I first contacted this agency more or less a year ago to find an after school nanny. We had two requirements: driving license and a specific second language. They found one profile with both requirements and presented it to us along with a couple more with only one of the two. We accepted the nanny with both requirements and paid their hefty fee. The nanny quit on the first day. The agency apologised, we had of course to get some emergency childcare and when i asked to refund the fee they didn't really answer and tried to place some other candidate. In the end after some time some other candidate appeared (who had both requirements) and we accepted without debating more. This second nanny turned out to be great, sadly though, when she started, she said that she could have only stayed 7 months (till summer) as she was relocating. Fast forward 7 month, we again contacted this agency for a replacement. Interestingly, we didn't warrant any fee discount, so in less than a year we were about to have to pay over £7K in fees to the agency alone. They offered us one profile, we were not sure and said that much, but they insisted that it was the only nanny available in south west london with both requirements. This time though, I wanted to clarify the conditions for a refund upfront and they said: no refunds (we find someone else). I said that it was unacceptable for me and that i didn't intend to progress. Then they started to make me final offers, one after the other, to sweeten the deal a bit. I said that i didn't want a discount, but I wanted the guarantee that the fee would have meant having a nanny we were happy with, so if we accepted someone and then, after a few days, she turned out to be not the right person for us, I didn't want to have to pay the fee. We contracted for days and in the end James, an MD, offered a refund of 50% of the fee had we not been happy in the first month. I should have said no, but as they were really trying and we needed a nanny I asked to do a trial of two days along with the 50% guarantee, which sadly i never asked to put in writing. We did the trial, we weren't amazed, but we could have lived with this nanny, said yes, paid the fee (another almost 4K) and set a start date. On the start date, the nanny showed up 30 min earlier just to say that she would have not started. She claimed medical reasons. Interestingly, we exchanged messages and documents up to the day before and no medical problem had ever been raised. On the other hand, a problem was raised and I feel that might be the cause, but that would only be me speculating.
Anyway, I called the agency and said that i didn't want any replacement, it was clear to me that either we really had a bad luck, or something wasn't right, so I only wanted my 50% refund.
They replied the next day or so saying that after careful consideration they could offer a 20% refund...
I would not recommend this agency to anyone, not so much because they won't find a suitable candidate (which they can find), but because there is no safety net for when things don't work out (their 3 month guarantee is not really addressing the problem in any meaningful way) and also because when someone goes back on his word, particularly on something we lengthily discussed, is not a counterparty I want to have anything to do with.