Anyone else having trouble with BusyBees childcare vouchers?

[Kathyis6incheshigh]

Cos we are.
They've deducted the money for dh's last voucher but we never received it
They are not replying to emails, he has 3 times spent 45 minutes waiting for them to answer the phone with no response at all.

Is there something up with them, does anyone know?

Busy bees are merging with Leapfrog (or rather Leapfrog are being taken over). Leapfrog have always been completely shite at getting my vouchers to me, one lame reason after another. Bearing in mind that they are merging, you could try the Leapfrog voucher-line number, which is 0800 031 9741. Once I have rung and complained, the vouchers always turn up a couple of days later in the post. Their most-often-used excuse is that they have e-mailed me the voucher, when what I have asked for is paper copies by post, so you could ask them to check that their records are showing the payment method you want. Good luck.

Thanks Lio, that's interesting. Maybe the merger is why they are in such a state.

You're welcome. If I can get these to work smoothly we will save about £70/month, which will be v helpful. I think they might use the merger as a smokescreen when in fact they're just a bit crap .

Another one being messed about by BusyBees ...

Our nanny registered with them two weeks ago, but they still didn't bother to process her registration so we can't use the vouchers. When I called them, they said they didn't receive her registration form (I faxed it to them myself the week before last and the fax definitely went through) - very frustrating!
My employer uses Sodexho an their are SO much more professional! Shame that DH's company decided to go with BusyBees so we have to put up with them!

Interesting, Yanka. Will bump this in case there are more.

bumping this to ask you all how you are finding them.

i've just been told by them that they had a three day meltdown last week and couldn't process anything. neither could they manage to notify any of their customers "because there are thousands of them".

i wish they would buzz off and am considering changing provider.

I didn't get last months voucher, and had to ring up and get it reissued. Otherwise, they are pretty good, and v helpful when my nursery weren't able to reconcile vouchers and payments

i am very cross with them because i have to do everything twice.

DH's school uses BusyBees and we have nothing but trouble. We initially used the electronic vouchers but nursery couldn't reconcile as they don't put our daughters' names on them - so we switched to paper vouchers. These arrive as & when they feel like - nearly 6 wks late to 2 days after dh had been paid - so I'm now v on the ball and get dh to phone them mid-month and get the code from them. Nursery are able to get the money through this code - no idea how!

By contract my employer uses Imagine and we have never had any problems in nearly 4 yrs.

Yep, we had issues with them (BB) as well. But 'Accor' pulled an even faster one: If you don't remember to cancel in good time (eg child starting school), sure, they go on taking the cash from you at source- but then WON'T refund it! We were told we'd be charged a £30 handling fee to pay us out the cash but 'obviously, madam, you'll be using childcare in future, so we'll hang onto the cash til you spend it then'!

Threatening legal action got the money repaid.

BB are useless. It took them FIVE months to get everything started up as they kept 'losing' forms that were sent recorded delivery to them.

I have just reduced my hours so reduced the amount of vouchers issued to my CM. I have been ringing them EVERY day for the past three weeks and still my CM has not been paid though the money has been deducted from my wages. Everyday it's a different reason and 'we've done it today ring tomorrow for us to confirm it'.

I am going on maternity leave in dec and dreading trying to cancel everything and I will NEVER use them upon my return to work even though I will lose out on the tax savings.

Rant over!!!!