Camp Australia
Reviews and Complaints

I sent my children to after school care at Diamond Creek Primary school I received a bill for $70.00 I was unable to afford to pay the $70.00 in full so I paid it in two instalments of $50.00 and $20.00 my children have attended after school care 1 time the second time I cancelled.
Your company took $103.00 out of my bank account yesterday I didn't approve this payment nor did my children use the service to encur the fee.
Please issue a refund and do not remove money from my account without my permission!

I was behind in payments so I paid them in full then I rang to make sure the next day they weren't going to take the amount out to be told that it wasn't because they could see I've paid it.

Sure enough, the next day they took it out and I was told after many phone calls the $429 extra that they took was going to be refunded. 8 days later they give me a pathetic $164. When I called they told me that there were TWO payment cycles that had passed in that week it was being refunded? And that is what was left.

It's been a complete stuff around to get my money back. Especially when I am a single mum who now can't feed her child or make my mortgage repayment and now have 0 savings because I had to use it to survive the last week and have nothing to now survive on for the next week because of this incompetent ridiculous excuse of a company.

How they have managed to stay in business I'll never know.

I'm extremely pissed and 100% will be taking it as far as I need to to get my money back.

Today I made three bookings for my kids for before school care with Camp Australia. I found out after these bookings were made that charges included a $10 'late booking fee' on top of the $18 base charge due to the booking being made with less than 48 hours (but more than 24hrs notice). Frankly the penalty charges are unconscionable as it represents 55% of the base charge. As I have 3 kids this is a substantial amount. I was told this was in the new terms and conditions from the start of the year, however it does not detract from the fact that exorbitant charges such as these are grossly excessively. In addition to this, if I chose to cancel the bookings (that was made 10min ago) I would be charged the full fee as I needed to give 7-days notice.
There is so much wrong with this. I would rather go to work later than pay $84 for 1.5hr of care. Not again! Ripping people off makes them resentful.

We came from a school that organised OSHC that was amazing unfortunately my kids new school chooses to have Camp Australia as their OSHC provided. There is no flexibility in booking and cancelling care. It's 7 days notice. It's sending us broke! Try calling the phone number provided and it is an overseas call centre who read a script. I asked to make a complaint and was informed they do not have the facility to take complaints.

Hi My name is Hoy joung Park (Acc 185989)
My daughter using Hoilyday program under Holy Eucharist school.
We use to other company befor but in here more better location to me and some more friend from her school.
But when she start Holy Eucharist program my Daughter complain a lot of main teacher
Name of Kelly?
I don't know some perant complain this teacher or not my Daughter said I hope Kelly a little bit kind for ous not all the times angry And many her Hoilyday program friends complain Kelly too. Kelly has very 2face if my Daughter stories are true.
For parents talk very very nice but to the kid
OMG... But my Daughter worries if I complain about Kelly Kelly will up set to my Daughter
I said to my Daughter just change other program but she don't want it
Becouse she has many friends holy Eucharist already she is very happy all the activities and playing with friends EXCEPT KELLY...

Thank you for patient.

This money grabbing organisation are now making it even harder for parents. I want to link before and after care sessions so that I have 40 sessions to qualify for their casual rate. However, this cannot be done. I have spent over one hour on the phone to the complaints department and the senior complaints representative could not explain why this could not happen. I then asked for it to be referred to senior management AND THEY REFUSED! This has been ongoing since January. What more can I do? Currently investigating different options for our OSHC proragm

I am utterly disgusted by a particular educator at Tuart Rise Primary School in WA. Ailish (I am unaware of her last name) has been extremely rude since I have taken my child to the care. The other educators are the most lovely ladies and my child adores them. Ailish is also rude and disrespectful to myself and numerous other parents as well as another coordinator. She has told me to take my child to councilling and that he is acting up because he is not loved. I am appalled and she is giving the lovely service and it's staff a bad name.
Camp Australia needs to do something about this.

May 2017
My husband has been off work so able to take the kids to school. As we only get notified the weekend before, we can only cancel once we have been notified ourselves (2 day /48 hours). So apparently they need 7 days notice for a cancellation, that is not reasonable. We currently have 1 income and therefore cannot pay for things we do not need. I think the expectation of 168 hours notice is a joke and a scam. For the month of May have been caged ova $200 of services cancelled ad not used. I have just received another invoice of cancelled bookings. They also charge a $25.00 fee if payment are not made on time. Another way for a bad company to make money from those struggling

I have attempted numerous time to contact Camp Australia's HR department in my disgust of them firing a staff member today from their Palmerston, NT centre.

The termination was unwarranted and I, as a parent, am utterly disgusted the way they went about firing this amazing young educator. Not once did they attempt to contact any of the parents to vouch for this carer's credentials and how amazing she is with children. She is fair and this is what children need. She has never bullied my children, nor have I ever witness her being unfair or rude to any children at this establishment. Apparently a couple of parents put in complaints, but at the end of the day if your children are behaving like little turds and you can't teach your children to be a sensible and not a rude child, how can you expect a carer to attempt to instil rules if your own child doesn't comprehend right from wrong.

Jessica Pledger from the Camp Australia Palmerston campus was unfairly fired and as a parent who has been in the childcare industry for over 20yrs with my own 5 children, I am utterly disgusted at how she was treated and yet again being treated like a criminal this afternoon when they wouldn't allow her on site to collect her personal belonging.

Not only is Camp Australia an extremely expensive provider, they obviously treat their staff like crap. What kind of mentoring are you projecting on our children if this is the way you treat your own staff.

I booked my 9yr old into before school care for the first term of this year and have had nothing but grief culminating in todays incident. They have been unorganised from the beginning starting with their reassurance that the same carers would be at the school everyday. The first 2 weeks there was a different carer every day and when I made comment about it even the carers agreed they were very unorganised and didn't know who was supposed to be permanent carers at the moment. You'd think they would have made arrangements before the beginning of school year.

When I received my first invoice I noticed that they had not included my child care benefit. As instructed by their invoice notes, I "contacted them for help to resolve the issue" and they said that Centrelink had told them my daughter wasn't in care and they couldn't do anything else about it - they were supposed to inform Centrelink!

When I contacted Centrelink they said there was no problem with CCB and ensure the record was correct. I contacted Camp Australia back and ensured them the CCB could be attached to the account. As they couldn't tell me how much the final payment would be they put me on a "payment plan" so than when the due date came around, I wouldn't be charged any late payment or dishonour fees and my daughter would not be excluded from care. This would allow time for them to re-process the invoice and when I received it I could make payment by the due date of the invoice.

The date of issue of this invoice was 25 February and the due date was 9 March 2017 (tomorrow).

I then received an email on the 3rd stating that they had tried to take payment from my account on the 1st and it failed and requested that I pay it immediately. I replied to this email and explained what I was told previously, that I had received the invoice and the due date was 9 March. They replied that evening saying they were very sorry for the error, if any late fee or dishonour fee was charge I would be reimbursed and the full adjusted amount would be debited from my account on the 9th as per their invoice.

Drop off on Monday was fine but when we got there this morning, my daughter and I were abruptly told, in front of a room full of parents and children mind you, that she had been excluded. When I asked why, her answer was to show me the sign on book that doesn't have her name on it. When I asked again she said "I don't know but she's not on our list". Naturally, as she had deeply upset and humiliated my daughter in from of the entire room, I was fuming. I stepped out of the room to call head office - twice. The first time I was put on hold and disconnected. While I was on hold for a second time I called the woman out of the room and said that I was disgusted and how dare she humiliate my child like she did and if that was the way she treated children she shouldn't be able to work with them. When I finally got off hold, they informed me that she hadn't been excluded at all, she would find out why it had been said and would call me back.

At this stage I am very late for work and having to explain to a very unhappy boss that I have to drop my daughter at school myself as I had no other care for her (solo mum) and would be in later.

Several phone calls and an upset child not wanting to go back there later...

While this current issue could have easily been cleared up as a misunderstanding or misinformation from Camp Australia staff, this new woman and the disgusting way she treated, and the position she put my daughter in this morning, I’m sorry but “providing feedback” is nowhere near good enough.  This woman should not be working with children and humiliating them like this.  Don’t they get trained in this sort of communication or does Camp Australia get their invoices paid via a regime of humiliating children and parents in front of audiences.  I certainly hope she is not let loose on other families.
 
It is trying to be explained off by saying the payment plan was for the first invoice that wasn’t paid but these are the facts:
 
THE INVOICE I WAS TRYING TO SORT OUT, AND THE PAYMENT PLAN THAT WAS PUT IN PLACE AND REINVOICED WHEN GOVERNMENT BENEFITS WERE ALLOCATED WAS THE FIRST INVOICE.  AT NO TIME DID ANYONE SAY I STILL HAD TO PAY THE FIRST INVOICE.  AS FAR AS I WAS TOLD THE $66 WAS DUE ON 9 MARCH.

After reading several other reviews and finding out that Camp Australia has been banned from tendering to government run schools due to issues like this, I have pulled my daughter out of care, paid the invoice less the amount of hours I was late for work and am reporting them to the school and other relevant authorities.

HI

This is the second time I request this but still im getting statement to pay this $20.00.
First time in this year I was used your service for early care due to emergency and you guys charge me $65+ for the just less than 1Hr of care after Centerlink charges.
Im not calculating your profit and I just want to inform this just before go though the next step.
I already paid $45.15 and am not paying $20.00 which you guys charge me for the credit card. this Credit card I closed way back and I didn't get any notification to pay my child care fee and you guys unauthorisedly charge from my old card without any prior email or any notification. Then charge me again $20.00 fee. I already request to waive this unethical fee but I didn't get any reply from your customer service officers.
So could you please give me a reply with your decision.
Thanks
My details as below
Account no: 161534

Hope to hearing from you soon.

I have been forced to use camp Australia before and after school care as it is the only company that services my child's school. The staff looking after the children are quite good however the accounts department are shocking. One example Is today, I forgot to transfer funds, at the end of business (so they could not be contacted) I had received an email with no contact name or area of the company that the email had come from, stating that my direct debi details had been deleted and my child banned from using the service. This was 30 minutes after payment was due. A simple email from then asking if I had overlooked the account would have been far more customer savy and easily fixed at my end. This is very stressful as their email was sent as they are uncontactable and my child has no care before school in the morning . Camp Australia's extremely, hard handed, approach to payments is unnecessary and disrespectful to parents that pay a lot of money every week. I would not recommend this company to anyone .

23/05/2016
198383
I've been told it's my fault the website is faulty and when customer service team who were supposed to cancel my bookings didn't - it's my fault also and I have to pay for that!?
I haven't used this service since April, I tried to cancel all my bookings on the website, but it was faulty and wouldn't work, this was very frustrating. I've called Camp Australia several times and most of the time, they are so helpful. They advised me that all bookings were cancelled.
Today however I was told at the school from the teacher Caitlyn, that my daughter is on the role and to call up and check what's happening. I called Camp Australia to discuss that there was booking there that I hadn't made, she told me that I had. I told her I called the contact centre to have this booking removed and she said no you didn't, and you clearly new about the booking because you have looked at statements.
I did look at the statements to check how much money I owed, I have never seen any booking because I assumed the contact centre did their job and because my account was in credit (which they explained when I called). All of this can be verified on your call recordings.
I would like an apology and of course my money reimbursed.

My daughter started prep this year and attended after school care with Camp Australia. I set up my account with my direct debit bank account details (same account and details I use for several direct debits) and it continually keeps getting rejected and I'm being charged for it! I've re-entered my bank account details several times online and over the phone, contacted my bank who confirm there's no problem at their end, confirmed there are sufficient funds in my account and tried to verify my details with Camp Australia.
Despite them not being able to tell me or check what the details are... They are happy to tell me it's my fault and I have to pay the fees! NOT GOOD ENOUGH CAMP AUSTRALIA!
Every time I call I get a different person and while they are pleasant enough to speak to, no one actually helps me or addresses the issue of my requesting a refund of the fees, as I believe the issue is with Camp Australia, not me or my bank. My bank even tried to contact them on my behalf to confirm I have sufficient funds and they haven't rejected any DD payments!
I've provided bank statements, which I was told to do to prove the direct debits weren't rejected - and then after I did, I got an email from yet another person telling me that doesn't prove anything! I'm so frustrated and at my wits end!
I've rang and requested to speak to management or finance on several occasions but no one will put me through and no one ever calls me back.
My next option is to speak to the Consumer Ombudsman, my lawyer and then my school and parent committee to go about having Camp Australia replaced as the before and after school providers at our school! I've had enough!

Hi My daughter attends after-school care at Camp Australia's centre at Korowa Anglican School. She has been going there for the last 4 years. I have unhappy with Camp Australia in the past with several issues related to billing in the past, however, they have agreed to adjust the bill in the past hence I have not made a big issues of matters that were resolved eventually. However, in this case, Camp Australia has refused to refund a charge for Vacation Care the incurred on me, though my daughter had attended an after care session for the day. The inconsistency came about as Korowa did not have school on the 5th of Oct 2015 (the first day of Term 4), however, Sacre Coeur did have school. Hence, the carer's had picked up the girls from Sacre Coeur at 3.30pm, and then marked their attendance as attending Vacation care. To add to this, I have permanent bookings setup which includes a Monday, hence the after care permanent booking should had applied for the Sacre Couer girls. Due to Camp Australia's system limitation to handle this variation when they are servicing two schools in one centre, we the customers are bearing the cost. Furthermore, there was no communications to the parent that we will be charged a vacation care rate if we chose to send our kids on that Monday, 5th of Oct, 2015. This inefficiency has happen in the past, however, they have been flexible to amend or remove a charge where the was an error on their part. However, in this instance, Camp Australia has refused to reimburse the additional cost they have charged me due to attributing the care to 'Vacation Care' instead of 'After School Care', which is nearly 3 times the cost of what I should pay. I am thoroughly disappointed with the management of Camp Australia, and would like a refund.

My children's school has camp Australia for morning and after care, vacation care.

There fees are really high compared to closer schools care programes.
the closes one to Mackinnon is Glen Huntley primary which is run by Youth Leadership Australia, where the fees is lower than 11 per hour.It is a shame as non profit organisation Camp Australia is really ripping off.
If i had to book casual rate which is another 7/- extra.
Camp Australia bookings and cancellations needs 7 days notice which is not reasonable.Every other school care programs do not have such long days requirement.As they do not have not allocated staff as in child care with required % this is ridiculous.
Recently i noticed for Holiday program fees is equal to the child care fee with excursion.I compared this with Youth Leadership program and the holiday care charge is only 45/-.If they have excursions they only charge 15-20/- as extra.The holiday care program with camp Australia charged me 88/- for one child including the excursion charges.They require 7 day notice for booking for Holiday Care program otherwise they charge 10/- extra.Earlier they only had 24 hr notice time.For holiday program at least this seven day notice requirement should not have implemented.Everyone cannot have planned days in holidays as there should be a flexibility.Comparing all these charges i expect a better service.Unfortunately they are a lower average service .No food for kids(just few fruit pieces per child at after care ), no allocated sports activities or trained sports staff.The reason that I have to choose is because it has selected from school. Very Unfortunate.

I NEVER RECOMMEND CAMP AUSTRALIA PROGRAM.

I recently received an email from camp Australia explaining that I will be "Excluded", and i will not be able to use Camp Australia services I will also face potential legal action unless the account is paid in full .
This message was inconsistent with the statements I was receiving as the statements were saying that I have been paying the fees. When I sent an email to explain, they simply responded that there was issue from my bank - this was the first time i was aware of this in the last six months. When I rang to speak to the person who sent the email, I was simply told that they can't transfer the call as i need to speak who was available . When i asked to explain the statements i have been receiving, which was misleading- i was simply told that it is not true as it it quite clear from their end and the statements are correct.
The initial person I spoke to was unwilling to help and i felt she was quite rude. I then requested to speak the Manager, again i was told that there was no one available (4.15 pm ). after 25 minutes, i was then transferred to head office and again and conveniently the phone was disconnected. I never received any follow up call or any progress from their part.
I believe that, a better customer service is expected from cam Australia and also a system that is able to communicate clearly to the customers. Their internal records and the customer statements should be consistent . Receiving an email for potential legal action after six months is no good, given there is no communication from the beginning that the account is not paid.

Since my daughter starting attending Camp Australia's out of school hours care 3 months ago, Camp Australia has not applied the child care benefit to my fees and has consistently charged me the total fee with out the child care deduction. I have telephone Camp Australia on 9 occasions to rectify this and have been told a horrendous list of excuses as to why the deductions haven't been implemented. I have also tried on several occasion to lodge a formal complaint but have be denied so by customer service workers who won't transfer me to make a complaint, they refuse to do so.
I have contacted centre link and they have no record of Camp Australia having ever contacted them, but have confirmed my details are set up.
I have just made a formal complaint through centreline and will continue to do so until this is rectified.
This is ridiculous that you won't apply my benefit and are effectively fraudulently over billing me.