Be Careful, NYC - 03/22/2012

We had a terrible and terrifying experience with BHN in 2011, if you care about your child(ren) find another source to work with. The first nanny BHN placed with us suffered from depression and was unstable and unfit to care for anyone. The second was flighty and immature and quit after a couple of weeks when we refused to allow her to entertain guests any time she wanted in our home, which we had all agreed to up front. A full review of our experience is on the BBB website. Katherine responded to BBB that she was going call me immediately to resolve the situation but of course I never heard from her. http://www.bbb.org/boston/Business-Reviews/nanny-service/beacon-hill-nannies-inc-in-newton-ma-19745/complaints#breakdown Regarding the claims on the BHN website, most of them are nonsense. For example: • BHN claims to conduct a ‘2.5-3 hour interview’ with each candidate. With many of the candidates they sent us, nobody at BHN had ever met with them, at most they had a phone call. For example, we live in NYC and scheduled an interview with a nanny who lived locally and claimed to be ‘city savvy’, she showed up one full hour late for the interview as she said she ran late at a dinner with her sister and then the ‘traffic was bad’. When I told Katherine I thought this was a sign of bad judgment and not taking the opportunity seriously, Katherine admitted that she didn’t know the nanny as they had never met her. A second situation, I phone interviewed a nanny who lived in PA with her fiancé but BHN claimed she was available for a live-in job. When I spoke to the nanny, she told me she was only available to travel on Monday mornings, and planned to fly to NYC to get to work. Katherine emailed me after the interview to tell me that ‘only a slave’ would work 6 days a week, I had to explain to Katherine that I wasn’t expecting the nanny to work on Sundays, but she needed to be at our home by 7am on Mondays. Katherine again admitted they hadn’t met this nanny so weren’t aware of her personal situation. By the way, both of these candidates were on SitterCity and I had previously emailed with them directly and ruled them out. • BHN claims to contact ‘every employer’. Without exception, every nanny referred to us through BHN told us in the interview about experiences they had with previous employers who were not included on their resumes or reference checked by BHN. The nannies were not trying to hide these employment situations, they shared them with us openly when we asked about family dynamics that worked/did not work for them. So how did we pick up on this and BHN, ‘the nation's premier nanny agency’ miss it over and again? • BHN claims to ‘conduct a 20 question interview’ with each previous employer. While it is true that they provide answers to 20 questions, it is not clear that the nannies have ever worked for these employers. In our situation, it is highly unlikely that the references provided were legitimate given the performance/personality of the nannies. Furthermore, there is no way of knowing that legitimate employers are going to give the full story. In our case we learned the hard way that the first nanny we hired had never had a job where a child in her care has escaped the emergency room, yet this was not even mentioned in several of the 20 question interviews. • BHN claims to only place ‘degreed’ nannies, ‘Over 90% of our candidates have a B.S./B.A. or graduate degree’ and to conduct a ‘complete education verification’ for each nanny they recommend. We met with several of their candidates who had dropped out of diploma courses at no name schools, they were FAR from ‘degreed’. • BHN only runs the background checks, criminal, medical, psychological checks etc AFTER the family has extended an offer to the candidate, i.e. after BHN has secured their fee. As such, the family has to go through the time and expense of interviewing the candidate, paying for them to commute and do a trial period, extending an offer and in our case only THEN finding that the first nanny BHN places with us had several blemishes on her driving record for speeding and driving without a safety belt on. BHN does not do any of their ‘extensive screening’ up front which creates a huge burden for the family. • BHN claims that ‘Families are drawn to the fact our candidates are intelligent, well spoken role models’. One of the nannies they were recommending, who nobody at BHN had ever met with, was far from ‘well spoken’. Her self-interview was conducted sitting outside a trailer and Katherine later shared feedback with me from another family that she was perceived to be a ‘hillbilly’. The first nanny they placed with us described herself and her family as ‘white trash’. This nanny was a complete slob who we had to clean up after on a daily basis, and who would wake up 30 minutes late almost every day, leaving our son unattended and crying in his crib if we had already left for work. • BHN provides a ‘training seminar’ to discuss ‘professionalism, personal conduct, communication’ etc. In our situation, the first nanny they placed with us would sulk and storm out of our home when we gave her feedback about neglecting our son, including leaving him completely unattended and letting him fall several times, including on her first day which required an emergency trip to the doctor. The second nanny, who was 23 years old, talked constantly about random guys she met at bars and was dating. When we told her she couldn’t have them as guests in our home (previously agreed to), she cried for days, then told us we could agree to find her a new apartment (live out nanny wasn’t what we needed) or she was going to leave. The next day she went out to a bar, stayed out late, came home and left the front door to our private home in NYC swinging open, putting our family and our home at significant risk. • BHN claims to adhere to ‘stringent rules of placement’, but most of their candidates do not meet their own criteria such as 3 recent, professional, ‘full-time child care experiences’ – how is a young 20+ year old, college ‘degreed’ individual supposed to have there full time job experiences; ‘BA/BS degree or a minimum of 5 years experience, for Nanny candidates’ – as discussed above, many of their candidates are drop outs not ‘degreed’; ‘competent swimmer’ – the first nanny they placed with us refused to swim of even do a yoga class with our son because she was obese and claimed to have ‘body image issues’, after we hired her, of course during the interview she said she loved to swim. • BHN sends out an email with the information on each candidate and a paragraph describing each one. We found that most of these descriptions were inflated, for example claiming that one nanny was fluent in another language, when even the nanny herself admitted her second language was at a beginner level. • In soliciting nannies, BHN claims to ‘offer positions commanding the highest nanny salaries in the country’. What we found as an employer is that they falsely advertise the salary the nanny expects. For example, with the first nanny they placed with us, on the BHN application the nanny’s expected compensation was $900/wk, once we interviewed her she said she would prefer to make $1,000/wk because she would be living in NYC. At the end of her four day trial, she told us that we should pay her $1,500/wk based on her experience. She also insisted that we commit up front to giving her an annual raise and cash bonus. While Katherine discussed this with the nanny at the time, it should have been something she determined with the nanny before she recommend her to prospective employers. I could go on and on about our disappointed with Katherine, BHN and their process. Not just how they failed to deliver on their claims and contractual obligations, but also once it was clear that we had lost trust in her, Katherine never once contacted me to apologize of offer to refund our fee. The best she could come up with was to offer an extension to our contract so we could pick another of her nannies. What parent in their right mind would make the same mistake three times in a row? I hope this description serves to provide some real information on BHN, rather than the nonsense they post on their website. Ultimately since they recruit their nannies from SitterCity, families may as well just post a detailed job description there and screen the candidates themselves. Thankfully we found a wonderful nanny through word of mouth, we would never, ever trust an agency to place a care giver in our home again.

Kathleen Lazarus, Weston, MA - 04/05/2011

I recently move to the Boston area and my Pediatrian and coworkers all said Beacon Hill Nannies was the best.

That proved to be true. They immediately emailed me really detailed profiles on 12 candidates within a 20 minute commute. All impressive in different ways. The 5 minute DVD video interviews of each nanny REALLY saved me a ton of time!
The staff was incredably insightful and shared with me their interview notes as well as all the reference interviews they had done. The nanny we hired said Beacon Hill Nannies was by far the most thorough interview she had.

Considering how much more they do, I feel so relieved in my decision.
FYI:I checked, they also had a "A+" BBB rating / no complaints.