Cultural Care Au Pair
Reviews and Complaints

We had an au pair arrive from Brazil in June 2022. Despite telling us she could drive and could drive our kids, she could not drive a car when she arrived. We had to continue to pay for 50 hours of child care for two months, took her to driving school and on practice drives for hours a week and then paid someone to take her to get her drivers license (and paid fees).

12 days after she got her license, which was 5 days after we released our other caretakers and the day after my three kids started school, our au pair told us she wanted a rematch. She had never expressed a concern or issue. Instead, she said she was happy with our family.

She was unwilling to have a resolution meeting. You are given two weeks to find full time child care when this happens. When we inquired about a rematch, we were told the au pair would likely rematch within two weeks and we would not be eligible to even look for a rematch for six months.

We were offered a 60% refund for the prorated fee (as a reminder, she requested the rematch during her first week working 40 hours).

The au pair got in an accident with our car today. Thousands of dollars of damage.

This program is a scam. Save your families and your own well-being. Run the other way.

They are horrible. They are rubbers. I had a terrible au pair who stole and lied. When we terminated with her, she lied that we didn't pay her for the last week with no proof. First of all, they deducted her stipend from my program fee without informing me, which is wrong! I only discover the "thief"behavior months after when reviewing my account balance. After I complained about their behavior, They took one step further, they deducted 40% of program fee then kicked us out. We are filing a law suit against them.

We have been with this company for over 1.5 years. They are impossible to get in touch with. The screening process they use for the au pairs is inadequate to say the least. The girls we have meet have falsified their applications. They would use family members or friends to say they have childcare experience. We have been through 4 au pairs and all but 1 was a terrible experience. Even that one wasn't great. The company has not returned my call in two weeks. They are happy to take your money but not do anything for you in return. I highly suggest not using this company. I wish I would have read reviews and not listened to some
Local coordinator about how great one of the girls was. They truly do not care about the girls or the host families.

I do not expect Cultural Care to address my issue at all. I have fought with them for over a week regarding their refund policy and extension policy to no avail.
My post is simply to warn other families about these policies and advise them not to use Cultural Care Au Pair. They are a big business and do not treat families or Au Pairs as people, they only care about money.
If you contract with Cultural Care and something happens with your Au Pair (even if it is no fault of your own) you will lose money. You will never ever get a refund, and be forced to stay with them until your year is up.
Take your business elsewhere.

I had an au pair that was a rematch, we had to go into rematch because our au pair passed the Cultural Care English exam but didn't know more than five words of English. What we got in the process was an au pair that systematically abused our children and scared them enough to never say anything. Once she was out of the house, the children started to open up and now Cultural Care's answer to our story is...well she's gone now. Isn't that great! After a few added conversations with our new au pair plus the neighborhood "bully" au pair that Cultural Care has "talk" with all of the new au pairs that arrive I believe that this abuse was designed and supported by the LCC. She makes it a point to introduce all new au pairs to the "bully" and then has said to me...I can't help who they are friends with. Has anyone ever seen this? The "bully" au pair goes by the name Lilo and is located in Newton, MA. She actually called my phone that I had but it's the phone my au pair uses as part of her job and started cursing at me to get off of a phone that wasn't mine. The LCC was there and did nothing. My old au pair is in rematch and should be considered unstable.

If anyone is considering an au pair do not use cultral care!. They are the worst. The people they send are completely unqualified to watch a goldfish nevermind your child. My children are 11 and 14 and I shudder to think of parents of young children who can not tell them how they are being treated. My au pair had been here for a year and we were her 4th family! She got in multiple car accidents, fogot to pick my kids up and would sneak her boyfriend in the house at 3am. My cooridinator cari webber who was supposed to be meeting with both the au pair and myself monthly (Which never once happened) diid absolutely nothing when I called her with my concerns. Then one day my au pair announces she is going back to denmark immediately! I called cari and she told me she was leaving on vaction the next day and to call the 1-800 number. The person they gave me at the 1-800 was also on vacation!
I am a single mother and a dentist. I did not det an au pair so I could go to yoga... I needed child care and transportation to activities. I was literally left with zero notice for 2weeks with no child care befor I could even begin to talk to someone about the situation, when I did speak to someone I was told it could take up to a month to get someone else. Because my kids go to summer camp I had only contracted through the end of may. They replacement would not arrive til mid march. I was then also informed that I must take the replacement au pair until her contract expired not mine! Meaning if she was not scheduled to go home until the end of august or whenever I would have to pay her and cultural care the entire time wether I needed her or not! I also was paying cultral care for the time I had no child care even though the au pair quit on me! When I told cultural care I wanted to terminate my contract they refused to refund the majority of my money offering only a nominal amount. I spent hours on the phone with multiple people at many levels to no avail. I am sure there are people out there that have had positive experiences but I am here to tell you if you do have a problem with an au pair from cultral care they will do nothing to help you. It may sound like a good deal but it could be the most expensive mistake you ever make especially if you have young children as these people have little or no experience in child care and little desire to do that job. Most are here to party and see the us. I wasn't like having help... It was like having another child. Please message me if you have any questions.

I know experiences differ, but stay far away from Cultural Care Au Pair if you are looking for an au pair. At the very least, cut an au pair loose as soon as you know it is not working out. Get someone who is only interested in getting to America and hates working with kids and the agency will defend them up and down while they go off somewhere else (or get out of their contract) while you're stuck with yours, which is the most one-sided legal document you'll ever encounter. I can't even begin to describe the amount of lost productivity and gained frustration this whole experience has cost us.

Our au pair simply lied her way out of the work and was placed in a new home while we got no refund. All over their contract are statements about how they are in no way responsible for the actions of their au pairs. So it begs the question: What exactly are they being paid for? What exactly are they responsible for?

CC has the right to terminate Host Family’s participation in the program at any time if it determines that the au pair is in an unsuitable
environment, or if the Host Family is in violation of this agreement, of Cultural Care or U.S. State Department regulations, or the terms of the
Host Family Financial Agreement. Host Family acknowledges that CC has complete and unfettered discretion to utilize whatever methods it
deems appropriate to assist it in making this determination. In the case of any termination pursuant to this paragraph the Host Family shall
not be eligible for a program fee refund or a replacement au pair.

An agency that only focus on money not people.

Au Pairs that come here not to care for kids but to hang out and party.

Our Au Pair would leave our newborn unattended for hours in his crib.
After reporting this Cultural Care placed the Au Pair with another family.

They refused a refund. Poor screening, poor training. The people at the Coroprate level are just nasty.
They have so many law suit but they pay so they can go away.

Let's not forget this was the agency where Louise Woodward the British nanny killed the 3 months old baby and the agency back then EF changed the name as they did not stand a chance in the industry, but people forget yet that mother never will.

Cultural Care Au Pair is a master at false advertising and negligence. They sell falsehoods to au pairs and families. They cannot retain local managers for long enough to provide adequate support The company been sued so many times that most of the staff effort goes to spin doctoring and legal defense. I dealt with au pairs that beat my child, left him asleep in a pool of vomit, trashed my house, made illegal recordings in my house, and refused to see doctors when they had faces covered with sores and Cultural Care did nothing but keep my money. Au Pair candidates are allowed to inflate their experience, collect fake references, and demand expensive perks as blackmail.

This agency is deplorable and should not be allowed to bring these young people into the country and have control of their visa status. For anyone who is interested in filing a formal complaint or helping an au pair currently experiencing issues, please contact the State Department at any time via the hotline [protected] or at [protected]@state.gov.

We had an au pair who the agency deemed unsuitable to remain in our house any longer and got her that same day. My daughter had suffered two partially dislocated elbows under her care within only 2 months. She had also blocked the nanny cam so I had no way of knowing what was going on. The agency later said that they were terminating the relationship. We paid $8, 500 deposit and after having a nanny for 2.5 months (who did a terrible job, put my daughter's care in jeopardy), they kept $5, 000 of the money. The contract that we had signed is below. I believe this states that even if our au pair harmed or neglected our baby we have no recourse.

We found out after the nanny arrived that she had lied about her experience, got kicked out of her high school and suffered from depression. When she got here she didn't want to work and acted like she was parting waters to do anything. Our daughter didn't like her at all (obviously because she was too lazy to try to play with her) and I took on the bulk of the childcare for the entire duration of her stay.

The contract clause is below:, "Host Family agrees on their own behalf and on behalf of their children, to irrevocably, unconditionally, and fully remise, release, and forever discharge CC and CC’s respective officers, directors, successors, assigns, attorneys, insurance companies, agents, employees and affiliates (all of said persons hereinafter, in the aggregate, being referred to as “Released Parties”), from any and all claims or causes of action which Host Family has or may hereafter have, which arise out of injury, damage, or loss of any other kind to the Host Family or their property resulting from participation in the CC program. This includes, without limitation, the au pair’s performance of services for and involvement with the Host Family, regardless of how such injury, damage, or loss may arise and regardless of whether the injury, damage, or loss is in whole or in part caused by the negligence of any one or more of the Released Parties. Host Family further agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the Released Parties from and against any losses, claims, damages, or liabilities related to or arising out of the participation of Host Family in the CC program, including, but not limited to, any injury or damage to the Host Family or their children that the au pair causes or to which s/he contributes.

My “replacement” au pair for the previous hideous au pair that I had to get rid of, was a girl who seemed great at first. She was helpful, good with the kids etc. Then about 4 months in she started to become depressed, short with the kids, lazy and more and more a “job” for me to manage than any sort of help. Then this last Friday she was her usual surly self so I didn’t think anything of it. But then she told me that she had gotten a ticket while driving. I assumed that maybe a tail light was out or something. But she handed me the ticket (after telling my daughter that they “just didn’t like each other” because my daughter asked her a question and she was in a crappy mood….AGAIN). I saw that this ticket was a summons to appear in court, for doing 92 mph on the freeway with both of my young children in the car. She acted like this was no big deal, I told her that I was very upset and that I wanted to have a meeting with her when she returned from her weekend in SF. I also let her know that my children could have easily died at that rate of speed if there had been an accident. Her response to me was “Ok, so are you still going to drop me off at the ferry terminal?”. I was shocked. I contacted the LCC and let her know that I would not continue to employ this girl who obviously did not give a crap that she could have killed my children. My “LCC”s response was almost as shocking; she said “XXXXX has made a mistake but kicking her out isn't necessary.”. I couldn't believe that an agency representative would call driving at 92 mph with toddlers in the car a “mistake” and then go on to tell me that I would still need to keep her in my home?! Nope, I would never take another “au pair” from this agency again, so I didn't need to play their stupid games and that if they didn't pick her up, I would physically remove her from my home. Suffice to say, she is now gone. And I will never, ever in a million years go through this agency again, and I will make sure that every family I meet knows about this.

I am reviewing this company from the other point if view, that is as a former au pair. Anyone who might have in mind being a au pair, please read carefully. Unfortunately I was an au pair in 2002, when I was only 18 and when it was called E.F. au pair. I was supposed to spend a year in Pennsylvania.
This company literally ships au pairs from Europe to America as if they are starved 3rd world-ers. Before you leave, their brochures and informative material let you think that you actually kind of matter in the whole experience. Let me tell you how it really is.
As soon as you arrive, they drop you in some misused college, which falls apart and has cockroaches infesting it. After some days of "training", you are sent over to the host families all over the states.
Now, I reckon that at the time I was an au pair I was young, I could have done things a lot better and that probably that sort of experience wasn't ideal for me - but most of those families couldn't care less about bringing in cultural diversity, they just want a very cheap live-in baby sitter, who'll work 6 hours a day for peanut money. Fine with the money, you go in as an aupair, but this is to explain you how open to multiculturalism most of them truly are (I say MOST, I had the impression that some of the other families were actually good people). If you have problems, there is a local contact from the company. In my case, it was a shady person by the name of Terry Bell.
Anyhow, this person was siding 100% with the host family (of course, they were the paying customers), she seemed to be good friends with the HM, and I have been accused of the most absurd things on a family's whim. Such as: "compromising "the family's email account (they were using the previous au pair's email as their own! I had logged out once in order to send an email myself, and obviously, they did not know the password to get back in). But any rational discussion was impossible, they seemed all utterly tech ignorant (including ms. Bell) and didn't get it, so I was "grounded" from the internet and sent to use the internet in the library when they could take me themselves (I was supposed to be using the car, but I was never allowed to move around by myself). I was polite and sincere through all that, I have to say, and to this day I don't know how I made it through. But thankfully, I got back home asap.
Ms. Bell only fully showed her true colors when I was "transitioning" and had to stay at her place. She dropped the circumstance half smile she had kept when she was around the HF, and was just plain mean. She kept us "transitioners" in a dusty storage room, with a cat and a couch to sleep on for a week. She ignored my presence those few time I was walking out of there to go to the restroom. She told me to grab food from the kitchen, but considering that they always ordered and that all they had was toast bread and soda, this is all I ate during all those days. I was starving. Of course, I was very young, far from home and in a very awkward situation where everybody seemed to treat me like a worthless immigrant (and I come from a quite important family in my country) ... honestly, I didn't have the courage to even ask for food! When I finally had my ticket back home, and I had to talk to my family to share the details, she forbad me to send an email or make a 1 second call to tell them the number to call me on. I had to dictate letter per letter the email in my language to her 15 year old daughter. Ridiculous and outrageous. The whole experience was inhuman and humiliating.
Thinking that all those american parents who send their 21 year old to drink in Europe, and expect all the world to revolve around them. And thinking like younger Europeans are treated over there, makes me sick to my stomach. My experience with EF aupairs (now Culture Care) was a real and true nightmare, I advise aspiring aupairs NOT to use them, and now that I am in my 30s and am able to look back with a mature look, I think that person should be sued. I am NOT even interested in what their PRs are going to replicate, it's going to be mere words vs facts.

Here's what happened to me. We had a Cultural Care au pair for 9 months and then I found evidence that she was stealing cash from us. Cultural Care promptly removed her from our home and sent her back to her home country. What we should have done at that point is get 60% of our money back for the rest of our weeks left. This is the contractual amount that can be refunded if the host family decides to quit the program. Instead, Cultural Care convinced us to rematch with another au pair who was in transition. She had had problems with her previous family and not having chemistry with that family. I spoke to her on the phone and explained to her about my kids, her schedule, etc. Because she had more time left on her contract, we paid out another $3700 to finish out her year and we would have more months of au pair childcare.
Well, she was here for eight days, told our LCC that it 'wasn't what she expected' and 'wasn't what she signed up for', bought a plane ticket home, and left two days later, without any discussion with us. We treated her nicely, she just didn't want to work. She shouldn't have been rematched in the first place because she had admitted (after we hired her) that she had had a stress reaction with her other family, was really homesick, etc.
Anyway, Cultural Care refused to give us our money back except for the 60% contractual amount. By this point, my kids had lost two au pairs in a month and were really not wanting another one, neither were my husband or I. That is why we decided not to hire another au pair and put out more money.
So, out of almost $5000, we received just slightly over $3000 back from them. I went back and forth with Cultural Care saying that we were mislead and our most recent au pair was misrepresented to us and we should receive more money back. They ultimately agreed to give us an extra $400 (out of almost $2000 they were keeping), but in order to receive that I had to sign an agreement saying the terms were confidential and I would never say anything bad about their company.
I refused to sign it and they ended up keeping $2000 from us with no services rendered for that. They did not even consider that the product they sent us (the most recent au pair) was a 'lemon' and the refused to stand behind their product.
I would NEVER use this company again. We had a wonderful LCC, but the corporate people don't care about their host families or their au pairs, just the money they receive and their 'contractual agreements.'

Cultural care is an agency that provudes child care providers to homes to watch children.
The nanny which is an employee of cultural care who committed a negligent act. The act was placing diesel fuel into the car. This caused damage of 1400 dollars that was sustained.
This repair was not covered by insurance since it was not an accident.
The company was not reachable, not willing to resolve this issue with shared payment due to issue. They just tried to say that employee can pay 500 toward repair but they would not pay anything since they did not do anything. We responded that we had not done anything either but we should have some shared expenses and also the employee who makes minimal money should not pay so much.
They are poor service oriented company that has no umbrella policy to protect against negligent acts. They put all the payment for damages above 500 onto the family.
In addition the nanny who has limited money is expected to pay 500. We as family who had damage is expected to pay the rest with no accountability at all for cultural care Au pair. Inspite of logical discussion about the issues at hand
They are atrocious in their respondes. They are not reasonable inspite of how much money we paid over years for this service.

It seems that we are another family who has unsuccessfully utilized the au pair services from Cultural Care. Our first experience about 4 years ago resulted in a great experience. We found a lovely young woman from Finland who lived with us and cared for our young daughter for two years. But the next two years have not gone well. We have gone thru several young woman not having the experience and skills which were stated on their application. Trying to re-match is a nightmare.
So we have just ended another bad experience.
Of course we have been told that we are the cause of the bad experience. They totally neglect applications with information that turn out to be false. ...so much for paying all the up front money to an agency to verify information and experience.
I am not happy with the 10 -20% refund. How do I get a full refund?
Has any one ever received a full refund? Has anyone successfully sued them? I need the contact info of a lawyer who can win the case for me?
Thanks,
Suffering in Stamford

CULTURAL CARE AU PAIR IS A COMPLETELY LIE

So I signed up for this program 2 years ago, I ws 18 years old and I was a lucky girl to get a good hostfamily, Im glad I was lucky but I have heard stories about au pairs having the worst host families ever, when you start the program you are told that you gonna take care of kids and wash their clothes and everything that has to do just with the KID, well this is a lie, because last years one of my friends needed to be in charge of cleaning the pee and poop of one of the hostfamily dog this is not all once thwe hostmom left the dog out and when she got home my friend got blame because the dog pee the rugs and all over the house, her hostmom yell to her and treat her like---s---. when my friend talked to the lcc the lcc talked to the family and support the hostfamily but not the au pair this is very sad they talked to the locar director and they agree to state that from now all the au pairs need to helñp with the pets of the fam. WHAT THA HECK WITH THIS PPL, thats not all there r million of stories more to tell.
ALL I CAN SAY is that even thought i had a great expierience for 2 years I WOULD NOT RECOMMENT CULTURAL CARE FOR ANY GIRL THAT IS TRYING TO HAVE A GOOD EXPIERENCE I CONSIDER MYSELF LUCKY BUT ALSO I THINK THAT U NEED TO BE MORE LUCKY THAN EVERY GIRL TO GET A GOOD FAMILY AND THERE R CHANCES MY FRIEND.. SO IF U WANNA LEARN ENGLISH LOOK FOR ANOTHER PROGRAM OF EXCHANGE BECAUSE THIS ONE SUCKS, I HAVENT GET MY DEPOSIT BACK AND I VE BEEN IN MY CONUNTRY FOR 4 MONTHS ALREADY, THIS DEPOSIT BACK IS A PAIN BECAUSE THEY PLAYING SMART THEY DONT ASK YOU ALL THE INFORMATION YOU NEED TO FILL TO GET THE DEPOSI, I WORK IN A BANK AND I CAN SAY THEY ARE LYING THAT DEPOSIT BACK IS BS.

Stay away from them, Cultural Care Au Pair created a multi-month nightmare for us and does not at all stand by their services. During the pitch, you will hear about their value, they prescreen and help match, etc. Also, if you despite this, it doesn’t work out with your au pair you can easily switch to another. The reality is much different. We had a terrible match involving factually incorrect information that any decent screening by them would have avoided. When we went to switch, we found out that unless we wanted to wait 6-8 weeks for a new match, we had to choose only from a handful of au pairs that had been rejected from other host families. Their responsiveness was highly suspect throughout, not responding for days sometimes. Also, be prepared to live with an au pair that doesn’t work out and creates discord with your kids for a minimum of two weeks after you make that decision, because that is your obligation. When we finally gave up after two terrible matches and months of disruption, Cultural Care Au Pair totally did not stand by their services, blaming us for not choosing the right au pairs, etc. And they clearly get a lot of complaints, as soon as I requested a refund they went into a well rehearsed script, blaming everyone but them for the bad au pair, pulling out fine print, etc. No refunds. (They say they give them but it is a joke, 10-20% of the total that you paid.) Avoid at all costs! They are all about getting the money and moving on. Our only consolation is that our terrible experience might save others from Cultural Care Au Pair.

Cultural Care AuPair agency LIED to make us take our re-match Au Pair sooner & CC LIED about discounts!

GOOGLE AND YOU WILL FIND THAT NUMEROUS BBB COMPLAINTS & THERE R LAWSUITS OF SEXUAL MOLESTATION & PORN!

Check out their reviews on yelp for other major cities like San Fran, CA, Boston, Cambridge, DC, Chicago, IL, etc and their reviews on consumer sites...wish I had.

We found a nice AP thru CC. She was in re-match and had issues driving in her rural setting w/ the snow & rain. Since we are in an urban city where the weather is milder that was not an issue. We like our AP and after almost 8 weeks we found out that CC lie to us and CC lied to her previous host family.

We had gotten a last minute call telling us we had to take the AP w/in 72 hrs or risk not having an AP for months b/c she was in re-match and had to be placed in 2 weeks, which ended in 72 hrs. This was a shock b/c our AP had been working w/ her HF and officially in re-match for over 4 weeks since the HF was in no rush to push her out and they too were looking for the right AP for their family, especially since it was the Christmas season.

I had been told that we had the 1 week before our current AP would come so we could complete our home renovations BUT I was forced to pay $700 extra to have workers come on Saturday, very last minute, since the current AP came that Sun. I then paid the extra $196 to the AP for the extra week. CC told me her previous HF refused to drive her to the airport mid-week and needed her out, which was a lie. The previous HF was told that I was demanding that our current AP come ASAP another lie. I contacted the previous HF and they confirmed that they never demanded anything and would of preferred my AP stay the extra week & I confirmed that I never demanded the AP come so soon. I spoke w/ my LCC and even Abby Gambill but I have gotten no resolution to this situation. Of course Terry Bell is no longer our placement manager, she was the one who strong armed us into taking the AP 1 week sooner than planned. I think it would be fair to give me $425 credit to my acct which is less than half of the extra costs that CC forced me to pay by taking my AP last minute. It would be fair to give me the credit since in Jan CC was giving $825 credit to new HFs like us and we had only gotten $400 credit.

Also I chose a new AP by myself after sending our new placement manager specifics of what we needed. She was useless and did not send us any candidates that met our requirements. She could not tell me what my requirements were when I asked if she had read my email -especially given that I sent her TWO emails!

As a result I had met requirements for the repeat discount $525 and the early re-application discount $350 and technically I would of met the 7/2/12 early re-match with a $175 discount but I had ZERO assistance from CC's placement manager but I still got an AP selected by 7/4/12 but the CC office did not know until 7/5 b/c they were closed for the holiday.

I have sent emails and left phone messages about the current AP and asking for the $425 credit and also about the lack of correct discounts being on my invoice for the future AP to no avail. My LCC referred me back to Abby Gambill, so I left numerous phone messages and sent emails Abby Gambill but she refuses to return phone calls or emails! I have even responded back to Mallory Farmers request to pay with this information BUT AGAIN NOTHING! Obviously CC wants to wait til the last minute and threaten me again w/ the fact that if I don't pay then no AP supposedly for at least 2 months.

As a result I am ready to terminate my business w/ CC since I have found other Au Pairs thru other agencies and can get one within 1 week of the original CC future AP's arrival date, which is fine for us.

Plus I found out the prospective AuPairs at CC are checked out by phone calls ONLY so the girls have friends lie that they are parents of kids they watched or that they are previous employers at Day Cares instead of verifying the business or person by doing an in-person visit or checking the telephone directory, or even Googling the person or business.

LCC Teresa Vink confirmed that CC never does home visits, never requires cashed paystubs, or references from bosses using the letter head from the DayCares, schools, or churches where the girls claim they worked. She asked me to complain to CC about that practice.

I know of an AP who is leaving soon who bragged to my AP and others that she has zero childcare experience and she is currently caring for a baby, since her friends pretended/ faked they were her previous employers. She also bragged that she dated 3 married friends of her HF so she has lots of gifts; the pics are on her private are of Facebook & my AP was given private friends access so my AP show me the pics w/ men over twice her age.

SPARE YOUR FAMILY THE GRIEF!