Cultural Care, Inc.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does not satisfy or resolve my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint # [redacted]. Please add your rejection comments below. 
As stated by Ms. [redacted] this morning (6/9/15), Cultural Care is unwilling to fully reimburse us for services not provided.  Here are the facts:1) Cultural Care did not perform any due diligence on the au pair they placed with our family.  This is one of the services we paid the company to do on our behalf.  This au pair is an admitted bigot and racist and has signed her name to statements as such.  Further, Cultural Care knew of this au pair's views towards Jews and Blacks (not necessarily African-Americans) and placed this au pair with our family anyway.  One of Cultural Care's representatives, [redacted] was a witness to these statements by the au pair that she did not want to be with a Jewish Family and told Cultural Care this during her initial application process.  [redacted] has already corroborated these statements to Cultural Care.2)  Cultural Care failed to perform any due diligence on our family.  In our December 2014 application to be a host family, we explained in great detail that the au pair would have daily duties related to our dogs - such as walking our dogs on a daily basis.  We were very transparent of this need in our application and Cultural Care knowingly approved our application based-upon these facts.3) The au pair they placed with our family quit in May 2015, in-writing, on her own volition.  We did not terminate her employment.4) In searching for a replacement au pair, we were told by several Cultural Care representatives that we are no longer permitted to assign hours towards caring for our dogs to the next au pair.  We were told that the 45 hour per week schedule could only be assigned towards taking care of our kids.  This was contrary to our application (as stated above) and so we had no choice but to leave the program.  As stated in our application, we needed help with both the kids and the dogs.  As such, we were forced to leave the program as the program was no longer suitable to our needs.  Again, Cultural Care approved our application based upon our needs and now refuses to give us a 100% refund on our prepaid balance
Regards,
[redacted]

We regret the [redacted] family's frustration and believe that a phone call with Vice President [redacted] will clarify some confusion regarding concerns about the extent of the au pair's pet care responsibilities.  It is important to note that the policies with respect to care of family...

pets has not changed, there were some concerns that were brought forth which required some further discussion before moving forward.  The [redacted] family withdrew from the program and, as such, were subject to the refund policy.  The refund policy is clearly stated in the host family agreement signed by the family prior to placement of an au pair.  Ms. [redacted] will be happy to discuss the refund with the [redacted] family and while a full refund will not be possible, the experiences that the family has had will certainly be taken into consideration should there be any exception possible.  Ms. [redacted] will be reaching to the [redacted] family shortly in order to confirm a time for this conversation.

While we are disappointed in the frustration expressed by this family, senior management has been in touch directly with this family in order to come to an agreement on an exception to the refund policy. It was determined that a sigificant exception would be made and all unused program weeks would...

be refunded in full. Paperwork was sent to the family to finalize this payment. The family states they signed and submitted the forms but when we confirmed we did not receive them the family stated they no longer wished to move forward with this offer. The offer made was an exception to the policy in the host family agreement and no additional refund will be possible. We are happy to continue forward with the original offer upon receipt of the signed agreement.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does not satisfy or resolve my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint # [redacted]. Please add your rejection comments below. 
Cultural Care contacted me, but they made no effort to negotiate a mutually satisfactory agreement.
Regards,
[redacted]

We have processed the family’s refund pursuant
to the agreement that they signed when they joined the program.  While their continued frustration is
regrettable, we have acted in accordance with the terms of the agreement as
well as all program policies.  The family
confirmed legal...

representation regarding this matter and any
further correspondence is most appropriate through legal counsel directly.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does not satisfy or resolve my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint # [redacted]. Please add your rejection comments below. 
Unfortunately, Cultural Care's response is unacceptable.  They can dispute the timeline of when an au pair arrived versus the time she transition all they want, but the reality here is that we paid for a service that we never received.  We were left without childcare - the essence of your program and therefore does not warrant the organization not refunding of the balance.   This organization clearly has enough negative reviews and press online that they've covered all basis on how to scam families like mine, but the bottom line here is that you have not provided me with any childcare nor have you justified your calculations as to why the $3,567.00 is not being returned.  This has now become a matter of ethics as your company is conducting this business in an extremely unethical manner.  How can any organzation logically expect a working family to wait 8 weeks for international childcare and not be able to provide alternate domestic care in the interim?  It is unreasonable for you ask that I wait an additional 8 weeks for another au pair that could potentially be as bad as the first since it was clear she was not properly screened.  Furthermore, I have attached documentation demonstrating my desperate attempt to find another au pair in your database and OVER 10 infant qualified candidates expressed  their desire to remain on the west coast or that they did NOT want to care for an infant.  It is NOT my fault you do not have a candidate to replace the poorly screened candidate you originally sent and now you do not have anyone to replace her even though we were 100% willing to be rematched.  If you do not have the service you have sold, then how can you justify keeping the funds that were paid?  This is immoral and NOT the way a business conducts themselves.  The manner in which you conduct your business is horrific and unethical.  I have reached out to other families who have had the same thing happen to them and it is outrageous that Cultural Care is still able to conduct themselves in this manner.  More importantly, the fact that you simple respond to a Revdex.com complaint should NOT warrant the rating you have been given as this organization is in the business of taking money from familes - money that rightfully yours.    This seriously needs to be investigated!  You have NOT provided the service you advertised and as a result you should ethically return the money that was paid!!!  We are still without childcare so how can you say you've provided a service?   
Regards,
[redacted]

We regret that this family has had such a frustrating experience.  While we do not agree with the claims being made in the complaint, we are more than happy to have a member of our management team reach out to discuss their experiences further.  A contractual refund was issued on 10/21 and...

sent to the family.  A manager will be reaching out in the next business day to discuss their concerns and while the refund per the signed host family agreement has been issued and an exception is not guaranteed, we will certainly review their experiences and make a determination after that discussion.

Please reopen complaint #[redacted]. We don't accept that the company still refuses to refund us for services not used, car damages incurred during unauthorized us of car that we were not allowed to withhold and other damages incurred due to them recommending our hiring [redacted] when they knew she had 3 car accidents, stole from and lied to previous host family and violated her j-1 [redacted] when with the prior host family in Denver. Additionally the last response from cultural care was insulting when they sad we had agreed to their terms and they were disappointed that we continue our fight for fair business treatment of a refund for services not provided and we have been denied access to receiving. Additionally they are now requiring that we hire and pay an attorney.[redacted]

We have been in contact with this family in order to discuss their concerns and request.    They informed us that they were unwilling to discuss a refund less than 8000.  They then informed us that they had engaged with legal counsel and were proceeding with filing suit. We asked for...

their attorney's contact information so that we could put them in contact with our counsel. To date we have not received this information. While we would have been happy to continue to discuss a possible resolution the family made their intention to pursue a remedy through the court system clear. If they have changed their position we would be happy to resume discussions.

We have spoken with Mr. [redacted] and have reached an agreement with respect to his account.  We appreciated having the opportunity to address his concerns and his willingness to participate in the process.