Any other childminders having problems with Busy Bees Vouchers? (sorry long!)

[childmindermk]

I received an email from Computer share Vousher Services (which is apparantly the new name for Busy bees)saying that i have a remittance available to view.
when i tried to look at it i then discovered that the name had changed from Busy Bees to Computer Share Voucher Services and that i needed new log in details to view it!

They had also suspended my 'account' with them as they were waiting for verificaton of my registration which they had not asked for!
Plus i have been with them for the last 6 years without them needing to see my certificate!

I have now found out that they have cancelled the parents automatic transactions to me and not told them either!
So it is now 10th November and i have still not received some payments from October!

When you phone them it takes about 20mins to get through to anyone, then they cant tell you anything or check on any incoming payments because its not my account!

AAARRRGGGGHHHH!

I have had to notify 6 of my parents about the problems and they are all completely unaware of these issues as they have had no contact from them either!

Is it just me or is anyone else having problems with them?

Also forgot to say that all the parents have had to contact them by phone to be able to log into their accounts and then be able to send any payments to me!

I was also told that some of the companies that the parents work for may need to be verified by them but the only way this can happen is if the childminder complains to parents that they havnt been paid, then parent complains to their employer toat there is a problem with payment then the employer has to phone Computer Share Voucher Services!

What a disgusting way to operate a service, both to parents and to childminders!

Please tell me its not just me this is happening to!

You are not alone - I managed to change over registration quite easily (only registered 3 months ago) but the whole of last months payment has gone missing!!! It has taken numerous phone calls to establish that the payment date setting on my account was wrong, so they had taken the parents money but not paid it to me!!!!

Thanks for replying, we also had a case of this too. one parent had sent the payment but we didnt receive it and it had gone from their account!

we have written a letter to the voucher company explaining that we are disgusted with their service and that what they are doing is technically theft!

We are also invoicing them the late payment fees we charge as we dont think the parents should have to pay them as they had sent payments or assumed that automatic payments had been sent and not cancelled!

I would strongly advise you to charge the company a late payment fee if you are overdue fees that have not been received due to a fault of theirs, not the parent!

Erm I've been trying to redeem online for the last few days, have got my new ID ref but still won't let me in, have sent half a dozen requests for new password and had no response at all. Finally got fed up and spent a good 40 mins on phone redeeming on the automated service pressing hundreds of buttons and hash keys.

I'm not impressed never had any probs with busy bees, if this continues I will refuse voucher payments.

Not a CM but use Busy Bees/Computer Share to pay nursery and this months voucher was really late. I assumed due to the postal strike but actually it turned out they didn't issue it until 7 days after DHs payday.

Nice load of interest they must be racking up holding onto everyone's wages for a week!

I was thinking of getting DH to change from paper to e-vouchers but looking at this thread not sure that would help...

In the letter we have sent them today we have told them that if they cannot resolve these issues then we will probably not accept their vouchers anymore as they are so much hassel compared to other voucher companies we use!
I am assuming they have changed their name because of the bad press that Busy bees has received lately!
We have only had problems this year with late payments due to their system being down or other rubbish excuses, previously no problems at all, with either the paper vouchers or the e-vouchers.

Fimblehobbs- i dont think it would make any difference...they are just rubbish with every payment type and we were thinking the same about holding onto everyones money and getting the interest!
Its just not on is it!

I had a remittance advice sent to me 6 days after the date the parents paid. It went into my bank account 4 days after the parents paid, so before the remittance advice.
I've not re-registered with ComputerShare... don't feel I should need to (they took over Busy Bees, surely they therefore take over all existing clients) plus at the moment payment is getting through, so not going to risk it not. Also my boss may stop using the scheme soon anyway, so if that happens I won't be getting the voucher payments.

Sounds like I am lucky as I don't redeem vouchers with this co... the parent authorises payment in some way and the system then pays me.

I'm not a CM, but as a user of busy bees I've had nothing but trouble since they changed to the new company.

Hours and hours spent holding on the phone, payments going out when they weren't meant to be and then sitting in the ether as an e-voucher rather than being allocated to my nursery and so on.

RUBBISH, RUBBISH, RUBBISH! I think they should get their act together!

nannynick- i totally agree with you about we shouldnt have to re-register with them but they have changed the login passwords and id numbers so those use the online service have no choice! They should have just kept everything as it was including passwords, id numbers, automatic payments etc and just changed their name!
I also usually just get the payments sent straight to my bank account from the parents voucher company, then received an email with an attached remittance so never needed to login before but since its changed they no longer send me the remittance so i now have to login to see who the payment is from!
Its such a faff!

Tinksand floris-we have spoken to our parents and they too have had lots of problems not only with sending payments, logging in etc but also having to spend such a long time trying to get through to them by phone!

Not a CM but we used to use Busybees for payment and they were terrible - so glad DH's company changed voucher supplier (presumably because of complaints) - no help to you though - sorry!

thanks for your reply chickbean...its nice to know its not just me having issues!

I am a childminder who has a family that started paying me in September with the vouchers. Those were late, October on time & November's not received. When the family chased up they had paid the money to the previous provider(a nursery, child now at school) and therefore failed to make my payment when it was due because of no money! Family have paid me by cheque this month & we shall see what happens in December, if it is bad again I think that there will be a rethink by both of us, they are useless!

I'm having issues too, I have asked parents for cash payments in the meantime because I cannot survive without being paid and the fact the voucher system isn't working is not my fault and when I have 2 out of 3 customers paying by vouchers its a lot of money to not get paid, I have said as soon as the payments come through I will of course let them know.

Hi

Sorry to interupt, we are having problems paying our childminder. We 'paid' her through computershare but she still has not had the money despite numerous phone calls etc. Have you all been paid yet.

Thanks

Coolkat

Hi, sorry, also not a CM but didn't know where else to post this, getting so fed up with busy bees, as a parent i'm now down over two hundred pounds, the payment is there but can't be released because of a missing ref number caused by the switch over. They haven't contacted my employer,i have to, then my employer has to contact busy bees aka computershare. How many pounds have they racked up in interest, and how many people have incurred overdraft fees paying the difference to their child minders in cash? By the way have a missing voucher from over a year ago now and they still haven't paid up! Am at my wits end.

I've had trouble with them for the past 3 weeks-a payment was owing to me and it took 2 snotty emails,and 3 phone calls to sort it out.it seems the problems began when they changed hands several weeks ago-other childminders I know have also had trouble receiving payment.i actually managed to speak to someone today-i was on hold for 7 mins and its an 0845 number, though that was a lot better than the 1 hour 40 mins last week- and, fingers crossed she assures me i will get my payment by monday.

I was a recent employee of Computershare (formerly Busy Bees) so wish to provide a different angle on this whole discussion.

I absolutely despised working there. Hearing so many complaints was not indicative of a company that are going places, and to stay there would be career suicide.

The way the call centres are run is a complete joke - staff are pressed to be available to take calls at every opportunity instead of dealing with queries in a proper manner - this leads to no work being done. Calls get cut off regularly and nobody gets back to parents because we were not allowed to make outbound calls.

I always took ownership of queries and even if I couldn't call back - i would email and ensure I do the best job I can for each parent/carer/employee on the phone.

I worked there for what? 2 days? And I think I had ten people at least tell me since as I'm new I should get out of there because it is a waste of time. To those parents - I thank you for your honesty and apologise for not being able to say what I really felt during the call.

I do not know of what bad press Busy Bees got before the name change to computershare. Perhaps somebody could divulge some info to me so I'm aware of the situation.

I am not a parent or a carer, just a human being who is sick of how you lot are being treated by computershare.

I do have to however spring to the defence of the employees - it is not their fault they do not know what they are doing. Please blame the management, not the soldiers on the phones fighting a losing battle. It was so horrible because I was incompetent (at least, I didn't know EVERY query asked of me) because we weren't trained properly. Given systems training and that is it.

I decided after day 2 enough was enough and I hope that the company realise the problems they face because it isnt just parents and carers who are p'd off, it's their employees as well!!!

If anyone wants to ask anything feel free to private message me.

Thanks
bangbus

Not a CM either, but they are being rubbish at the moment. After extensive chasing up the nursery have located my 6 months worth of vouchers (at £242 each!). I spent half an hour on hlod to them three times before emailing them instead. The nursery are having similar problems getting through to them.

I'm starting to wonder if it's a ploy to make us hate them before they take away teh vouchers.

Bangbus- thankyou for posting it is very interesting to hear the views of the poor people on the other end of the phone!
I am very aware that the way the computershare staff deal with parents and carers is not them personally, but the management telling them to behave this way!

I finally got octobers payments for 2 mindees on 13th november!
Its certainly not a service to be proud of!

I have invoiced computershare with late payment charges and also sent a very long letter of complaint, to which i received a reply apologising and blaming the system changeover and not addressing the actual issues i had raised with them and they didnt even mention the invoice let alone pay it!
I have written to them again demanding they address the issues and pay the invoice...so watch this space!

I've had the email 2day saying 'payment presented' - have nooo idea what that means. Have emailed back to say if I incur bank charges like I did last month because was paid late then I will bill them the charges. Watch this space folks.... Personally, never had a problem with BusyBees - any problem was always parents forgetting to authorise payment. Last month, parent had problems even finding where on the website she could authorise my payment - they then hung onto it for a week before it hit my bank account. Nice way to earn the interest on MY money

My email says the following:
Your remittance advice for 26th November 2009 is now available for viewing online. This is an advice and does not require you to take any further action.
I assume its all working as usual... I ignored their email saying their name had changed and it went in last month...
fingers crossed!

You all need to bear in mind that you do not have a contract with Computershare and they have no liability to you for any bank charges or anything else.

You have a contract with your mindees parents, and if there is any problem with the voucher provider it is up to the parents to sort it out, and pay you the missing money in the meantime - this should not be your problem.

The parents in turn need to complain to their company's HR department: it is them that pay Computershare so only they can lean on them with any effect.

From www.computersharevoucherservices.com/Home/Pages/looking-for-busy-bees.aspx their web site:

"In September 2008 Busy Bees Childcare Vouchers was acquired by Computershare, a global financial services business.

Since the acquisition, Computershare has significantly invested in the company's technology, which has resulted in a number of positive changes to the way in which we manage Childcare Voucher orders."

Read their complaints policy, write a formal letter of complaint and copy your mindee's parent, asking them to pass it to their employer for their information.