SmartAupairs’s earns a 1.0-star rating from 4 reviews, showing that the majority of host families are dissatisfied with au pair placements.
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Lack of support
I was an au pair in Australia through Smart au pairs from July 2018 till September 2018. This was the worst experience ever! Upon arrival, my host family and I got along pretty well and they asked me to extend another 6 months after my first half year was over. A month or so later, without any conversation or reasonable time frame, they told me on a Saturday, that I had till that Monday to pack my bags and leave. Their reason was that we ended up not being a great match for each other. I ended up on the street in a foreign country on the other side of the world, not knowing where to sleep, where to eat and where to work. I contacted Smart Au Pairs and the first couple of days I could not get in touch with anyone. After I finally got in touch with Smart Au Pairs, they did not provide any place to stay and they did not provide any contact person for me to go to. The only option they gave me was to try to find another family to continue my au pair journey with. I ended up going from one place to another through Couchsurf and slept in houses of complete strangers. After a couple of miserable weeks, I got a flight back and left Australia. I never heard anything back from the company, they never checked in to see what happened to me and how I was doing. I do not recommend this agency at all!
I was an au pair in the United states before through Cultural Care Au Pair and this is probably the best agency you can go with! You have your own contact person in your area in case anything happens. Your contact person is available 24/7 and helps you through any problems that may occur.
Hi y'all,
I wanted to share my experience with anyone who is planning on being an au pair through Smart Au Pairs. I am from Germany and I was an au pair in Australia last year. Before I left Germany, there was a lot of communication between smart au pairs and me. I matched with a family, got plenty of information and it seemed like I had a lot of support while I was going to be in Australia. When I started my year as an au pair, I had a blast! My host kids were a lot of fun and I had a lot of time do explore and meet new friends. They were 1 and 5 years old.
But then.. all the crap started..
I started working way more hours than agreed on because my host mom started a new job. My family had me working overnight (keeping the monitor, changing and bottle feeding) and 5 hours during the day. We agreed on 40 hours a week and they did not pay me extra. I ended up working 13 hours a day! I tried to get in touch with Smart au pairs for a while and did not get 1 email or phone call back until a week later. They then said I should talk to the family and try to find a solution. This did not happen and I worked the crazy schedule for 3 more weeks. I asked for a rematch but the company would not let me. It was a small issue that we could totally solve. Well that did not happen and I left 2 weeks later. I never heard back from Smart au pairs and have tried to email many times.
au pair placement
Smart AuPairs is a "Au Pair dating agency" to avoid. They have agreements with German and other agencies to "match" Au Pairs with Australian families. The Agency in Germany for example charge the Au pair say EUR$900 or more to register and then Smart AuPair in Australia charge the family $1000 or more, for nothing. The German agency (or other in country agency) recommend pocket money of AUD$150-250 maximum, yet Smart AuPairs try to get the family in Australia to pay at least double that. They are corrupting the unregulated industry and profiting from these poor girls and guys who are looking for a cultural exchange. By charging excessive "placement" fees and forcing pocket money into wages territory, they are destroying the program the government set up to provide cultural exchanges. More importantly the DONT MATCH, they just give whomever is available at the time, dodgy, corrupt and due for a government enquiry..Also the awards they say they win are rubbish, setups and fabricated. The owner of the dodgy agency setup BAPAA themselves and the International version is no better as they award each other awards for nothing, its bogus and unregulated ! Do not use this dodgy company.
Unethical behaviour
We are a family from melbourne and in 2012 we engaged an au pair from smart au pairs, her name is birte, a german girl who won the au pair of the year award in 2012. She was really a nice person, kind, patient, punctual and always doing her job the best way she could. Smart au pairs asked me to complete a form so that my au pair could participate in the...
Read full review of SmartAupairs and 6 commentsIs SmartAupairs Legit?
SmartAupairs earns a trustworthiness rating of 91%
Highly recommended, but caution will not hurt.
Smartaupairs.com.au has a valid SSL certificate, which indicates that the website is secure and trustworthy. Look for the padlock icon in the browser and the "https" prefix in the URL to confirm that the website is using SSL.
Smartaupairs.com.au has been deemed safe to visit, as it is protected by a cloud-based cybersecurity solution that uses the Domain Name System (DNS) to help protect networks from online threats.
However ComplaintsBoard has detected that:
- Multiple low-rated websites are found on the same server. There could be such as technical issues or poor website optimization. To determine if the websites are part of a scam, it's important to review them and look for signs of fraudulent activity.
- The website belonging to SmartAupairs has a low number of visitors, which could be a red flag for users. However, it's important to conduct additional research to fully evaluate the website's legitimacy and trustworthiness.
Unethical behaviour, unauthorised card charges
Last February 2016 we engaged the services of an au pair through Smart Au pairs in Australia, we submitted an application and they rang me next day asking to make a deposit in order to start. I had no other option, then waited 2 weeks to hear from them, they contacted me to present only one candidate and not matching my profile at all, too young and German, they said to have only German girls ages 18-19 yrs old with no driving experience. I did not like the profile of the girl and asked them to refund my deposit, Camilla from their agency denied. Then waited more days and had no other option than to accept the German girl, the German au pair was a disaster, smoker and locked my kid in the garage twice, we asked a replacement and Camilla denied this option as she said we are in the low season. I finished with no au pair and loosing more than 1, 500 AUD but i could not keep the German girl at home caring my kids that way.
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SmartAupairs Contacts
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SmartAupairs phone numbers+61 294 513 888+61 294 513 888Click up if you have successfully reached SmartAupairs by calling +61 294 513 888 phone number 0 0 users reported that they have successfully reached SmartAupairs by calling +61 294 513 888 phone number Click down if you have unsuccessfully reached SmartAupairs by calling +61 294 513 888 phone number 0 0 users reported that they have UNsuccessfully reached SmartAupairs by calling +61 294 513 888 phone number
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SmartAupairs emailsinfo@smartaupairs.com.au100%Confidence score: 100%Supportcoleen@smartaupairs.com.au10%Confidence score: 10%
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SmartAupairs addressSydney, New South Wales, Australia
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SmartAupairs social media
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Checked and verified by Michael This contact information is personally checked and verified by the ComplaintsBoard representative. Learn moreJun 13, 2024
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