Camp Australia review: service and charges 64

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?

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!

Extremely disappointed, not only the facilities are terrible and the lack of hygiene in the premises and food handling scares me. As many parents mentioned above they are only about taking your money. I have called as having problems with their booking system, cancelled my bookings and still got charged. They said they have review the call and it was in their favour. However I am not allow to hear the call, only them. After many phone calls they simply sent me that on a really rude email. If I want to hear the call I will need to go to court... well, if I had time for this I would not have my kids in care, let a alone on their care which my daughter really dislike. There is no competition or alternative, so parents are stuck with that. I will have to find an alternative as no way I am sending my girl to them again.

I have experienced stress and frustration with this organisation and have already decided to close my account after only three weeks as i am not in a position to risk their errors and though i don't have much choice will be exploring other after school care options.
I am currently disputing that I requested before school care for my daughter at a local Primary School, she is coming from a feeder school which contributed to earlier problems of communication.
From the beginning my communication with Camp Australia was not very good; I was trying to register my daughter through the website, and I could not, because the website would not let me to select my primary school to register, the link kept redirecting me to another school. I then phoned camp Australia and was informed the primary school my daughter was attending, was not on their system and did not offer after school care. I also sent an email and received a response, their staff informed me they didn’t have my primary school on the system and they sent me a registration pack for another random school nowhere near me.
After calling back my primary school office, confirming indeed it was Camp Australia who were running the after school program associated with my school, I again called camp Australia and spoke to a different person who informed me I needed to register through a local primary. After registering, i called to book in days of attendance. I have to say the person i spoke to didn't have the best english and she was difficult to understand.

Despite having completed my registration process, the web portal was not allowing me to log in and make a booking. I called Camp Australia on the 22 May and verbally requested a booking twice a week, Wednesday and Thursday for after school care starting from Wednesday 25 May. The woman I spoke to, spoke with a heavy accent and was difficult to understand.
I was then able to check the web portal, and none of my bookings were showing up.

The second day my daughter was supposed to be booked there, the school rang me to inform me my daughter was still there and when was she being picked up. I was shocked as I had expected her to be in afterschool care. I was fortunate to have a friend at the school who could take her home, that is not a very common occurrence though. I rang Camp Australia in a highly stressed state and asked what happened and spoke to the same lady with the heavy accent and she changed the booking to include afterschool care Thursday. I did not request before school care during this phone call.
Apparently after my first phone call to camp Australia they reviewed the phone call, only the second phone call, and determined that i had requested before school, something I vehemently deny. They refused to give me a call transcript, rather a summary of the call which they purport to be against what i am stating.
I find it unbelievable that despite all my protestations that i never requested the care and of course i never dropped my child off before school, they are still insisting i did request it and are trying to charge me for it.
On principle I am following this up because it feels like i am being bullied and it sounds ridiculous that i will need to seek legal representation on such a small issue and amount of money.

I have experienced stress and frustration with this organisation and have already decided to close my account after only three weeks as i am not in a position to risk their errors and though i don't have much choice will be exploring other after school care options.
I am currently disputing that I requested before school care for my daughter at a local Primary School, she is coming from a feeder school which contributed to earlier problems of communication.
From the beginning my communication with Camp Australia was not very good; I was trying to register my daughter through the website, and I could not, because the website would not let me to select my primary school to register, the link kept redirecting me to another school. I then phoned camp Australia and was informed the primary school my daughter was attending, was not on their system and did not offer after school care. I also sent an email and received a response, their staff informed me they didn’t have my primary school on the system and they sent me a registration pack for another random school nowhere near me.
After calling back my primary school office, confirming indeed it was Camp Australia who were running the after school program associated with my school, I again called camp Australia and spoke to a different person who informed me I needed to register through a certain local primary. After registering, i called to book in days of attendance. I have to say the person i spoke to didn't have the best English and was difficult to understand.
I was then able to check the web portal, though none of my bookings were showing up, i have a screen shot of this and have showed the Camp Australia representative i am dealing with but again they are saying i still have to pay the before school fees.
The second day my daughter was supposed to be booked there, the school rang me to inform me my daughter was still there and when was she being picked up. I was shocked as I had expected her to be in afterschool care for that afternoon. I was fortunate to have a friend at the school who could take her home, that is not a very common occurrence though.
I then rang Camp Australia in a highly stressed state and asked what happened and spoke to the same lady with the heavy accent and she changed the booking to include afterschool care Thursday. I did not request before school care during this phone call.
Apparently after my first phone call to camp Australia they reviewed the phone call, only the second phone call, and determined that i had requested before school, something I vehemently deny. They refused to give me a call transcript, rather they gave me a summary of the call which they purport to be against what i am stating. I suggest recording any calls you make to them for your own validation.
I find it unbelievable that despite all my protestations that i never requested the care and of course i never dropped my child off before school, they are still insisting i did request it and are trying to charge me for it, and it is just three mornings we are in conflict over!
On principle I am following this up because it feels like i am being bullied and it sounds ridiculous that i will need to seek legal representation on such a small issue and amount of money.
I have to say the child care staff are wonderful and my daughter was very happy there.

i also currently work for camp aus and have done so for a few years. same as the poster above the company is becoming more and more of a nightmare to deal with. They shift around staff so much its hard to get good staff to stay at one service and for children to build relationships with them. They are constantly messing up staff to child ratios and now arent allowing extra funded staff for special needs children (again making it harder for staff to interact with other children). I would not recommend working for them, the only reason im there is because of the relationship i have developed with the school community.

Hi All
Just wanted to say that I currently work for Camp Australia as an casual assistant. And long story short, the Camp Australia management treat us like complete crap. It doesn't surprise me that I hear that parents also find this difficult. I have been working at a service for almost 2 years. Ever since the staffing management was outsourced to the Philippines, a lot of my shifts at this service (that I have worked for so long) are being cut. This is despite the coordinator and regional manager wanting me to come in. Instead I am being replaced by an immigrant on a working 417 visa who is able to work every day. I am only able to work half a week because I am at uni. However, I feel that it is more the monetary side of hiring a 417 visa worker that CA wanted to approach...

If it wasn't for the strong relationship that I have with the school, kids and the parents I would have left ages ago. Hopefully I can hold out to the end of my degree but the management is literally killing this job. I'm sorry to all parents also going through this horrible CA communication...

Dear CA Coordinator.
What a load of crap. The people running the program at my kids school (Chandler Park Primary) are the same people that used to privately run the after school care before Camp Australia took over.
The Fees more than doubled, the cancellation policy is disgusting and the overdue late fees are a scam. Not to mention the direct debit policy. Not to mention the childish act of banning me from your website services due to overdue bills.
Your people on the phones are very heartless and unhelpful.
I'm on the school Board and I will be pushing to have your company removed from the school. If I cant do this then I plan to move my kids to a school that does not use your terrible services.
I will also put my complaint to the ombudsman.

Just wanted to add that the staff is indeed fantastic at our school, but the head office is atrocious! Rude, uncooperative, lying and condescending.
Also for the last year we had 2 weeks cancellation policy. 2 weeks! Ridiculous!

I have the same problem I have raised a disput and no one has bothered to get back to me with my questions. They have charged me 160 in late fees that is for a $20 late fee I didn't pay because they issued it whilst fixing my account. Im trying to locate a ombudsman or governing agency that can assist is dealing with them. any ideas?

Even in 2015 I completely agree with all of the complaints listed here. It is quite obvious that camp Australia have not improved at all. I wish that I had found these reviews before I became involved with camp Australia. They are not only taking money from hard working parents but they are also rorting the government system. Not good enough!

The fees just keep getting higher and higher. Parents complain all of the time about fees increasing and bad customer service when ringing them. The regular staff have their hours cut back. the staff do not get paid any overtime for locking gates/ putting alarms on etc which is after their finish times.

The Coordinator and Care is excellent but the Billing management and Customer Service is the worst i've ever seen. I myself work for a Company that adores itself of the level of Customer Service it provides and I'm part of the team. Now, from the very few calls I made to discuss my billing and direct debit issues I feel like WTF?. The CS is very arrogant and unfriendly. What generation are these fellas in? A fresh admin fee for each year although the same child is continuing from previous years. Their obsolete systems do not import the CCB and CCR details automatically from Centrelink and they quietly took away all my money through direct debit until when I suddenly realized short of funds in my account. I had to again provide my CRN and other details and finally got it fixed leaving about $500 credit in my account but they refused to refund saying it would be applied to future bills. So had requested to cancel the direct debit which they took note and suddenly after few months the statement shows failed payment fee on direct debit $20. When I sent an email about this they replied I never opted to cancel direct debit and that I had to call customer care to request reversal of these fees. How can I rely on phone calls when they don't care what was discussed and requested. I'm just paying the actual service charges leaving the failed payment fee and now it has accumulated to $60. I'll keep paying the actual service charges on time and if this continues I know where to take it further.

Hi everyone, I work with the company as a coordinator at one of the schools in the West. I want to apologize to all the parents out there who are having troubles with CA and CA HQ. What saddens me the most is that some parents have to deal with bad Coordinators, Assistants, and even Regional Managers which gives a bad name to all the ones who actually try so hard to do their job even with the many tight policies that head office gives us. I know many coordinators that actually work overtime (and head office doesn't pay them these over times) to get the service looking good, try so hard to communicate with the school. I even know the coordinator from Mckinnon Primary (not Tucker road primary) and I know she would literally go to the corner of the earth to provide the best possible care for the kids. At my service the school and our service decided to have a homework club and it is working so well, not only have I learnt so much from the kids but I've taught kids just as much. And as for qualifications, believe it or not many of the good coordinators have degrees in teaching. I know a coordinator who works around footscray area in a catholic school who has a master of teaching degree and have probably a great school and parent relationship with. She even teaches the kids new art skills, homework time, teaching them new math equations. The parents there also know that they cannot associate head office with the service and the carer. And just like anywhere, there is always going to be good and hard working employees and really crap ones. But of course, it is always the really crap ones that make others generalize and stereotype the good ones. I just hope parents can understand that. Also you have to know, some coordinators have to manage 20-70 kids a day, with a majority of children who have behavioral problems. And many carers try so hard to accommodate each child as much as they could. Also the paper work that coordinators are to complete is just above their pay grade, and many excellent coordinators do them without even complaining for a pay rise. I just want parents to see that the good coordinators out there are the ones who really are stuck in the middle of all this. Being shackled by head office and being condemned by parents constantly, and the stress of making sure each child is safe, they sometimes do do it tough being paid just on the minimum wage. Also another thing is, employees who work with CA especially carers, if they leave camp aus they cannot be employed by any other child care service for 4-6 years after they terminate their employment with CA, meaning, they will have no jobs with the qualifications they have hence they can't just change and go with OSH-Club (even though have flexibility with parents and better food, but the carers are actually paid just under the minimum wage but are treated better).

Like everything, always two side of the story. If they didn't have such a high staff turn over rate it will also save them so much money meaning they can also lower their prices and spend on better training for all staff and better staff well-being. I don't want to leave my school because of the tight relationship I have with the school community.

I have had ongoing overcharges by camp australia twice, the first one was over $800 and it was due to them not applying my rebate after I called them every week for 6 months I eventually called centrelink complaints hotline who then took over. The fees were removed, I now find myself in the same dilema. I have used the service twice and have been charged $188. This is amazing! How do we kick them out of our school? I have decided this year to only use them when I absolutely need too after last years appalling efforts.

In what other industry would the supplier get away with demanding 7 days notice, and charge FULL payment if you don't comply? Quite simply, greedy, inflexible and purely motivated by profit with little regard to working parents needs. Why bother cancelling, if you're charged the full amount anyway?

! this company should NOT be trusted with rodents let alone children. their staff are rude and unprofessional, I could probably say that is due to the managers being total a-holes it runs down the food chain. I have had several issues (their errors) with them and every time I call their "experienced" call centre staff for help or to check or follow up to see if my problem has been rectified, I get apologies, bounced around and nothing is ever done.

The last time I asked to finally speak to a supervisor I was given some lame excuse as to why I could not speak to one! when I demanded to finally speak to one I was put through to some rude abrupt lady by the name of Britney who sounded like she had the education of a first grader. her phone manner was ATROCIOUS if she is what they classify as a supervisor they need to seriously consider their options. I have never in my life experienced such terrible customer service. They need to fire all their managers and retrain their staff.! this company should NOT be trusted with rodents let alone children. their staff are rude and unprofessional, I could probably say that is due to the managers being total a-holes it runs down the food chain. I have had several issues (their errors) with them and every time I call their "experienced" call centre staff for help or to check or follow up to see if my problem has been rectified, I get apologies, bounced around and nothing is ever done.

The last time I asked to finally speak to a supervisor I was given some lame excuse as to why I could not speak to one! when I demanded to finally speak to one I was put through to some rude abrupt lady by the name of Britney who sounded like she had the education of a first grader. her phone manner was ATROCIOUS if she is what they classify as a supervisor they need to seriously consider their options. I have never in my life experienced such terrible customer service. They need to fire all their managers and retrain their staff.

i cant STAND camp australia its TERRIBLE

I am currently in dispute with CA and am planning on taking it further. Their computer system fell over at the end of Feb and from that date my CCB and CCR stopped flowing through. It's now October and the matter is still outstanding. The whole situation is a joke, they won't admit fault to anything and told me these benefits would flow through from the FAO to me directly later. I took it up with the FAO and they told me they haven't received attendance records for either of my girls in ASC since the end of Feb. If I hadn't pursued this myself and demanded that CA send through the attendance records I would never see my CCB/CCR entitlements flow through for this year. They were very happy to keep charging my card and are now threatening to exclude my daughters from ASC unless I pay the bill. To date the entitlements are still not right. I am concerned for all the other 100's if not 1000's of families who are unaware they are not getting their CCB/CCR entitlements after CA's system fell over. A disappointing situation which has been handled very unprofessionally and I have been the one making call after call to try to sort it out. There is an iron gate in front of anyone in head office. I am completely done and if I didn't need the service due to work I would cease the ASC as a result. They deserve a good kick up the bum.

These late fees are not legal.
These are actually penalties not fees based on the costs CA incur.
To charge $20 late fee after 4 days on a $27 charge is unconscionable.
These are working families trying to make ends meet, and these parasites try to extort these illegal costs.

We used Camp Australia last term. It was the first time and we are really disappointed.
1. They charge higher fees.
2. Bad customer services
3. Website looks good, but doesn’t work (tried to update information, the link doesn’t work, very disappointed)
4. Statement period doesn’t show exact date, very confused
5. 7 days notice for cancellation
6. Charge for late cancellation
General impression is that Camp Australia is more commercialised. I believe most parents send their children to before and after care that is because they have to work or have a commitment. Frankly we don’t expect our children learn anything particularly during the time in care. We just need someone help us looking after our children. Camp Australia said they charged higher fee because of providing better program. Honestly I can’t see any difference from our previous OSHC. However, we have no choice at the moment and definitely we will discuss this issue with school principle when the new term starts.

This company is appalling! Bad customer service, incorrect billing, an online system that does not work! Months of phone calls, complaints and emails! And still no printed bill? I have asked for my whole account be sent to me from that start of usage! That was months ago! Rude staff that tell me its my problem their system doesnt work on my iphone! I asked to speak to technical support and was refused!
Sienna

Camp Australia is an absolute joke, management could care less about parents, billing is always incorrect, parents are told it is only them affected when it a computer system issue across the board, they never apologise for any of the mistakes, their new system doesn't work, they treat their staff so badly that the morale is the lowest and staff turnover is massive, they now have an outsourced call centre that has had minimal training, the current staff weren't even trained on the new system before it was implemented or even after, they have no privacy or clean desk policy in place or if so it is not adhered to and sensitive information is in full view of all employees including cleaners, there OH&S is appalling and they had pink mould growing in the ceiling at head office which took a staff member to complain to worksafe before they did anything about it, the air conditioning doesn't work properly and even though there were 2 pregnant women working in the office during the 2 heatwaves, no fan or cooling was supplied until a staff member had to ask for something to be done, the customer service manager is a bully and special treatment is given to staff that he has personal interactions with, some services are sub standard and don't meet requirement of the NQF, their stairwell was cleaned for the first time in 5 years last week and only because there was an air conditioner stored at the bottom of the stairs and the contractor advised the dust would clog the air conditioning unit, they haven't had a fire drill in at least 3years, their OSHC staff turnover is huge and they have trouble filling shifts which means sometimes services can be left understaffed for periods of time, some service mobile phones are often switched off or don't answer... These a just a few of the many problems and issues that Camp Australia have.
I suggest that anyone having problems with this company and the care your child is getting that you contact the department of childrens services, the privacy commissioner or any other relevant body. You have rights and they have legislative requirements they must meet.
I no longer work for this company and havent for a while now but i am still in touch with employees there and nothing has changed and seems it never will even though internal and external complaints are often made. I would never send my children to this carer and would never recommend anyone else to and would go so far as to say I would change schools to avoid this childcare provider.
Even if the service provides adequate care at the school the headaches with headoffice and billing is not worth the effort and heartache.
My other advice is NEVER work for this company.
I hear OSHClub are a great service, so maybe suggest them to your school principle and PTA

I would like consumer affairs to investigate camp australia. How can they continuously increase their fees and not provide better services? After school snack is fruit, wow that should really make my child feel full till dinner time. No food offered at school holiday programme, cannot cancel bookings with 24 hours notice and charged extra when child misses a booking. What kind of service do they offer parents when they are the ones that cannot get invoicing right, then charge $20 late fees, because they sent 2 forthnightly invoiced due within 5 days if each other because of a computer problem? No my problem. It takes then 2 weeks to advise centrelink of attendance, yet they charge me a late fee when I'm late because they stuffed up their invoicing. How do I put a formal compliant through to consumer affairs and get these guys out of my kids school? Enough is enough.

Why doesn't someone take this to the Federal Government as an election issue - our tax payers funds are used to line these guys and others pockets and not for what is intended and support working parents. Because of these policies Julia Gillard wants to means test CCR - this wouldn't be necessary if families were not using their 42 days of allowable absences on these companies. P&Cs seem to be able to make it work at 24 and 48 hours notice without all the extra fees why can't outsourced providers do the same. Rather than the govt keep throwing money at this why don't they work smarter - the problem is the funding comes from Federal and States make the decisions on the school site - parents pay the price as do all taxpayers.

Stupid website. The words are supervisors

My son is in after school care and the 'care' is ridiculous. Kids go in pairs to the toilets with no adult supervision. My son was asked by a mentally challenged child to go with him to the toilet. The "supervisors" allowed this, regardless of the fact that they afterwards admitted this child requires 24 hr supervision. My son was approached in a sexual manner by this child and the issue was merely laughed off by the supervisor. We were not told that this had happened even though my son had informed them straight away. We were told that the mentally challenged child merely tried to get my son to wander off with him, we were told that if my son said anything else happened it wasn't true. In actual fact, my son was asked to go into the toilet with this child who then tried to kiss him. My question is WHY is a mentally challenged child who requires 24 hr supervision, being allowed to wander away to the toilets without an adult? And why is MY child expected to supervise an older, mentally handicapped child? And WHY we're we LIED to about the incident?

I too have problems with Camp Australia at Valley View Primary in Wyoming, NSW.
I noticed that there was a $65 jump between the closing balance of one statement and the opening balance of the next. When I queried this (three months later), I was told that the accounts dept. do not have access to statements "that old"! So they provided a new statement for the past six months. And guess what, about half the weeks had different closing balances to the original statements (in their favor, naturally!) On top of that, they have been charging me Late payment fees, and even excluded my son from care. When I complained, they re-instated him, but as a casual. CA never advised me that my son have been un-excluded, that was left to the coordinator (even though it was CA head office that had excluded him). And the coordinator never advised me that I would have to re-book him as a permanent. Unfortunately I have no other choice as the only other OOSH care is a bus ride away, and we live too close tot he school to get him a bus pass. I am lodging a formal complaint against CA with the ombudsman.

The school my child is at has awarded the OSH contract to Camp Australia for the next three year period. This will come in to effect from 2 April 2012 will the commencement of the Holiday Program. The tender process and award of the contract was done with virtually no consultation with parents, including those who have the most vested interest: parents who use the current OSH provider (a one line offer for parents to submit feedback about the current provider appeared in one newsletter!). Apart from Camp Australia's arbitrary $20 annual 'administrative fee' applicable upon initial registration and every 12 months thereafter, based on their current fee schedule I am now up for an additional $600 per annum ($3/day more expensive than current OSH provider for combined before and after care). This despite the school allegedly 'negotiating' for fees to match the current providers and for there to be no fee increase for the first 15 months! I imagine I will need to see what my first invoice looks like to see whether Camp Australia will honour that agreement, however, from the complaints about their billing section I imagine I'd have an uphill battle to get them to apply the correct 'negotiated' fee. The stories of the lack of provision of sufficient food for the children leaves me feeling horrified. Sounds like something out of Dickens! I've attended the recent information session at which one of the owners, Andrew, was present. He advised that the Manager of the Customer Service section, Chris, had discretion to waive fees where less than 7 days notice was provided for cancellation and that this would take into consideration the specific circumstances of the cancellation - suggesting therefore that not all cancellations of less than 7 days necessarily needed to be based on medical grounds. He also advised that Camp Australia employees, being reasonable people, would give the benefit of the doubt to parents where doctor's certificates had not been obtained and the fee would be waived - perhaps I should have requested that in writing! In anticipation of the need to lodge a formal complaint who/what is the correct complaints body for OSH providers? I asked a couple of questions during the information session and his responses were defensive using the tactic of highlighting how they were compliant rather than addressing the question per se. The compliance status of Camp Australia was completely irrelevant to the questions I was asking and I couldn't help but wonder why he felt it necessary to raise it as a justification for lengthy cancellation notification periods and arbitrary fee impositions considering the current provider's far more parent friendly policy in those respects and my certainty that the current provider is also compliant. Now that I've read some of the experiences above I can't help but feel really apprehensive for the well-being of my child and the potential for on-going fee disputes.

and it's funny how they can be their to threaten me... yet not process my payment... get a grip wanker.
You're only on here to pick faults on people.

I paid before the holiday... idiot!