A Place for Mom

I regret ever initiating contact with this company! My wife's mother is at a stage in life where she needs 24/7 monitoring. She is healthy but exhibits signs of dementia. I placed a call to 'A Place for Mom' because I live out of state and it seemed like a good starting point. What my wife and I didn't know was my wife's sister had already begun the process of looking for a suitable home and had narrowed it down to two locations. My wife's sister performed the search WITHOUT any input, advise, or contact with 'A Place for Mom' or my wife's input. When 'A Place for Mom' called my wife back, she informed them that her sister had already found a place for their mother. That's when the REPEATED phone calls and emails began. My wife informed them that the home her sister selected wasn't even on the list 'A Place for Mom' recommended. That didn't matter, the calls continued. It's been well over a year and this Saturday morning I received another call from *******796 asking my wife to call Ashley Coleman at 760-530-XXXX. When I asked my wife about this she told me the story of how 'A Place for Mom' wanted to know where her mother was placed so they can call the home and try to get payment from them even though she didn't get placed there using their service. I've blocked the phone number, and setup email filters - hopefully contact will end before I'm in need of an assisted living home.

The old adage "you get what you pay for" certainly applies here. Free of charge it is, but free from harassment it is not. They repeatedly call my mother and father between 8 and 9AM on weekends, scaring them to death.

In my mother's polite world, you only call someone after 9AM, and in her case she prefers, and has told them, never to call before 10am. Well last week again it was closer to 8 than 9. In the polite world you only call this early if it is an emergency. Being woken on a weekend from a sound sleep is disorienting and distressing. More so if you have asked them not to. Apparently for a service making money from working with elders, they do not understand, listen or even realize that as we age it takes us a little longer to get going in the morning.

Do not ever give them your phone number, or give hospital social workers (in her case the discharge case worker) permission to give out your number. You will be hounded to go to Assisted living relentlessly, even if you tell them you are not interested. Understand that it is not friendly checking on you, it is how they make their money.

The level of attention, kindness, treatment of there residents is just BEYOND our expectations
Our Mother was dreading moving into assisted living and within two weeks was saying she wished she had moved in there 5 year earlier She loves everything there, ESPECIALLY THE STAFF! They are unbelievably kind knowledgeable and the level of care is amazing. She loves the activities, but the staff, all the staff is what she loves most. She brags all the time on everything there, staff, food everything

I stumbled across APFM on the internet and made the mistake of clicking to request more information. Whithin 3 minutes I got a call from Michelle S. And she was very nice on the phone, spending time learning about our situation. She then emailed me the names of four assisted living places. She also provided all of those organizations with my personal information. I have been receiving non-stop calls ever since. I called Michelle back and requested not to be contacted any more. I will contact these places directly if tand when I'm ready. Got still another call from Michelle today to "check in" and see if we are ready to tour any of the facilities. I told her I thought I was clear that I didn't want any more direct contact. Her response was that she interpreted that to mean I didn't want direct contact from the facilities. I said "so you think that I wanted to hear from you again?!" I told her to never call here again. Hopefully it's the last I'll hear from this high pressure "referral" service that is clearly only interested in getting paid their fees.

Great help via Rob and all assisting parties.
All questions answered timely and any referrals were excellent.

Mom now happy in Assisted living.

I loved the smell and cleaness of the place. The staff was very polite and caring. The apartment was very pretty set up of how i could have my furniture.

I accepted a Respite referral from A Place for MOM. The original contracted fee was 20% of monthly rate charges. I received a statement from APFM that charged 30% fee was due. I figured it must be some mistake here. I called the billing department and left a message re: my concern about the 30%. About 5 days later I received a phone call from APFM and was told that the fees had gone up effective Jan 1,2016 and I should have received a letter indicating that change. Was told that it was permissible as stated in the contract as long as notice was given. She stated that she would e-mail me a copy of the notification. I received a notification and the contract. The notification was headed with Attention Executive Director. The contract and any previous communication written or by phone was in my name. I definitely would have remembered this letter. This is just another attempt to squeeze more money out of the facilities. I won't be accepting any more referrals from this unscrupulous company. We are small mom and pops operators how are we to care for the residents if all the money is going to the referral agency? The only thing they will hear is a boycott. It wasn't always like this.

I just received a call from a care home that I placed my mom in approx 10 days ago. The owner advised me to find another place for my mother due to A Place For Mom charging an outrageous referral fee (120% + late charge).
I had actually found this place on my own by a friends referral, how ever my mistake was searching on the internet for an appointment, which somehow went to Place For Mom. I was never referred by A Place For Mom to this home!
This facility only cares for 4 people, and it is ridiculous they would charge such an outrageous charge for one phone call (>$7000). Especially since A Place For Mom never made a referral in the first place.
So I'm back to square 1, looking for a place that can care for my mother suffering from Alzheimer's.
The last thing I need is another referral!
As a Criminal Investigator, this reeks of Fraud. I will be in contact with the District Attorney on Monday.

Rick Ragsdale
Stockton, CA

Chelsia,
I read your response, which is a total misstatement of facts. Doing a web search for care homes does not eguate to a referral.
Also you wrote, "we are terminating our agreement with Alcor Guest House". In actuality Alcor terminated their agreement with your company last week.
Also, for info I spoke confidentially to another Memory Care Home of whom we have been #1 on a waiting list for over a year. One of the directors of that non-profit told me that the reason we are not called is due to being referred by your company and expense due to the referral.

Eric gave Great service with compassion and eye for details. Listened to my story and know what was needed.

I made an initial inquiry knowing we were going to have to get conservatorship and place my mom. At the time I had no idea what her assets were. Later, when we had funds I called back. My name was in a database apparently and because there was indication that we had no money to pay a provider, I couldn't get repeated calls returned. Finally in desperation, I called back, gave a fake name, and indicated there was plenty of cash to pay for care and my call was returned within minutes. When a provider got the referral and called me, I explained the situation & gave my real name & was immediately told that the non-refundable up front fee all memory care providers charge would be reduced by $500 as they wouldn't have to pay a referral to A Place for Mom. Don't be fooled-this is not a charity, it's a for-profit business and they will only help if they will ultimately get paid for their time. If you can find your own provider (and they are honest) you will save money by not having to cover the referral fee to A Place for Mom in the upfront costs.

A Place for Mom is tricky and unfair with their families. I was working with an Advisor and I got my Dad an apartment at a wonderful assisted living. He deposited on his new apartment and we picked out furniture, then C-19 broke out in the community and my Dad had to wait to move in during the month of May 2020. The advisor knew this and oddly enough on the 29th of the month, he/she wanted me to move my Dad somewhere else. I said "NO" my Dad wants to wait and live in the community he choose. APFM then had other people call me that said they were just doing follow up calls about my Dad and again, wanting to know if they refer me somewhere else to take my Dad. Unbelievable! It was the middle of C-19! Thousands of seniors were dying in these assisted living and they just wanted my Dad to fill a quota. I told the community, that we deposited at, they were trying to steer us away from them and the community was horrified that A PLACE FOR MOM would do this to us. Very poor tactics and completely inconsiderate of my elderly Father and where he wanted to live. We were just a quota and a notch in their belt to place my Dad. Be careful when using them, you will pushed and pushed to move your parents anywhere. They do not care that C-19 was here!

Helpful advice from someone who knows how to listen to what we wanted and provided options for our review.

Jamie was so helpful and supportive! I couldn't have gotten my sister in such a caring placement without her help!

THis place is horrible, first you try doing some research on facilities, and you get roped in to having someone call you immediately who can not help then pass you on to someone and all I wanted was brochures so I can look at things and see what questions I would have if my mother who has dementia would fit in any of these places. However that woman actually said mu MY INTERVIEW would take 20 minutes... I am not interviewing for a job... I AM INTERVIEWING their facilities to see if they meet MY standards for MOM. I want this place reported immediately they are people who now have my phone number and since this morning I have had 4 different people calling "in response to my request?" I spoke to someone had a terrible experience why would I want them to keep calling back. Please do not attempt this service unless you want explain your situation over and over and over again, and I dont know about anyone else on this forum, but my mothers disease is hurting especially now that I may not be able to take care of her. These people make it difficult.