Care.comReviews 12,031

I recently found out care.com had signed me up for auto renewals without my expressed consent. I never received any kind of reminder or receipt of any kind of auto renewal and have now paid for a service I never used. I am now trying to seek reimbursement for this amount but it is still unresolved. I believe this is highly unethical and likely happening to many other parents and expecting parents. Please beware of care.com and these shady business practices.

Care.com cancelled my membership due to Sterling Infosystems reporting a bad check from 1998 which was taken care of over 18 years ago. They sent you to them to take care of the matter which they do nothing about it. Called the state of SC they had no record of it. When I emailed Care.com they stated they typically don't get checks from over 7 years, not true. In 2011 I became a Professional Counselor in which entitled serious background checks. Then in 2013 I adopted a son which again we received intense background checks and nothing negative was reported. My only reason getting on this site was to expand my services in the Charlotte, NC market. However reading these comments I am glad they cancelled becasue I wouldn't want to find myself in any of these crazy situations when you really don''t know whose home you will be entering. I pray they do the same type of background checks on the people they are trying to services as they do on the people they are sending out.

I posted a job for cleaning services on care.com and got a few responses. I employed a lady named Victoria S. She had referrals, a background check and was professional. Turns out to be a junky who after four cleaning services decides to steel my personal electronics and prescription medications. The only thing care.com cared to do was cancel her membership. This site is unsafe... I would never use it again and people should be afraid to use it for the care of there pets or children. If this kind of person entered my house and stole my things I don't want to imagine what some people can do to someone's child or pet. Scary experience.

I subscribed yesterday, upgraded and paid $49. I posted 3 jobs in two different cities, Halifax and Toronto. Both ladies (fake ladies) Wendy and Cristina responded and agreed to meet up today for interviews. Wendy's interview was at 10:00 AM in Halifax and Cristina at 3:45PM in Toronto.
The funny thing is that both ladies did NOT showup nor cancelled. Simply they disappeared and didn't answer their emails, phones not the messages that we sent via care.com!
I called CARE.com and left voice mail to cancel as they have an automatic renewal (of course hahaha) - and sent them email (I took screenshot as a proof in case they attempt to charge me future fees. Then I called my bank to cancel and block my card.

I wasted four hours of my time posting these ads and waiting for those ladies to show up.

Now, I plan to contact the media and get my lawyer involved to protect others.

I've gotten some great jobs from this site, which has nothing to do with the site and everything to do with the families looking for help. This site is such a rip off. All of a sudden people can't reply to your messages unless you pay for the site. Care.com will do anything and everything in their power to get money from people. They need a wake up call, because not everyone is on this site for full time jobs. Some of us just want to make some extra cash to make ends meet, and actually LOVE doing it on the side.

Non-existent customer service team were of no help when credits purchased disappeared though jobs hadn't been applied to. Adverts that were abundant before registration disappeared, and a number of adverts were mysteriously similar. What really tipped me off that this website is shady is seeing an advert from someone in my area who insisted they had never placed an advert or even used the site. No responses and credit refunds are not automatic so you are basically throwing money away if adverts- which often look like they are fraudulent - no not outright reject you. Avoid at all costs.

I've reported Care.com to the Better Business Bureau for their practice of automatically continuing a subscription at a much higher rate with no notice and their refusal to reimburse customers once they realize what's happened, even if, as was my case, they can confirm not so much as a long-in for months.

Care.com responded with their standard "it's in the fine print" defense. Here was my response to BBB. Folks, this company could easily address these issues but they make money ripping people off like this. They don't deserve your business!

"In responding to my complaint, Care.com point to fine print in their subscription contract, which is precisely the nature of my complaint and hundreds of others over many months readily accessible on the BBB website. My complaint, as with the complaint of many Care.com customers, is that Care.com uses needlessly deceptive subscription practices (perfectly highlighted by the screenshot in their response to my complaint) showing a low subscription rate (in their screenshot ranging from $13/month to $39/month), with fine print that automatically enrolls customers in a much higher monthly rate WITH NO NOTICE. This quite predictably results in a pattern of customers unknowingly being charge one or more months at much higher rates than additionally agreed. I invite you to review the plethora of consumer complaints on the BBB website to this effect. Care.com could easily address this situation by making their billing practices more transparent, but why would they, when they are making a killing charging their own customers for services that, as acknowledged by Care.com staff in my case, many are not even using.

To add insult to injury, when customers discover they have been overcharged and Care.com confirms that said customers have not even logged into their service, they refuse to refund the subscription fees. Again, this is even in cases, like mine, where Care.com has confirmed that many months have been billed without a single login.

The BBB should not accept Care.com's defense of relying on the fine print on their website. Care.com could have addressed this issue in response to the many other complaints received by BBB, but have chosen not to because this deceptive practice is obviously a key driver of revenue. Identical practices in the financial industry have resulted in punitive judgments against banks and credit card companies, but since this is a consumer product no such regulations exist. This is why we rely on the BBB to call foul when companies deceive their customers in such a systemic manner despite easy fixes such as automatic notification of expiration of premium membership, automatic monthly notification of credit card charges (two changes that their system could easily handle since they already send automated notices at the beginning of such subscription periods), and refunding of membership fees when it can be confirmed by Care.com that such memberships were unused."

I received an email a few years ago, claiming a random background check came up with criminal activity in my name... in a state I'd never been to. It turned out to be another woman with the same name, 8 states away! Despite my best effort to prove this wasn't me, my account was closed and I was told the decision was irreversible. I've tried to clear my name with this site since and customer service refuses to help me! Run. Run as fast as you can away from this company.

I've had a Care.com profile for almost 10 years. Never knew they charged. I could have found a neighborhood cat feeder easily! They told me credit card was for paying for services. ( I thought that meant cat sitting service). Not sure when they started auto charging annual fee but I'm sure it was not straightforwardly communicated. Now retired, I noticed the charge and cancelled account. Effective 11/17 (non refundable fee paid through 11/17). Seriously!?!.

I went into care.com hoping to be able to advertise as a petsitter. Got shown a bunch of possible jobs, some which looked suspiciously repetitive. 'Applied' to these jobs, then got sent to make a profile. Once profile created, no job were available to apply for. Then I go into Indeed.com to look at avail part-time work, and care.com pops up, with a possible job. I go to message the person offering the job, and am asked to pay for 'credits' to message these people. Complete BS.

I have been receiving text messages from random telephone numbers saying they found me on care.com and are wanting to know if I'm available for various services.
My account with care.com has been closed for quite some time, and my phone number was never available for others to see while I did have an active account.
This is very concerning; perhaps someone has hacked into Care.com accounts? Are they distributing phone numbers? Is someone within their organization distributing phone numbers?