THIS REVIEW IS MY EXPERIENCE WITH THE OWNER HELEN QIU.
I believe that Helen is unprofessional, disrespectful, belligerent and unethical. I did not have a good experience with her. I do not think i will be sending my child to her daycare again.
From the first day when touring the facility, she gave me a bad impression. We had texted each other to meet at the 227 S Main St location days in advance. Then, on the day, close to the time, i texted her to confirm that I would meet her on time, she then replied she could not make it and had to postpone BECAUSE it was the Chinese New Year and she was with her family. While i certainly understand the importance of that day for her, i do not understand why she confirmed to meet me on that day OR why she did not notify me to postpone earlier. Even so, I agreed to postpone for several hours to meet her. Then just 10 minutes before the new appointment time, she texted me to meet her at another location at 158 S Main Street. I agreed again but she was late with the excuse of "other parents are always late". I was not only surprised hearing this excuse, but she assumed that I would be late as well and showed no respect for my time. She made not only a judgement of me, but also she does not understand that as a business owner you do not let your clients wait UNLESS there are very special reasons or you let your clients know beforehand. Being late and judgmental is unprofessional and disrespectful. Sadly, I was in a hurry to put my child to a daycare so I enrolled in her program as with other daycares, I would have to wait.
I also had concerns over the way that she treated a new teacher. One morning, I was dropping off my child in the classroom. My child was the first one to arrive. The moment i walked in the door, i heard she yelling at the new teacher (an Indian girl) while the teacher was walking out. I walked out the door and Helen followed me and kept yelling in front of my child and me at the teacher. The teacher was looking for something in her car and Helen stood at the door yelling at her again very loud and quite harsh. I felt so bad for the teacher. It seemed she was afraid and even shaking. Then Helen saw me and realized that my child was alone in the classroom by herself, she walked back inside. The incident showcased how mean she was to the teacher and it was irresponsible to do this in front of me and esp. my child. Very unprofessional and disrespectful.
Finally, the refund process was so frustrating. My child left the daycare service in the middle of September. She texted me that a refund would be issued at the beginning of October, which was fine. Then at the beginning of Oct, I did not receive it and texted her. She replied that she "had forgotten" about it with a promise to take care of it soon. Then a few days later, i received a deposit which was only about half of the money i was supposed to receive, so I texted her again. Then all her texts were about challenging the amount of the refund, to the point it seemed she did not want to refund the proper amount. Finally it was proved that she had the wrong date when my kid left and had miscalculated the refund; then there were city subsidies that she did not rebate to me as well but Helen insisted she had. I understand she is busy but don't you run your ledger records before you refund any money? Very basic accounting practice if you run a business. As I was busy traveling outside the US, texting her all the payment records several times (which she could easily find in Venmo) and repeating the same points time and time again were very challenging, which should not have been even necessary in the first place. Eventually, she agreed that "I was 100% correct". She made the refund process as hard as it could be. Very unprofessional. The worst part, while she wrongfully remembered that child quit school in August, she did remember to requested the September's subsidy and received the money; and, she did NOT refund it to me. It was not until the city officials told me that I was still entitled of September's subsidy, I had no idea there was money that I was supposed to get from her. It is mind-boggling to me how unethical Helen could be as someone in this business for so many years. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND ANY PARENTS TO PAY SPECIAL ATTENTION TO FINANCIALS ONCE YOUR CHILDREN QUIT THE SHCOOL.
Helen, if you are reading this, please know that I am just trying to give feedback. I hope you change the way you treat your employees, your behaviors in front of parents and your conduct of business; most importantly, be peaceful and respectful to other people. It will benefit both your business and all the children at our daycare. read more