bad business
Camp Australia have got to have one of the worst customer relations and billing policies I have ever come across! After leaving my kids in their pre-school care for several months I found their billing to be frequently incorrect. Several times I was overcharged for days that my kids did not attend. For this reason I refused to set up a direct debit.
Just before Christmas break they sent me an invoice for an incorrect amount and overcharged me by not deducting the childcare rebate from their invoice. I rang their billing department and asked them to sent me a correct invoice which they did, however they added a $20 dollar late fee to the bill for not paying it within the few days they allow you to pay a bill.
I paid the invoice but not the late fee! The following month I received another invoice but now with a $40 dollar late fee as they apparently charge a $20 dollar late fee for every month and accumulate even though the bill was paid for the services they provided.
I paid the invoice, but not the $40 dollar late fee which I can only describe as pure extortion! A few heated emails between me and their billing department followed but they insisted it needed to be paid. I stopped communications with them as I had already made up my mind I was going to withdraw my custom.
Yesterday I received a letter from them giving me a "Notice of Intention to Sue" ! ...wait for it, for $40 (their late fees which I had not paid) !
I rang Camp Australia this morning to question which planet they where from! The conversation was rather hostile on the phone, but the outcome was that they will waiver the 40 dollar late fee and will not be going forth with legal action against me!... too right, as their exuberant request for $20 late fees is not enforceable anyway!
The lady I spoke with asked if I would ever be using Camp Australia in the future, I told her I would not! I have made alternative arrangements. These people use aggressive billing policies, alienate the very people who fund their services and quite frankly don’t deserve to be in charge of children! My youngest daughter used to cry before she had to go to preschool care in the morning, insisting she didn’t want to go. She never liked it because she was the youngest there and had no-one to play with, and apparently was just left by herself each morning. Several mornings I dropped my kids there we had to wait for the camp Australia staff to arrive when they should have already been there!
I would love to see this company being replaced with an alternative in my kid’s school. icon_sad.gif
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
the customer service centre
I have rung the customer service line four times now in 6 business days. I have also sent an email via their website and still have not had a call back. I am enquiring after their ridiculous 7 day cancellation policy (which i have adhered too) yet been charged for. The first girl i spoke too would not listen and kept saying the same thing over and over. When I asked for a manager i was told "There is no Manager in the office yet" (it was 9.20am) and upon probing was told "they all come in at 10am". Then upon more questioning the story then changed to "There is a Manager here but they are in a meeting". I waited for a call back and it never happened so i rang back. They then put me onto a "senior agent" as again there were "No Managers available". This "Senior agent" was rude and arrogant and the Customer Service was non existant. When I asked for a Manager again i was told "there are non available". On this call i asked them to cancel my direct debit as i was not paying my bill until the manager called me back. I was promptly told my direct debit would be cancelled however if i did not pay by my due date i would incur late fees and the like. I explained as long as i receive a call back there should be no issue with my invoice. A day later and still no phone call. I ring back and again i am told the Custoemr Service Manager "was in his office but now he is not. I will get him to call you". Two days later i go on their website and log an enquiry that way to get a call back. Still nothing. I ring back the next day, to be told "The Manager is aware of your complaint and will call you back when he is able". We are now over a week later and i still have not heard anything from Camp Australia . When i mentioned this service to one of the carers at the centre i was told that she understood that they give out bad service at the call centre(head office). The issue with these before and after school care programes is we as parents have NO CHOICE but to use them as they are the oly one on offer at the school(we dont have the choice like daycare), so to pull my child out is not an option as I work full time. They can treat customers how ever they like and they answer to noone, clearly. It is just not good enough and the care jackson gets at the actual cnetre at his school is fantastic, the carers are amazing, yet the "customer service" line has alot to answer for and at the moment is not focused on the 'customer" or the "service"
date of incident: 02/06/2016
client number: ?
An unauthorised transaction of $20 was debited from my account.
I have contacted customer service who were very rude and refused to credit the $20 back to my account and refused to allow me to speak with a manager or supervisor.
I am requesting the $20 is credited back to my account effective immediately.
My family recently changed banks. One of the few direct debits we forgot to change over was Camp Australia. For any Camp Australia customers out there who change banks here's a warning...don't forget these guys. They have plenty of tricks up their sleeve to slug you for it.
Automated voicemail by robot. Yep, that's one of their forms of communication to 'attempt' to get in touch with you if your direct debit doesn't work. You'll receive a missed call which goes to your voicemail, with a computerised voice saying nothing but a phone number. Not to ring it or anything, not where / who the message is from, just a number. I got a couple of these, thinking they were some kind of spam or scam (kinda true actually) and eventually rang the phone number. Lo and behold, it was a Camp Australia number. How did I know ? Well, I got their voicemail.
Since then I've discovered that Camp Australia has charged a $20 fee per payment for each direct debit that failed. Would seem that the robot phone calls were an attempt to let us know there was a problem with the payments. Sneaky, huh !
The other thing that led to knowing there was a problem was going in to book my son in childcare last night...and finding that we couldn't because our 'access was restricted'.
Eventually we checked an old email account to find that Camp Australia had sent us some 'Statement' emails which in the subject line appear to be perfectly standard. Only when opening to read the content do you find a $20 charge per payment.
Today I spoke with customer service people at Camp Australia advising of our concern over receiving these $20 fees (not so much the value of them but the sneakiness). I requested than to be removed. Not within the authority of a customer service representative. And a customer can't speak to anyone else. Although I can send an email complaint. Wonder if I'll get a robot reply 😒.
These guys are exploiting their monopoly, and it's coming from the top. No concern from their management for their customers. I'm going to try and get them to overturn the $20 failed payment fees via email, out of principle. When they refuse to waive them, I'll close my account and withdraw my son from their care. I suspect it's the only way management like theirs will think about customers.
Am getting the same experience. Even the CEO can't follow through on his promises. Makes me very worried if they can't get their act together at the back-end, how they are dealing with our children from the front end. If I had another option, I would not be concerning myself with Camp Australia. Rude, incompetent, constant issues, no customer service. A radical shake-up needs to happen.
Replied
bad staff
I have NEVER in my life been in a place so unjust! I was hired on for a part time position in a OSHC- Pert h WA - Before and After School Care. The the company is a JOKE, most the employees are incompetent, they yell and intimidate the children all the time! The Coordinator calls the "SLOWER" children, or children that have a vivid mind Idiots! She sits i...
Read full complaint and 6 comments
Replied
service and charges
I am very angry and unhappy that this company have take over the way after school and before care programs are run, in addition of being forced to go with this company from 2009 as my childrens school McKinnon Primary now use their admin service rather than their own as it was previously. This company increrased fees with supplying less services eg holiday programs no breakfast or lunch, and also enforce a 7 day cancellation policy for permanent bookings. How they justify their policy on this particular issue is totally unacceptable, especially since their are plenty of vacancies on all days my children attend. They do not have to employ more staff, as a particular team leader who I spoke to by the name of Chris on 03/02/10 told me. My two children are enrolled for after school permanent on Tuesday and Fridays, I tried to call their call centre on Monday 01/02/10 but got very frustrated listening to a recording for 15 minutes, thus I am a working mum, I do not have the time to waste waiting for a service to make cancellations, moreover, I feel this expectation is unjust and unreasonable. I refuse to pay for 6 service DATES THEY INTEND TO BILL me for because OF THEIR POLICY ALTHOUGH I have done so many occassions in the past due to un forssen circumstances. T his company needs to maken certain exceptions and be more flexible, the profit they would be making due to this unreasonable policy defies imagination. I can only put it down to greed. I really employ you to investigate their policies, and also waive these costs. they want to charge me. I feel bullied into using their program as i have no choice when my husband and i work fulltime. The t/l SAID i HAVE A CHOICE BUT THAT IS DEBATABLE, WHEN U DONT HAVE ANTY MEANS OF GETTING THEM TO ANOTHER HOLIDAY PROGARAM AS U CAN SEE IT S OBVIOUS for convenience reasons i would want them to attend OSHC AT THEIR SCHOOL. tHE GOVERNMENT IS SAYINHG HOW THEY WANT TO HELP PARENTS WHO WORK AND PAY TAXES AND THEN WE ARE PENALIZED BY THIS UNJUST billing SYSTEM CAMP AUSTRALIA impose.. I wish to also compalain to the govt or ombudsmen regarding this issue but not sure who i should write to? If you can provide me with names or depts I would be very grateful. I look foraward to your reply
Kind Regards
Kerry Perrow
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer's satisfaction.
My account was sent to debt collection with no warning. After I was forced to agree to pay $50 on the 31st of may even though I explained I get paid monthly on the 15th.
They said I need to pay the debt collectors not sure how I do that without being able to work?
Are you referring to me? I left the primary school my children were enrolled in, primarily because of Camp Australia - six months ago. We won't be going back. And if Camp Australia take over the wonderful Afterschool care program that is run in-house, at a third of the price, I would be changing schools again. That is how strongly I feel about it.
WOW! Camp Australia responded with their generic robot response - email us with your account number blah blah blah, and when I responded to them as above, they have actually DELETED their comment.
Running scared? Can't actually admit that they didn't even read it? If you're going to have a presence on here, actually use a brain and write out thoughtful comments that answer queries. Don't just be a robot and type out the identical platitudes to everyone when it is clear that we are all pretty damn angry with your company and not going to be happy with this.
NO FLEXIBILITY. CA claim flexibility but just removed the 10 pack of casual sessions your kid can have leaving us with even less sensible options. I have no idea if I will use 5 or 50 visits so cannot commit to 40 visits(which is literally ridiculous). The staff are great and kids enjoy it however the web site and the ridiculous rules cannot be understated. It takes quite a while to work out all the rules and long lead times if you want to change anything. (unless you pay for gold coverage).
I’ve just glanced at their site again and our school charges have increased another 25% since the end of last year. It would now cost me around $90 a day per child if I hadn’t moved my children to another school to escape. What gets me are the new tiered fees and ‘late’ fees for casual bookings! Absolute robbery. Why does every school have different fees? I see that our old school is amongst the highest charging, and I have no idea why. Who is getting the kickbacks from these extortioners?
Hi there,
I work with Seven's Sunday Night and I am working on a story about complaints against Camp Australia. I was hoping I might be able to speak with some people and find out more information about issues with the program? My email is jjgorman@seven.com.au
It's not so much the program that is the problem. The staff they use are pretty good, the kids are happy. It's much more about the costs involved, and the ridiculous expectation that you must know 7 days in advance if you need to change or cancel a booking, or else wear the fee. I contacted them about the reduced fee option but was told that this is only available to people who make recurring bookings, OR have a permanent rotating roster. When I first signed up with them, I was told that if I became a casual worker, I could access the reduced fees, as it is understandable that as a casual, I would be making last minute bookings. Now I've been told that that's not the case. So I purposely am not working too many days, or working too far from home, so that if possible, I can avoid paying for before and after school care too often. At the moment, I have been able to get back in time to pick up my children from school, so only have to use the before school care service. This is the gender wage gap in action, people making choices to work in a way that doesn't disrupt family too much, but also minimises opportunities for promotion and advancement. If the school offered the service independently, the charges would not be so high. They would also possibly be a lot more understanding and flexible about bookings.
Still nothing has changed...the CSO phone staff are terrible and their online booking system is defunct. I was threatened I would have to pay a full year's services that I won't use because I won't sign their new terms and conditions, allowing them to use my child's image in their marketing materials. The extortionate fees and over charging they are now calling "booking fees" so "you can claim these on CCB" - my taxes at work.
I’ve actually taken my children out of their school to a nearby one that has an in-house before and after school care service.
I absolutely hate dealing with the call centre at Camp Australia. The last time I called to ask them to cancel a booking that I had just made accidentally (moments earlier), the person I spoke to (in the Philippines?) gave me this really sassy "hmm hmmmm?" sound and would not confirm whether I could have the fee waived. It was a mistake made on their horribly inconvenient website. I have tried to make bookings in the past that wouldn't save properly, that duplicated, that disappeared, it has simply failed show up on Safari or Firefox sometimes. I can't easily block out my dates and review them before saving, instead I have to go into days individually for each child and press before school care, then after school care. It's tedious and easy to make mistakes. Anyway, back to the most recently delightful experience I had with them, they happily charged me that day's charge, even though they knew it was just a slip of the fingers on their awful website that I have continually complained to them about. They recently charged me a $2 statement fee, never sent me a statement for that period by email, and I certainly never received one by mail. I queried the charge, as I happened to log in to go and look for the missing statement. They reversed the charge, but never acknowledged my request. I still don't know what happened there. The other local school charges $33 per day for before and after school care (before rebates etc). The school my children go to (a local public primary) charges $56 per day. $20 per day difference, over 5 days, is $100 per week, per child difference. I have two children, so it adds up considerably. I'm about to begin working casually and am dreading having to keep an eye on this. I am strongly considering removing my children from this school and going to the other school because I dislike Camp Australia's administration so much. There's nothing I can do about it, this is who our school has chosen to use.
I would never use this service again if it were the only child minding service in Australia. First of all the out of pocket expenses on the website are downright misleading. I am entitled to the highest rate of CCB and CCR, but like all the people they rip off, I was charged the highest rate of out of pocket expenses. No one I can find, no matter how low their income, pays the lower rate.
When I signed on, I was put on a payment plan that was supposed to cover the fees for the entire year. It was a lie, it was only covering a small part of my costs, and I was accruing a huge debt. I could not get anyone at Camp Australia to discuss the fees with me, or explain why the amount I owed increased every week when I was on a payment plan that was supposed to cover all costs. When I suggested that it all seemed shonky, I was told that a supervisor would call me back and I was locked out of my online Camp Australia account so I could not check my details. No supervisor called, although they prank called my mobile 2 or 3 times a day until the bill was paid.
I pulled the children out of their care, but still could not get them to discuss my fees, all they would say is I owe..., not how they justify the price increasing every week. Finally I got DPC involved and their financial officer was able to find out what Camp Australia claims happened.
According to Camp Australia, their employee made a mistake with the payment plan she put me on, and they apologise. They will not reduce the amount remaining, nor explain why it took for me to get the DPC involved for them to be willing to discuss the matter or to admit there had been a mistake. Had I continued to keep the children at their OSH I would have been in $7000+ debt by the end of the school year. As it was, I'd only had the kids in care for one month, and had been paying $200 a week, but the bill I had at the end of the month was for another $1200.
Oh yeah, they're still charging Centrelink the CCB and CCR even though the kids I pulled the kids out and cancelled all future bookings and the kids haven't attended since last month.
There's shonky stuff going on at Camp Australia. I seriously recommend looking around for other child care services.
I am a parent of a child with special needs. I engaged Camp Australia 5 months ago and took 3 months off work to, amongst other things, allow Camp Australia the time to have everything in place to make my son's transition to their services as smooth as possible. I contacted the worker on site regularly for updates on how things were processing and was told that the regional manager was still looking at it all. The worker assured me that it would be done well in advance to me needing to return to work. Two weeks out and still getting the same line I started calling the service centre. They were no help whatsoever and the night before my son was due to start I got a vague email advising me that the regional manager was still reviewing the support plan and they apologies for the delay, but my son could not access their services until everything was approved. Other than this email no one has contacted us in the 5 months since we first engaged Camp Australia. This company is disorganized and just don't care.
Camp Australia are a bunch of Bullies.
These people are basically Debt collectors pretending to run an after school program.
They Prank call me now everyday because of an overdue bill. Which has had the usual huge $20 overdue fee added.
I'm over it. seems people have complained for 7 or 8 years about the same issues and nothing has changed.
I worked with Camp Australia for 5 years as a coordinator and as an assistant, and I can confirm that it is the crappiest company I know. I agree with every single complaint made in this forum and having previously worked with them, I can say that in addition to these complaints it doesn't get any better for their staff. Your job is constantly being threatened. Staff are always being moved to different centres last minute, all centres I have worked for have always been understaffed, we never had enough resources for the children, or we would be provided with an abundance of useless resources. I always put in 100% in my job, I would alway go and buy resources for the children because the company wouldn't provide us with them, I would more to a number of different centres in ONE afternoon, I would sometimes spent half of my income on parking, the way you select holiday club shifts is unfair, the complaints I have for this company are endless. This company's main goal is to make money, that's more important than anything else. With all of the programming and documentation they make us do revolving around the Early Years Learning Framework (2009), how do they expect us to achieve these standards and outcomes when staff is inconsistent. I would never recommend this company to anyone and encourage current staff to leave, there are plenty of other OOSH centres out there.
My Daughter attends camp Australia and they are the worst company I have ever dealt with, overdue fees what a joke and not being able to pay monthly is and even bigger joke! Constant late fees and crap service. I am going to ombudsman as I can no longer deal with these ###s!
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Hocking Primary School- camp Australia
The camp Australia staff are not enthusiastic about their jobs by looking dull, uninterested and quiet frankly they look like they don't want to be there. I have seen their boxes of fruit that have been delivered Monday in the afternoon and continues to stay in the cardboard boxes all week, even in summer.
Also having my children attend Hocking, the camp Australia staff use the Hocking resources and disrespect the equipment, that should be for the children that attend Hocking and not to be use by a business that is for profit. when they have the money to purchase their own resources.