AIBU to be annoyed that Sitters have taken me off their register for not understanding the mother whose children I was suppose to be looking after??

Lucky you I have even turned up at a house and they have cancelled me and sitters never give you anything. I have often been cancelled makes me so mad that they are generous like that with the clients. They get the four pound whatever so they are not bothered if a client cancels or not.

nannynick - we've used sitters for about 5 years and the second time they cancelled at late notice they gave me a year's free membership. (since the restaurant no show was £50, I was fairly happy with that)
The first time the sitter cancelled, the woman who was dealing with the late cancellation came and babysat for me. I think their customer service is excellent.

I tend now to use my nanny for babysitting, but I find sitters really useful for ad hoc daytime sitting - the sort of thing its not worth using gumtree for and I also use them if my nanny can't babysit

They're also really useful for holidays......so I probably get my money's worth out of them.

Karoleann, Sitters have cancelled your bookings several times yet you still use them? As you only get one night a month out, you are paying quite a lot in agency fee each time you go out... I make it £8.61 per time (assuming you pay membership fee quarterly (£13.85 per quarter) and pay booking fee on each occasion (£4 per booking) and that you go out 12 times a year. If you were on average going out for 4 hours on each occasion... then instead of using the agency, you could increase the hourly rate of pay for a local babysitter by £2 an hour and it would be less overall per year cost to you.

If you are finding that the agency is cancelling jobs, then maybe you need to look at local childcarers directly who may well want a higher per hour figure but wouldn't mean you had the membership and booking fees. No guarantee that a local childcarer would be any more reliable but they might be, plus your children get to know someone, rather than having potentially someone different each time.

However I do agree with you that if looking from the parents perspective, having a sitter cancel on the day is not good. However without there being any contracts in place to impose some costing to that situation, then it will happen on both sides... parents can book then cancel at late notice as well.

As a parent, I would be furious if you cancelled at the last minute. I probably only get one night a month out with my husband and the last thing i need is a very short notice cancellation. We use sitters and we have had two short notice cancellations before, the first on my birthday (we managed to get a replacement) and the other on our wedding anniversary when we also lost the non-refundable deposit we'd paid the restaurant.
As sitters said they've spoken to the parent and she speaks good english.
I personally don't think that 3 hours is enough, but don't most parents round it up, you also don't have to take a job if its not paying enough.

I haven't sat for them for at least 8 years but get texts moat weeks asking me to sit.

I only signed up as I was thinking of buying a franchise and wanted to see how they operated. to be fair they vetted me quite carefully, but told me nothing about the families.

I devised my own questionnaire that had to be filed in before they went out, detailing emergency numbers, doctors, stop cock, fuse box, allergies, bedtime routines etc etc.

Some families were shocked when I refused to bath their children before they went to bed, do homework, make packed lunches for the next day.

My DD used to get paid more as a 16 year old babysitting then they paid then, and now, the pay is appalling considering you need to pay to get there and home again.

I think you would be on sticky ground if you told sitters that you could only go to children that spoke english.

Sitters would not be able to do this either. You say she is always requesting people to sit so cannot really have had a problem before.

Maybe its best if you leave sitters if you are that unhappy,

Tanith its funny about a year age they started informing us if the house had a dog. I too have been locked out of the kitchen by a dog.

Yes please let us know the outcome.

I hope sitters can get to read this and realise what they are like as they are not comming over too good on this site. I always leave where I am for my husband too so i must be breaching confidentiality. If they do not like it it is tough, I will leave too.

agree with last poster

I worked for sitters and found all this to be true

They don't vet the clients at all and half the time there are more children than they said

also the pay is awful

Allthough I don't think sitters treated you very well I do wonder if you are feeling a bit over sensitive because of your pregnancy. I have worked as a supply nanny for a company that briefed families of many nationalities going to work abroad and never found language a barrier where the children were concerned I even had a severely autistic boy but with advice from his dad and the help of his 9 year old sister I coped.

I do partially understand your concerns about the mother but the agency could have given you directions and you would have only had to deal with her for a short time. I'm sure it would have been easier face to face and perhaps her husband would have been easier to understand.

I too get the impression that you were perhaps not that keen on going but sitters were a little harsh. I have heard complaints from a friend who works for them. I wish you well with the coming baby and think you should look for another agency if you want to do babysitting in the future, one that treats their sitters better.

I think you may find yourself being asked to return during the next month or so. I haven't worked for them for nearly 3 years and got a text the other day, saying they were desperate busy

I don't work for them any more because:

1. I got sick of parents turning up hours after they said they would. 12 midnight is 12 midnight, not 3am!

1. I got even sicker of turning up myself only to find that the parents were hosting a sleep-over and sodding off for the evening, leaving me to cope with up to 8 kids instead of 1 or 2.

1. I was very cross that clients could just cancel at the last minute so that I lost a booking with no compensation. One Saturday, I actually had 4 cancellations. The last straw came when a New Years Eve booking fell through with hours to go.

1. For all the vetting they did for their sitters, there is no vetting or any security checks done on their clients. I got into an argument with the office because I refused to sit at a premises in the middle of nowhere, no land-line number and I knew from experience that there was no mobile coverage in the area.

1. I always write bookings on my calendar as a precaution so DH knows where I am. Sitters accused me of a breach of confidentiality.

1. I'm OK with most dogs, but they should really advise you if the household has one. I lost count of the number of times I was confronted by a slavering Hound of the Baskervilles refusing to let me in the garden gate until the owner arrived and assured me what a sweetie he was and what was I doing standing there?

And that's before we start discussing the abysmal pay!

I don't know about sitters and how they treat you but it is always better to ask people to text you the address and postcode.

Yes but bump I would not really go all over there before just to meet the children.

Yes Nick I find when i do private babysitting they often have extra children. Never with sitters though so far.

Hello Nick! Now I would have been okay there as I do speak some Russian. One of my families spoke Malayalam, which I have to admit is a language I had never even heard of!

Hello bump6! No I have never worked for sitters! I have used them for babysitters though, and they were fine - the lady they sent was lovely, and we were lucky enough to have her every time - not that we go out a lot! Joining in with the exclamation marks!

I used to do babysitting for strangers as it were, but mainly from recommendations through friends and acquaintances, not an agency. I'd always try to visit beforehand while the child(ren) were up and about so I'd not be a totally strange face if they found me there when they woke, or failing that, to come early and help put them to bed so they would get a little bit used to me. Now I only babysit for children I care for during the day anyway.

Even when arranging babysitting yourself you can come across similar problems. For example I babysat for a new family and it was fine the first time. The second time they had friends stay over who were visiting from Russia. I didn't know that before I arrived. Upon arrival I was faced with two extra children either of whom understood or spoke English. My Russian isn't very good - it's non existent.