Friday

Care.com not so Careful?

By Lillian Shupe | Hunterdon County Democrat
A Hunterdon County family has filed a complaint with the American Arbitration Association after a nanny they hired through Care.com allegedly stole from them to support a drug habit.

According to the complaint, the family used Care.com to secure a nanny for their 5-year-old twins, assuming candidates had been pre-screened as the company's advertisements indicated.

After the new nanny came to their home, the family soon discovered she had a heroin addiction and a prior arrest record. While caring for the children, the new nanny, Ann Guadagnino allegedly stole thousands of dollars in jewelry to support that heroin habit, according to the complaint.

The family's filing alleges Care.com failed to discover the new nanny's criminal background in its screening and that contrary to glowing advertisements about finding the perfect caregiver and happy mothers, there are serious problems in the screening of prospective applicants by Care.com. It alleges that those hired may pose profound dangers to the children in their care, something working mothers evaluating such services must know. The arbitration filing alleges a company employee acknowledged that the criminal database used to cross check applicants could be incomplete and out of date in certain aspects.

Prior complaints were uncovered where the company acknowledged potential shortcomings in its own program, according to the complaint: "There is no centralized database encompassing all criminal convictions, charges, arrests, and violations across Federal, state and local lines. Additionally, online databases that are used to perform these checks may only be updated periodically, therefore, sometimes missing or omitting recent criminal record charges. Read the full story here.

5 comments:

  1. This is why parents are suppose to do their own background check!!!!

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  2. That's is not nice of the mom to take a picture of the nanny.what if nanny take a picture of mommy who have no patience.I once saw a mom forcing a 2 yrs old son into a strollers.the son obviously hates to be inside but it was raining outside .what if it was a nanny.shall nanny take a picture of the mom or vice versa

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  3. Number one: care.com is just there to help you connect with each other. You need to do all the rest on your own. Number two: going through an agency doesn't gguarantee anything. I once was part of a pretty popular agency who never met me, never called my references, and never background checked me. Be careful.

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