It pains me to write this review, but I feel it necessary to warn all potential partners or vendors for this company due to how our situation was handled with one of their directors.
Christopher Kibbey (Camp Director for Kindercare Learning Centers) hired my band to play for a camp orientation night on June 21st. In the interest of full transparency, Mr. Kibby had at one point been a close personal friend to both myself and another member of the band. We were happy to play for the event! He told us to name our price, we told him, then did not hear from him until June 15th. He apologized for the delay in communication, then continued on to give details about the event such as time to arrive, parking, location, etc…
June 21st arrives, we play the show, and everything goes well. It was an enjoyable evening. That is unfortunately the end of our positive experience. Week after week, members of our group were reaching out to Mr. Kibbey with updates as to when the band will receive payment. Our attempts at communication went through email, text, Instagram, and FaceBook. All messages were left unopened and unread by Mr. Kibbey. Weeks after the performance (July 14th) Mr. Kibbey finally responds to the numerous messages I had sent. The email from him was professional and included an apology, however the ending read, "Take care, [Your Name]" - yes, exactly like that.
Immediately following that message, Mr. Kibbey admitted to using AI software to generate the message. I was surprised to see our years of friendship were not worth writing a personal message. In the same message, Mr. Kibbey continued to use manipulative, gaslighting techniques to essentially blame me for the scenario. He told me the following Monday (July 17th), he would reach out to me with an update on our invoice. Monday came and went. Tuesday I messaged him via text (at his request) and heard nothing. Same thing happened the next day. At this point, my band invited a third party to contact KinderCare's accounts payable department.
On July 28th, our representative called and emailed KinderCare's accounts payable department. Based on their response, it was evident there had been no paperwork filed regarding our performance or payment at all. Mr. Kibbey assured us via email sent on July 14th that he was "confident that it is in progress, and will be resolved soon," when in reality he had done nothing to even start the process.
At this point we were waiting on KinderCare's accounts payable department to approve the invoice, however the person that could authorize that was away until August 22nd. On Sept 6th, we received an email from Mr. Kibbey. However this email had no information, only wanted to dispute the amount we were charging for our performance. By this point we had already heard from the accounts payable department that the invoice was approved, just needed to be paid. I am unsure as to why Mr. Kibbey even reached out to dispute this at all other than a last-ditch effort to save his own skin. We did not respond.
Finally, on Sept. 12th our band received our check for the amount originally agreed upon. I am so relieved to be done with this aggravating experience and thankful that KinderCare saw the need to do the right thing and pay for services rendered. I am extremely disappointed with how Mr. Kibbey handled this. The amount of unprofessionalism conveyed both in his messages and in his silence was incredibly frustrating and frankly, quite saddening. It took KinderCare almost three months to finally pay us (no fault of their A/C department) so that we may get our books in order. In closing, I highly recommend that anyone who does business with Mr. Kibbey gets everything in writing and makes certain it has been approved by the governing department. I will never do business with Mr. Kibbey again and hope that some day, he is able to conduct himself in a professional manner that is not aided by artificial intelligence.
My boys have been attending kindercare for 6 years. Tuition is constantly increasing and fees are always issued and required to pay within their billing period or they will unenroll students. I have paid $785 more in months months! I am a single mom as I'm sure alot of parents are, that's not something I can just "afford" like Kindercare thinks parent should be able to do. They do not work with you on payments and are quick to issue a late fee of $60. They require a summer fee and a fall registration fee, totaling $375. I don't even know what "summer activities" my boys are participating in. Is the increase in tuition during summer not enough? They do not offer part time, my 6 year old only needs to go 3 days a week but whether he goes 3 or 5 days a week, I have to pay full time tuition. I am a single mom and 100% depend on my boys going to daycare so I can work. It blows my mind that kindercare keep rasing their tuition and fees and is not willing to offer part time to help decrease expenses on parents.
On top of the tuition and fees, they can no longer give children medicine unless they have a doctor's note! So if a child has a minor need for tylenol, they will not give it to them and will be asked to pick them up.
Kindercare Corporation does not care about the parents of the students that attend their centers. I absolutely do not recommend Kindercare! As a parent we all know that daycares are supposed to be their to help parents and provide the trust and security that we desire when they have our children, not cause stress on their finances and ability to work. It's ridiculous!
The staff at Kindercare is like family to us and is only reason I have not left. My childern know them and they know my childern. When I express finding a new daycare, my boys get upset and say no. I feel trapped bewteen giving my childern the comfort they deserve and finding what fits my life as a single mom. Eventually I will have no choice but to leave Kindercare.
I feel sorry for the staff because they are the ones that have to deal with the dissatisfaction from parents. Kindercare Corporation offers no compassion, no empathy, no understanding, nothing. It's a horrible corporation. I understand the increase in tuition as liability goes up as well as the cost of goods they need to serve the students but all these additional unnecessary policies and fees are not ok.
I have spoken to teachers in the past and while tuition keeps increasing, their pay does not. They deserve more and I believe they would be happier individuals if they had more incentives. I could go on. Bottom line: don't chose kindercare as your childcare provider, it's a trap unless you can handle the chaos that fees, tuition, and inconvenient policies they enforce.
Several times now, I've had to deal with sexism in the workplace. Sometimes in the official group work group chat, sometimes in person, all from employees. Bringing up this issue proves to resolve nothing here. I started this job under the pretense of receiving more hours in the future. My director informed me that I could not get any more hours due to not having enough children there. Later after asking for more hours, my director hired a new AD and another part time employee, except the new employee had more hours than I did. I was not a bad worker, I put in my all every single day, and never got a word of appreciation for it from anyone. Other people got appreciated for their efforts daily in the work group chat, not me. The day that I told my employer that I was giving my notice 03/24/23, she told me she refuses to be a personal reference for me, I thought "okay kind of petty but whatever". As I was gone from work for the day, I checked the work group chat. The assumption is they have a personal group chat, and the director told all the 'adults' that I gave my notice. What proceeded is very amusing. It's almost as if they are the children, not the kids they watch over. I will now tell you a few things they said about me in the work group chat. "You were right though, Whippany Kindercare is tough and everybody can't handle it and we found that out today." "That is true. We have seen this week especially today that there are people that can do this job and there are people who just can't handle it. Not everyone is cut out to work with kids." Director: "Preach lady. Proud to have the crazies that I have who stay on the looney tune train. Thanks for working hard & being on our team!". This is all because I did not get my hours that I needed to have. I took another job that gave me the hours I needed, paid more, and this is how they treat you. Keep this in mind before applying here, these are petty people. Now to review daily life, if you work here and need to go to the restroom, and you are male, be warned. I often had to wait over 30 minutes for someone to come to let me use the restroom. If you work in child care already you may think it was due to ratios, it wasn't. Several times other people asked after me to use the restroom, I saw someone say "coming" in the work group chat, and they never came for me, well, after 30 minutes. By the time they came to let me use the restroom, I basically feel like I will have an accident. Management was a joke, the director basically left every day early, and left a floater to delegate everything and close. The hardest part of the job was dealing with daily insults/implications from the co-workers. Doing other people's job for them. Most enjoyable part? The kids, that's it. What I learned from working at KinderCare Learning Center in Whippany? Be liked, genuinely liked, or you deal with what I dealt with. Even if they are nice in person, I can bet they all were not being nice in their personal group chat. To top it all off, several times I had seen straight up child abuse as designated by the NJCCIS trainings. Pulling kids violently by the arm, yelling in children's faces, shaming them, making fun of children. Just today 03/24/23 as I gave my notice, the room I went into in the child safety record, it was noted that at one point there were 17 children and 1 teacher present in the room. That is way over ratio, even in a mixed ratio. This tends to happen there, not following the protocols they should, and all the other stuff wrong with this place. To add insult to injury it is dirty in my room, people are always complaining about ants in the classroom, this includes the one I worked in, tons of ants, due to inadequate cleaning. This place is a nightmare, overall. Be warned.
I was very disappointed to experience such disrespect during my phone call with the director of Clementon KinderCare, I believe the center needs to replace the director immediately. On Thursday Jan 19,2023 I was getting off work around 6:00pm when I received a phone call from the daycare, I was contacted by the Director who was extremely rude, she lashed out in a harsh tone saying that I needed to pick up my son, the court order in front of her states this. I was confused by the call and let her know I was unaware of what she was talking about, I never received a revised court order that changed my visits. The original order stated that I am given
Wed-Thurs morning, which mean I drop him off to daycare Thursday morning. My next allotted time is not until Fri- Sunday. However what the director was reading to me states that I am to have him from Wed-Sun. Now had I known of the new changes I would not have dropped him off that particular morning due to my expected work schedule for Thursday. I tried to explain to her that I am being completely blindsided by all of this new information and unfortunately I am nowhere close. I was in north NJ, and it would take me 2 hours to get to daycare from my current position. She showed no empathy or compassion to my current situation, she continues on to tell me that this isn't her problem, and she has somewhere to be. She recited that their rule states that the child has to be picked up by 6pm and if not by 6:30pm the police will be involved. I then questioned why is it necessary to have them involved, this is not a no show situation, I expressed that I am being compliant, and I am on my way as well as trying to find someone to get to you sooner. I also apologized again that I did not know about the new order and I'm not sure why I did not receive a letter in the mail. I live in Phila. PA, NJ family court has in the past taken down and incorrect address and not sent me very important information. I also questioned why she believe it was necessary to talk to me in such a manner, I did nothing wrong and in fact I am trying to resolve this issue.
The entire conversation she spoke with such an intimidating and condescending tone. None the less she continues to tell me none of this is business of hers, and she doesn't have time for this, she is a very important person, a director who has a lot to do. I felt as if me being African American played apart, and she believed she can speak to me however she wanted to. I do not believe that if this was a Caucasian couple the situation would have been taken to this extreme. I doubt the police would have been called, especially knowing I'm enroute and on the phone with you, as well as trying to find someone close. I added her in on a call with my friend who lives in New Jersey to see if he would be able to pick up my son, she yelled on the phone and hung up. I called back nervously very scared for my son, I was in a vulnerable situation and there was nothing that I could do to fix the issue quickly enough, and there was no understanding given. I asked if she could call his mother, she said she's at work, but in a very recent conversation with the court his mother stated she was not working at the time, so I asked was she sure and could she please just try and I will pick him up from her, she said no. I also inquired why am I being notified so late, I would believe that if I never pick him up on Thursday I should get a courtesy call to make sure I am aware, so she stated she meant to call earlier but because she's a director and had more precedent matters, and other obligations she lost track of time. Of course I can understand that, however she refused to give the same understanding in return. Continuing with the same rude treatment she stated if someone is not here by 6:30 I will be calling the police, and then yelled I have been here since 6:30 a.m., I said I understand I'm just as tired I dropped him off at 6:30 a.m. She then hung up to call the district director, so I continued to search around for someone able to get there. I spoke with my sister she said she can get him, so I called the daycare to let them know my sister was on the way, the director never mentioned that the police were called already she just rushed me off the phone stating they were waiting for a callback. I then get a call from the police who is stating that the director told them that I said I am not coming to pick up my son which was not the truth, I was very grateful because the officer remained neutral and asked for my side of the story. I explained to him everything that happened, within the conversation he let me know everything was being recorded and gave me what I needed to retrieve the recording (Inv. Szovati 2023-*******) My sister arrived at the daycare, the director asked the police to follower her out and please stay until she has left to make sure she does not do anything. That request was very rude and unnecessary, my sister said nothing to her in an aggressive or threatening manner. I believe the director is racist and I fear for my son being in her care.
