Cultural Care Au Pair Overview
Cultural Care Au Pair has a 1.4-star rating, derived from feedback provided by 85 customers. In the Professional Services category, it secures the 12th position out of 763 companies.
Rating
Contact Information
Website
culturalcare.com
Phone
(800) 333-6056
26 Wilbraham Road, Fallowfield, Manchester, M14 6JX, United Kingdom
Cultural Care Au Pair Reviews
Ravindra
Stay away from Cultural Care Au Pair
If I could give 0 starts, I would. I am a physican with 3 kids in the Hershey area. I have had the absolute worse experience with Cultural Care for the following reasons: 1. We have 3 kids and they do not incentivize for au pairs to choose larger families. As a result you get a million rejections. No one ever tells you this upfront and you end up having to offer more money/perks to even be competitive. 2. Our au pair decided to rematch after 1 day in the US to ultimately go to a family with fewer kids in an more desireable area. We were her quick ticket to get to the US. Cultural care made us house her for 2 weeks dueint the rematch and even pay her $60 Uber when she left. 3. You don't get a refund (without a fight) even if your au pair decides to rematch. Cultural care keeps 40%. 4. During the rematch process, we had another aupair reach out to us and ultimately to decide to match with us. After her flight was booked and the day before arriving, the au pair calls my wife (who was out buying supplies for her) stating that she wanted to match with a different family and would no longer be coming. There were no repercussions to the au pair or her coordinator. Both my wife and I had taken off work for an airport pickup (1.5hr drive). Seems like all the burden is on the family and none on the au pair. When I asked for the consequences on the au pair for violating our agreement last minute in an unprofessional manner, I get a response that "it is [their] right to rematch at any point if they choose." Seems like there is no definitive agreement until the au pair is ona flight. 5. The rematch process is a joke. Cultural care says that au pairs get sent home if they don't rematch in 2 weeks, but that's a lie. Au pairs have been on the site for months in the rematch process, meaning they can be as picky as they like. Larger families like ours don't stand a chance. 6. When a family has an issue with an au pair, cultural care tends to favor the au pair. When you read the reason for rematch statement, it often does not represent the family's actual views and is more designed to help the au pair rematch. We had a safety concerns with our au pair (let her run in a parking lot full of cars; tugged her by the hood of her jacket) which were not mentioned in the post. I'm sure that would be important to any family looking. 7. Cultural care does not care about the parents. They only care about their bottom line. They made it seem like they were doing us a favor by refunding our money. This was 100% owed to us and still does not take into account our time and frustrations. I strongly recommend staying away from this company, especially if you're a larger family.
Michela
Horrible Experience with Cultural Care
Updated by user Sep 22, 2022
refused to refund my money
Original review Sep 22, 2022
Cultural Care steals money from families, encourages rematch because it means more money in their pocket, and turns a blind eye to host children that have been neglected and abused. Ive now traded stories with countless host families that have had concrete evidence of serious abuse to host children by the au pairs ( that Cultural Care allegedly screens), and when presented with proof of the serious misconduct by the AP, Cultural Care will still allow a rematch. They lie on the rematch papers and they cover up scandals. There are a few lucky host families who may actually get their money back from cultural care after the agency fails their family, but you wont hear the trauma they suffered because CC makes them sign an NDA preventing them from detailing the events that took place. There are countless BBB complaints, reports to the dept of state, as well as FB groups with prior host families that tell the actual stories of the severe negligence committed by Cultural Care on a daily basis. To any future Host families thinking to use this agency, DONT!! Dont get scammed by them like many other families have. There are other Au Pair agencies that operate professionally, legally, and care about the children and their well-being.
EOJ
Terrible Experience
Original review Jun 07, 2021
A Catastrophe! Beware! First, if I could give this agency zero stars, I definitely would. I have absolutely no interest in hearing what the agency has to say in response to my review, as they played a MAJOR role in our AuPair's behavior and showed us absolutely ZERO support as your paying customer. I have five small children under the age of six. The AuPair matched with our family who we thought was so sweet and genuine about working with kids, was nothing but a liar in the end and used us (in our opinion) 1. to get to this country so she could get vaccinated because in her country, the Covid cases were extremely high and they had no access to any vaccinations, 2. So she could be closer to her twin sister who was an AuPair for another family here in the US. She quit three weeks after her arrival to this country. Week one we let her quarantine for a week in our apartment (our secondary residence). I got her a week's worth of groceries to stock in the apartment so she wouldn't have to come in contact with anyone (the purpose of a quarantine). All the items I purchased she said she liked to eat, and she barely ate anything I bought her and instead called me in the middle of the week asking if she could order a burger and have it delivered to her instead. That was the first sign of her being ungrateful. And we paid her a stipend for zero services while quarantining. I don't care if that was a choice of ours to have her quarantine. We should have her quarantined since she was coming from a country that had Covid extremely out of control. Her Major Issues: When she finally arrives to our house we offer her a phone for her to use with internet connection ready to go as we understand the importance of her needing to keep in contact with her family and so she can use the internet for all of her needs. Our AuPair lied and told the agency that we did not give her WiFi connection at all. We didn't let her use our home WiFi connection, YES! But we offered her a phone that allowed her two ways to access the internet (including another WiFi connection) and she refused to take us up on the offer. Why? Because she had her sister send her an iPhone instead and when it arrived it didn't function. So we then give her the SIM card from the phone we offered her to put in the phone her sister bought her and she had access to the internet immediately and we have the bill to prove that she had access to the internet (since the SIM card was linked to our wireless phone account). A couple of days after we gave her our SIM card, she gives it back to me and says that she got her own SIM card and didn't need ours anymore. Whatever "SIM Card" she got for her phone, failed on her and that was the beginning of her having problems with the internet. She never told us that she had issues until a week later. But of course she tells the LCC who was an enabler of her behavior that we never gave her WiFi and she told us that she didn't have an internet connection and we don't care and won't give her WiFi. Lies, lies, lies. Oh but there is more. It doesn't end there. She tells me she doesn't feel comfortable working with our two year old child who has some language delays. Now since we were told she had special needs experience, I asked her to work with him to help him with his speech delay. I wasn't asking her to move the moon and the stars, just implement language in his daily play with you. She said he wasn't listening to her, she didn't think he liked her and that she just wasn't comfortable working with him. You know what, we didn't think he liked her either and he obviously picked up on some things that was not right with her and he was RIGHT. Lastly, we made it very clear to her months before her arrival that we take Covid very seriously in this house as we are very serious about keeping our family and those around us safe. We told her that we preferred that she meet up in group settings or with people after she was fully vaccinated. We never told her she couldn't go to a store if need be or go for a walk to get some fresh air. She got her first vaccination during her second week she was here which means she was on her way to becoming fully vaccinated. Once again, she complains to the LCC that we never let her out the house which was a lie and she could never go anywhere. Just more lies, more lies, MORE LIES. I told the CRM all of this and she said that AuPairs should have the right to come and go as they please (even before vaccinations were administered), while they are living in your home and that we should have provided her with a key. Really?? Not in our home. She may be an adult as far as her age is concerned but our AuPair was nothing but a dependent. I had no relief while she was here with us and instead she was more stress. Our AuPair is in transition, I visit her profile to read a letter that is addressed to any new potential host family. A letter that had some lies in it about our family which clearly shows that the agency didn't include the truth about what really happened and why our AuPair was in transition. They also said that we declined to be contacted about our experience with the AuPair. That's funny. We were never asked if we would like to be contacted because they obviously wanted to cover everything up. Save yourself some time and do not consider them for your childcare needs. You will NOT be supported as the host family, TRUST ME. The AuPair's motive is only to come to this country and have a good time and that's really it. The agency's motive is only to take your money and that's really it. All the negative reviews, I believe every single one of them.
Anonim
There service is brilliant
The service from Cultural Care is amazing. With the help of Micaela Hilton my profile is approved. She helped me through every step of the way. She is very nice and friendly. They are the best and I will recommend the for anyone that wants to become an aupair. I am super happy with there service and support.
Anonim
Beware
They are extremely pushy, there is a lot of money involved for marketing the program. The candidates for the most part are not qulaified. They advertise the Au pair Program like its a vacation They don't disclose information, and its just a big melting pot with bad families and bad unqualified candidates. Senior management is terrible. Stay away and work with smaller agency that care about your family and care about the overall experience.
Anonim
Worst Childcare Experience EVER
Our LCC has been USELESS. Our matching specialist was equally useless. We spent premium $$$ to go with an agency that had branded itself as being the best because we'd never been through the process before. What a terrible mistake. They didn't help us. Our first match was DANGEROUS. Safety problem after safety problem. We reached out for help and were told to be "patient" that we'd matched "for a reason". It took 2 months to get her out of our house. I lost my job. I couldn't leave her alone with our kids for even a few minutes. She endangered them constantly. Then they charged us extra to rematch!!! We spent over 11,000 dollars directly to Cultural Care and never got ANY support from our matching specialist or LCC. At best the LCC would send a link when asked a question by myself or our au pair. terrible agency go with ANYONE else.
Anonim
Horrible
Had a very bad experience with Culture Care. I had an aupair as a rematch. She told me she really wanted to have another chance and will try to make it work. She got here and the first experience was really bad. She started picking her nose in the family room and grabbed a paper towel to put them on. I asked her to please stop. I also ask anyone to wash hands with soap before the prepare food — it was frustrating she didn’t always wash her hands. There were many other issues: late picking up kids, forgetting activities, not ready to work, and she didn’t try to form a bond with the kids. One of the primary reason for me to hire an au pair was for language learning. I asked her to please give the kids 30 minutes a day of language exposure. She never does it without me reminding her. She became like a 4th kid. She also turned down almost every activity we invite her to do as a family. Finally, she told me she had an emergency back home on a Thursday and left on Saturday. After she left, I found out she was pregnant. She was always wearing baggy cloth and one time I did see her gagging in the toilet. Cultural care didn’t screen when they rematch weather they are pregnant or not. They rematched her without proper screening. They claim that they didn’t know and didn’t ask that question. Cultural care also refused to refund my money even though they admitted that they didn’t ask about her pregnancy status when she rematched.
Anonim
Hurt Au Pair Family
Since the Au Pair programs settled out of court, they are treating the Host Families even worse than before. Our au pair ups and leave without notice and fabricates stories about our family to the agency and our friends. The stress this placed on our family is not acceptable. How can foreigners come to our country and try to damage families and just walk away without recourse. We feel like these au pair are using our homes like hotels. Once they get sick of one area they move on to the next. I can't believe how may au pairs are on their 3rd rematch. I can't believe the agency allow this. The agency take almost $9000 per year, only to side with the au pair! Cultural Care uses robots to email its families for check ins. There is no "personal contact" as required by the state department. The regional director only contacts us during placement of a new au pair. They should be contacting us every 3 months.
Ric
Cultural care worst company to work for....
My girlfriend is currently there, from the 17 September 2018, Where she have been “Lured” there by Cultural Care and the Sennet family from Mountain Top Pa, to do a 12-month contract looking after the Sennet family’s son A*. She just completed her first two and a half months with the family, where from the word GO it seemed to be not a good experience (The Lcc Bonnie told her “she could see from the beginning that it seemed not to be a good match”). after 10 weeks the family is "not happy" with her and want a rematch, Even tho there are no complaints and “she’s been doing a great job with our kid”, as the mother said. After she complained to the Cape Town branch as her Lcc Bonnie never got back to her when she lodged a complaint for being over worked 10 hours 2 weeks prier. After that they went away for the weekend, she was sick (with ear infection from the flu’s the family was having constantly) and asked to stay home. The woman Nicole Sennet from Mountaintop Pa where she stay said she must come along as its part of her work week. She looked after the kid on the Sunday, and when it came to booking out of the hotel, Nicole Sennet made her pay for the room ($210). More then her weekly stipend is ($195).Paying out of her pocket to look after there kid… They had a meeting on the Monday 18 December 2018, after without no notice from the LCC Bonnie(that supposed to look after her there, and let her know what is going on..) that they want to rematch from mediate effect. The way the host family (S*****’s) and Cultural Care handled this (by letting her go on the 18 December, before Christmas in the holiday season, without any concern or thought of what she must do) The S*****’s did not even want to pay her holiday pay of 2 weeks!!! After this the Tuesday 19 December 2018 the LCC Bonnie let her know she has to work for them now for the following 2 weeks when they need her, or else they will not pay her flight ticket back home(So to say “holding a gun 2 her head”) This Nicole Sennet also informed her, she must not be there on Christmas day while the family have their Christmas dinner…Where for most people this is a happy time of the year, these *** are putting her under tremendous stress and discomfort, not even allowing her to be with her family… It cost her over R38 000 to be there and part of this scheme Cultural Care is running… They don’t care for the girls that are there in a different country and are vulnerable… Any person that have had the same experience with these *** can contact me.. If we gather enough people to stand together we can start a Class action Law suit against them… Parents beware to send your kids with these companies to Exploit them.. Contact me so we can show them we are not going to allow this to our loved ones!!! Regards Ricardo ric.unique@***.com
Anonim
PARENTS BE WARNNED
A warning to all parents out there- PLEASE do not use this company. they do NOT screen their au pairs at all! Once our au pair got here she stolen money from us, She stole our childrens identity and took off one day without warning. We later found out that she had been arrested in her home country of South Africa for drinking a driving and had NO child care experience she lied to us and the cultural care but cultural care never checked any of her references or police records! This au pair wanted a way to get into the US legally and once she got her she took off and cultural care told us this happens all the time and they can't help. They said that we could get another au pair and they would discount one of the fees. (why on earth would i get another au pair with this company after the way they treated my family and myself!) After all the headaches and money we spend cultural care did nothing for us. They basically said tough luck! It has been about 6 months and my family is still dealing with her identity theft. Please don't use these au pairs i am just so thankful she didn't harm my three little kids while she was living with us.
Israel
DISCRIMINATES AGAINST DISABLED CHILDREN
Cultural Care Au Pair DISCRIMINATES AGAINST DISABLED CHILDREN! Cultural Care REFUSED to provide services with an Au Pair, because it will require the Au Pair to aid our 9-year-old son with basic toileting. We have a disabled child, with Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type 2 his ONLY disability is motor, so our 9 year old son can't walk and needs some assistance with toileting, brushing teeth, basic hygiene and transferring in and out of his wheelchair he is otherwise a completely normal child that can communicate better than some adults. Our home is completely modified with a lift, ramp and elevator to help my son in and out of his wheelchair, so he can be placed on his toilet chair, and into his bathtub. Cultural Care representative stated that aiding our son, with toileting and wiping is far beyond the scope of their Au Pair skils. So they basically told my wife that helping my son wipe his butt is too technical of a skill for the Au Pairs' , so they can not provide with their service/match us with any Au Pair. I am a physician I have had a lot of training in my career, but wiping a 1 month old, 1 year old, a 5-year-old, a 9 year old and a 90 year old butt does not require any special skills. We have utilized Cultural Care Au Pair in the past, with 3 different Au Pairs. Israel Landa MD (Host Family Landa)
Eric
Buyer beware: untrustworthy company
Buyer beware! 9 months into your annual agreement, Cultural Care Au Pair offers your au pair a deal he/she cant refuse: A FREE plane ticket home a MONTH early, before the contract is up!! He/she gets out of their contract and you get stuck scrambling for childcare during the new transition dates AND you're out $500+ because you prepaid. Attached photo is Hope Becker, the Director of Communications. If this happens to you her number is 1-61*-619-****. You may want to call her before you sign any documents. She will refuse to even discuss any issues with you! That is their official position! The Director of Communications will refuse to talk with you and then send you a form letter from their attorney. Real shady practices.
Anonim
Worst experience
It was just an awful experience. I used to be an au pair. The salary is a joke, the families think you are a maid. They don't want to take care of their own children so for this reason they think you should do everything for them. A nanny receives three or four times over and she doesn't have to live with the host families. Unless you have luck with a good family, your year will be a nightmare. The LCC's don't want to help, I had to stay in my lcc's house and she was always complaining about having a person in her home because she didn't have space for guest. Well, if you don't want au pairs in your house, why did you become an LCC? The host families are mean, they don`t care about you at all and they don`t follow important rules.
Anonim
This company is a fraud
Terrible agency They lie and misrepresent the candidates When the Au pair arrive most are inexperienced and do not care for kids Some Ap that are qualified get taken advantage Many work extra hours and many work on the side Others don't get paid over the summer while kids are at sleep away camp They should be shut down It's just a money making machine and corporate is just lazy and awful to deal with
Anonim
They only care about making money from families and au pairs
I had a horrible experience with this au pair agency. They helped to match a girl from China for our family. The girl came in doing on-line business to sell products to China, and later she left with no explanation. Cultural care au pair local coordinator failed to resolve the issue. In fact, the local coordinator is too busy with her full time job and had absolutely no time dealing with these au pairs. She only needs to collect her service fees. After the au pair departure, the agent simply matched her with another family and refused to assign a new au pair to continue with the service for the remaining contract period.
Kaila
Please keep your children safe
Please DO NOT use this company. They do NOT screen their au pairs. I had reviewed a lot of the au pairs on their site and was actually matched with one from a representative of Cultural Au Pair. She was from Italy and seemed to understand english. She said she had experience with infants. Just so you are aware, Cultural Au Pair I later find out accepts "experience" as being under the same roof - in the same vicinity as a child. I spoke with the au pair numerous times and went over the schedule and expected job duties. She arrived. I payed the upfront money for the initial fees. After she arrived I found out that she actually didn't know how to change a diaper. She left my infant child on a changing table alone after being told not to do this. She didn't bother putting my child in his sleep sack but rather just laid him on top of it while in the crib. She let him sleep in front of the TV and didn't put him in the crib because "he didn't want to be in his crib" and as stated above didn't put him in his sleep sack "because he didn't want to be in it". Review of the monitor in the baby room showed she didn't even try to put him in it. Final straw was using the front burners of the stove that my kiddo could reach and leaving the pan she was using to cook herself food accessible to my child's hand. I was lucky that I had monitors reviewing the events that were happening in my house. This all happened within 2 days of her starting to work for me. IT was obvious she had no clue how to work with an infant. Cultural Au Pair did not review her references and experience and allowed her to match with a family of an infant which could have very well lead to an injury if I didn't catch what she was doing when she was alone with my child. I decided at this point to never work with this company again. I beg you to NEVER work with them as well. After requested refund they stated that I should have reviewed her information more thoroughly and they were only obligated to refund less than half of the $9000 I gave them. (for 3 days of work) AND Another family again paid the company the FULL amount for taking the same unsafe au pair for the year. Sooooo they were paid double for not doing their job.