Site says it is free to post, but after you post they tell you that you can't view the replies unless you pay $35. Once you pay they sign you up for $35 per month without telling you and charge your credit card even after you cancel the service. No notifications if someone does happen to apply for your posted job, and it seems that sitters don't get notifications of IMs either since they never reply. Refused to refund the amount they charged after I cancelled. I have disputed the transactions with my credit card provider.
I used this site to attempt to hire a nanny. I had many people apply to the position, but only a few left contact information on their initial email through Sittercity. Any that did not leave their contact info, I attempted to contact through this site and not one contacted me back. I think their internal email is poorly set up.
Those that gave their contact info in their initial email, I set interviews for. ALL of them, except one, no showed. I even had a couple of prospective sitters hang up on me mid-sentence!
And to add insult to injury, I had to pay for the privilege of my time being wasted, and the hassle and frustration of bad manners.
Will not be using this site again.
You need to be very careful with any of these types of find a sitter or nanny websites but you can find a good sitter if you contact all of their references. I found a great sitter that lives right around the corner. Sittercity really helped me out.
Hi Stacy, thanks so much for your feedback! We are happy to hear you were able to connect with a great sitter :)
Do not register with this company or pay them a dime. It's a total scam. They will take your money and not be able to deliver what they promise. They also do not require sitters to be vaccinated. They should be forced to close. It's that bad.
Hi Laurie! Thank you for providing your feedback. Sorry to hear about your disappointment in your membership.
As we mentioned in our previous communications, each sitter is considered an independent/ sole provider. Because of this, we do not require them to show proof of any vaccination or personal health information. Families that choose to hire a sitter have the right to require proof of vaccination. Sitters also have the right to share or not share vaccination records. It's completely up to them. If a sitter chooses not to share, the families does not have to hire them.
We provide our families 3 different Premium Membership options to fit their needs (Monthly, Quarterly, and Annually). Families can cancel their subscriptions at any time. We also have a Basic Membership (free) that allows you to browse our website, post a job, and search for sitters to ensure it is a good fit before you upgrade your account.
We wish you all the best in your search for child care!
This company is very deceiving. I signed up for the one month service to find a babysitter. After the one month I was led to believe that they would no longer debit my account. Two months later I realized they had a recurring debit of $35 each month. When I called the number listed for sittercity it took forever to actually get through to a person to speak about my account. When I was actually able to get in touch with someone, I was told that in the agreement it states that it will be a recurring payment and they will not issue refunds. So I lost $70 plus I never even found a sitter for my children. I do not recommend using sittercity.com.
Hi Sarah, thank you for taking the time to leave your feedback. I'm sorry to hear about your disappointment with your membership on Sittercity. All of our Premium Membership plans are subscription based and automatically renew unless canceled, as stated on the sign-up page, on your receipt, and in our Terms of Use. Members have the option to cancel at any time through their Account Settings or by calling, chatting, or emailing our Customer Success team. We understand that life is busy and it can be easy to overlook our auto-renew policy. We routinely review our communications, and your feedback is very helpful as we look to reduce the potential for confusion.
One experience was it for me! These parents don't even care who they leave their children with! The worst part is they can review the sitters but you can't warn other sitters about the terrible parents. I got a foul mouthed lunatic mom who treated me terribly but I can't warn anyone about her? This is a terrible idea and reviews should be given for both parents AND sitters
Hi Cynthia, thank you for taking the time to provide a review. We are sorry to hear about your experience. If you haven't already done so, please contact Customer Success so our team can collect more information on the parent who you were in contact with. Our email is support@sittercity.com. Thank you.
I signed up for three months then cancelled so I wouldn't be charged. They have no record of that (of course) The website didn't work half the time. Not only did I not find a sitter I was charged again in three months. Per their policy they do not give refunds under no circumstance. I didn't mind paying for the first three months but I didn't authorize the next. You can call but nobody answers. I did get a same email response. It only regurgitate their policy of no refunds. I love this part- they "find most families prefer ongoing access to their website." SCAM written all over this site. Just don't.
Hi Heather,, thank you for taking the time to leave your feedback. I'm sorry to hear about your disappointment with your membership on Sittercity. We assure you that we have reviewed our back-end data and unfortunately, did not see an attempt to cancel the subscription prior to you reaching out to our team on 1/03. When subscriptions are cancelled, we will send our customers an email confirming the cancellation has taken place. We do appreciate your business and are sorry to hear that you were unable to find a care provider through our site. We wish you all the best in your future childcare search.
There is no accountability. If you take the time to book a babysitter then they call or text at night to say I'm sick with no notice. There needs to be something attached to they're profile that says I've canceled a job or called out sick this amount of times. I actually do all the hard work to go to work.
Hey there! Thanks for your feedback! When there is an issue with a caregiver, we typically add a note to their account. If they continue to no-show, we will remove them. Parents are able to write reviews for caregivers as well. If you need any assistance, please contact our Customer Success Team at Support@Sittercity.com. We're here to help!
If you don't read any other review read this one! Not 1 family on Sittercity is willing to do things legally and take out taxes! If you get an offer then ask about taxes they will rescind the offer no matter how interested they were. They all expect you to want to get paid under the table! Unbelievable! Wierd how it forces you on here to give at least 1 star or you can not submit your review!
Hi Tammy, thank you for providing this feedback for our team. We are sorry to hear that you weren't able to connect with a family who was willing to be on the same page with you in terms of payment. We have partnered with a payroll service which makes it easier for families to pay nanny taxes. Please feel free to reach out to our team at support@sittercity.com so we can provide these resources to you for future reference. We will be sure to pass your review on to our Marketing team to ensure our families are aware of these services.
Omg this sittercity is pure pure scam.
Just this past weekend we were looking for a date night babysitter, I paid $39 dollars so I could get messages and respond to babysitters. One of them,"Kim" asked us if we could drop our child to her home because she didn't want to drive 15mins to our home. My husband and I had to cancel our date night plans. I tried calling the next business day(Monday) and no one answered. So I emailed them requesting for my refund and Adrienne replied and said NO REFUND because I signed up for premium, like how did this happen because anything premium is very visible and most of the time you see it and just choose what's best for you and not premium because in most cases and anywhere, it's more money.
No parent should waste their time with this place, they don't even have a website, such scams.
Hey there! We apologize to hear that you didn't enjoy your experience with our platform. On the Monday that you called, our phone lines were closed due to the Labor Day Holiday.
It sounds like you upgraded to our premium subscription successfully. Because Sittercity is simply an online meeting venue for families to connect with independent sitters in their area, we cannot provide any guarantees.
The sitters on the site are not our employees and they independently network on our site. Depending on the location and timing, sitters can be more or less active and it's ultimately up to each individual sitter to decide whether or not they would like to respond. However, we absolutely do stress the importance of (timely) responsiveness and professionalism to all of the sitters on the site. As far as the sitter that you didn't have a good experience with, it would be helpful to other users on the site to review that individual on their profile.
As stated on the purchase page and your receipt, we have a no refund policy. On our website, Sittercity.com, you can access your account and view our 3 options of premium subscriptions. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to our Customer Success Team at support@sittercity.com!
Sittercity is a scam they need 0 starts. Not one sitter replied back in over months. I have messaged 30 people not even one person messaged back. Over 6months still no reply from anyone.
Hi there, thank you for taking the time to leave your feedback! We are sorry to hear that you are experiencing this issue. We certainly would like to look into this further. If you could please contact our Customer Success team at support@sittercity.com, we will collect more information and help trouble-shoot this with you.
Took stolen credit card information and charged me a "renewal fee". What a joke. My son, only child, has not needed sitting sevices in years. Stay away from this company. In my experience, when a company resorts to fraud it's a last ditched effort to steal on the way out. Shame on this company.
They purposely designed the account setting without the option to cancel the membership to make it difficult to cancel. So they can do automatically renew without notifying you. Meanwhile, I found there are more reply emails to your post before you become a member. Not sure, it is scam or not. But not happy about their service at all.
Hi May, thank you for taking the time to leave your feedback. I'm sorry to hear about your disappointment with your membership on Sittercity. All of our Premium Membership plans are subscription based and automatically renew unless canceled, as stated on the sign-up page, on your receipt, and in our Terms of Use. Members have the option to cancel at any time through their Account Settings or by calling, chatting, or emailing our Customer Success team. We understand that life is busy and it can be easy to overlook our auto-renew policy. We routinely review our communications, and your feedback is very helpful as we look to reduce the potential for confusion.
After trying to contact about a dozen listed potential sitter I was finally able to establish contact with one person. After much back and forth with this person we finally agreed to meet. The night before we were going to meet up, they backed out and never tried to reschedule. I contacted the company about a refund and got a hard no. No attempt to fix anything, just a stern repeat of the no refunds policy.
Hi Jeremiah, thank you for your feedback and we're sorry to hear of your experience. We can understand how inconvenient that would be for you to have a sitter not show up as expected.
Leaving a review is the best way to inform other parents of the sitter's behavior. The review will stay pinned to the sitter's profile for the duration of their account. Only you as the parent may request the review to be hidden on the sitter's profile. We do apologize for this inconvenience and hope you are able to find a reliable sitter soon!
I've been on the site for probably 6 or so years and tbh have found great jobs 2 that I had for multiple years so I used it really only those two times. I am a experienced and professional nanny. However recently upon interviewing for a new job the employers asked if they could run my background and I obliged. My background check was always fine even with traffic tickets. However this most recent time I had a street sweeping ticket that I had never seen from an old apt about a year out. The employers had no issue with it of course, however sittercity banned me from the site permanently specifically for the street sweeping ticket! I asked what a street sweeping ticket had to do with employment as that could happen to anyone and it also can be easily fixed and removed from my background now that I'm aware. They treated me like a criminal and refused to converse or find a solution. They removed my profile and sent out an email to anyone I had ever contacted as if I were a criminal on the loose. It was humiliating and I only found out because my current employer sent me a message about her e mail asking what it was in regards to. Incredibly embarrassing and unprofessional as a street sweeping ticket does not put anyone in the universe at risk, however the emails sent out were very damaging to my reputation.
Hi there, thank you for taking the time to leave your feedback. We take the trust and safety of our users very seriously, and our trust and safety team is always monitoring the site. Members are removed from our platform for one of three reasons: They are found to be under 18 years old. They failed an identity authentication or background check, or they are no longer eligible to be on our site based on our Terms of Use. We encourage you to review our Terms of Use here: sittercity.com/terms
This site is a complete scam and they have the absolute WORST 'customer service' representatives! The lady, if I dare call her that was incredibly unhelpful, rude, arrogant and extremely argumentative! She got very loud and combative with me because her business had done wrong! Do NOT give these people or time or business! The BBB was definitely not happy when I called them!
Hi there, thank you for your feedback and we're sorry to hear of your disappointment. If there's anything further we can assist you with, please feel free to send us an email at support@sittercity.com. Unfortunately there is no contact information provided through this site linking to your account, but I would be happy to review your account further.
As most of you I was looking for someone to care for my kiddos. This site has you sign up for a month and they turn it to a recurring payment. Then terrible customer service and dismissal. They would not refund the 70 dollars and are keeping my account open even after requesting to have it closed. Its 4 days past the billing cycle and they're refusing to provide reimbursement even at a prorated rate. And still no babysitter that is a good fit for my kiddos.
Hi Angelena, thank you for taking the time to leave your feedback. I'm sorry to hear about your disappointment with your membership on Sittercity. All of our Premium Membership plans are subscription based and automatically renew unless canceled, as stated on the sign-up page, on your receipt, and in our Terms of Use. Members have the option to cancel at any time through their Account Settings or by calling, chatting, or emailing our Customer Success team. We understand that life is busy and it can be easy to overlook our auto-renew policy. We routinely review our communications, and your feedback is very helpful as we look to reduce the potential for confusion.
The sitter we hired through Sittercity had a driving record (we had a private background check run as they did not require it) She had evictions.
She left our infant unattended and tried to steal furniture. She tried to coerce us to follow her outside so she could claim we were assaulting her. Our neighbors were witnesses to this madness! Sittercity still has her on their site as of today.
They were sent evidence including voicemail of the sitter admitting she was guilty of the above. Sittercity is in possession of the admission from the sitter via voicemail of leaving an infant alone in a house in a high chair unattended, stealing furniture and stealing keys to the house. They have chosen to leave this baby sitter on their website for other families to hire, knowing that she has admitted to these atrocities.
Sittercity is a predatory business that relies on customers signing up for what they think is a limited time frame of access to their program. Customers then realize that they are being charged or have been charged multiple times without their consent. When contacting the customer service department their trained response is to say that the customer signed up for a reoccurring service in the fine print. This is a case of "small print" fraud.
This company practices dishonest billing practices. Buyer beware! We were forced to pay for an additional 3 months of service which we did not want. Sittercity would not refund us even though we cancelled on the day they billed us. We filed a dispute and sittercity fought us on that too and had our dispute overturned. I will fight this out of principle and be filing a complaint with the BBB and reopening the credit card dispute as well. Do not give this company your credit card if you aren't prepared to be charged without your consent.
Hi Brian, thank you for taking the time to leave your feedback. I'm sorry to hear about your disappointment with your membership on Sittercity. All of our Premium Membership plans are subscription based and automatically renew unless canceled, as stated on the sign-up page, on your receipt, and in our Terms of Use. Members have the option to cancel at any time through their Account Settings or by calling, chatting, or emailing our Customer Success team. We understand that life is busy and it can be easy to overlook our auto-renew policy. We routinely review our communications, and your feedback is very helpful as we look to reduce the potential for confusion.
Overview
Sittercity has a rating of 1.3 stars from 146 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers dissatisfied with Sittercity most frequently mention customer service, background check and credit card. Sittercity ranks 54th among Childcare sites.
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Hi Tek, thanks for the feedback, and we understand you are frustrated. However, In order to purchase the subscription you purchased, you had to input your credit card number, and choose the subscription of your choise. It's not possible to unintentionally purchase a subscription. Additionally, all of our subscriptions renew until cancelled and are non-refundable. This is stated on the purchase page, on your receipt, and in your Help Center. All members are notified through both their account inbox, as well as the email we have on file, once you received an application to a job you have posted and the same goes for our caregivers for when a message is received.