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Cultural Care is a fraud! They take money from the family and tell them they are getting an au-pair who understands that she will need to work.

Then they take money from the au-pair and tell her she will be having a "cultural exchange" with a "host family". When the au-pair arrives you expect childcare and she expects a foreign exchange family. It is a total scam! The au pair they sent us was lazy and less capable than my 9 year old.

To make matters worse, she up and left in the middle of her year (which she admitted she was planning all along) and left us with phone bills, library bills, etc. When we complained to Cultural Care they tried to send us several other losers who had been kicked out of their homes for various reasons - causing a divorce, homesick, piercings in their eyes.

We ended up walking away from $5,000 just to be done with them. DONT USE CULTURAL CARE!!!!

Location: Arlington Heights, Illinois

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Guest

*** i will be happy to produce the video again with all the audio to them. i am so pissed still.

Guest

see my comment as sathish17110 about a class action suit. i am not just posting this comment after 3 yrs again.

Guest

CCAP is a big f@#$% scam. I have cameras around the house and did record the interaction between my au pair and the co ordinator.

I was gonna launch a class action law suit against them. they immediatly refunded my deposit. for lack of time i did not pursue. i still have the video with me.

they are nothing but a bunch of idiots and scammers. SOrry but thats the truth and its hard to accept.

u can stay behind the doors and think all is ok, pls anyone with CCAP, just open your eyes and check. Best.

Guest

I don't know what is wrong with all of you negative people, a problem can always be solved and I think that it is your responsibility to make sure to talk to the Au pair/family before your year starts so you know if you will be a good match or not. I am an Au pair within this agency since two years back and I have never had a problem with them.

I made sure to get to know the family and I said no to the ones I did not find myself matching well with. I made sure me and the family understood what my work is and what it isn't before i got there and I enjoyed both of my years with two different families and got so much help from both the LCC in charge of me and the Au Pair company.

If you can't make sure that you and the family/Au pair agree on things then don't do this program cause of course you will be displeased.

Thumbs up to CCAP! :grin

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-799798

I totally agree, amen to that! 8)

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-799798

wait till it happens to you. its just a matter of time. goodluck.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-799840

I've been an Au pair with CCAP for 5 years now and I never had any problems, a lot of my friends have also used this company for their years as Au pairs and for taking care of their children and none of them ever had any complaints and I got all the help I needed these 5 years. I think (like u said, Agnes) that each and every person has to make sure they know their Au pair and agree on the work that will be done. :)

Guest

I will be au pair and I think what happen is that most of the au pairs have a wrong insight of what an au pair is, they think they are going on vacations and they don't realize they are going to have a full time work a very serious one, because you are going to take care of children, I have put in my mind that my firts responsability will be my host children and the others things like traveling or having fun are bot as and important as my host children. If a girl want to go on vacation, hae fun, party every day or get married they should not choose to be an au pair and for the host families if they want an slave they SHOULD NOT choose to have an au pair

Guest

I myself have been an au pair through this agency twice. My first year was amazing.

My second year I left in the middle of the year, because the family and me were not a good fit. My hostfamily needed a nanny, not an au pair (they needed 70 hours per week and the work included several tasks that werent for the au pair). BUT eventhough I wasnt matched to the perfect family, I still dont blame the agency for it. Both the family and the au pair have a say in who they choose to live with for a year.

I still keep in contact with this second family... we got a long, just not workwise. I do know that some girls come to the USA just to stay, but maybe people should also look at the countries they are getting the au pair from. Most people I know that have stayed are from eastern europe, south america and asia, but there are exceptions in those countries who want to return home after the year.

Maybe hire an au pair from a western culture or scandinavia then. I am not trying to stereotype any country, but I would just say, ask questions when interviewing etc. I myself ended up finding my husband from the USA, but that was never my intension and our friendship didnt grow into love until a year after my second year as an au pair. Not every au pair is in the USA to get married.

Also to the person who said an au pair caused a divorce.. yes, it is wrong, but I am pretty sure the relationship already had problems if one needs to cheat or whatever happened. I would just say: Give them a chance.

Also greataupair.com has plenty of au pairs you can look at beforehand and then have the one you choose go with you to the agency (thats how I found my first host family, since I didnt drive and couldnt have gone with the program otherwise). This post is not meant to offend anyone, we all have our opinions and i just thought I would bring something a bit more positive to this conversation.

Guest

I agree with those unhappy with CC. We had two different au pairs within this past year.

CC lies in their letters to families, especially those in rematch; they sate in such letters a number of lies to scam other families to take in au pairs that are not fit nor adequate to care for children.

While we are done with this company, and while are trying to take away the remaining amount of our money, my biggest concern is that they continue to cause damage to families and their children with no concern but that of them earning money. We MUST do something and report this to the Department of state

Guest

Ok, I need to comment on this. I don't mean to be rude or anything like that, but you need to know that there are great au pairs too!

Just as there are great host families! There are au pairs that seem to stem from the devil himself, but also host families from ***. I am an au pair and I was also in transition. My last family totally used me and since I was insecure and nervous coming to this new country, I thought that this was how it was supposed to be and I honestly hated americans because of it.

I've heard of au pairs coming here for one reason and that's to get married and to stay here. I've also heard of families that only want a servant at a low price.

I now have a great family, which also wants me to extend and I love this country. It's not worse or better than my own country, it's just different.

There are a lot of good stories as well. I know how terrible CC can be. I've been through my share of their nonsense too but I also believe that the host family/au pair-thing can work. It's not for everyone though, and it's hard to see through the sleeze of bad families/au pairs to find something that works.

All I'm asking, don't judge every host family or every au pair because we're not all the same. Every au pair isn't out to get you. Not all au pairs want to stay here and cause a ruckus.

Some of us just want a nice year abroad to grow and see your culture. I think it's a great idea, when it works:)

Guest

It is terrible this company, because I am an au pair, I came to help the family with the children and they treat me like a maid, I need to do their laundrey, cooking for the whole family and a lot of work my host mom wants that I do, and when I work more than 45 hours per week (I worked once 56 hours) she scremed with me saying that she do not need to pay me. Cultural care it is the worst program I ever seen, because there are a lot of good families that are suffering with au pair as there are a lot of au pairs suffering with host families. This company just want our money (au pair and families) they do not care about both parts.

sathish i

if anyone is willing to sue cultural care au pair class action law suite pls contact me. thanks

Guest

I too got ripped out by CC...Their service is horrible and all they care about is making money. Do not use this Au Pair organization!. I switched to an other organization after my horrible experience with this one, and I'm happy with my new organization.

lisasmithli

Let's all get together and turn this company in to the state department. In some cases, laws ARE being broken.

We talked to ICE investigators at immigration who actually agreed with some of you, that these girls coming to try to stay in our country even if it means harming families to do it, is an attack against the very fiber of our country. Check with local agents.

lisasmithli

Ours was also kicked out of another family and deliberately caused a divorce, foolishly thinking she'd marry the guy and be able to stay in the country. Cultural Care didn't care, hid her so she could keep working in a coordinator's home and not be subpoenaed. I wish there were something more we could do to keep this from happening to other people.

Guest

I have started my application with cultural care to become an Au Pair but now I don't know what to do!! I really thought that they were a great company but as I read more of these complaints I'm getting more and more confused.I 22 years old From Ireland and I had just about everything sorted all that's left is for my references to be checked.I would really like the opportunity to do this job so if anyone has any other agencies that they recommend I would really appreciate it.

Guest

Wow, love the Natalie response! Bogus!

Natalie is perpetuating the fraud and constantly allows the coordinators to bond with the criminal illegal aliens. This is a foreign exchange scam at every level. With the majority of the AuPairs staying on in this country illegally. I was fortunate enough to learn from some coordinators who were getting out of it as they were sick of the families expecting one thing and getting another.

The aupairs pretend to "lose" their papers so they can stay on board, many times blaming their host family for the loss or saying someone took them! It is unbelievable they are still allowing this rip off.

Guest

FRAUD!! I am so disgusted with this program of endangering young children!

I had an Aupair that was bringing my children to this man's house around the corner for "playdates" I only found out about it after I fired her and he came looking for her. The level of disrespect, dishonesty, and entitlement is appauling. On top of it they knew my aupair was going to NY to start her new life of waiting for citizenship, and gave her advise on it. WTH!

Our aupair and CC put my children in danger and CC does not care. The just brush it off by shoving another waste of space aupair down my throat. Our aupair was 26 she knew what she was doing she used me, my children, for a way into our country, and I am out 3,000! I would rather eat it than ever deal with this Fraud of a company again!

PS she is moving back to our area!

How nice is that do you think immigration would give a ***, I have been told only if they commit a crime? My morals say this is a crime.

Guest

Natalie,

Shame on you!! You allow the Au Pairs to stay in the country even when they don't complete their agreement. No wonder they all think they can get by with it, because they do!!

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