Senior Helpers
Reviews and Complaints

Finally had an interview with Senior Helpers and was actually looking forward to it. What I find unnerving does not only pertains to this company but many if not most Home Care Agencies. This week alone I have discovered that these interviewers do not know or understand what an interview is. An Interview works BOTH ways, you are interviewing the applicants and the applicants should be interviewing your company. Please be respectful and professionally thorough before contacting some of us caregivers. First question and I already knew again they have Not even read my resume, how sloppy. Being an administrator of my own non medical company for 7 years and a caregiver for 25 years, with certificates for my ethical work performance as a CNA working in many nursing skill facilities, and our company was voted best health care place to work for in 2010 and also still being a Highly Requested Male Caregiver, it is appalling how ignorant and blind the managers or recruiters or owners really are when it comes to their "professional approach" toward speaking to said caregivers in this healthcare industry. It is no wonder, the clients suffer great loss with losing their caregivers or not receiving good caregivers. If you do not understand that an interview is not you in control but a shared discussion on both expectations then you and your leaders really need to be taught basic humanity skills 101. Maybe I've been doing this for so long but one thing for sure, when I operated my own company, during the interview process I let the applicant know that 'an interview works both ways' because although they are qualified they might not want to work for our company for any said reasons so I tell them to please feel free to ask me any questions. Jennifer, please learn basic business etiquette, you are NOT in the driver seat during an interview, rather both parties enter the backseat. Dear Caregivers, any one who conducts an interview in a controlling manner is someone you will have an issue with later on in your employment because it means they probably not only is not listening to you but they probably don't think what you have to say is important because after all you need them, right? Thank you for dropping me off, because you were correct at the end, we are NOT a good fit. I refuse to be disrespected and place in a box car with undeserving leaders who don't know when it's their turn to drive or who don't like to be asked questions. I hate that the clients suffer in such a way but these are the reasons why your applicants don't even finish the interviewing process in this healthcare industry. Dear Interviewers, BE Respectful and at Least Act like you care about your interview approach before asking us caregivers questions that is listed in our Resume because some of us caregivers will intimidate your intelligence all day. DO BETTER for example "So I read your resume and it says such and such," not forcefully "Do you have this and that?" how disrespectful and sloppy. READ and DO BETTER!

Senior Helper’s in San Diego misrepresented the training and qualifications of their employees. The caregiver improperly placed the client in the sling and then attempted to transfer from bed to wheelchair. Subsequently, the client slipped out of the sling and on to the floor. This was the third incident where improper use of the Hoyer Lift and sling resulted in injury to the client.

In October 2021, a contract for services was signed. Invoices were to be sent to a trustee for payment and one sent to family member living with client for validation of hours being billed. Yet, the first invoice received, for validation of hours by family member, was in March 2022 after numerous requests. Excuses were made as to why no invoices were sent to family member yet invoices to trustee for payment were sent faithfully. Senior Helpers claims they are not able to provide past invoices for the family to review. The trustee has no idea of the hours worked or not worked, nor if overtime pay is valid or not. The trustee was led to believe that family member received the same invoice each pay period. Senior Helpers took advantage of this situation as was evidenced in the overbilling of hours and days plus time and half charged on the invoice finally received in March 2022. When pointed out to Senior Helpers, they justified the over billing to “no advance notice “ given for change in hours. This was quickly proven to be an intentional lie when written evidence of the change was submitted. Senior Helpers has not corrected the errors nor responded to family. A complaint is being made to San Diego’s Social Services for further investigation into all charges since October 2021. Senior Helpers of Sorrento Valley in San Diego is refusing to address the problem and continues to only send invoices to the trustee.

The franchise that I used was in Bedford Hills New York. The president was Jeff Sencer. He was the only person who I had contact with. His franchise is horrible. When I first contacted him I explained in great detail what my families needs were for my Dad, he insisted that he could help us. At first they were wonderful, on time and care was great. When the caregiver was injured not while taking care of my Dad, the services got bad. Days with no one coming no calls to say they were not coming, not providing the services we asked, using my Dad's phone to make long distance calls, taking and eating food from my Dad's house. When that was mentioned they got rid of the caregiver and I had to ask every week if anyone was going to come. He stated he would reimburse us for the food and phone calls but that never happened. I had called the cooperate office to make a complaint, and never spoke to anyone there. I did however get a very rude and unprofessional call from Jeff asking why I called to complain. After that I all my dealing with him where by email or text so that I could keep track. The last day we had service from this franchise was on 12/24/21. I called all the phone numbers I had for him and also texted and received no response. If this is how you train your people to run a business then you need to either retrain them of take the franchise away from them. I would never recommend this company to anyone. I've been an RN for 30 years, and I was seeking your company's help with my father. In the end it was my father who suffered due to the lack of unprofessional attitude that Jeff has towards his clients.

I allowed Senior Helpers to use my credit card to "hold" as they were preparing to take my Aunt Bernice Craft on as a new client. The circumstances resulted from my Aunt Bernice who is blind, needing immediate care after returning home from Forest Springs for an extended six month stay after a fall. On the same day service was begin setup while one of your staff Nancy was in the home, there was an emergency with my Aunt Bernices daughter who was rushed to the hospital while Nancy was still doing her "initial visit" which left my Aunt Bernice all alone in the home not able to see or walk as her leg was being rehab. My Aunt Bernice was unable to provide a credit card or voided check, something her daughter would have done for her. Nancy from senior helpers indicated if she had my credit card, she would be able to proceed with opening up services however would not charge my credit card and would follow up with my Aunt Bernice's daughter to get the credit card for services, which she ultimately did. However all charges were billed to my credit card in error which Senior Helpers agreed, apologized, refunded two of the five charges and have not refunded the balance. Here is the most recent complaint I left on their site:
I have contacted Dan Kosek your Director of Resources in Louisville more times than I can count both by email many times to no response and left numerous messages. Extremely "Unprofessional" not to respond to inquires you receive. I am due three payments to my credit card that were error which you have confirmed where made in error and acknowledged in an email to me in "January 2021" that it would be corrected and credited to my account. Not to mention several of the charges were made AFTER I told you not to charge my card and remove from your records! The amounts remaining are $500 (Oct/Nov) $1, 337.71 on 12/10 and $1, 182.70 on 1/4. I need a response from someone at Senior Helper in Louisville ASAP! Absolutely unprofessional! I am not one to bad Yelp including naming names however this is one interaction that deserves a real bad yelp, not just from me but my entire family in Louisville! I will await a response and not for long before I take the next steps to get this resolved. I have attached the email where they admit the error and intent to correct

The personnel who answer the phone are friendly and give a positive first impression. However, our interactions with some of the employees has left us with a less than favorable impression.
When we first signed on with Senior Helpers for home care for our mother, my brother and I had one main request. That was that the RN make her visit at a time when my brother or I could be present. We requested an afternoon visit. And we wanted a call back to give us information as to when the visit would occur.

Instead of coming in the afternoon, we learned from our mother one morning last week that the RN (Sandra Gault) had visited our mother the night before. No family was present even though we had expressly requested a visit scheduled at a time when one of us could be present. (2nd week in October 2016)
What kind of senior service company makes assessment calls at night for an elderly person. And since we requested an afternoon visit and requested to be notified, we will probably go with a different company.
We had spoken with this nurse once (Sandra) and also realized she did not leave a call back number. We got her number from our caller ID.
Does the management of this particular Senior Helpers overload their nurses? Or do these nurses have day jobs and work with these elderly clients at night? What's the problem with getting visits scheduled during the day? Why should scheduling a visit be handled with such poor communication and lack of interest in the family (or elderly) needs.
We have called the Alpharetta office and were put on hold for over 20 minutes. Maybe we called at the wrong time. We're going with a different company.
JS

My mom and I came to the Hendersonville, Tn location to apply for a job. We already have jobs but was looking for something part-time. We traveled a great distance in the pouring rain for absolutely nothing. My mom had an appointment but I did not. When I spoke to someone a few days before, she told me to come in at any time, so that's what I did. I had no idea that I needed an appointment to fill out an application. From the moment we arrived until the time we left the receptionist Rachel Waxman was very rude, loud and unprofessional and not to mention the man who entered the room and rudely told my mom she was letting the air out of the already hot room. Rachel could have been more respectful with explaining the application process instead of ranting on about how my mom was late for her appointment. Did I mention there were no lights or power in the building due to the severe storm we had driven in for almost an hour. It took everything I had not to speak Rachel out, but I know there's a special place for people like that, so why waste my breath. Why are people like this still in business? Do not go to this location if u are seeking employment. I now understand why Senior Helpers are always hiring. They have employees like Rachel Waxman running away all of the good reliable dependable employees.

Senior Helpers in Denver CO is not on the up and up. They don't log anything so you don't even know if they are doing what they're supposed to and when they're supposed to when it comes to assisting the elderly. They charge you for services that may have not been rendered but in addition they lie and tell you they're going to do something at a certain time and they do not.
An example is when they say they're going to come and assist the elderly with showering, giving medication, assisting your loved ones to dinner, it is when they feel like it whether they've promised to take care of things at a certain time or not. They cannot be relied upon and it is really frightening that they lie when it comes to caring for your father or mother. They rip people off by telling you this is what we're charging you because we serviced your loved one this many times but you honestly wouldn't know. It would be a good idea to put a camera in the place so you can see for yourself. If you are looking for help for your elderly folks, I warn you to be very careful and certainly investigate on an ongoing basis if you have to use them.

The Senior Helpers in Louisville, KY on Breckenridge Lane is a poor excuse for a care-giving establishment. They totally violate caregiver's privacy by taking photos of the caregiver and putting the photo and caregiver's name up on the wall where anyone can see. They FORCE new employees to buy a puke-greenish colored polo shirt, require them to pay for their own TB skin tests and offer totally inadequate "training" using one piece of outdated equipment. They also require approximately 6 hours of "orientation" (which mostly consists of watching boring videos and hearing about everything except what employees need to know such as benefits and specific responsibilities). They only pay 2.5 hours of their hiring session. Though it is all they are required to pay by KY law, some agencies don't nickle and dime potential works like that. Some other agencies show they value caregivers at least enough to pay them something for every hour of required time from the start. Senior Helpers just TALK a good game but do not deliver either to caregivers or clients and their families.

They violate families' privacy by instructing caregivers to take pictures of clients and post them, even on popular social sites, as long as they have the client's permission. How can most people with dementia justifiably give permission to have their pictures/videos taken?

They require caregivers to submit time-sheets, in addition to clocking in and out on the client's phone, weekly but only pay every 2 weeks. They lie about schedules and try to place caregivers miles and miles from their homes for short 2-4 hour shifts. They use caregiver's last 4 of their social security numbers as part of their ID and it is printed on their name badges! They have only one scheduler and he doles out the "good" assignments to his favorites. They do a drug test, but not a basic background check. By the way, they do hire felons (which I have no problem with in some cases depending on the amount of time passed and the offense such as non-violent), but very likely they do not tell client's families.

Overall, they are just like most US companies. They are all about making their money regardless to the affect on the caregiver or client. They are exploiting a need of the communities (care for the elderly) to get their desires met (making as much money as possible).

Anyone seeking care for their loved ones would be much better off advertising in a religious environment such as at a church or in a religious newspaper than paying 2 and 3 times more than the caregiver will ever receive to lying, thieving companies like Senior Helpers. If you think you are safer with agencies, you are not.

After taking the job for in home care for my mother, Senior Helpers did not show up 7 times. They did not call and let anyone know that they were not going to show up, just did not show up. This is really tough when a family is relying on help for their loved ones. They sent inferior staffing just to cover shifts. Most of the "helpers" were unable to complete the tasks required and admitted so. One of the staff members called my brother threatening to "beat our ###" because I called to complain that family members had to do the work while senior helpers staff stood and watched. I tried many, many times to contact the owner Bob Hoorman and he would not come to the phone and has never called me back. When calling the corporate office, no one calls back. I called the regional manager for 3 weeks and he does not call back because "he travels." Upon calling his boss over franchises she will tell you that "you have 5 minutes." And then you finally make it to the CEO and he can't figure out why you are calling. He did call the case manager and he was bewildered as to why I keep calling the corporate office. The bottom line is to research before choosing a home healthcare company to take care of your loved ones. At first I thought this was the local office that lacked care of how they performed, but upon going up the chain it is clear that this lack of care is a trickle down from the top. If someone can't understand why you are upset that no one shows up to care for your loved one or that someone calls telling you that they are going to beat your ###... if they can't figure that out then you have the wrong company to trust.

horrible company to work for. never reported clients whose conditions were worsening, made to stay at clients homes who did not want you there (the client!) just to bill hours. all about the bottom line and not about the senior. harrassed by scheduler if you couldn't take a client very rude and unprofessional. all about the money. would not recommend Senior Helpers to anyone let alone care for my loved ones! training is a joke, the owners are money hungry franchisees who pass the buck if something happens. horrible company horrible people!

The agency promises to provide skilled/trained caregivers to help with care of loved one who desire to stay in the home. The agency consistently sent unqualified individuals to the home who did not read/follow written instructions on the skin care, feeding, mental stimulation of an aging loved one with Alzheimer's disease. "Surprise" returns home discovered male visting one care provider in my home, windows "unlocked" randomly around the house, cigarette butts littering driveway, pornography literature in my home, failure to come as assigned... etc. The agency consistently said "we will investigate" yet always demanded payment for staff who came into the home yet did not perform the tasks for which they were hired/demanded pay.

During my very short employment with this company I was subject to verbal abuse from the employer and was denied work. I was also witness to verbal abuse and threats from caregivers to clients. My first client was constantly ignored because of their physical disorder. Not only did the spouse but the staff at Senior Helpers failed to ignore serious health concerns. Client's concerns and pains went untreated for months. Eventually problem was solved with my persistent requests for client to seek medical attention. Clients condition improved within weeks. They were also able to regain somewhat of a normal daily routine again. I also had reported that the client was being neglected by the care of another caregiver, client had reported this to me. The caregiver refused to provide certain care, which is part of our job description. I reported this to the office as we're supposed to do. I was warned that if I wanted to keep my job that I will mind my own business and not make false accusations against well respected caregivers. I was removed from that client shortly after. The reason I was given was because it was not working out, for Senior Helpers. Even though I helped this client make a quick recovery.

On to the next situation. I had a personal issue arise and had to take a small leave of absence. It was for two weeks. When I called to explain my situation I was yelled at by the owner and hung up on. Yes, I was hung up on and yelled at by an employer. My family was witness to this behavior and asked me to resign immediately. Unfortunately I needed this job until I could find another job to accommodate my busy schedule. I called back immediately and stated that as an employee and a person I would appreciate being treated respectfully. I was told this request could not be honored. “ How dare you choose your family over your job.” I was also informed that it was selfish for me to take personal time off. I was told that I would cost the company lots of money and now they would have to find someone else to replace me till I came back. I was off the schedule already because they refused to give me a client after the first one. I was not being an inconvenience to anyone. I eventually was able to return to work.

Finally working again I went to meet my new client. I was informed that I would be taking over for another caregiver at the clients request. When I arrived the caregiver told me that this client was difficult and did not listen. I nodded my head and ignored the unprofessional and disrespectful comment. It didn't stop there. As soon as this “caregiver” introduced me to the client I began to ask her questions about the services they would like provided, and how I could be of assistance to them. This “caregiver” constantly interrupted the client dismissing everything that they said. The client eventually became embarrassed and quit talking. The “caregiver” took over the conversation and literally talked about the client as if they were not there. Told me that the client never listens, makes things more difficult, and complains more than the they should be allowed to. The “caregiver” then decided to instruct me that I need to sometimes force the client to do things that they don't want to. (Let me add here this is the same “caregiver” the previous client had talked to me about and I had reported. I had previously met this “caregiver” as well. She had one of the worst attitudes towards geriatrics I've had to experience.)This “caregiver” would constantly give negative feedback and tell the client to do more then they were supposed to. The “caregiver” would tell the client they were lazy and difficult. The “caregiver” told the client if they didn't do what she said the client wouldn't get to do anything. Eventually the client became exhausted and could not take anymore. I had to intervene. The client told the other “caregiver” to please leave them alone, and to let me take over as I was supposed to. As soon as my introduction period was over I had to leave. I was seriously concerned and called the office immediately. Senior Helpers advised me again that this is why I was taking over and to leave the issue alone. I said that I did not feel comfortable leaving the client alone with this “caregiver”. Senior Helpers told me to not be ridiculous that this was their best “caregiver”. They continued to state that this client was just very needy. I personally don't care how needy a client might be. When they are privately paying for services you will honor and respect any services they request from you. This type of unprofessional conduct is how Senior Helpers operates. That client was later verbally and I suspect physically abused by that “caregiver”. The “caregiver” forced her to do extra activities. This client ended up in the er that night because of high blood pressure do to a heart condition. This was quite terrible. This family eventually ended services with Senior Helpers. This was after Senior Helpers continued to yell at the clients, and at me for questioning the poor services that were being provided. I have since been denied hours.

I would not suggest ever working for or seeking services from this company. I have met and talked with a few caregivers that stated they were mistreated as well. This company will discriminate and with hold work. They will discriminate against you personally and as a potential client. They do not take state assistance because of the riff raf that comes along with it. This is a direct quote during my hiring process. They do not want the poor, weak, tired, or the hungry. Just the rich, wealthy, and provided meal ticket. This company gives all other programs out their a terrible name. I am ashamed to say that I was an employee here.

I am a employee of Senior Helpers and agree 100%.I myself have had situations of concern and was told that they would do mediation and nothing was done.I also know that they charge the clients different fees according to what they think they should pay... by looking at the address to where a client lives.They are very money hungry people who could care less about the client or the caregiver.The training they claim they give us would be laughable if it were'nt for the fact that we are talking about seniors here..They are suppose to do mediations with the clients every so many months but they do not.All they care about is you sitting there getting those hours so they can send you a bill.Please DO NOT be fooled by the smiles and the talk of church from these people.They have one agenda and that's getting you or your loved one to write a check.People please if you care at all for your loved ones research the business thoroughly before putting your love ones in their hands.I am only with them because I love my client and she and her family counts on me to be there...Remember YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! They will claim they are the highest paid sitter service out there, but trust me THEY ARE NOT..I also work with another company who I feel really cares about the client as well as the caregiver.They have counselors and clergy on hand 24 hours a day if you become stressed or concerned, so we do have honest people out there...