This was the worst experience I have ever had with any business, ever. First of all, I still have charges on my credit card in the amount of: 3/20/19-515.00; 3/18-61.80; 3/18-185.40 I also have a credit of 100.00 because I used the Yelp coupon that cost me $75. These charges were ON TOP of the $25 an hour (cash) I paid the babysitters. This was for a total of 3 hours Monday, 10 hours Wednesday, and 6 hours Thursday.
I contacted "Quality" Nanny Services Monday morning to reserve someone for the week. I also mentioned that I was interested in a full-time placement depending on the cost. We are in the process of adopting 5 siblings from foster care, and unexpectedly found ourselves with 3 of them (2, 4, and 5 years-old) for an extra week. After several texts, she sent me someone at 2 to work until 6. I was at the house the whole time, *trying* to fill out paperwork and make phone calls. The woman who showed up was wearing a torn, dirty t-shirt that looked like she had slept in it and was so fat and old (I really hate to be unkind, but I need to be frank about the "quality nanny" they sent) that she barely made it to the sofa before she had to sit down. I asked her to feed them a snack. When they finished eating, they ran to their rooms to play, and she sat down on my sofa to watch videos on her phone. I had to tell her that the kids had to have constant supervision, which is why I called for help. So she went to watch the kids, but they were afraid of her, so I got nothing done. When my spouse got home at 5, I told her she could go, and she told me that I had to pay her cash. I told her that I thought I had already paid because my credit card notified me of the 2 charges that day and I had assumed that the 185 was the sitter charge. We got Michelle on the phone who informed me that the 185 and the 60 were THE PLACEMENT FEE. Even though the website says, "Private families will billed an agency booking fee of $40 for any dates with 1 week or more notice and $60 for any dates booked with less than one weeks notice," Nowhere does it mention that this is for EACH DAY. When I told Michelle that this was misleading, and I never would have agreed to that, she said, "Thanks for the feedback, but no one has ever complained about it before." She also made it quite clear that all of the booking fee was nonrefundable and the kept me on the phone for over an hour pitching this great nanny that she had already found for us that would be available for the rest of the week. She sounded good, and Michelle promised to send her the next day for a meeting and refund all the placement fees if we wanted to go with her. She also promised all kinds of other discounts and suggested ways I could pay out the $2500 placement fee for the nanny. She emailed me: "50% off remainder placement fee after admin fee ($500). Apply booking fees from 3-20-3-22 ($182). If you select G--- these discounts will be applied."
I already had hired STEM Babysitting for Tuesday, and was already regretting ever calling QNS after a day with STEM (see my review). I really wanted to hire STEM for the rest of the week, but I was told in another hour-long phone call that this nanny was so amazing and had already rearranged her hours for her other job to accommodate our needs since Michelle had managed to convince her that we would probably hire her full-time. She seemed nice enough, so we gave her a try.
Wednesday morning I got a call from Michelle (she blocks her number BTW), and I sent it to VM because I didn't have another hour to talk while I was trying to get ready for work. Next thing I know, my CC company texts that I have 2 charges pending for a total of $3000. This was not the best way to start any day. I handed Michelle off to my spouse who is not as nice as I am, but calls were never returned.
On the part of the nanny, it went ok, although all the promises in Michelle's sales pitch (she can clean up and do laundry and errands) never happened. Also, even though Michelle had told us that G-- had availability for the week, when we met her on Tuesday, G-- told us that she had to leave for her other job by 2 on Thursday and possibly Friday. So my spouse and I were the ones who ended up moving our schedules around to accommodate the nanny!
Again, we had to pay her in cash, which was a problem. When I emailed Michelle that we had decided to go in another direction, she emailed back, "please make sure G- gets paid, we received the following yesterday- she was supposed to be paid same day
"I expected payment at the end of my shift today but they said they will definitely have my payment for 2 days tomorrow."
I will let G- know."
We did have her payment for the 2 days and drove it across town to her in 5pm traffic. She never showed up or even called on Friday, so I had to call in sick.
As I write, I have not heard another word from Michelle. read more
