"Strung along for days with empty promises, then left with no backup care"

I used My Family Care (part of Bright Horizons) to attempt to arrange backup eldercare for my elderly mother after she'd been injured from a fall.

This is provided as part of my works benefits package and claims to provide care 'anywhere in the UK'. This turned out to be an empty promise.

I spoke to them on the Friday and booked a home assessment for the following Wednesday (the soonest they could do).

The day before the assessment they rang me to tell me that they didn't have anyone to provide care, and cancelled it. No other options were offered.

"Terrible registration process"

Terrible registration process. Impossible to get set up. Avoid.

"Poor IT Department"

I've had some good experiences using Bright Horizons back up care but they have let themselves down with my current issue. For some reason, my login has stopped working, the only screen I'm able to reach is one that tells me something went wrong and I need to call support. I did this last week and again today and told the issue is with their IT department and may take up to 2 weeks (or possibly longer) to resolve! I work in IT and a 2 week turnaround is ridiculous for such an issue let alone any longer.

So, be aware. The system has flaws which may prevent you utilising what you are entitled to by simply locking you out. Poor!

"NEVER SEND YOUR CHILD HERE!"

NEVER SEND YOUR CHILD HERE!
If I could have given less than 1 star I would have.
We have decided we do not wish for our son to extend his settling in period and become permanent at Bright Horizons. Unfortunately Bright Horizons have not impressed us during the settling in period. On the first day of his settling session, I was alarmed at how long it took bright horizon staff to notice a child’s nose had be terribly running from clearly a cold he had to the point where it was dripping inside his mouth, staff only cleaned his nose once I had notified her. This also continued into the garden when the kids was playing, this same child nose was running badly and not one staff noticed and cleaned it. This has made me think this could have been our child left to eat his own bogey because staff are not vigilant and caring enough.
My sons next settling in session starts at 9am-3/3.30pm, I receive a call around 8am on that day from staff asking if my son can be picked up from nursery earlier at 1pm due to short staff. Not only is this frustrating it is also worrying making me question how reliable is bright horizons childcare.
Also on the same day of that settling in session, when my son got picked up his shoes and socks was completely wet leaving his feet very cold. When I spoke to staff I asked her how my son’s day went to see if she would mention how and why his shoes and socks was wet, she went through his whole day and there was no acknowledgment of his wet shoes and socks, I then went on to tell her he was picked up with wet shoes and socks and we are very upset and shocked that bright horizons was unaware he was even in wet shoes and socks, they don’t know how it happened, when it happened and how long he had been in these wet shoes and socks. Thierry is now feeling under the weather from being in wet shoes and socks.
As a good will gesture from bright horizons we asked for our £200 upfront holding fee to be refunded back as the care our child has received has been underwhelming to say the least, of course bright horizons refused our refund request.
NEVER SEND YOUR CHILD HERE!

"i prefer dolphin nursery"

i prefer dolphin nursery

"Unreliable service and unhelpful team"

Completely unreliable service and unhelpful customer team. Our back up care nanny didn't show up when they were meant to (after confirming with me the day before). When I called the nanny at the time seh was meant to be there she told me she was given the incorrect time by Bright Horizons. This left us in a hugely inconvenient and disruptive situation, and we ended up not being able to go to the event we had paid for. I've had to follow up three times with BH who offered no explanation and still have not refunded the babysitting charge I paid in advance. When I asked about covering the cost of the event that we paid for and had to miss it was a flat-out 'no'. Very disingenuous complaints team that clearly do not have any regard for their clients or the job they do.

"Avoid at all cost"

The nursery was good, but had a horrible experience with the finance department. They never acknowledged payment properly. Please make sure you get a no-due email from the nursery before you leave. They came back to me after more than a year about some payments that were due, without any proper explanation. After all the conversations, I decided to pay after they accepted their mistake ( still not convinced ) It has been more than 1 month now with no acknowledgement in spite of repeated chasing. Horrible experience will never recommend them.

"Horrible company to deal with"

Horrible company to deal with. I ordered in home nanny, paid the by employer. However, I only offered 4 hours, they charged my full day, the customer service said they will issue refund, but never happened. They did not tell me when I first call them they will charge a full day when I only order 4 hours. Contacted them many times, no resolution. Never order services from them anymore. Very very bad experience.

"Profit-first, children-last approach"

Our local Bright Horizons had been closed down by Ofsted on hygiene and other concerns. When it reopened, we decided to give them a chance as the new management insisted things were better. However, they took our money and then closed the nursery down with only 1 month’s notice, which lead to a struggle to find an alternative, and unnecessary upheaval for the little one. Bright Horizons were not communicative or helpful and aggressively chased a small outstanding bill. The only good point was a kitchen staff member who really seemed to care about my daughter.

"Backup care is completely unreliable"

Backup care is completely unreliable, a nanny was supposed to take care of our child for two days but she cancelled at 7 am in the morning and there was no replacement available (for both days). Customer care is of no help. Don't be fooled by the fancy online tool, this is a completely unprofessional company.