Care.com

Babysitter never showed up like promise even if i talked to her on the phone and gave me her phone number Very disappointing

I would strongly advise anyone considering Care.com to avoid it entirely. The way this platform handles subscriptions is incredibly misleading. There is no clear or transparent indication that you are signing up for ongoing monthly charges, and even worse, there is no straightforward way to cancel. Instead of a simple “cancel subscription”… Read more

option, you’re forced to navigate confusing wording like “downgrade,” which is clearly designed to make the process harder than it should be.

It feels intentionally deceptive. A service that is charging people recurring fees should make both the pricing and the cancellation process obvious and easy. This platform does neither.

Trying to cancel is frustrating and time-consuming, and it honestly feels like the system is set up to keep charging you for as long as possible.

In hindsight, there is absolutely no need to use a service like this. You can find excellent, trusted nannies through local Facebook community groups without paying ongoing fees or dealing with these kinds of tactics.

I would not use this platform again and would not recommend it to anyone.

Terrible platform. Auto charged with no notification. All the people that contacted me had no reviews on the platform so i was very wary on trusting them with my children.

Disrespectful Auto-Renewal Practices, No Transparency I’m writing this review to warn others before they sign up. Care.com auto-renewed my subscription and charged me $60 without any advance notification, reminder, or confirmation at the time of billing. No email saying “your subscription is about to renew,” no heads-up, no opportunity to cancel… Read more

— just a charge.

Yes, auto-renewal may be buried somewhere in the Terms & Conditions. But in 2026, hiding behind fine print is not an excuse for poor customer experience. Almost every modern subscription service — from streaming platforms to professional SaaS tools — sends renewal reminders as a basic sign of respect toward customers. Care.com chose not to.

When I contacted customer support, they acknowledged that I did not receive a notification — yet still refused a refund, citing “policy.” That tells you everything you need to know: the system is designed to benefit from people forgetting to cancel.

This is not about the $60. It’s about trust. A service built around care, families, and responsibility should hold itself to higher ethical standards — not rely on silent renewals and rigid policies.

If you are considering Care.com, set calendar reminders immediately or reconsider whether you want to support a platform that operates this way. There are alternatives that treat customers with far more transparency and respect.

STAY AWAY. I signed up for a 3 month period a few years ago. I went in to cancel the subscription before the period ended and it appeared that no action was required - website deceptive. They took quarterly payments with no receipt or notifications for the next two years before I noticed, despite the fact that they froze my account after 6 months… Read more

for inactivity (the cancellation email mentioned nothing about ongoing payments and they continued to charge me for 18 further months without a single email). Obviously then refused any refund stating it was in their terms and conditions. They simply ignored subsequent emails and letter requesting a refund. I have notified ACCC and fair trading. Over $1000 down the pan.

UPDATE: the website does make cancellation process more clear nowadays . I wonder if that’s a response to the $8.1m payout that they had to make in USA following an FDA ruling about deceptive practices?

I wish I could give less than 1 star. They make it impossible to stop the subscription.

Rort. As others have noted, the auto subscription just keeps ticking over and they send you no reminders, receipts or transaction history. After initially using the service 2 years ago I’ve found they’re still charging me (I should’ve picked this up earlier). I cancelled and sent them an email noting this was really poor form but just got an automated reply.

Got a good babysitter, worked as expected – Started using the site on a Tuesday and had a babysitter that Saturday. She was very nice, affordable and my daughter wants her to sit again. I guess the experience depends entirely on the availability and quality of babysitters in your area, but it's definitely not a scam site as other reviews suggest. The subscription would be pretty steep if… Read more

you kept it going long term, but I assume most people find a good sitter and then stay with them, so it's really just a connection fee and it's fair enough that it's high.

DO NOT RECOMMEND – Do Not Recommend Signed up for a 1 month subscription. Nowhere was it made clear that this would be an ongoing subscription with charges deducted each month until you cancel. Website is glitchy and constantly comes up with error messages making it very difficult to navigate and having to continuously refresh your page.

Poor customer service – Poor customer service, unable.to.apeak with an agent all communication is electronic and for the most fromated. They up charge, cause add ons to the subscription in a shady way. I have tried to hire twice through them the first 2 workers flaked on interviews and the 3rd is basically running an u licensed daycare out of thier home.

The business should be taken to court! – Was not really providing any useful contact from day one, many fake listings,wasting you time screening and contacting candidates. Once you realize it is a waste of time. You are trapped with then ongoing taking money from your bank. I canceled my membership in 2022. Only to found that they charged to my credit card again periodically in 2024. The… Read more

only way you can get away from them is to cancel your card. It is sad to have business like this, very unlawful and yet still exists!

Ripped off – Do not use, sitter pulled out 2 weeks from wedding and site continued to take money from account and refused refund. Avoid 0/10

Buyer beware of care.com – Appalling site and impossible to cancel subscription once you subscribe so you continually get charged despite attempts at contacting them. It's a total scam. And taking advantage of people who are already time poor.

Scam with unauthorised monthly payments – Unauthorised monthly transactions kept coming without any refund available despite not using their services. Complete scam.

Zero value Zero service – Care.com has been of zero value in finding support for babysitting / nanny which matches the absolutely zero technical support for any assistance with a functioning website, billing issues and subscription cancellation. Our job post and messages did not receive any responses, despite the website saying users were "active". Monitoring it over a… Read more

month and there has been no updates on activity or jobs which seems highly unlikely or a complete waste of a site that doesn't get used.

When seeking to cancel my subscription, I received error messages everytime I tried to downgrade to basic or close my account and have now been charged again. Trying to contact their "24/7" help team has been completely unhelpful - requiring personal and account details despite being logged on through my account, the mandatory fields not recognising text, and again the same "unexpected error... try again later" when submitting. Finally finding an email to try get some human help is also useless as I got an automatic response that says the email is not monitored go to the FAQs (tried that, didn't work).

Completely frustrating and still no closer to getting any help with our original need for a babysitter. Save your time and money and look elsewhere for this service!

Predatory billing practices and poor customer service – Care.com has a completely predatory billing system. I signed up with them and unwittingly paid for 12 months of services I did not use. Companies with similar subscription models often will rebate unused time, when they can see a profile is not used or an ad is not placed. Instead I got a totally uncaring email from care.com saying we say we are a… Read more

subscription too bad so sad. You simply don't care, and your customer service response is disappointing. $600 down the drain.

Absolute scam website – I created an account in order to look for a pet sitter while we go on holiday. There was no charge to create an account and post a job however as soon as responses came in from interested parties there was no way to read their messages. You had to sign up to the subscription in order to read messages. Based on the other reviews here DO NOT… Read more

SUBSCRIBE. What an absolute scam website, and based on how it operates who knows what sort of person you're actually going to get?! Just to compare - other Pet Sitting websites (e.g. Mad Paws, Petcloud) do not change any sort of subscription. Creating accounts, posting jobs and connecting with prospective carers is absolutely free and they earn through taking commission on the carer's fee.

Absolutely disgusting - renew of 1 month subscription with no notice – I understood I was signing up for 1 months subscription. With no notification I was charged automatically again 1 month later. I contacted them immediately to advise this was a mistake and requested a refund. You can't talk to them directly and they advise (via chat) the standard quip 'we do not refund'. This is disgraceful. Regardless of this… Read more

the service is very poor. You never know if the poster has received your message, I rarely get jobs from these people. Try Airtasker instead!!! Airtasker take a large upfront fee, but they are completely transparent. Care.com are not transparent at all and the way they con you into ongoing subscriptions has to be bordering on illegal

Unethical revenue generation through continual billing – Like the previous poster, I was under the impression that i was purchasing a one month subscription to care.com (as advertised) but i was billed again on the 28th August for another one month subscription with no email notification to advise that my billing period was ending or that i was being billed for the next month. I find this automatic… Read more

subscription system without notification to the consumer, a unethical revenue making scheme for unsuspecting consumers. I have not used this service since early August. I am waiting for a response from care.com

Unauthorised change of plan and payments – Watch out if you want to use this service for a month ONLY for childcare purposes. They state that "Care.com membership is a subscription service and is non-refundable stated in terms and conditions". Therefore, if you do not intent to let Care.com to keep taking payments from your bank account after a month, do NOT sign up for this service at… Read more

all. There is no telephone number in their website and/or when you try to cancel your "after a month paid off", they just change your plan but do not cancel it. I had to cancel my card and open a dispute with them as they kept charging me for four months. I have not logged in to this service at all after a month paid off. I thought I had cancel it in their website and clicked on update membership before the 30 days expiry but they did NOT cancel it. I had no email and no notification from this service about the status of the membership at all. It just kept charging with the highest level of the plan (premium). I never paid or signed up for the "premium" level.