Tuesday

Care dot com asks you to purchase "credits" to apply to jobs?! OUTRAGED!

Hi! Thanks for keeping your blog going. There was something I wanted to bring to your attention (that I'm sure other nannies are aware of, as many of us use Care dot com). Well "Care" started this new system several months ago, allowing parents the option to have their job posting require "credits" to apply. It does narrow the posting to only 5 candidates (lessening competition in theory), but otherwise, this has no benefit to the providers or families. It is simply a greedy move on Care's part. And it disgusts me.

The credits are fairly expensive and expire after 90 days. They are even sold in uneven amounts, so that it would be impossible to use up all your credits without purchasing more! (The application rate I've seen is "4 credits" -- for now!) Not only is it ridiculous to have to PAY to apply for a job (or in this case, even just ask clarifying questions about the posting!), but I think it must be illegal! This discriminates against job seekers who can't afford the credits. (And yes, there are some jobs that are still free to apply to, but they are few and far between. And Care puts the "apply with 4 credits" jobs first in the list when you search.)

I held off as long as I could in buying credits myself, but Care is still the best place for me to find nanny jobs online (in my area, anyway). So eventually I broke down and bought some. It looks like it may actually lead to a job offer, but I'm still pissed. $19 to apply to 6 jobs?! Ridiculous!

I've been waiting for someone to post about how awful this is online somewhere, but haven't see anything. So I thought I might as be the one to blow the whistle on this discriminatory practice.

Please keep this post anonymous, as I know Care dot com happily deletes members who complain!

17 comments:

Jess said...

Huh, this sounded so weird that I actually reactivated my account to check it out, but I haven't seen anything regarding these credits. I even went into the apply section to make sure, but there was nothing. Maybe it's something they are trying out in just a single area? I won't be paying for that kind of stuff for sure (I never went premium on it either since it seems lie a waste of money) and parents who expect a prospective nanny to pay to apply are cheating themselves out of a good nanny. Perhaps it lessens the financial burden on them?

Jess said...

Ok, I dugged into a little more, and per website FAQ it's for pet care only. Not cool, but unless it's going to spillover to childcare, doesn't bother me

Unknown said...

It must not be active in your area yet, I have had to pay to apply for jobs starting a few months ago. They definitely expired by now. It's an awful system, after using up about 3/4 of what I bought I went with an agency I know of personally. Much happier with my current placement than I have ever been with a care job I chose for myself.

Unknown said...

It must not be active in your area yet, I have had to pay to apply for jobs starting a few months ago. They definitely expired by now. It's an awful system, after using up about 3/4 of what I bought I went with an agency I know of personally. Much happier with my current placement than I have ever been with a care job I chose for myself.

Anonymous said...

You lost me at "dugged into it".

Jessica said...

This doesn't matter to me. I don't use care. And haven't for a long time. They underestimate rates across the board and have never been advocates for nannies. There are better resources.

Anonymous said...

I checked my care.com account and didn't see this either... But seriously, use an agency.

Unknown said...

I have just read its blogsites about the eleviate article of Hire a babysitter Los Angeles and it just astonishing in my vista when it comes Hire Housekeeper Los Angeles. Its baby caring facility is another giant leap such as Nanny Jobs Los Angeles. If you may some need of that of course you have to visit its web portal.

Anonymous said...

I hate care.com. It is the year 2016 and their search engine is still crap. People post jobs and mark FT and show up in searches and you click on their post only to find that they need someone 15-20 hours per week. Or that search filter is so limited or that you are not able to save jobs or profiles to check out later. And they make shit loads of money

Anonymous said...

I am so disappointed! Care.com used to be a very useful resource to find animal care jobs in my area.
Now I have to pay to apply to positions (buy credits). Not only that I can't see what's available at a glance as I could before.
I don't see how Care will survive this poor decision to force people to pay to apply - the whole point is we are looking for work because we need money!
I for one will go elsewhere; post an ad on Craigslist and in local areas...
The name should be changed to We Don't Care.com...

Unknown said...

I am so annoyed by this! I will likely end up deleting my account because of it - I agree with you 110%, greedy move on their part...

Anonymous said...

I signed up with Care.con a few months ago. I kept getting job listings daily and I applied to these jobs daily. I never got a job offer and could not understand this until this week. While searching jobs and Care.com out, I found you have to pay to get a job. I find this ridiculous. How can you pay for a job if you are not working? Give us a break, at least allow us the opportunity to get a job. Don't you think you are being a little greedy, collecting money from clients and from prospective employees? You are denying the clients from getting some of the best help they could possibly employ. I encourage the clients to do their own posting.

Anonymous said...

I will no longer be using care.com I am looking for a pet care position but I do not have the money to buy the credits. How sad!!! I will be spreading the word!!

Anonymous said...

This happened to me when I signed up and realized I needed credits to apply and I actually bought credits and it took the money out of my account and have yet to receive those credits I don't know what to do but I did it multiple times on my credit card thinking it was an error with the card but the transactions actually went through and I still don't have my credits.

Anonymous said...

Late to this thread but I recently signed up for care.com for the regular, unpaid, membership. upon signing up, the website literally says, "apply for jobs for free." As mentioned above, care.com casually forgot to state that the "Free jobs" are maybe 1 out of 20 and are generally posted by outside companies advertising on care.com, not individual families looking for help. Having the pay to apply to jobs is insane. If I had spare money to be applying to jobs I probably wouldnt be applying for jobs. Not only is it greedy but should also be considered false advertising....there are no free applications on this website.

Anonymous said...

I found my last position 2 years ago and I could apply to any job I wanted for free. Now that I need a new position as my current family no longer needs me, none of the positions I am applying for are free. They have all come back saying I need to buy credits. Frankly this is really disappointing. I really liked the site before and found all of my work through it. Most people don't clarify enough about the position and I do not want to pay to inquire about a job. This is ridiculous.

Anonymous said...

I found my last position 2 years ago and I could apply to any job I wanted for free. Now that I need a new position as my current family no longer needs me, none of the positions I am applying for are free. They have all come back saying I need to buy credits. Frankly this is really disappointing. I really liked the site before and found all of my work through it. Most people don't clarify enough about the position and I do not want to pay to inquire about a job. This is ridiculous.