Does anyone have personal experience with care.com?

[ebbe]

I wonder how much these agencies really know about the people they send out to jobs. I knew someone who had a caregiver sneak off and leave in the middle of the night who came from an agency.

[Debcan]

Originally Posted by HighFlyingBird

Ive used care.com for sitters and housekeepers and tutors for years and have never had a addict or homeless person. This is the most out there post I have ever read in my life. You have to interview and check references like all places.

Google NBC news. Care.com babysitters passing background cheks with arrest records.
Google Care.com scams fake checks and fake background checks.
Google Care.com lawsuits and dead babies.
Google terminated accounts from both parents and sitters due to reports of fraud, theft and abuse..both parties are shut down with no refund with no explanation.

[kpatters]

I'm going through an issue with them right now. I completed a job and the customer paid Care.com so I got an email saying that the customer has sent me money and to click on the link to claim the money. They claim on their website that it usually takes less than 1-3 days to get the money but after 4 days I still wasn't seeing it so I contacted their customer service to ask why there was a delay. They told me there was an issue with the customer's payment and that I should contact her outside of their services to receive payment. Umm, why should I have to do that?! So I contacted the customer and have not heard back from them so I'm guessing I just did the work for free at this point. I asked about care provider protection and they responded back a second time with the same answer; that I need to contact the customer. They provide NO protection. I'm nervous about booking a job through them again because I may be out more time and gas money. Ridiculous....
Plus last week, I was contacted by an obvious scammer- someone looking for a nanny for 3-4 days a week, paying $500 weekly and asked what days and times I had available. Good thing they are obviously very poor at scamming and I didn't fall for it and meet this person. People who advertise on there are not vetted, so it's very scary at times.

[CGab]

Originally Posted by kpatters

I'm going through an issue with them right now. I completed a job and the customer paid Care.com so I got an email saying that the customer has sent me money and to click on the link to claim the money. They claim on their website that it usually takes less than 1-3 days to get the money but after 4 days I still wasn't seeing it so I contacted their customer service to ask why there was a delay. They told me there was an issue with the customer's payment and that I should contact her outside of their services to receive payment. Umm, why should I have to do that?! So I contacted the customer and have not heard back from them so I'm guessing I just did the work for free at this point. I asked about care provider protection and they responded back a second time with the same answer; that I need to contact the customer. They provide NO protection. I'm nervous about booking a job through them again because I may be out more time and gas money. Ridiculous....
Plus last week, I was contacted by an obvious scammer- someone looking for a nanny for 3-4 days a week, paying $500 weekly and asked what days and times I had available. Good thing they are obviously very poor at scamming and I didn't fall for it and meet this person. People who advertise on there are not vetted, so it's very scary at times.

Hmm, I have hired nannies off Care.com and have never had a problem. However, I always paid my sitters (nannies) in cash and never went through them for that. Ultimately Care.com is just a service to connect sitters with families. When it comes to payment they are not responsible and you need to bring that up with the family you sat for. If they are not responding to you I would take them to small claims court if it's worth it. Not sure how much they owe you. In the future I would tell people that you want to be paid in cash at time of service. Good luck!

[kpatters]

The family I worked for had paid for the services through their site so care.com had the money and WAS responsible for paying me. They can't receive money from a family and then refuse to pay the caregiver. After speaking with them 5 more times (two through email and 3 times over the phone), I got my money. They finally admitted after 13 days that there was an issue and pushed my payment through so I would receive it the next day. It is ridiculous that it took me 13 days and that much effort and time contacting them to receive money they were witholding from me. The family was not happy either thinking they were going to have to do a card dispute to get their money back and then pay me outside of their services (although it would have been beneficial since they would have saved money on the transaction fees care.com charges them). Lesson learned- only accept cash from now on or the family and me both will have to do a lot of work for me to see the money.