very stressful day that could have been avoided if care.com had been willing to give me any information as to why I had been terminated. I am writing this complaint, because I feel the company behaved in a very unprofessional and unethical manner. I am concerned that this company has my debit card information, and my personal information including my address and phone number. I am concerned that I will not be able to find a babysitter since they sent out a mass email saying that I was terminated. Of course people are going to assume I did something bad. Are my kids going to get kicked out of their daycare? I am concerned about identity theft because I have no idea why I was terminated. I know that I would not have anything wrong with a background check. My profession requires regular background checks in order to maintain a valid medical and DEA license. I have excellent credit. I don't understand why the sitter I had been communicating with would complain since she accepted the position. My concerns could easily be alleviated if care.com were willing to have an open and honest conversation in regards to why I was terminated. A business that has access to bank accounts and personal information should be expected to alleviate concerns about fraud and theft of that personal information.

I was contacted by a family on care.com (Kristen). I went to their house and spent a couple hours being interviewed and getting to know the 2 children. Kritsten raved about me and said she would like to hire me. The following week, I went on Tues June 7th from 11am-6:30pm. The mom said she would pay me at the end of every week. The night before I was going in for my second visit, she texts me saying they were in no more need of my services?!?!?! They did not give me much reason besides they found someone else? Now I was not suspicious about getting paid at the end of theweek because this is a wealthy family with a very large home, offering me $15hr to start, which my last nanny job did the same thing. Now I am out of almost $100 and i'm wondering if these people are just going around scamming girls on care.com for there services? I have her name, number and address.
- Thank you for your time and i'll be waiting on your response.
-Ashley Kula

Two of the responses I have received from 2 potential parents were both in Latin. The messages were close to the same. Just to confirm the message, I asked one parent to translate the message into English. I received a nasty response from the parent stating that she never sent me anything and to not communicate with her again. I really don't think the parents actually wrote those responses. The issue of most concern was the small print statement at the very bottom of the parent's response, in light font, was the addage "Upgrade now to view's (their grammatical error) application."

Has anyone else received responses in Latin? Another disturbing fact is that when I clicked on the Upgrade option, the explanation stated that I would have the same services with the basic membership. Then I checked my credit card statement, they had already charged me for the upgraded membership level. Care.com had already sent me an alert that I was about to be downgraded, but they had already charged me at the higher membership rate. The really aggravating factor is their lack of response to your concerns. It is a basic canned response which tells you not to bother them. Is this any way to do business?

I now believe that Care.com sent both responses. Their mistake is assuming that I can't read Latin. I can. In translation, the response is gibberish.

This is an email that I sent to a Care.com supervisor today (I eventually spoke to this supervisor, Immanuel, and he provided zero help):

Immanuel,

I tried calling you back approximately 5 minutes after you left me a voicemail. After being on hold for 10 minutes, I was told you were unavailable.

Thank you for telling me in your email that background checks typically take 3-10 business days. Unfortunately, I already knew that information, because it is written on your website, which I read thoroughly before going through the trouble of contacting your customer service reps and then trying to contact you. The first customer service agent with whom I spoke relayed this information to me as well. I told her, as I'm telling you, that I already know what is written on your website.

I asked to speak to a supervisor because I need to know more precisely when the background check will be complete. The stock answer of "3-10 days" may apply in general, but you now know exactly whose background I am checking, you know when I made the request, you know when she approved the request, and you have the ability to call the 3d party agency that runs the background check to say "what is your estimated time of completion?" Once you have the specific data above, it is easy to give a more precise answer.

So let me be very specific about my request: I want you to contact the agency that runs the background check and ask them to give you a more specific estimate of when Logan's background check will be complete. I have wasted a huge amount of time today just trying to get someone to answer this question.

On a related note, Care.com's telephone team's customer service is absolutely sub-par. It is awful. The phone number is difficult to find on the website. Once you find it and call, there is a huge wait time to speak to an agent. Once an agent gets on the phone, there is a substantial amount of background noise, making it difficult to hear the agent. The customer service reps seem to speak English only as a second language and thus, misuse common phrases, making communications unclear and inefficient. The words your reps use are imprecise when they are saying anything other than what is written on your website. The fact that a customer's call can't be transferred to a supervisor (upon request) is ridiculous. The fact that you called me and left me a voicemail but didn't leave me a call back number is ridiculous. When called back Care's general number and asked to speak with you, I was put on hold for 10 minutes before being told that you were unavailable. I told your customer service rep that I thought Care's "procedure" of not being able to call back a supervisor was a stupid procedure and that being able to return calls is a common business practice; your customer service rep then told me that she didn't appreciate my language. I asked her what word she found objectionable, and if it was the word "stupid" (because there was literally no other word I could imagine a person taking issue with), at which time she told me she was terminating my call. Your customer service has failed on every level today.

Between 2002 and 2006 I signed up to offer my Professional Domestic Services. I was over 45 years old with 28 years of service in the field. The ist interview they sent me to a couple who had paid for a background check that listed me as White and having lived in places I never lived. The people they sent me to were extremely rude and racially insulting. Then Care.com wrote me and stated they don't hire agencies and I am an individual. I tried again to use the service twice and found that they had ruined my reputation with their misinformed and incorrect background checks of me. I wrote to address the situation and got nowhere. If you look on the site itself you will see they discriminate against Black workers of experience and excellent reputation.

Avoid www.care.com at all costs and don't do business with these scam artists! Just check all the reviews, there are hundreds of people who were scammed by Care company! Like many other people I was automatically charged for who knows what and when I contacted them they refused to give my money back. Maybe somewhere on the site there is something mentioned about these auto charges, but this information is hidden! I asked them to cancel my subscription and they agreed, but told that there will be no refunds! People, beware and stay away!

I used their service for one week- there is a fine print of billing every month- no emails or communication from them- I called to cancel- they said it was fine- again no emails- and then billing for 5 months- when I called to complaint it was a scripted telesales person who read out their practices and said she was forward to billing dept- nothing else- they are not a ethical company in their practices- very poor

I got a job with care.com the family was moving here from London, she was suppose too send me a check too make sure she had me as her caregiver, needless too say it was a scam. My sister got hired by a family that was moving from New York too florida, and she asked my sister if she would send extra money could they order a wheelchair and they can deliver it too her house, and she said yes, the wheel chair was $3, 000 and $350.00 was her wages for the week, my sister took the check too her bank, ask them if this check was legitimate and they said yes but they would have too hold the check for a couple day's, and her fund's would be available, so they gave her the money, the woman text my sister and gave her the bank account too deposit the money for the wheelchair, so she deposited the money, and kept her$350.00, she came home and receive a text message saying she needed $300.00 and promise too pay her back cause the company said it was more money . The woman got real natsy my sister sent her text message saying don't text me anymore, or she was calling the cop's, so the woman quit texting her.she got up the next morning and look up her account and she had $3, 000 come to find out her account was overdrawn. Some one needs too investigate this company. Care. Com.

Care.com makes their money through deceitful billing practices. Without your knowledge or permission, they will upgrade and auto-renew your account and NEVER let you know about it. You'll never once be notified or receive an e-mail or anything! They make a dubious claim that it's in the "small print" when you sign up. Many States now have laws against the sort of deceptive practices that Care.com engage in. This company's profit margin relies on these scams. They know their clients are hectic, busy parents struggling to balance childcare and work schedules. They have illegally charged me $360. Care.com is a morally corrupt business that only cares about money.

Care.com is back in the news again with a babysitter molesting and sodomizing 2 little boys. Just 2 years ago a baby was murdered by a care.com babysitter..these are just the 2 that made headlines. I suspect that many parents across the world are coming home to dead babies and abused kids..Care.com is in 16 countries..They are a wolf in sheep clothing by making the site seem safe and trustworthy when its nothing more than Craigslist. I see I am not the only one with disdain for Care.com. Had several bad experiences all around..flake babysitters and ripping customers off with auto renew billing with no receipt is what they are best known for..stay away.

Here is what I just wrote to care.com customer service and this describes my experiences trying to find work so far:
Hi-
I am encountering a lot of frustration in that potential clients are stating offered wages that they aren't willing to pay! I have spent a great deal of time conversing at length with three different clients now whom when it came time to finalize wages would not even pay nearly the LOWEST end of their stated wage range. The last father I just spoke with offered 15-25$ per hour in his ad but then when I offered to work for as low as 12$ an hour he stated he could not afford my services at that rate. He has three kids! Another woman stated 10-20 and in my ad I actually stated around 15$/hr was my required wage. She wanted a whole week so I lowered to 10$ an hour but she still declined! This is a frustrating waste of time going through all this work corresponding at length to see if schedules and situations could possibly work together to then only have them deny below their lowest offered wage. This should stop. They should be required to pay their lowest stated hourly wage at minimum. I am going to stop using this site as it is wasting my time.

I had an account with care.com for over a year. I finally had landed a nanny position to start with in two months. I had interviewed with family and excepted the position. I called care.com to cancel my membership. I received an email stating that I request to close account, with in THREE hours, they had sent me and anyone who I had contact with on care, stating that my account had been terminated, (not cancelled). Guess you can tell what happened next? The family called me, I tried explaining honestly what had happened, but they would not honor my position with the family, because care.com said they terminated my membership.

I would not recommend care.com to anyone! I wish I could sue them for the job they caused me to loose, and any other jobs I could of gotten. Sending that email of termination, went out to many, many, many families that I had communicated with over the course of a year.

Since I registered with care.com as a caregiver, I've received several very suspicious texts from people who got my information from the website. In each case, it started out looking like a good position but soon I could see they were moving toward asking me for personal information, including bank information. They were always out of state and needing to "get me on the payroll" so I could start working as soon as possible. I wrote care.com about this because these people were obviously registered with the service, or they could not have found my contact information. The only thing the company wrote back was that I could remove my personal contact info from view, which I did. It's not a satisfactory response in my opinion. They are allowing people to register who are no honest and when these users are reported, they should be removed.

The first time I signed up I forgot to cancel and was billed for like 6 months before I realized it (my CC is on auto pay).

The second time, new location, the child care providers were not up to par with what I was exposed to in PA (vs. now CA).

Background checks take 10 days and that's if the babysitter sees the approval link. Most don't see it or have trouble figuring out how to approve. This is a colossal waste of time. Also, there are features both parties can and can't see depending whether you are using a cell phone or computer.

Care.com needs to reduce monthly pricing and do a better job of having people meet minimum criteria for being able to post their services.

There were a lot of caregivers that I found were lying on their profile because I would google them and find that they were living or doing something else than what they advertised. SO BAD!