Care.com
reviews and complaints

I recently found out care.com had signed me up for auto renewals without my expressed consent. I never received any kind of reminder or receipt of any kind of auto renewal and have now paid for a service I never used. I am now trying to seek reimbursement for this amount but it is still unresolved. I believe this is highly unethical and likely happening to many other parents and expecting parents. Please beware of care.com and these shady business practices.

I have been trying to set up an account for over a month now. Tried different emails, different birth dates and nothing had worked. I keep getting a "unable to make an account for you at this time" message and it's rather frustrating. I am not sure as to why after 2 emails no one has gotten back to me. Dissatisfied and this turns down a lot of people.

this company is terrible. we were auto billed once for their services. I called to clarify and thought I understood the process. I was wrong. we signed up again, needing to find care for our children. I thought we paid for only 3 months and were done. NO. we were auto billed again, and never received the email reminders that this was happening - I happened to find it on our credit card statement. THIS IS DISGRACEFUL. hard working families trying to find care for their children and all I got was taken for over $300. it is so sad that they take money like this. they would do much better to just let people pay for what they need. it would make for happier customers who will stay around. I WILL NEVER USE THEIR WEBSITE AGAIN.

My daughter has been with care co. For 3 years. She received a babaysitting job through care.com and worked for this family for 2 years. The children became teenagers and no the family no longer needed her help. She received a 2nd job. Unfortunately the women that she worked for was not very nice. She would forget to pay my daughter. She would not return home at the agreed time and would cancel my daughter 3 hours before her shift was going to start. When my daughter took the job she had an agreement with the women that she could not babysit 1 week in December because she was going out of state to visit someone. Well when my daughter reminded this women in the beginning of December about the trip, the women got mad and told my daughter that she had to come home on Tuesday that my daughter had to cut her visit early. My daughter did just that and on the Tuesday that my daughter was to return home the women cancelled her 3 hours before her flight and told her she did not need her the rest of the week except on Thursday. My daughter cancelled her flight and attempted to get another flight on Thursday and she could not. She called the women and the women said to her "good luck finding another babysitting job" This women has not paid my daughter for 2 weeks. My daughter gets an email from care.com stated that my daughter no longer could use their services. When she inquired about what happened they said they received a complaint and they don't investigate. How unfair. My daughter did not do anything wrong. She has excellent reference from 1st family. This women was abusive and took advantage of my daughter's good nature.

Prospective clients cannot view my application. Why pay the membership fee? I did not know your website required an additional monthly fee. Very misleading on your part and very disappointing from my viewpoint. I often mentioned to many of my friends and family members that this website offered the best job opportunities in the first year of my membership. I am no longer spreading such a positive message to others but rather a message of distaste for your company! I am very disappointed in your deceitful practices.
Sylvia Foster

Care.com automatically bills their customers even when they sign up for a finite subscription package and will not refund the overbilling even if they can see you didn't use their service. See their Better Business Bureau profile with hundreds of consumers repeating this same complaint over many months. Even after confirming that we had not so much as logged in for 5 months, they refused to refund the $63/month they charged us for 5 months!

They could obviously address this concern any number of ways (sending monthly emails receipts so you're aware that your card is being charged, not hiding behind fine print in their user agreement, etc.) but instead just keep pointing to the fine print in their proposals and hiding behind the finality of the "billing department". They don't deserve your business.

Don't even bother with this company. First of all, you have to pay to actually apply for jobs, I started off by paying £9 for 9 credits which is extortionate. Then I see its 3 credits to apply for ONE JOB! Furthermore, if you'd like to add a note its MORE credits! You can either apply or reject a job, but aren't able to actually look through them, once you've clicked the 'X' for a job, you can't go back, so you are forced to spend your credits wisely. Then I get an email a couple of months later, saying any remaining credits I have will expire soon! What a joke! Not only did I use my credits, I wasn't able to actually get a job from this service. One guy actually accidentally kept his ad up, so I spent 3 credits applying and got a message from him saying he was sorry but the job was taken, completely wasted! Never using this service again.

I attempted to subscribe to care.com from my iPhone and was charged the > $200 amount. However, the app did not recognize that I paid for the subscription. Therefore, it was recommended that I purchase the subscription through the website. Once I did, I realized I was again charged the full amount (double charged). After several email requests from me to care.com, the company refused to help rectify the situation or refund my money so I would not be double charged. I definitely would not recommend this site or service to anyone. If a zero rating existed, they would receive a zero, unfortunately the lowest rating I could give them is a 1.

I signed up for 3-months of care.com service. There automatic billing agreement was in fine print, which is shady, but not my real complaint. My complaint is that in bold print, the company states that it will send an email reminder 3 DAYS before renewal is to occur. I never received an email or any contact from them about a renewal. I use automatic renewals for many different products/services and always receive proper notification (i.e. Honest company and many others). I believe I am owed a refund, as I was never properly notified (per your own stated practices). It appears as though you are trying to go under the radar to "deceive" people into paying for the next billing cycles. The funny thing is that I may have renewed the service, but not with a company that is not transparent about its intent to bill me.

The membership subscription was hidden in fine print and hardly visible.. I paid in full and in advance for a 3 month only subscription so why would Care.com assume it would be okay to continually bill me and default my billing to monthly auto renew like a magazine or gym membership? . This is not upfront, clear and transparent billing its underhanded, deceptive and illegal billing.
The background checks are a disgraceful display of negligence with most caregivers I interviewed had a charge of theft drugs or dpi when I ran their name yet Care.com cleared each one with their systems background check.
The customer service was disrespectful, uninformative ringing off boilerplate lipservice in a show tune manner.
This is the worst business model in modern history and a viloation of Americans rights, safety and ethics. Care.com should be shut down by the federal trade commission but like most educated criminals they pay them off as well as the BBB with membership fees and kickbacks to look the other way..Children have died and no one CARES

I have been on Care.com for years. I have worked and babysat from jobs I have found on the site.
About 8 weeks ago, they ran a background check on me including my DMV records and my criminal records.
I Never gave permission for this. I called and they said they pick random people and do this. This is a lie, I said ok for the Criminal which I have ran before.
It came up with a DUI from over 5 yrs ago, and I have had a clean license since.
Care.com now banned me from the site, and I have written and e mailed them about 12 times and NO ONE responds.
If they ran these check on the parents they would have DUI's and DWI's and I am sure many other things on the record. The other job hunters I am sure have things on their record also!
They singled me out and made me lose a job, many jobs.
I had a woman who I was supposed to work for full time and now I am not on the site, and if they ever put me back on it makes me look like a loser who closed her account! I can not get work because of them.
Anyone I spoke to on the phone says oh, you can dispute the report. I say the same thing over and over, I have nothing to dispute and did nothing wrong!

We signed up for care.com 4 years ago when we were looking for a sitter for our then 8 month old. We used the site for 6 months (never had any luck finding someone through the site) and then cancelled our membership. The company claims we never cancelled our membership - although we stopped receiving emails from them - and we just found out they have been billing us monthly for the last 3 1/2 years - even though there hasn't been ANY activity on the account during the last 3 1/2 years. When we contacted them to get a refund for the THOUSANDS of dollars they collected over the last three years they told us they have a strict policy agains issuing refunds but agreed to give us back three months (unbelievable). When I tried to contact them to complain again they simply ignored my calls and emails - very professional. With all of the fees they have clearly rack up over the years you would think it would be in their interest to refund unsatisfied or deceptively billed clients.

I joined care.com to find employment as a pet sitter, and things looked promising. After a week I got a text from a woman who was trying to scam me (offering $500 upfront, asking for me to email them my info), I immediately informed Care.com and proceeded to make my phone number private. Less than 24 hours later, I received yet another text with an additional scam. I contacted care.com via the phone number on their website for safety concerns. I even pressed the option for safety, I was on hold for a short amount of time before I was connected with a representative. I asked what potential seekers could see when they looked at my profile, the representative told she did not know and would have someone call me back later. I called the safety concern phone number, and the representative cannot tell me what others can see on my profile, such as my address and how my phone number (after I made it private) was still there. I was extremely unhappy and cancelled my account immediately. I inquired about leaving a review online and was told it was not possible, once I cancelled my account.

DO NOT USE CARE.COM- It is not safe, and they clearly do not care about their caregivers.

Care.com has the worst customer service that I’ve ever encountered. I’ve been paying for a “premium level” $42 monthly membership, seeking to occasionally hire, as needed for three years now, and I can’t help but get the impression that their corporate leadership is on auto-pilot. They’re the most incompetent, most clueless, most evasive company that I’ve ever dealt with. Over the last two or three years, I’ve had to call repeatedly because of account posting errors, or incomplete background check billing issues. After the same experiences, I can’t help but feeling as though I’m being deliberately ignored.
I’ve called Care.com’s Customer Service number [protected] ) on several occasions, only to be transferred around to different phone queues, different countries (no wonder the U.S. has terrible employment opportunities), and finally, after long hold times, listening to loud, interminable, pre-recorded company voice-overs, and trying numerous phone menu options, reaching non-English comprehending customer service representatives (located in the Philippines). These farmed-out customer service reps have a very limited command of the English language, speaking in long, drawn-out, run-on sentences, and are always repeatedly asking you to paraphrase or repeat yourself, either because they don't actually listen to you, or they can’t understand you. They’re very nice, but are completely bad at what they do, and are unhelpful, as they have little comprehension of what you’re saying, little authority to resolve issues, and usually only have the ability to either refuse your request for help, or they’ll end up relaying your concerns to American reps to contact you- but only after a lengthy interview process, inquiring for another five to ten minutes, about the exact reason for your call. What’s the point of hiring out-of-country reps in the first place, if you’re only going to be directed back to the customer service reps in the U.S.? Then, after all of that interviewing, they end up trying to paraphrase everything that you’ve taken the time to explain incorrectly back to you. I love the Philippines. It’s a beautiful, wonderful country with warm-hearted people. I’d love to go there someday. This isn’t a racial issue, it’s a language and customer service barrier. Dell Computers did this exact same thing, by farming their technical support (and customer service) calls out of the U.S. for years. Customers got so frustrated with not having their issues properly resolved, having to deal with repeated multiple, lengthy phone menu options, and then- once (finally) getting ahold of a customer service representative to take your call, customers end up having to remain on the phone clarifying, paraphrasing, and getting left on hold, while support reps looked through a corporate manual, ultimately reading canned responses to you. Dell ended up losing millions of customers by doing this, and Care.com is headed for the same fate. Care.com has a corporate phone number: [protected]) however, even if you call and dial a company extension, you still get somone’s anonymous, generic voicemail, or your call is automatically re-routed, hearing more automated phone menus that end up directing you right back to the Philippines! What’s more disconcerting is that Care.com has thousands of complaints online from former customers claiming these issues and more.
The Care.com website is really flawed, with poor spam filters, inconsistent member alert notifications, constant annoying pop-up menus with irrelevant member offers, and really poor navigation (to see your messages, and quickly add or edit job postings). As a premium paying job-posting member, you’re extremely limited to the amount of space allotted to post an actual job description (about five to seven sentences). Craigslist is a free site and allows posters infinitely more text space. You definitely don’t get much for the ridiculous $42/month that you pay for. Care.com is also in the habit of auto-monitoring your job posts, so heaven forbid that you happen to be moving, and need to temporarily post in two separate zip codes, you’re out of luck. They won’t approve your job post, and you have to call them to explain why you need to post in two separate zip codes. When you do find a job candidate who suddenly changes their mind on their availability for work hours- after you’ve already gone and paid $89.00 for a background check, you have no recourse to get a refund. Stephanie, their useless U.S. corporate Customer Service supervisor, can only insincerely apologize, then flatly refuse to help you, or get your money refunded. She then likes to remind you that she’s the messiah of Care.com’s customer service, and that you can go no further for help than her. She desperately wants you to know that she’s in control (probably because she has no control in her own life)! Background checks that are completed never get sent to you, and you receive no site alert or email notifications whatsoever. You also can’t retrieve them when you go onto the website. Also, if a caregiver for whatever reason decides to move on to another job offer after accepting the position, and pre-approving a background check, your $89 hangs indefinitely in limbo, and you either have to try via messaging on the site to get the caregiver to decline the previous background check approval, or you have to call your bank and have them delete the pending debit charge. Care.com could obviously CARE LESS about their members. I hope a competitor runs them out of business. You're better off going on Craigslist to post job offers and hire out background checks through a trusted, independent company.

It has been very frustrating - while I found some sitters, many that look great and I would like to meet never respond- not even after I use the care.com option of setting up an appointment with them and not even after I contact them repeatedly. When I told care.com they repeatedly gave me their blanket statement that they know how it can be frustrating and I should post a job and try that route, but basically they will do nothing more than be sympathetic. So this has been a huge waste of time. This website should not keep caregivers never respond (for whatever reason). If feels like a scam

What a shame such a fraudulent organization exists that claims to provide much needed childcare provider searches.

Signed up for "1 month subscription" but they continue to charge the credit card. Sent over 10 messages with NO reply from any nanny whatsoever. The nanny profiles must be staged. FAQ on website states you can downgrade or close account but only downgrade is possible; there were no links ANYWHERE to close account. No answer for days and days at their 1-855 number. Left voicemails and no response. Parent company should be shut down permanently and monies returned to all affected customers:

Parent company is CareZen Family Solutions, Inc.
603 - 1112 West Pender Street,
Vancouver, B.C.
Canada V6E 2S1

Immoral, unethical, misleading and fraudulent.

I signed up for care.com to put in applications on the site on August 16, 2016.
There is no place on the site to apply for the jobs or contact the people, after an hour of searching. I tried to get in touch with customer service to cancel my acct, immediately, so I wouldn't be charged for the year, as I didn't plan on ever using the website again to apply for a job. The website is impossible to navigate when searching for jobs and to contact them or call the customer service line is a total joke. I even called the number in MA. That the other guy that complained about them provided, to no avail. I finally called my cc company and told them I wanted to dispute the charge because I was unable to navigate, put in applications or even contact the people advertising for help. This may be the worst website I have ever been on and will never go on it again. I don't advise anyone looking for a job to go to this website.

There is no way we would ever do business with Care.com ever again - they willingly put elderly and children in harms way! They approved a convicted felon who abused our elderly parents & families trust. This person's background check came back clean from Care.coms site - however later we find she has a rap sheet a mile long! She neglected our poor elderly parents, put them in harms way, stole property from us, lied and tried to extort money from the very people we hired her to care for. When we confronted her she went into a full on tirade - screaming & using offensive language in front of my elderly parents & children, charged at my wife, threw her drink and damaged things in our home when asked to leave. The police had to be called because she would not leave peacefully. When we contacted Care.com to make them aware of our traumatic experience - they closed our account. We feel they are trying to sweep our experience under the rug as to keep the information under radar! That is unacceptable and we will make sure no other poor family goes thru the anguish we have by trusting Care.com. We want to bring light to how dangerous it is to trust Care.com for safe care of loved ones whom can fall victim like we have. This is a very serious matter they are trying to brush off. We will not make light of this and will make sure our experience is heard by all! It's too important to keep the elderly & children safe from places & people that abuse them!

I joined care.com to find a part-time position as a nanny about 2 weeks ago. Since then I have been scammed 3 times by "mother's" who are moving to NYC and tried to give me an down-payment checks without ever talking to me in person. I received a fraudulent check in the mail for $3, 000 and after I called the scammer out about being dishonest, Care.com deleted my account. There is no record of my profile ever existing and I tried to call customer service and their automated system gives you no options to talk to a HUMAN representative. Because there is no option for that, the system will just hang up on you and tell you to visit FAQ's online. I am FURIOUS about how this company has treated me and I will be moving further to report this money laundering.

Hi,

I see that there are a lot of people on here that have a similar complaint to what I have. What I would like to find out is if Care.com continued to send emails to any of you after closing your account. I am getting at least one email every week from care.com. They have closed my account and now sends me emails. I can not unsubscribe because their subscription is tied to the account. I would like to file a class action lawsuit against care.com for multiple reasons. Please contact me if you have gotten emails from Care.com after your account was closed and now you can not change the subscription setting on that closed account. LinkeIn Corp had a similar business practice and lost an unlucky $13 million dollars to a class action lawsuite. Care.com is headed that way too. Our collective response to bad business practices is a necessary thing to do. Care.com should not be operating like this.

Also, Care.com informs all members that you have contacted about why they closed your account. Generally, this communication goes out as a character defamation technique and putting care.com in a more righteous light. This a bad practice of care.com for wrongly closing members accounts and then sending emails to all the other members that you have contacted. Telling the whole world why Care.com closed your account but not letting you know. How is that protecting your privacy? Their privacy policy is unjust and unfair.

This character shamming without good investigation, spamming and harassment without cause and discrimination without reason is unlawful. Most of all, Care.com is committing a crime to wrongly defame a good parents reputation in the community. I would like to ask for damages from Care.com for character defamation and harassment after closing my account without providing the cause and more so, I want to put the bricks back in the right places in and remove bad business practices like what Care.com is following.

Please contact me if your account has been closed. I am not a lawyer. I am just another parent who is pissed off that care.com treated me like dirt. I want justice.

Who wants to join me in serving justice to Care.com?

RF