Care.com: Hire Caregivers 4+

Good network for parents, some problems as a sitter

I have been using Care for a few years, first as a sitter and now as a new parent. The parent side is actually really great, and helped connect me to an almost overwhelming number of great, qualified candidates. I also love that people have to be background checked. But on the caregiver side, the app is less user friendly. It’s harder to get your profile removed or hidden when you stop wanting to take new clients. Also, I have seen sitter profiles where parents who did not hire the sitter were able to leave negative reviews, which affect the sitter’s star rating unfairly. I also don’t think the app should allow people who are offering significantly under the sitter’s stated rate to request a sitter to apply for their job, and I don’t think sitters who are charging significantly more than a job posting offers should be able to apply for the job. Overall, the app does a great job connecting parents and caregivers, but could use work on facilitating some better matches, offering an easier interface for caregivers, and helping to foster respectful professionalism between providers and parents.

Developer Response ,

Thanks for the great review! We'd be happy to help you with the issue you are having. Please reach out to us through our Help Center contact us link at help.care.com or through Facebook Messenger. Please include Reference Number REV-015580 when you message.

Terrible App

This app is definitely not worth what they charge. It’s not super user friendly and will force quit often. Even when you pay for a subscription that doesn’t actually pay for the background checks, that’s extra. It also costs extra to manage payments and any tax information you need for a caregiver. What does the subscription get you, just the chance to see the profiles and message potential caregivers in your area. The messaging system is garbage, you would think it would be just like texting except you can’t place the cursor anywhere to edit, you have to delete everything you wrote to get to where you want to edit. You also can’t see everything you type. You can see maybe one sentence until it disappears and you just hope you typed everything correctly. If there aren’t very many caregivers in your area your subscription is extremely useless. The notification system also takes forever. If I received a message from a potential caregiver I probably won’t be notified for an entire day, unless I’m physically opening the app and checking the messages. My final complaint is that I am not able to clear the filters I first put into the app to find caregivers. There is a button that you should be able to click that says “clear all” to reset your search filter, however, it doesn’t actually work, much like everything else on the app. Super don’t recommend this app.

BEWARE OF SUBSCRIPTION

I subscribed to the “premium” membership to assist in finding care for our children. Once we found someone, I performed all of the steps to cancel (pressed cancel, deleted from my subscriptions in apple, and even removed my credit card information from the app). Well, I didn’t bother to go on my app because there was no need for it and I thought I cancelled. I came to find out that they were continuing to charge my credit card and I had no idea. No payment receipts through e-mail, no nothing. I was asked if I received “confirmation” on the cancel…how am I supposed to know that I should receive a cancel e-mail if you don’t even send receipts or anything via e-mail? And again, I removed my credit card information to be sure that the payment wouldn’t go through just in case, but I guess they just have it on file and continue to charge regardless of what is in your profile. Their terms and conditions state that they cannot refund subscriptions. I had to DIG to find a phone number to call (it is listed on your credit card statement and that is the ONLY way to get it…the person on the online chat couldn’t even give it to me, which is ridiculous). Anyways, this is crazy and this is how subscription services steal your money. I currently have to wait 2-3 business days to see if a “supervisor” can help with this issue. I will never be using this app again!

Developer Response ,

We appreciate your feedback. I'm sorry to hear you feel our subscription service is dishonest. Our service is by subscription so members have the convenience of using their premium benefits whenever they need them. I will be sure to share your feedback with our management team. For further assistance, please reach out via our Help Center contact us link at help.care.com or Facebook Messenger. Include Reference Number REV--015634 when you message.