Care.com review: terminated for no reason 43

This member joined the Care.com community as a free basic member and was removed from the site that same day for a Terms of Use violation. Care.com takes the safety and security of our site and our member community very seriously and, based on the Terms of Use that each member agrees to, reserves the right to remove access to the site. She is welcome to contact our Member Care team at any time to discuss her removal from the site.

Robyn
Director of Operations, Care.com

Having just been peremptorily terminated from care.com, for no violation of terms of service, I find the above customer's complaint very credible. I posted an ad seeking pet sitters for my pet-sitting business. That is all I did. For this I was terminated without explanation. Some months back, I tried to change my profile as someone OFFERING care, to include pet-sitting. All in all, Care.com just sucks. They have really crappy to nonexistent customer service. Their approach is not welcoming and helpful but arbitrary and punitive. I would recommend people avoid them entirely.

Geoffrey Smith

Paid for premium membership then tried to post several ads for my special needs child which were not approved. When asking what was the issue with the ads, their customer service would only reply with a list of their rules. They would not explain which rule you violated. Additionally tried to contact over a dozen care providers directly and it seemed all our messages were blocked because we received no answers to those attempted contacts. My most recent message to them was to tell me what is wrong with the ads or close our account and refund the money we paid them. Still waiting to hear back from them.

I have recently found myself unemployed due to myself moving to San Diego Ca, from Connecticut and I was searching for jobs and remembered I had a care account and set out to possibly find employment. I emailed several people in need of child assistance and then I get an email saying that my account has been terminated for no reason. I am not sure why this happened but I would like some answers.

hi care .com
i have a profile on youur site and it sucks to know that i havnt reviced any respond from any family on your site .and after reading all these comments i wonder if you guys onky keep the ones you feel like keeping .

Totally agree with above posters. The site is a rip
Off and dangerous. We had one person steal from us several no shows and when we complained we got dropped too. I think they don't like complaints because it makes their care givers appear limited in quality_which they are. I was actually told by their employee that their background check is limited to non existent and they only check records that are public and readily accessible. The fact that there is an option for "accepts non cash payment." Also suggests they know most employees don't want their income reported. I had several tell me they couldn't work if we reported income to the IRS which we do. I'm a lawyer and we just like to do things legally. One applicant didn't have a work visa. And one told me about an existing warrant - she described as a "raw deal." How can a child care website miss a warrant? Wow.

I had been a long time member of care.com, on there as a babysitter/nanny. I never had any issues more than 1 bad reference from a woman because I quit her and she was upset. I had deleted that account and created a new one, which I have had for several years. I was looking mainly for an in-home nanny job, but also offered care in my home. I interviewed with a man and his wife who came to my home. After about 20 minutes, the man mentioned that he was an electrician and if I needed services to keep him in mind. I now know that I should have kept my mouth shut, but I started to say how we had just bought our home and the electric was a bit different and I gave him a few examples and I would keep in mind. He never actually looked around nor had proof of any problems. The next day I received an email from care.com that I was terminated. I knew right away that it was this man that filed a complaint. He assumed that my house was a fire hazard even though he didn't have proof nor ever used me as a sitter. I tried asking care.com for the actual reason that I was terminated and they said they had the right to terminate for any reason without warning. I think that it is ridiculous that a good member can be terminated just because a paying member tells a lie about them. There isn't even a way to tell your side of the story. They just don't care. They give the paying members, looking for a sitter, the benefit of the doubt and the ability to terminate or write a bad review for the sitter, yet the sitter has no option to say anything about the family. There has been many times that it would be beneficial to see a review about a family before someone goes to work for them. This site is a rip off and it sucks that I am banned, yet the man is still on there looking for care after a year. Basically anyone can get someone terminated, they can just make up a reason. I am hoping to file a suit against this site, let's make a petition and work on it together.

Today I RECIEVED an email from "Jill" at Care.com saying my account has been terminated and they wouldn't and had the right not to tell me the reason. It just so happens that this happened two days after I gave the third babysitter hired from their site who did not work out, a complaint for several last minute cancellations which forced me to miss work/take my 4 year old son to work, and lying about her whereabouts which showed damaged credibility. My intention was to give her a low rating, not to hurt her, because initially I was really excited and liked the girl. However, to help other working mothers who rely on this site to pair you with reliable employees to avoid people with bad work history. Just as a former employer would do if a future employer called. It isn't right or lawful that a company doesn't investigate both sides of an issue before deciding on termination. I am livid that my conversation with a representative not only gave me a headache as she just repeated their unlawful terms of service over and over again, but she also couldn't guarantee that a supervisor would call me back to further discuss this issue. (Even though in one of the posts responding to complaints above says you can call the company for help after receiving a notice.) I am a television news reporter and fully intend to investigated these non-disclosured termination practices after someone has paid for the service. Care dot com...I'm coming for you. I have relied on this service for years, and while it has provided me nothing but duds in the babysitting department, it is still an option for additional help in a jam that I would have been able to have. And the fact that you don't "Care" about the working mothers, elderly, and small business owners looking for help, that you would just terminate service for no reason, is wrong, and I will make this right not only for future users, but my own account. Even if I have to expose this site for what it really is, and make crumble from bad business practices.

I just wanted to say I have first hand knowledge that the Care.com com response team that makes rebuttals on customers comments are told to LIE by Care.com. Parents will write in a say that their account was terminated for no reason. Care. com will say not its not your wrong..ridiculous lies that anyone can see through. Care.com reps are coached to lie about many issues on these boards and they even take a class to know how and when to lie and what boilerplate auto response should be written for each complaint.
Care.com is a very fraudulent dirty, dirty business that has the worst reputation for NOT CARING about customers and being a greedy unethical business that promotes unverified, and unqualified caregivers. Kids are being abused and neglected and scams are running rampanrt on Care.com. Care.com allows minors to babysit. Its a circus.

I also joined care.com and began to complete my business profile on May 18.
On May19th they sent an email about considering the premium service which I felt was a good option as i growing my in home business from 3 children to the licensed 6 children^^. 3 Children full time in my home IS A BUSINESS. On May 19th they sent a "marketing solutions email-to encourage me to buy a premium membership, which did as I will be looking to add 3 more children. On the 21st Care.com send s a welcome "Your Featured Membership will be active soon!" email, and notifying me the Profile would be live in about 1 business day. On the 22nd I get two emails- "Did you sign up as a business in Error" and "Removed from the Care.com Community". OK. Maybe I made a mistake somewhere signing up? in their email to me it says " We encourage you to join Care.com as an individual provider instead of a business." Ok! Let me go do that then. NOPE- the system refuses to allow me create a new profile in ANY way. I almost had to giggle that they insist in their email "service providers are pre-screened by our Care Force team." Pre-screened? Are they sure? Certainly does say in their terms they can terminate without reason. In my experience pre-screening usually looks for proof/ verification in some manner. The Care-force team could have at any time asked for faxed, scanned or any verification about me or my business they wanted. In any case, I will be super cautious joining any more "eggs in one basket" business referral services. This has been a learning lesson. A quick search on "Care.com terminated membership" or "Complaints and reviews", I would have seen there are literally hundreds of unhappy customers =(

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Totally agree, I was just terminated. Less than 8 hours after signing up, paying and looking for someone to help clean our home, I'm terminated. I got two immediate responses (which shocked me) and I've scheduled to meet with them and then bam...terminated? What the hell? So now I've gotta wonder what care.com has done and whether or not they've scared away two potential options to help clean my home.

Am I going to get my money back?

I realize that anyone with a computer and Google can find anything to substantiate what they think...but this really is legit. They should be shut down. Turns out they have a horrible reputation for doing just this.

https://consumerist.com/2015/05/20/care-com-bans-members-without-investigating-complaints-against-them-first/
http://lianaandmason.com/dollhouse/2013/08/29/care-com-doesnt-care-at-all/
http://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.care.com
http://www.complaintboard.com/care-com-l14439.html

Agree with these comments. I'm a nanny that had used the site for years with no issues. I had a bunch of awesome reviews that people I'd worked for had left me. I had connections, the whole nine yards. Then, out of the blue one day, BAM! Account terminated. I'd done NOTHING to violate any user terms on their site. It's true, also, when you call them that all you'll get is a runaround. They say nothing but repeat their terms of service over and over back to you. It's such bull! And talking to a supervisor won't help, if you can even get to one. I've NEVER in my life seen a company that even tried to get away with what they're doing. I was happy to see that their BBB rating is going down and I hope it continues to until they're completely shutdown. Save yourself some time and don't sign up for Care.com EVER!

We successful located our nanny from care.com and she was wonderful! When we tried to hire a new nanny after she gave her notice we had been terminated. We tried to create another account since care.com would not give us any reasons for the termination. The second account was declined. I guess they keep your ISP address and any efforts to create an account will be declined. Anyway, this is a terrible practice. We are a good family and paying customers and the fact they give you no reason for the termination other then their safely policy is really sad. We are parents looking for a care giver nothing more. Thanks for nothing and simply repeating your service standards.

I created an account (or forced to give my name and email, maybe even address?) so I could browse at the site and look for a pet sitter. I did nothing on the site except browsing - at caregivers in my zip code and their profiles to see what options are available. I didn't post anything or provide any additional information about myself or what service I'm looking for. After browsing for a little while I decided that I would come back to the site another day to make decisions about the subscription. But within 12 hours after first visiting the site and creating an account, I received an email stating I was removed as a member. I was confused, and out of curiosity of what kind of error this must have be, I tried to re-create my account to log in and was rejected automatically by the site. WTF? I have no criminal record and have excellent credit history - not that I had provided the personal information required for them to run those checks. Why am I being rejected to just using their site? This is so stupid and annoying.

My account was recently terminated by care.com. I paid for premium membership yesterday. They took my money then today at 7.25 P.M. I receive an email stating that my account has been terminated and that care.com reserves the right to do so without any explanation which is absolutely mind blowing and disgusting if you ask me. Knowing that this is the scam or method being taken by care.com. I do plan on initiating legal actions because all of my references, credit card information, including social security and driver's license information was on file. There was no warning of any misconduct on my part just an email that my money had been taken and I was terminated. The individuals that I booked babysitting appointments with plan on taking legal actions as well because they know my character. As a NICU nurse my license as well and records have been verified by the state to be free of any illegal activities or misconducts so this is why I am taking legal actions against. care.com

Thank you Pink2Linda, for sharing your recent-experience with the UN-Caring Customer Service Folks at Care.com.

My wife had been a Premium-Account Member of Care.com for the past 4-5 years -- she renewed her Premium Membership on Dec 20th, 2018 - Payment Processed, but on Dec 23rd, 2018, she was unable to access her account. Thinking that it might be some Site-Wide Issue with Account-Access, I tried the FREE-Account I've had with CARE for the past 5-6 years - I was able to login to my FREE-Account, but my wife still had No-Access to hers. I sent an e-mail to Care.com (explaining the access-issue with my wife's account), the next day, I discovered that I could No Longer access my FREE-Account.

I called Care.com (was on-hold for what seemed like an eternity), and eventually spoke with someone named Nilo. Nilo had a "Thick-Accent", and was very hard to understand - he told me that both my wife and my account had been terminated, but that he was unable (not allowed) to disclose the specifics on why CARE had arbitrarily-terminated our accounts. I explained to Nilo that my wife's account was a Premium-Account that she's just renewed, while mine was a FREE-account that I hadn't accessed for over-a-year (before logging-in on Dec 25th, 2018, after my wife's access to her account failed).

I further explained that there is absolutely NOTHING in CARE's "Terms Of Use", nor listed in their "CARE FAQs" - https://www.care.com/c/questions/29366/what-are-some-of-the-reasons-members-carecom/, that would constitute a Valid-Reason for deleting our accounts.

I ended my conversation with CARE, declaring that the manner in which CARE Treats it's Member is NOT something that a "Good Business Model" would favor/encourage, and that ANY issue alleged/imposed on one member's account should not IMPACT another member's account (especially one which isn't frequently-accessed -- mine)

I have read several complaints that are very similar to what recently happened to me. I'm just happy I'm not the only one. I had been a member of care.com for close to five years if not longer. I had found several families I have worked for over the years via care.com. Very recently my needs changed to only wanting to find something part time so I went on to update my information. The only thing I changed was my bio, as I now had more and different experience to add and my address as we've moved. I applied for what seemed like the perfect position and when I logged back in to follow up my account told me I needed to upgrade in order to allow the family to respond to me. So I upgraded and spent almost $20 to do so. As soon as the charge went through I get a notification that my account was terminated. I read through the reasons why this could happen and I in NO way had violated any of the rules. I tried to reach out at least for a refund which, they said they put through but tolde my account termination was final. It's really awful to not look into any matter further to protect those who've been members for a long time and really relied on the site to find work.

I'm currently not working and I have been looking for a job for a couple months now. twice I have tried to create an account with care.com. the first time I was able to be on the account for about a week and then I was all of a sudden terminated. I wasn't told why which I think is completely ridiculous due to the fact I think I should know why my account was terminated. I created another account last night and I tried using a different email. I actually got many responses from families needing nannies. I had a phone interviews set up and face-to-face interview setup for next week. Then care.com decides to terminate my account AGAIN? How am i supposed to get into contact with those families now? How do I know that my account being terminated didn't scare them away? like I said before I'm currently not working and I'm trying to find a job for myself, and now I can't even do that because care.com has nothing better to do then terminate accounts for no reason. I am not happy at all with this site, and I’ve read online numerous of complaints about the same thing happening to many other people, and it’s completely ridiculous. I really thought care.com is supposed to help people find jobs, and they are honestly just making it difficult.

Deleting an account "with or WITHOUT a reason" is a terrible business strategy and I hope you make amends for the many lives you have impacted. Many nannies, including myself, have used your site exclusively to find families to provide care for and our removal (without an appeals process) directly impacts our livelihoods- Shame on you Care!

Same thing happened to me. I have been paying for a premium membership for years. We have 2 special needs kids and use Care.com a lot for extra help at home and when we travel. We hired a nanny for a vacation in Las Vegas and she canceled at the last minute ruining our vacation. We were able to verify that her reason for canceling was untruthful. We want to be able to at least give her a review so that other unsuspecting parents can be forewarned, but it seems Care.com does not "care" to have both sides of the story, nor do they care to have reviews from members who had a bad experience with a nanny. They would rather terminate your account, no questions asked.

So, all I had was a "free" account. I was not aware of any false information on my registration.
Yet, I had an account canceled. I tried to log in with another e-mail address, registered under the exact same information (I honestly don't remember when I registered it...) and it, too, was canceled.

I had a third that I had forgotten about.
Changed the password on April 23rd, 2019.
Checked my e-mail on April 24, 2019 and the account...was canceled.
"Terminated", as they put it.

What in the hell is wrong with this company?

I really wish I had read this before!
I paid for a background check and premium 6 month membership looking for jobs, and one of my profiles (for childcare) were denied. I looked it over several times, could find nothing against their guidelines or terms of service.

When I couldn't figure it out I went to send the care team a message...and my entire account was closed!

I sure hope I see a refund for the premium and background check ASAP.

I'm a professional and I wanted to take jobs on the side while saving up for a modest goal. At no point was any behavior, actions, profile information, or any communication with anyone unprofessional, misrepresentational, or inaccurate.

I was just terminated after years of being a member on the site. I had 2 5-star reviews and did nothing wrong except that I'm in the process of legally changing my first name- long story but true. They did not contact me to ask about the discrepancy, which I could have easily shown legal documents for. I get that this is a safety issue but it's all above board and now my reviews etc. are all "deleted". I bet I'll get kicked off again until my new social security card comes so I'll quit the site. It's a bummer because I need a job and care.com was helpful. But I think I'll be using nextdoor instead. But it's too bad because I was going to refer them to my care.com profile and could have provided them with new clients. Care.com's loss I suppose.

Are my contacts going to be told I was terminated and think I'm a bad person and not get the information it's just about a stupid name change that is legal?

I'm sorry for all the people who were paying money to use the site. I was about to do that, and I'm definitely glad I didn't yesterday as I was planning to. Bad business practice! My advice- keep after them to find out why you were terminated. I just kept asking until I was finally told the reason. Or don't and use a different site like I'm going to do. Care.com, I'm disappointed in you.

Same thing happened to me. Account terminated and now no good babysitting/nannying jobs. You shouldn’t be able to just shut down peoples accounts without some type of appeal process. And when you contact them you get nothing back. At least let people make another account after a certain period of time, mine has been terminated for almost 2 years and I still can’t get into my account or make a new one. I’ve tried everything.

I joined Care.com about 5 years and have 14 reviews all 5 star reviews. I noticed my account need to be upgraded. So I made payment and the next day my account was closed. I’m a single mom of two and have been running a very successful small daycare for the 5 years. I have a home, just purchased a new car and I have bills... This is is where I had gained all my clients. Now that Care.com has canceled my account what will I do I’m terrified! I also received the same email. I also know I have not done nothing wrong in any way. How could you do this to people Care.com! I can lose everything 😥

I joined care.com in 2017 or 2018 and chose the free option & in less than 24hrs was terminated for NOTHING. I called customer service & they couldn’t give me an explanation & said there was no chance of me ever getting back on after being terminated. I’m a professional nanny with 10yrs experience as a nanny & this has drastically lowered my chances of finding a career nanny position. SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE DONE! I’m glad I just found this complaint board today! I’m also very disappointed in care as to how they handled this situation.

I was on Care.Com for over a year did very well had a five star rating and wonderful reviews. I followed the guidelines and all the families I worked for like me. And then one day I woke up and I was banned and my account were closed. iMessage them and they said that they don’t have to give me a reason why, so this is definitely one-sided.

I have been an active member on care.com for over 7 years. I had multiple families use the background check feature with no issues. Today I am trying to login to my account and I can’t login in to my account? I start to look in spam for my email for a new password and I see an email in spam that my account has been deactivated because of a background check? I know my criminal and drivers backgrounds are clear. I don’t understand why or how this could happen. I have been finding nanny families on this platform for years and have nothing but positive review. I don’t understand.

I was so overwhelmed with so many clients at once, was so mixed up on who was what n when, I guess people were complaining about me so I was kicked off of care.com! Can I please get another chance to come back, I have a clean record, etc. Shelbey Ayers.