Cultural Care does not screen au pairs for their driving habits
I see that you have a thread on Driving, and Which Agency has the Best drivers on the Host Family Experience forum, but I wanted to register a complaint on your complaint forum about Driving and my experience with Cultural Care au pair agency. In 2007 we hired an au pair through this agency and we told them what we really needed was a person to drive our children, who were older (14 & 16) to after-school functions. We didn't need a "babysitter" as our girls were find alone in the house until my wife came home from her job.
We told the agency this on first contact, and then we repeated the same request to the lcc when she came to interview us and visit our home. We wrote this on our application. We explained this to the placement staff in the office. Then we started our interviews. Each application that was sent to us said the au pair was either an excellent driver or a very good driver.
We finally found a girl that we liked and offered her the position. she accepted. We told her that we needed a driver, that this was the entire job, mostly. We told her that if she didn't drive we would have to fire her. She said she was an excellent driver and had been driving for several years, every day back and forth to work. Okay. fine, we matched!
The girl arrived, was very pleasant, clean and friendly. I, as the host dad, had the job of taking her out on her first drive. We pulled out of the drive and she never looked either way, just gunned it. We hit the neighbor's fence. The car was totaled.
Once back in the house, she broke down and cried and said she never drove a car before. She used to drive her father's tractor around the family farm, doing chores. She told the agent this and still he wrote her up as an excellent driver who drove a car for years, and every day back and forth to work.
Not only did this agency dupe us, they told the au pair to lie. Once here, she could have killed or maimed our children, herself (or me!).
Bottom line, she was fired, we dropped from the program and hired a 28 year old college student who came after school and she was cheaper, and older!
Cultural Care was a total disappointment and to make matters worse, they never gave us any money back! They should be banned from the cultural program!
Terrible Driving Cultural Care
I had a terrible driver from CC. My husband gave up after 2 weekends - she was not going to get over her fear of driving and this was an au pair who had a great recommendation on her application for driving! I am not sure that this agency really screens for driving at all. They are supposed to, but they look the other way. This is terribly inconvenient to us, as parents, and can cause real accidents and liabilities on the road;. because remember the au pairs are on OUR car insurance, not the agency's!
Keep that in mind when you are putting a lot into the driving lessons, pull the plug if it doesn't look good. you could be sued for a fatal accident or real disability caused by an inexperience driver.
Cultural Care
Manny,
I am sorry to hear how unhappy you were with Cultural Care.
Did you express your concerns to management?
As a long time LCC with Cultural Care I know they want to hear what you have to say. Customer Satisfaction is a priority for Cultural Care. For the last several years they have been doing a Host Family Survey 2 times per year. http://www.hostfamilysurvey.com/
As I do not know all the circumstances of your particular situation or why you did not get any type of refund if you only had the au pair for a short time my suggestion would be to go back and discuss further with Cultural Care.
I would recommend you contact Natalie Jordan e-mail: Natalie.Jordan@Culturalcare.com Senior Vice President. She is always willing to listen and welcomes feedback.
Michie105
Thank you Cultural Care
Thank you michie105 for providing Manny with this information - I was going to get to it today, but you did it for me! Yes, Cultural Care is really focusing on customer satisfaction and in the past year they have been making a concerted effort to change their tarnished image (au pair sex abuse charges, etc.).
Our 2009 Host Parent Survey strongly indicates this - our results will be published this summer! Check in with us for our newly revised, 2010 Top Three Agencies list!
Driving and Au Pairs
It is never easy matching with an au pair who drives well. Agencies do not verify their au pair's driving skills except on "paper." They ask the au pair questions regarding driving experience and where they drive and when they received their license (same kind of questions you, as host parent can ask). Should agencies do more? Yes, of course. Will they? Probably not. The expense of test driving their au pairs would be the obstacle.
I have said this before, but I think an optional driving test that parents can pay for (or share with their prospective au pair) would be a sound and welcome feature for any agency. Parents would have the option of paying for a driving test in the country the au pair is from - they would get a third party report card that reviews the au pair's driving skills. Based on the driving assessment, parents could make an educated decision to match or not with the au pair.
For someone like Manny, whose family specifically needs a driver, this driving test would be a most welcome feature and in the long run, save them quite a bit of money.
driving test for au pairs
Edina i think your idea of a driving test is a good one, but in my opinion I don't think the agencies would be interested in taking this on. Should they? Yes. but they will not. I think they must make a ton of money, they don't train these girls at all, what other job do you know exists where the applicant is placed with absolutely no training or experience at all? All the training takes place in the host family home and we have to teach them to drive or pay someone to teach them. In the end, it is time consuming and expensive on top of the fees we have to pay. Oh well, next year my son is getting his license and then he can do the driving.