Care.com Reviews

I'd been using Care.com for several months & found several good jobs from the site. I paid for a background check on myself, had several good reviews, etc. I was contacted by a woman wanting me to work for her for $5 a day. When I declined, she got incredibly upset, began sending lewd photos to my phone, leaving me rude messages, etc. I blocked her phone number at that point. She then went onto Care.com to continue berating me. After I blocked her from contacting me on the site, she had ME reported for harassment & without asking my side of the story, my account was cancelled. I could not get anyone on the phone the 8 times I tried calling. I had to send 2 emails before getting a response. After explaining a second time via email to Care.com the abuse I was subjected to by this woman, they told me that I was not eligible to have an account with them any longer. No action was taken against the other woman who was the ONLY one in the wrong, both by verbally abusing me & by offering FAR less than minimum wage. Should it even be legal to offer someone $5 a day?! I was incredibly disappointed in the lack of understanding or CARE that Care.com provided to me in my situation. STEER CLEAR, they allow any & everyone to post jobs on the site.

I have had a lot of success with this site. I have been able to find a long term pet sitter and last minute individual to care for my dad when he needed help after a surgery. I've read a lot of the reviews about how people are unhappy with the subscription model the site has set up, but if you actually read what it says when you sign up for a Premium membership it says how you'll be billed on going, which is exactly how a subscription works. Also the site asks if you would like to set a reminder so just before my one month was up I received an email reminding me to downgrade my account. I know people are busy, but if you just take a minute to read what the site says before just clicking through to the end, it was easy to understand how it works and not be billed for extra months.

Be aware of the AUTOMATIC RENEWAL!!! Make sure to cancel ASAP when you don't need the service anymore.

twice i paid twice they removed me for no explanation. i had to call up to resolve it. they have horrid people overscreening ads and no explanation. its just nuts.

I had a very bad experience with care.com.After I paid the membership they closed my account with no warning and without explanation.

My wife and I have been paying members with Care.com and Sittercity for about a year. We check the job postings daily and have applied to 60 or so positions. Our growing suspicion is that the vast majority of the job postings are fake, composed by Care.com employees and orchestrated in a way to keep their members interest in paying the monthly subscription fees. The amount of jobs offered on Care.com and Sittercity are vastly different. Whereas Sittercity will have 6 job postings per month in our area, Care.com will have over 30. Ironically, we get a 50% response to our applications on Sittercity, in comparison to a weak 2% response from our Care.com applications. So, my wife and I are of the opinion that only about 20% of the job postings on Care.com are legit. I did actually catch a person posting the same job in 3 different cities. I spoke with Care.com about the issue and suddenly that person disappeared. Then, a couple of weeks later, the EXACT job showed up in my area under a different members name. Of course, we applied but no response. Coincidence of fraud...........
Anyway, just our opinion. Hope it's useful.

I joined this because I was looking to take up some temporary jobs in pet sitting and elderly care. I applied to several positions and then never hear anything back. Once I got a computer written response about the family opting to go with someone else. I'm assuming from reading the previous reviews that people don't get back to you because they have to pay an additional fee. Done with this site.

I agree with the above post stating that care.com will suspend accounts, remove a job seekers profile..with NO explanation. They have also done this to me over and over..no explanation at all!!

This service is an absolute scam!! I was seeking a caregiver and after realizing I was unable to contact any of the profiles until I paid for a subscription (subscription... yea right!). They intentionally word the "Premium" subscription categories in a way to make you think you are only paying for a limited term, ie. 1 month, 3 months, 12 months. Absolutely not the case, it doesn't matter what category you choose, you will be charged monthly for life, without any notification prior to each monthly billing, or until you cancel your subscription. The only difference is the time with which you are required to pay until your account can be canceled (or in the terms of CARE.COM "downgraded"). This service is all about collecting their service fees and has no real interest in providing secure, comprehensive and reliable services. In my case, I contacted (after being required to pay) 12 people, of which not one of them returned my call! So what exactly am I paying for... Mind you I started my subscription in August 2012, didn't do much with it after the first month, and here it is May 2013 and they have been "auto" charging my credit card for the past 10 months without any notification. I happen to realize after looking at my credit card statement closely that these charges have been reoccurring every month without my knowledge. I had selected the 3 months for $75 category, thinking like most people would based on the way it was presented, that I would be done with the subscription after the 3 month period... definitely not the case, I was actually paying $300 per year for life for that "3 month" subscription. Their hope is that I like a lot of people don't pay close attention to minimal credit card charges on their statements. I accept responsibility for not catching it sooner, but that does not give them the right to take advantage of consumers! Besides that well hidden indiscretion, I can understand charging a fee to those advertising their services but why should a seeker also pay to contact a caregiver? Makes no sense at all, it's like charging people to click on a link after searching for something on Google!! I digress...

I have been with care.com for over a year now and have had good experiences with it. As a nanny I can easily see what jobs are available near me and message the families looking for help. I have a college degree and a lot of experience so I am always getting messages for work. I do respond to my messages even if to say no in a polite way. I have applied for a couple jobs and never heard anything back but I don't usually give out my personal contact information for privacy reasons.

Amazingly there was a caregiver job near me that posted very good pay. i signed up, however, I did not pay for the service. i received a lot of spam mail immediately. As for the specific job I applied for--which I am more than qualified for --care.com responded back that the person who posted the job read my response but decided to "seek for another applicant" not that they hired anyone else--just that they apparently didn't care for my application--however, they reminded me I could upgrade and pay for the service. First of all-having never paid for the service or given my ssn for that matter, how could they even consider me seeing as they are supposed to do these intense background checks. A scam--don't waste your time or money--just another on-line scammer taking advantage of the job market.

I registered to this website just for one month. But they started to charge my credit card for other months without notifying me. This is stealing people's money. Unreliable website. Do not trust them. They did not even return my money.

My family and I recently moved to Texas and after being a stay at home mom for 6 years I have decided I'm ready to do something or myself. However, my youngest is still at home until this Aug. so I set up a listing on Care.com to find an occasional sitter. So, in response to the caretakers saying the profiles are fake, they are not. I got several responses really quickly after posting my listing. Upon reading my responses I realized that I have to pay to communicate with the people applying! Even the ones that put contact information in the message I couldn't see it because the info gets exed out. $40 to send a few messages. So, caregivers, THAT is most likely why you are not getting responses! The people that are looking for care, upon realizing that you have to have monthly subscriptions to find a caregiver, figure it's not worth what you have to pay for something not guaranteed.

I opened a care.com profile and closed it the same day. Something about this site didn't seem right to me. I looked at some of the jobs posted and they seemed fake.

The other care givers pictures looked odd as well to be honest. There was one photo with a woman standing with her arms up while her husband/boyfriend had his hands wrapped around her very pregnant bare belly. Odd and totally unprofessional.

I've been a nanny in the past and I found two great jobs with wonderful families through an agency. I thought I'd give care.com a try but after my gut feeling and seeing these reviews, I'll stick with my professional agency.

I am retired from a professional career but have a disabled adult child. Both of us have extensive animal care (Vet. Clinic) experience and we like to care for animals in our home to provide my son with a little extra income.
I posted on Care.com and paid extra for "better promotion".
They do nothing for you.
After a week, a mis-communication between my son and a prospective client who had met with both of us, caused them to simply remove me from the site and when the client found out what had happened she tried to correct the misinformation and was refused the ability to do it.
I've demanded a return of my fees. We'll see how that goes.

These people are not professional, and definitely not reliable. As a legal professional, I can guarantee that their screening is non-existent. I recommend DogVacay for pet care help.

Looking for a caregiver. The site has lots of them listed near my home but do you think anyone responds to messages? Nope. Not even one person responds, yet I'm on the hook for a year's membership. I think I've been had.

I disagree with Mark that 5 stars reviews are fake.
I'm a nanny for a two wonderful boys. I found them through care.com. I've been with them for almost a year. I found 4 other part time families with whom I've been for over a year. Free membership for care provider allows you to apply for a job and have a contact with the family. I've been with care.com for over a year now. So far I'm happy with them.
The only thing I don't like that in order for families to leave a review they have to be premium members.
My review is not fake. You can see my profile on care.com.

I hate Care.com. At first, it sounded like a good idea, to post my profile free and pick up some work babysitting and pet sitting. However, anything you want to do, you have to pay for, and the jobs posted are fakes. Many of the pictures are even fake. You can't simply apply for a job and get a family's response without paying. I have a super resume, with teaching credentials, tons of certifications and I did not EVER get a single response to my profile, or ANY of the messages I sent, responding to ads families posted. If you read the ads, many of them use identical wording and phrases as if posted by a bot. This site is a waste of time and a waste of money. Furthermore, you can't keep them from spamming your email address multiple times a day with the same bot jobs, posted as "new jobs in your area"...even though they are the same ones as the day before, the same ones you messaged, and the same ones that never message you back. Maybe there is a legit job here or there, but I would take my business elsewhere.

Do NOT trust the background checks care.com provides!! As a customer you are not allowed to leave negative feedback on a nanny. I hired a nanny that was arrested for stealing from Kohls. Upon further investigation, I found out she was let go from 2 previous care.com hires for stealing jewelry. We all tried to warn future employers but were not allowed to leave such feedback for issues with libel. They do NOT verify references.

The references this nanny gave me were her mother, sister, and a friend...not previous employers. Also, she had a condition that caused her to unexpectedly faint (which she was also previous fired for; family was not allowed to leave such feedback on care.com). Any existing medical issues were denied on the interview. She would skip taking medication to regulate her thyroid activity for many days because she simply did not love herself enough to live. PSYCHO!

I will never use this website again! In addition to all the billing problems I ran into, these nannies are anyone off the street. Some are legitimate and others are creepy drifters looking take advantage of unsuspecting families. I found the same exact nannies on sittercity for less than half of what I was paying on care.com...use the saved money to get thorough and legitimate background check. Not that I would trust any of these nannies either. I'm only using nannies other families that I know have validated. If we have another infant a reliable day care that has many eyes are better than hiring a nanny off care.com. Be aware that these sites are not reliable. They provide a false ense of security.

I paid for a premium subscription for four months (a three month fee + a one month fee). During that time, I communicated with candidates regarding a nanny position I had posted, and those individuals provided me with their contact information. Now that my membership has expired, that information has been redacted from their messages. I was a paying member when this information was provided to me, and now I can't access it. This is an incredibly dishonest business practice.

The site warns you to contact others ONLY through their site, supposedly to protect your privacy, but in reality it's so they can try to force you to pay a new membership fee to access information you already received.

In addition, the site doesn't provide any way of verifying skills or certifications, so even if applicants say they are a good fit, you'll have wasted a great deal of time before you realize they aren't. Out of the 14 applicants we received, only 3 were legitimately qualified and reliable. It's no better than Craigslist in terms of protecting your family from liars, scammers, or worse.