Reviews

This profile includes reviews for Cultural Care, Inc.'s headquarters and its corporate-owned locations. To view all corporate locations, see Find Local Branches.

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  Cultural Care, Inc.

  1 Education St E Cambridge, MA 02141-1805

  
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  Cultural Care, Inc.

  8 Education St E Cambridge, MA 02141-1968

  

Review Details

• Review fromMaria G

  Date: 06/23/2025

  1 star
  Cultural care preys on young people abroad and on parents within the **, exploiting both ends of a value chain of customers. Charging over $****** to a host family, holding their money hostage through a predatory contract if an Au pair has lied, an emergency happens, or cultural care is otherwise unable to provide childcare through that provider. Then youre left with a massive outstanding credit to use with their agency, yet somehow you have to pay more to use the credit. An example: we had an au pair leave due to a parent receiving a cancer diagnosis, they told us we could receive a refund of about $2,500 or rematch with a new au pair. Upon rematch in with a new au pair, we paid them about $3,000, then 2 weeks later that au pairs father had a heart attack. Somehow, we were still only eligible for a $2,500 refund, having just paid thousands of dollars to them. Host families are paying for what exactly? And au pairs? Au pairs pay for their own travel, but its arbitraged through cultural care, where they turn a profit. Fine, its a business. ****? Again, paid for by the au pair program fee. But again, happy to pay for a **** and flight as a host parent. But even business class, were not talking about ******. Add in their app that is well their most regrettable business choice of late and they removed the option to pay by credit card? Au pair agencies should be non-profits; if cultural care wants to fall back on their role as a program sponsor for why they cannot do certain things or be flexible or give the benefit of the doubt, then they should be a non-profit. With government salary caps for employees, not beholden to a P&L that is exploiting mostly young women. Cultural Cares actions are predatory and wrong treating host families and au pairs poorly leaves the program ripe for abuse by parties looking for the experience they are promised by cultural care just looking to turn a profit. Interesting a company with 1 start can be a A+ company

• Review fromchris l

  Date: 03/06/2025

  1 star
  We initially contracted with Cultural Care a couple of years ago. The initially tried to set us up with a rematch that had stolen the family's car and abusive to the child. They were very invested in keeping that a secret even when we asked outright. The following ** that we matched we found some pretty concerning information on with a family in her home country also accusing her of abusing a child and we requested to unmatch her. We requested a refund on the initially fees based on them not vetting the ** which was denied, but when they did refund us they blocked us from doing business with them again. I'm good with that. I realize that doesn't apply to the ** specifically but what this says for me is that the actual safety of the people in their care (both families and au pairs) is not a concern for them. There's a reason why they have so many fake reviews, reviews from employees, and pay to remove negative reviews...that's because an accurate picture of them would not paint a story they want you to hear. If you have an experience that you even suspect violates the regulations for au pairs (as an au pair or host), I strongly suggest lodging a complaint with the department of state rather than reviews. The DoS au pair hotline number is 866 then 283 then 9090 or ****** at state dot ***

• Review fromNancy C

  Date: 11/14/2024

  1 star
  My experience with Cultural Care Au Pair was absolutely horrible. This agency does not care about host families at all. Im shocked that they are BBB accreditedit seems like this must be a paid membership because there is no way they earned it through their service.The au pairs they send are not properly screened, leaving families to deal with individuals who may be unsuitable or, worse, harmful to their children. If you report an issue, youre completely on your own. The agency offers no real support and seems focused only on collecting money from host families.On top of that, the agency has no problem bullying families for money. They are relentless in their demands, even when the services provided are subpar. Worse, many Local Childcare Coordinators (LCCs) mistreat the au pairs themselves, creating a toxic environment for everyone involved. This agency fails both the families and the au pairs they are supposed to ********** yourself the stress and disappointmentdo not get involved with this agency. They are unprofessional, unsupportive, and exploitative. In my opinion, they are not a good agency at all.

• Review fromWataya D

  Date: 11/09/2024

  1 star
  ******** company! I had a wonderful HF! Unfortunately got mistreated verbally and physically by one of the children and was removed by the agency and forced to live with my ***. I stayed there for almost a month. The 1st lie they spewed was that you only have 2 weeks to find a new family. However, I knew that was false and it was close to Christmas time (families dont usually want an au pair around then). They gaslit me into talking to their therapist and then once I agreed, then they told me Im depressed and should consider just going home. I had a panic attack (psychogenic seizure) and ended up in hospital the day before moving to a new family (I was not with a family or any children, it happened on my own time with my bf and he took me to hospital) and they lied to the new family saying my drivers license is being taken away by the government (complete lie). My LCC was so lovely and wanted to see the hospital report to make sure I was okay, then told me she had to send the report to the agency, sorta guilt me into agreeing. They yelled at me on the phone saying I lied to the US government about my health and said I am incapable of looking after children with my condition. We have to give 5 years worth of medical history, I dont have epilepsy yet they gaslit me and told me I did. Even the hospital report said it was non-epileptic. The new family needed an au pair with a drivers license and because the agency lied and said it got taken away, the family didnt want me. The agency gave me 2 days to leave the country. I asked for longer and they gave me a week. They lied to me and the families. Theyre manipulative, they gaslight and they steal! I paid R30000 to come to America and yet after 4 months they lied and kicked me out and refused to give me my money back. I was allowed to stay in the ** for 2 years, but they only allowed me 4 months. And Im not the only one I know that was gone through the same thing. I have no idea how they are still around.

• Review fromDavid W

  Date: 08/30/2024

  1 star
  They are terrible. They are deceptive on may levels. ************ took a $70 registration fee after saying there would be no fee. They said they would refund it but have yet to do so. The service was a terrible waste of months. DONT USE THIS SERVICE. Other services are vastly better managed. ************ has so many disgruntled Au Pairs. They try to shuffle them around from family to family. ******. Dont be a sucker like I was - wasting months on this joke of a business. For contrast, we signed up with another agency, ***************. We got a placed Au Pair within one week. This after three months of nonsense with ************. I would give them zero stars if I could.

• Review fromHain N

  Date: 08/20/2024

  1 star
  Knowing someone in this program, I realize this program is a fraud and only aids the people who purchase this service, leaving the foreigners scammed if they have an issue. Some families come from wealthy backgrounds and deprive the "au pairs" of their natural rights, even making them put their locations on their iPhones at all times, stalking them, and asking them questions about where they go in their FREE time. These families use and take advantage of the poor foreigners who join their programs. Also, the company does not conduct a thorough background check on the people who purchase their service. Only the money they see and they send an unknowing au pair into the hands of a horrible family who deprive them of anything. Overall, this program is a scam and should be canceled. It promotes heavy racism against people applying to this program from other countries and shames the Americans who see through the loops and take advantage. There is also a ******** page of WOMEN AND MEN about the Au Pair program, who talk smack about these girls in certain areas and cities. The program is built on heavy discrimination.

• Review fromVanessa H

  Date: 05/30/2024

  1 star
  Fraudulent cycle of charges. double charging both families/ au pairs. Told fees cover AP's training,health care, + air fare-but APs pay $$$ to CC for that. 1st week they arrive on friday, you pay the full week both to the agency and AP. Told it is for their "training". Undisclosed that recruiters overseas/local LCCs are commissioned $.Our story: Au Pair #1 decided AFTER arrival she needed people who attend BAPTIST church with her. Then decided that because I was unmarried/not divorced, that I was sinful &she didn't know I wasn't divorced when she agreed to live with us. My home is myself, my daughter, our dogs. No drugs/boyfriends,etc. It was religious discrimination. My daughter is autistic & this is VERY hard on her. Found AP#2 with 4.5 months left in the **. She was great.I had a 12 month contract with CC which is over 10k. In order to get another AP, we had to sign ANOTHER year contract!AP #3 rematched at 4+ months. She is bored with the 25 hrs pr wk work (I pay for full time) and is gone 3-4 days at a time w/my car, staying in really bad parts of downtown ******** (where my car can get stolen). She is here for her social life only. We cannot keep getting forced into repeat contracts, the whole thing was only supposed to be 12 months total. I am not wealthy. I am a single parent who thought the program would be good for my daughter, but it is actually causing trauma to her. Cultural care refuses to refund the unused thousands of dollars (somewhere around $3500-4k) they still have. Keep in mind that they are getting a paid a SECOND time when the au pair rematches with another family. They are making double the profit. They offered me $1,823.75 for an NDA/release of liability. I deserve a full refund of my UNUSED weeks. I am let without childcare last minute, AGAIN and that is expensive. Their business practices are predatory.

• Review fromMaría H

  Date: 12/06/2023

  1 star
  Cultural Care has their business focus on rematching families with au pairs so they can get more money and they dont care at all about the au pairs background when they should because working with little children is such a big responsibility and you cant have someone with zero experience doing the job.Here is my story and Cultural Care **** didnt do anything about they just ignored our traumatic experience and move the Au pair to a new home with little children.She had very bad actitud with our 9m baby, she was never able to take care of him by herself. The only time we went out she called us to come back because she didnt know what to do. She broke her phone, lost the key of the house, did internal calls, lost my credit car and came home drunk and start cooking at 4am. Seriously we felt like she was an extra child and not help at all. When we told her that we didnt want her as our au pair she started being very aggressive and angry.We felt a big responsibility to share additional facts that cultural care and the new host family should be aware of. (they did a great job ignoring this) During the 4th of July week, she stayed alone at home because we couldnt take her with us to ****** ***** / timing issue). During that time, she went to a boat party with one of my husbands colleague and got completely intoxicated, mixing alcohol with marihuana (something prohibited during the program) At some point, she got upset and started accusing and yelling at my husbands colleague, displaying one more time an aggressive behavior. We believe that for our safety, and the safety of the incoming host family, you should take this matter seriously and at least investigate. We honestly dont believe she is in the right state of mind to be in charge of young children. We were willing to provide more information, but Cultural Care couldnt care less and of course they took most of the money that we pay upfront, for a service that was a nightmare for two months

• Review fromBrian W

  Date: 11/27/2023

  5 stars
  I read the other reviews and think there should probably be some screening of the reviews themselves. We're currently on our 4th au pair each one year engagements for four consecutive years. The vetting, training, background information, and ability to interview (and continue speaking) with an au pair are very good. At its core, this is a people business and you never know the nature of the "people" that you're dealing with unless you read through background information (CC provides a LOT of it) and do proper interviewing. And even then, there will still be personality issues to contend with, but it's no different than a workplace or other parts of life. The program is solid and doesn't deserve the low review it has, likely because there's thousands of host families that are not taking the time to write a review like this. We would do a 5th year with Cultural Care as a result of the work they do.

• Review fromRyan U

  Date: 03/11/2023

  1 star
  This is a scam, run by the state department and others. Embarrassing for *******.