Camp Australia
Reviews and Complaints

I applied for a position with Camp Australia, passed my phone interview and supplied all relevant documents required for the position. One of the requirements is to supply at least 2 references which I did but because they were not my immediate supervisor, I was rejected for the position! For the last 4 years I've worked very hard as a small business owner so I was my own boss and didn't have a supervisor as such but Camp Australia do not seem to understand what I am explaining to them so I put it in writing and sent an email but again I was rejected. The 2 references were people that I communicated with on a daily basis that work for reputable international companies and they were told over the phone by Camp Australia that they were not suitable as my references!
I am very disappointed as I am more than qualified for this position and I can't even speak to someone in Australia from Camp 'Australia'

I'm always having a stress when using their website. Very uncomfortable, non-working, not modern and I'm also having troubles with login! It's just exhausting!
My kids' stuff were stolen a couple of times. They told to teachers and they pretended nothing had happened. They don't want any problems. But the problems do exist! And nobody is going to help children there.

to whom it may concern,
i am very unhappy with your online over the phone service, they don't understand what we are asking or what we need done,
i have called and spoken to four people and when i get through they hang up the phone because they can help with my inquiry

This has put me off so much about your services that i am thinking of taking my kids out and getting our friends and cousins using this services to do the same so we can keep the is together

This has been very off pointing and the facts that the over the phone people don't call you back after they hang up on you, this very unprofessional

I received a phone call less than 24hrs out that care for my 2 children for the next day has been cancelled. No reason given, just unable to provide the service I pay for, on time, every time. Go to pick up my kids that afternoon and find out the service is still running, just my kids are unable to attend. I have my kids booked in 5 days a week, before and after school care, yet that doesn't make them a priority, that just makes them less profitable than a child that is booked in "casually". So all the kids that were "permanent bookings" were cancelled the following day due to not having enough carers available.. previously also received an email for vacation care advertising a discount for new users only. Again, not looking after the regular clients... Also the pricing structure changed to include three tiers, with blue being for ppl like me with a regular schedule, offering discounted rates. Rang to join this tier and was told it's not offered in my area, so have no choice but to pay silver rates and if u cancel within 7 days, you still have to pay full rates. Why advertise it then? Also centre closed for 3 days for a cyclone that was crossing the coast over 600km north of us so I booked in with another (open!) service for the interim. They were lovely, but my kids prefer to hang out with their friends from school. Not happy with service at all. . Staff complain about upper-management frequently. Not enough activity packs supplied for vacation care... They told me to lodge this complaint!

Hi I am very disappointed wit h Campaustralia. If nothing out of the ordinary happens then all good, payments get taken out like clockwork. Otherwise get ready for a hassle which results in a few phone calls, being put on hold and getting told things you already know and not being understood which eventually turns out to being forwarded on to Team Leaders and some time further from them as well. Last week a day before my normal payment was due, on Wednesday, i get a text message saying my payment of $267.79 has changed to $297.79. I call up and say that its not on that you give me a days notice and expect payment, the customer service agent argued and said he cant do anythign about it, i said you need to give enough notice when increasing payments and cant just expect payment as and when you wish, he didnt listen so then i asked for a team leader, after waiting for 45MINUTES on hold a team leader came on the line, i explained that i would pay the $267.79 as previously advised and then the extra $30 could be added to the next statement, he agreed and said teh $267.79 woudl be direct debited from my account on friday 14/06 instead of thursday i agreed and he even emailed me confirmation. Its Monday and today i get a statement, they have now added the full amount due this last week and the next statement. Call up customer service, wait on hold for ages as usual, eventually when someone came on the line they went to investigate putting me on hold AGAIN, eventually came back and said theyve sent it to teh bank just waiting for them and that maybe i coudl call my bank and ask them! i work full time this is not my job...i shouldve been told it might take a few days or something but no i got told it would be taken out on friday and it wasnt and now they expect double payment next time! this is teh second such experience i have had where Camp Australia seem to set up payments according to themselves and expect customers to just go with it and when we do accomodate you dont do what you say you will and then when we call your customer service people who are like robots and just go by what is written in front of them and dont really listen to the customer! Just because you have a monopoly on teh market it does not mean you get to treat your customers like idiots!

I tried to call about my bill as I have had troubles understanding it as I have only recently renewed with your service. I was kept on hold for nearly 30min and then was hung up on because the girl couldn't hear me. I gave up. I have since worked out my billing question and paid my bill. However it looks like a $20 charge has since gone into my bill? Is this a late payment fee? I paid 2 days late and my bill was $13. You are charging me $20 late fee for paying a $13 bill 2 days late? I don't think so! Can I charge you for my time being kept on hold?

I'm currently having a situation, where we have had payments withdrawn from my account at full price even when I have spoken to centrelink and have confirmed all the enrollments. I have supplied my CCS summary via email with my eligible childcare hours to them within an hour of receiving their email to have no reply for over a day. I have been into the centrelink office and they have assured me that I have completed everything from their end. Camp Australia keep insisting that it is with Centrelink. This has been going on now for a term now going into term two! And today I still have been debited the full price! I feel that Camp Australia are stealing money off my family, it's causing my family distress and worry as they continue to empty my bank account. Perhaps the media, A Current Affair would like to investigate this and why (as I have noted from other complaints) families are not receiving the subsidy they are entitled to!

After numerous calls i finally managaed to get Set up a payment extension with camp australia and asked them to debit from my NAB details they had on file and authority to debit from. Only to be told its been debit from the credit card I have with another financal institution that has been used to make a manual payment 1 time! And all camp australia can say is that I provided the details on the call so I requested a copy of the call only to be told that it appears there was a technical glitch on that day and are unable to provide me with the call or refund the money to the card till I make another payment... so apparently this company loves to take illegal payments if I didn't have to use camp australia I wouldn't am currently looking for an au pair

On Monday 8/4/19 My daughter attended Lyndhurst Primary school where the Camp Australia was being held. When I picked up my daughter she was very distressed because while at school Holiday care there was a child in the group spitting in the faces of all of the children and behaving unruly. On Tuesday My daughter was again dropped off at Lyndhurst Camp Australia, I spoke to one of the carers in the morning when I dropped my son and daughter off about what had occurred the day before and I was assured that the parents and child had been spoken too.
Later that day I picked up both of my children and when I entered the room my children came running to me very distressed telling me that my daughter was hit and pushed by a boy in the program and the same boy told my son he was going to slit his throat! I was disgusted and spoke immediately with a carer and although he was apologetic he really couldn't tell me what had been done to protect the children that are being subjected to the abuse and bullying. while I was there talking to the carer this boy was throwing food, a number of children are physically fighting it was an absolute circus. Later I was told by my kids that the "spitting" boy was again at the program on the second day and he was physically assaulting a young girl in the group and the carers had absolutely NO control over any of them what so ever. I cannot believe that these people can allow this type of environment, I feel terrible as a parent that I unknowingly subjected my kids to this for a whole day! I cant believe the parents weren't called to take these children home for the sake of all the other children.

The online booking confirmation page is confusing to say the least and has led me at least two times recently to incorrectly believe that the booking was completed while it was not. (Luckily the staff was flexible and rolled my child in for the day after confirming by phone.)
The confirmation page says:
- this is Step 2 of 2
- gives a booking summary typical for confirmation post submission not before
- uses the label "Create Booking" which in computer jargon is effectively reserved for starting a new process rather than finishing the old one
Please reconsider this page and you will see a lot less complaints and parent confusion.

My son was enrolled to the first school term. I introduced myself three times to the ladies before the school started. The supervisor said they will be able to pick him up for the first days due to school is huge and we are new to it. They forgot him
On the first day and blamed me for it. Than my son was bullied a few times. I hve been never approached by any educators about my sons day. The regional manager didnt solve the issue. They were quite attaking and made me feel like it is all my fault. Unfortunately, very bad experience. Missing our previous service provider.

2018 saw the removal of one camp australia staff member from our school when multiple CHILDREN complained to their parents and school principal. It also saw Camp Australia fail to direct debit the fee money on the day it specified (it was over a week later that it eventually took the money out but by that stage the account was already over drawn so i transfer total cost cost to clear for end of year and 2 days later camp australia put through direct debit so i end up being on credit $$.
2019 has already seen FIRST statement issued with fee payment of $156.27 due 7 March. Text msg from C.A on 4 March stating 156.27 will be taken out on 7 March. Online banking shows $531.84 direct debited from Camp Australia and not $157 as per the issued statement and text msg. Call help line only to get a useless paper pusher called Jenny in the Philappines who has no authority at all to do anything except lodge a complaint and tell me someone may call Monday ([censored] as monday is a p/h in Victoria.) This is why cheap nasty comapies like camp australia use cheap and nasty foreign staff because they are well aware that such foreign staff are usless. According to this foreign person, sometime between 11am on 4th March and 7 March, Centrelink informed them of changes and so camp australia ammended the statement without notyfing me in any way (email, phone, letter, text, fax) that the statemrnt was ammended and the reasons why and also failed to notify my of any impending change to the direct debit amount to come out. The withdrawel of the unauthorised amount put camp australia in breach of its terms and conditions (read points 14 through to 17) and in breach of the law for deliberatly withdrawing an unauthorised amount. I asked for an immediate refund only to be told policy dictates nothing can be done until a comaint is lodged and reviewed even though it has put us in a situation of hardship and other payments being rejected.

A complaint has now been made to to Consumer Affairs Victoria and the ACCC.

My daughter is using before and after care. And I am an account holder. I provided all the information about childcare subsidy as they requested abd centrelink even checked 3 times, one of the centrelink staff talked to them on the phone to confirm everything about my details. And it has been going 3 weeks, they still haven't put the enrollment thru my account so I can confirm and get the child care subsidy discount. Every time I called, I talked to different staff and had to tell them again and again about my infos although I asked them to write a note on my account so the other staff know what happenning to me. Anyway, they sent me a bill with full fee and told me I need to correct infos with centrelink! They keep telling me different stories each time I called and asked me to do things that according centrelink, I wasn't my job to do. Centrelink adviced me to sue them for my time, my stress and money!

My children attended Camp Australia for the school holiday program and have continued to attend for before school care.

My card was debited twice for $297 and I called as soon as I noticed and requested a refund. I was told that if I sent an email through with proof of the double transaction it could be refunded.

2 weeks later I not only don't have my money back but I have just received a text message saying that they are going to debit my account $60. I have sent several emails and been advised that they need to wait for the transaction to appear on their systems, which is garbage. I requested that manager call me to get this resolved and have still heard nothing. I called half an hour ago and despite not being rude or combative I got hung up on.

My account number is 285313. We recently went through floods in my region and are already struggling financially, and this treatment is abysmal. Once I get this sorted I am removing my children from this service, which is a shame because the staff are lovely and its so convenient that the care is at the school.

While scrolling in my statements, I discovered few times that camp Australia is charging me for days that I did not even book. I stopped enrolling my child because of their bad services. One of the carers once told my daughter that she is eating so much out of the service food! they charge fin for absence, they bring the low quality unhealthy food for children. the worst service by all means. I stopped enrolling my daughter in their service 7 months ago (since Early April 2018)

They shared a survey with an award of $50 that I did only to tell them how bad they are performing and did not care for the $50 because we are not using their service anymore. yesterday, I found out that they are charging me $25 membership fees in November 2018!

when i called they said that it is membership fees that should have been deducted in January but they postponed it to November! and since my daughter attended until April that I must pay these $25. When i asked about my $50 credit, they declined that I have done it. They take lots of charges wrongly and ask for even more under different names such as memberships. What should I do to stop this robbery. My child is not even attending their service!

Camp Australia & Mt Eliza North PS -

Called Mt Eliza North Primary School today and spoke with VP Peta as she takes care of the Camp Australia contract. I let her know;

• They are booked out due to insufficient staff this afternoon. The website didn't allow a booking to go through and there was no explanation why.
• I spoke with Courtney the team leader and she advised they are down a staff member this afternoon so need to restrict pupil numbers as ‘ they have been caught out by the government having too few staff and too many pupils'.
• She accepted my son Luca for care this afternoon and said she'd add him to the list manually
• She said they are trying to get a replacement staff member and once this happens the bookings open up.
• I also let Peta know that while I was waiting to speak with Courtney I overheard her on the phone complaining as there was no bread or fruit for the kids. There was only cereal. It turns out someone cancelled the bread order. I said to Peta that families need to be made aware they are not getting what they are paying for.

Peta said she'd follow it up with the Area Manager Aimee. I let Peta know I know Aime's name from previous complaints due to Camp Australia's inability to provide a service as described under Courtney's leadership in a previous role at Kunyung PS.

Constantly issuing charges for incorrect items. Alsways issues late statements and then charges parents if 1 day late. Charges a surcharge if child is sick and service is not used. Holds families to ransom by threatening exclusion despite the fact that camp Australia are at fault for not even issuing account regularly or even on time. Raised prices as soon as government introduced new benefits which have now wiped out any benefit to parents. Added a $20 surcharge dispute the school calling parent to collect sick child. An absolute joke and absolutely disgusting business taking advantage of working parents and money grabbing where they can. If I had another choice of after school care provider I would change instantly but unfortunately in remote suburb camp Australia know our choice is limited and blatantly rip us off.

I would like to know how my statements are never correct, and how I can have 2 direct payments within the one billing cycle, when you only process one. I had no issues until this new Government CCS come in. If it was not for the actual educators I would take my kids elsewhere.

Please explain, my last statement has me owing $8xx.xx but the transaction history doesn't state that. I made a $1400 after this statement period ends as how is it possible that, that amount can come off my total due amount?

I have been trying since the first bill in July 2018 to sort all of this out and I get shafted between Camp Australia and Centrelink.

Hi my daughter goes for after card at Mckinnon primary school after care run by camp Australia. Me and my daughter met with the accident and I had to organise someone to pick and drop her off from school on 15th August 2918 she was picked up by her 10 minutes late as the carer is bit old and she looks after a disabled and a cancer patient she got late by 10 minutes and I came to know that this happened next day I called up camp Australia requesting them this unfortunate circumstance and requested them to waive the late payment charge instead the customer service member and manager told me you have to pay for 15 min late though she was 10 min late that's the slot you have to pay $15 and

My child was missing for around 15-20 minutes. They did not notify me. They did not notify the school. They did not notify the police. They did not tell me when I collected my child. They did not notify me for the 24 hour period afterward.

The school asked following receiving information elsewhere that he'd been missing, they denied it, saying he'd always been visible. He hadn't. He'd been hiding in a place (they don't even know where - I DO!) for around 20 minutes waiting for mum to come get him. And he has disabilities. I'd fought for disability supports to be put in place but they'd refused for the last 6 months. This was the last straw. Unsafe and unethical - as if you don't notify a parent that their child has gone missing or call the police! The department of education has taken over with the inquiry into this and many other breaches in compliance at this service.