Camp Australia (Out of school hours care) |
| Australia, Victoria |
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Consumer reviews about Camp Australia (Out of school hours care) |
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Kjet
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Feb 8, 2012
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Service and Charges
And now it's February, and yet! still nothing has changed.
Camp Australia took over my after school care around April last year, to similar reasons as noted above, that it was just too difficult for the school and committee to handle. The worst decision ever made!
I have no complaints about the staff, they have kept our same staff on the books that we have had, some for the almost 7 years I have been using the service. But the customer service is dismal.
I am disgusted with their bullying tactics and there threats to sue and cancel my care, particularly to a fault of their own.
Yes! I may be late at times, but I'm a single Mum on a budget trying to handle my finances it can be difficult at times to have the money on hand, but I have always paid.
Just recently, over the holidays, a time very stressful that I'm getting my son organised for high school, my bill was late with Christmas and all. I got a threat to sue and then a text saying my care cancelled, lucky we weren't using it. However I had paid the bill on the 23/12/2011, yet they had no one in their office to process as the accounts closed over the holiday period and did not return till the 09/01/2012. Of course they on trying to ring customer service the office was closed yet the phone message said it was open, oh! but I found out they were working shorter hours. All the while my money was sitting in their bank account, however they had no one to process it to their account. As for their 3 day rule, crap! BPay states that it is received by the biller the day you pay if you pay within the banks cutoff time, this is simply allowing them time to process the payment and it they don't they charge you that $20 late fee.
I tried to contact their account yesterday to ensure they noted my payment that I made that day, but customer service would not put me through and the conversation got rather heated. And I was simply told that if I had made it that day then it should be fine.
I am disgusted with their attitude and stated in an email to them last night, to which of course, they haven't replied.
Staff at ur care have advised me to notify our school of what has happened and I'm also looking to complain to external services, but not sure where to go.
I'm over camp australia and their policies and monopoly.
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Strunk
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Feb 8, 2012
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Service and Charges
"I am disgusted with their bullying tactics and there threats to sue and cancel my care, particularly to a fault of their own.
Yes! I may be late at times, but I'm a single Mum on a budget trying to handle my finances it can be difficult at times to have the money on hand, but I have always paid." _ You're disgusted? Their fault? You being a single mum on a budget isn't their problem - it's yours. You signed a contract, an obligation to pay by a certain date - you defaulted, more than once, yet you're disgusted? You make me puke.
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shane78
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Feb 8, 2012
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Service and Charges
Funny thing is there are other providers out there that do offer much more flexibility, my school recently got rid of Camp Australia and put in OSHClub. 24 hour cancellation policy, medical certificates allowed, pricing was cheaper and the program all of a sudden has resources and decent food!!! something we always asked for, not just mouldy fruit and veg but healthy dips, specials each week, even quesadillas one day. My son couldn't be happier with the carers, very caring and they take good care of the kids. Best move ever!!!
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Kjet
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Feb 9, 2012
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Service and Charges
Strunk ###t! make sure you comment on that, but not the fact they made a complete error and had not processed my payment because they weren't there, but still threaten me even tho I've paid!!
Most of my bills are paid on time, but for some reason they are always due 2 days before I get paid. Most companies simply give you a gentle reminder which is fantastic at times. When the school run it, they understand the ups and downs of parents and I had not one problem if I was late. Even the co-ordinator is digusted with them, apparently getting emails to tell her to not accept children into care that afternoon, which she will not do. So it's not just me.
shane78 I have to say, my children didn't stop complaining about the food when Camp Australia took over. No cheese or milk products were allowed, and the amount of other things they no longer got. Yet! of course, the price of care went up.
And what is with the $25 annual fee, when the school run it, I could understand it, they had to register all families, but we are the ones doing all the work and setting it up online. Greed pure and simple.
Apart from that, they aren't even supplying the details of families to the co-ordinator, who had to collect them from us late last year herself so she had it available to her.
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Iron Muffin
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Feb 9, 2012
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Service and Charges
@ Kjet - who's the ###? You paid late, during the holiday, when they were closed...Did you expect someone to come to work just to process your late payment? Get a grip, grow up, and handle your business like a woman and stop blaming others for your foulups. You signed paperwork agreeing to their terms, and now that they are applying their policy you agreed to you're snivelling and bitching about it. You're not special.
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Kjet
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Feb 10, 2012
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Service and Charges
I paid before the holiday... ###!!!
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Kjet
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Feb 10, 2012
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Service and Charges
and it's funny how they can be their to threaten me... yet not process my payment... get a grip ###.
You're only on here to pick faults on people.
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Iron Muffin
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Feb 10, 2012
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Service and Charges
"I had paid the bill on the 23/12/2011, yet they had no one in their office to process as the accounts closed over the holiday period " - Deadbeat dumbass.
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mixie
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Feb 10, 2012
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Service and Charges
Had you made your payment by the date you agreed to Kjet, it would have been processed before the holiday. Responsibility falls on you. Don't try to shift blame on the business for your inability to hold up your end of the contract.
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Strunk
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Feb 16, 2012
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Service and Charges
Will you two ladies kindly do me the honor of marrying me? ;)
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Iron Muffin
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Feb 16, 2012
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Service and Charges
If you promise to honor and always obey.
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mixie
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Feb 19, 2012
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Service and Charges
After the prenup's in place.
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Concerned10
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Mar 16, 2012
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Service and Charges
The school my child is at has awarded the OSH contract to Camp Australia for the next three year period. This will come in to effect from 2 April 2012 will the commencement of the Holiday Program. The tender process and award of the contract was done with virtually no consultation with parents, including those who have the most vested interest: parents who use the current OSH provider (a one line offer for parents to submit feedback about the current provider appeared in one newsletter!). Apart from Camp Australia's arbitrary $20 annual 'administrative fee' applicable upon initial registration and every 12 months thereafter, based on their current fee schedule I am now up for an additional $600 per annum ($3/day more expensive than current OSH provider for combined before and after care). This despite the school allegedly 'negotiating' for fees to match the current providers and for there to be no fee increase for the first 15 months! I imagine I will need to see what my first invoice looks like to see whether Camp Australia will honour that agreement, however, from the complaints about their billing section I imagine I'd have an uphill battle to get them to apply the correct 'negotiated' fee. The stories of the lack of provision of sufficient food for the children leaves me feeling horrified. Sounds like something out of Dickens! I've attended the recent information session at which one of the owners, Andrew, was present. He advised that the Manager of the Customer Service section, Chris, had discretion to waive fees where less than 7 days notice was provided for cancellation and that this would take into consideration the specific circumstances of the cancellation - suggesting therefore that not all cancellations of less than 7 days necessarily needed to be based on medical grounds. He also advised that Camp Australia employees, being reasonable people, would give the benefit of the doubt to parents where doctor's certificates had not been obtained and the fee would be waived - perhaps I should have requested that in writing! In anticipation of the need to lodge a formal complaint who/what is the correct complaints body for OSH providers? I asked a couple of questions during the information session and his responses were defensive using the tactic of highlighting how they were compliant rather than addressing the question per se. The compliance status of Camp Australia was completely irrelevant to the questions I was asking and I couldn't help but wonder why he felt it necessary to raise it as a justification for lengthy cancellation notification periods and arbitrary fee impositions considering the current provider's far more parent friendly policy in those respects and my certainty that the current provider is also compliant. Now that I've read some of the experiences above I can't help but feel really apprehensive for the well-being of my child and the potential for on-going fee disputes.
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jgupte
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Mar 25, 2012
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Service and Charges
I too have problems with Camp Australia at Valley View Primary in Wyoming, NSW.
I noticed that there was a $65 jump between the closing balance of one statement and the opening balance of the next. When I queried this (three months later), I was told that the accounts dept. do not have access to statements "that old"!! So they provided a new statement for the past six months. And guess what, about half the weeks had different closing balances to the original statements (in their favor, naturally!!) On top of that, they have been charging me Late payment fees, and even excluded my son from care. When I complained, they re-instated him, but as a casual. CA never advised me that my son have been un-excluded, that was left to the coordinator (even though it was CA head office that had excluded him). And the coordinator never advised me that I would have to re-book him as a permanent. Unfortunately I have no other choice as the only other OOSH care is a bus ride away, and we live too close tot he school to get him a bus pass. I am lodging a formal complaint against CA with the ombudsman.
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kev88
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Dec 29, 2016
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service and charges
I am so sick of Camp Australia !
my account was in arrears due to an error in my e mail address, i set up a payment plan that i honoured, then i received a letter from VCAT saying the case was going to the tribunal, taking into account that i live in PERTH !
I contacted camp australia and was told it would go ahead even though my payment plan was honoured, they claimed my outstanding account was for nearly 800.00, this is what they were claiming at thhe tribunal when i clearly had a statement of 101.00 that i sent to VCAT,
my payment plan is was still being honoured ( meant to come out of my account weekly on Friday's, and today Thursday received a letter advising me my payment from yesterday has not gone through ! )
There was more than sufficient funds in my account, and again this morning i received another threatening letter informing me that a VCAT lodgement was pending again !
I have not missed a payment on my plan and am disgusted on how i have been treated,
To end the fiasco i have just paid my account, and would certainly not recommend, them to anyone.
I am an ex employee of camp australia, and i was mortified at the food that was supplied weekly for the children, i had one measly box of fruit to last the whole week, as well as crackers, crackers and more crackers ! oh and flour as well as longlife cheese.
i am now working for a wonderful company, and work at a centre that has been closed down operated by guess who !
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DragonSteeler
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Mar 8, 2017
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Disgusting Treatment of Children Due to Error *Theirs* in Accounting
I booked my 9yr old into before school care for the first term of this year and have had nothing but grief culminating in todays incident. They have been unorganised from the beginning starting with their reassurance that the same carers would be at the school everyday. The first 2 weeks there was a different carer every day and when I made comment about it even the carers agreed they were very unorganised and didn't know who was supposed to be permanent carers at the moment. You'd think they would have made arrangements before the beginning of school year.
When I received my first invoice I noticed that they had not included my child care benefit. As instructed by their invoice notes, I "contacted them for help to resolve the issue" and they said that Centrelink had told them my daughter wasn't in care and they couldn't do anything else about it - they were supposed to inform Centrelink!
When I contacted Centrelink they said there was no problem with CCB and ensure the record was correct. I contacted Camp Australia back and ensured them the CCB could be attached to the account. As they couldn't tell me how much the final payment would be they put me on a "payment plan" so than when the due date came around, I wouldn't be charged any late payment or dishonour fees and my daughter would not be excluded from care. This would allow time for them to re-process the invoice and when I received it I could make payment by the due date of the invoice.
The date of issue of this invoice was 25 February and the due date was 9 March 2017 (tomorrow).
I then received an email on the 3rd stating that they had tried to take payment from my account on the 1st and it failed and requested that I pay it immediately. I replied to this email and explained what I was told previously, that I had received the invoice and the due date was 9 March. They replied that evening saying they were very sorry for the error, if any late fee or dishonour fee was charge I would be reimbursed and the full adjusted amount would be debited from my account on the 9th as per their invoice.
Drop off on Monday was fine but when we got there this morning, my daughter and I were abruptly told, in front of a room full of parents and children mind you, that she had been excluded. When I asked why, her answer was to show me the sign on book that doesn't have her name on it. When I asked again she said "I don't know but she's not on our list". Naturally, as she had deeply upset and humiliated my daughter in from of the entire room, I was fuming. I stepped out of the room to call head office - twice. The first time I was put on hold and disconnected. While I was on hold for a second time I called the woman out of the room and said that I was disgusted and how dare she humiliate my child like she did and if that was the way she treated children she shouldn't be able to work with them. When I finally got off hold, they informed me that she hadn't been excluded at all, she would find out why it had been said and would call me back.
At this stage I am very late for work and having to explain to a very unhappy boss that I have to drop my daughter at school myself as I had no other care for her (solo mum) and would be in later.
Several phone calls and an upset child not wanting to go back there later...
While this current issue could have easily been cleared up as a misunderstanding or misinformation from Camp Australia staff, this new woman and the disgusting way she treated, and the position she put my daughter in this morning, I’m sorry but “providing feedback” is nowhere near good enough. This woman should not be working with children and humiliating them like this. Don’t they get trained in this sort of communication or does Camp Australia get their invoices paid via a regime of humiliating children and parents in front of audiences. I certainly hope she is not let loose on other families.
It is trying to be explained off by saying the payment plan was for the first invoice that wasn’t paid but these are the facts:
THE INVOICE I WAS TRYING TO SORT OUT, AND THE PAYMENT PLAN THAT WAS PUT IN PLACE AND REINVOICED WHEN GOVERNMENT BENEFITS WERE ALLOCATED WAS THE FIRST INVOICE. AT NO TIME DID ANYONE SAY I STILL HAD TO PAY THE FIRST INVOICE. AS FAR AS I WAS TOLD THE $66 WAS DUE ON 9 MARCH.
After reading several other reviews and finding out that Camp Australia has been banned from tendering to government run schools due to issues like this, I have pulled my daughter out of care, paid the invoice less the amount of hours I was late for work and am reporting them to the school and other relevant authorities.
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HHM
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Nov 29, 2017
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Park Lake State School
What can I say about this so called service! If I had a choice, I would have pulled my kids out from it after the very first week.
I've had issues with staff, other kids, invoicing, you name it. My child has even had a broken arm whilst in their care.
There is no flexibility when it comes to cancelling their sessions... you have to give them a weeks notice, their excuse being that they need to know the numbers of students for catering needs. However you are able to book them in on the same day if you have to, so how does that work? And FYI, there have been many times when my kids haven't even received any afternoon tea!
There has also been the case where I had booked a session on a pupil free day. No one had bothered to notify me that the session had been cancelled and I had rocked up to the school to drop the kids off in the morning, only to have to take them to work with me. What happened to giving a weeks notice???? Maybe I should be invoicing them for the session.
Totally horrible service and if the rumors are correct.... hopefully they will not be there next year.
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LindaDC
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Nov 30, 2017
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Government subsidy needs to be reviewed
Camp Australia office ... such a disappointment. I personally recommend the government review their child care rebate subsidy license - I'm perplexed at how the government can continue to subsidise such crooks who blantantly rip off families with legal misrepresentation about contract terms & conditions and avoiding answering the question at hand by talking in circles and failure to action.
After attempting to cancel my booking 4 days out I was informed there was a 7 day cancellation policy for refunds. I asked them to show me where this is stated and I was referred to the T&Cs on the web page - as I searched it I advised the lady on the phone that either I am blind or there is no such reference in the T&Cs. Turns out it is not in the T&Cs. After a long wait they told me that as a one off special favour (and after she fought very hard for a positive outcome) that they would by exception cancel at no charge. I call b*lls**t.
So I raised another question.. well on that basis I request a refund on my two days last week when my child was sent home from school sick - afterall I had proof of notification to the office pre pick up time. Only to be denied as I didn't have a doctors certificate (seriously ... in this day and age when it costs $70 to just visit the doctor and you have to wait 2 days for an appointment! ... now they're taking the mickey).
It got me thinking... how many other families trying to do the right thing have blindly accepted their word that there is a 7 day cancellation policy in the T&Cs that in actual fact can not be found. Out right theft really... if they truly have 100,000 child under their care daily around Australia they must be making a fortune off the families and the government rebates for instances where due to child illness have had to unexpectantly collect their kids from school, or cancel the day prior due to a change in shifts at work ... whatever the situation - there is a complete lack of honesty, transperancy and flexibility. As the previous parent has stated - they'll easily add someone in last minute with a premium (which we accept because things change last minute) - but in return when after a whole year of blindly paying for those odd occasions when you've had to pick up your sick child from school early or cancel a few days out (because we hadn't factored into our recurring booking which we made in February that year that they would be sick in October) there should be a common sense approach.
I'm voting with my feet ... however as much as anyone appreciate sometimes its the only option for parents .. so thought I would raise the point... there is no cancellation term in their published T&Cs - point it out!
For two sick days per year for every registered child where a no cancellation fee is not honored by Camp Australia (assuming 100,000 children as claimed) - that's a potential $2m annually paid by the government and an additional $2m from the families for services not provided (assumption made on rebate of $10 per child per session, and $10 gap payment per child per session) - think about all that tax you have to pay to support that... I support the government reviews their 'absent T&Cs' and brings back some common sense to the program - yes they have to run a business... but I was asking for two days sick leave after 3 years of standing silent and not questioning ... some common sense wouldn't go astray if you wanted to keep your loyal clients.. and don't even get me started on the annual registration fee and the number of times they've called me and stressed me out that my child was missing or someone else signed them out only to end up that they in fact were mistaken...
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Unhappy4211
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Jan 3, 2018
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Park Lake Camp Australia is horrid
This company cares about profits. Nothing else.
They don't provide a service. They run business. Pure and simple.
I received a phone call at 7pm on the Thursday before Christmas informing me that the care that I had booked in for the following week was being cancelled due to 'low booking numbers'. No offer of other care given.
That gave me 1, count them- 1, working day (of which I was actually at work) to organise care care for the 27th and 29th Dec.
I beg your pardon??? I get 1 business day cancellation notice, but I must provide 7 days notice to them?? Unbelievably disrespectful and callous behaviour.
When I FINALLY got through to someone from the actual company, (no contact given except the 1300 number, and when I demanded to speak to person in charge, was informed that will they would contact me "in 24-48 hrs". Oh gee.. how nice of you, thank you! ), Ben told me that they couldn't inform me, or other patrons, earlier because then we would have cancelled our care anyway, so it was self defeating.
Huh??!?!!!??
No shit!! I will never book my kids in over that period and nor would anyone else treated like this, I expect. Therefore, lo and behold, the cycle continues and they get low booking numbers for that week. Shock horror!! And then they'll just treat another bunch of people in the same shoddy and disrespectful manner.
Just be upfront with us and give us some indication that the service might not run or DON'T EVEN OFFER THOSE DAYS in the first place!!!!
Or even just run 1 combined care somewhere in the vacinity-so that working parents at least have a viable option.
He also said that they calculated that it wouldn't be worth it, staff wise, to open. I don't for one moment believe that they couldn't possibly afford to run at a slight loss for 3 days.
But no, don't inconvenience themselves or their business, just us poor parents who have no other choice but to use their crappy service seeing that they have a basic monopoly.
The service at Park Lake is overrun with kids. One of the facilitators told me that there were 100 kids booked in for after school care one day in the weeks before Christmas.
But run on a few days when they might only have 10? Naaaaahhh can't do that. Gotta make a profit.
NOT a service. Just a BUSINESS.
I am taking my extreme displeasure about they way this was handled to the Principal once school is back in 2018
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Honestly
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Mar 3, 2018
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Frenchville State School OOHSC
Camp Australia took over the contract as School based out of school care a year ago. And once the honeymoon period ended they reduced staffing numbers to a ridiculous number. The kids are in the large school hall and a nearby classroom and playground. But on arrival for collecting children the Hall is usually a complete disgrace. Toys and kids and rubbish and belongings everywhere and no one ever knows where my kids are. There are kids just running around crazy. Not just having fun but out of control. It takes me so long to find them to take them home. Sometimes they are in a dark room watching a movie with many kids laying in the dark without anyone watching them. The kids eat the afternoon tea without utensils and usually the cut up fruit looks day old. I can never find a staff member to talk to and they are different staff each time so my kids don’t even know their names.
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Disapp0inted
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Apr 19, 2018
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Crescent Lagoon State School
When my children started attending Camp Australia they were great, we had dedicated carers and my children were happy. Now those carers have moved on the carers change constantly, and my kids cry when I pick them up due to the way they have been mistreated. I made a formal complaint to which the regional manager will do nothing about, no reprimands for the way they harass my children, only team talks and the option to complain further when it happens again, yes the manager said when it happens again not if or should but when. How can I this a company to care for my children when. They do nothing but embarrass and bully my children in front of their friends.... Thanks for the crap service camp australia
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Parent
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May 6, 2018
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Not happy
Have had to use this company for OSHC for 6 years. Initially they were good and we had no issues but lately they have been an absolute disgrace. The high turnover of staff is ridiculous. Most of the leaders don't seem to have built or try to build any rapport with many of the kids in their care and a lot of the staff are scared of
kids. Kids are running around crazily when I pick mine up. There is no structure to the program. When mine have acted out they've been prevented from accessing food. The teachers at the school have told me how unsettled all the kids are in the mornings after attending this OSHC service. I've been sent texts about my kids behaving in an unacceptable manner. When I collect them, none of the staff can actaully tell me what my kids have allegedly done. When the kids get too difficult to deal with they get suspended from the service. I am now looking at changing my kids' school and will be choosing a school who don't have Camp Australia as their OSHC provider. When I told Camp Australia we would be leaving they said they didn't want that to happen!
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Winnie16
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Jul 14, 2018
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Parent- bad service
The whole program is a rip off. My work shifts always change last minute depend on when I’m needed and when I’m not. I inquired about the late cancellation( under 7 days not so much a late cancellation in my eyes) and booking fees. I was told if I was working a full time rotating roaster those fees would be dismissed. But because I’m employed casual ( still do full time hours) I’m not intiteled to it. They had no interest in helping me out. I lose a lot of money to these fees. I feel like they have also moved their support number to an over seas call centre, which made it even harder for them to help out.
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emilie
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Jan 24, 2019
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Ceased enrolment
I have issues with my daughter's enrolment with camp australia for the past 4months.
Her enrolment with them was ceased in October because she did not attend for 8weeks (I am working casual, so I do not need it all the time). They tolds me it was because of centrelink, so I called them 4 times, and every person I talked to told me they could not fix the issue as Camp Australia needs to re enrol her (she went back once in November, and she should have been re enroled at that time but for some reason, I still cannot approve the enrolment with centrelink). Everytime I call Camp Ausyralia they blame centrelink, and find something else I need to do, which is still not working... the last one was to update my activity test on centrelink ??? why, I have not changed anything I am still casual???? So at this stage I still cannot receive any payment from centrelink and everytime I need to have my daughter at before or after school care I need to pay the full amount and they keep telling me to book another care and it should work... well we tried that before and I am still waiting for my payments. This is ridiculous. Plus, last time she went they could not find her at school.. she was at kindy next door and it was writen on the forms, she thought she will be alone... in distress, luckily the teacher was taking care of her. I am very unhappy about them but we do not have much choice as they are the only ones at school. So at the moment I try to avoid that like not working... until the problem is fixed or working from home if I can.
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Ashash
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Feb 22, 2019
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Thieves, imprudent.
I recieved a statement 7days ago that my next payment will be $180. Checked my account this morning and they withdraw $712, wtf? I rung them up to discuss why they hadn't sent me a statement or anything that said I owed $712. They then switched the blame on Centrelink after I threatened to take this further. They asked if I'd like to escalate this further with a senior manager, I said yes! They said one will call me in regards. That did not happen. I even said to the person if they dont get ahold off me to please leave a message so I could get back to them. Whats that saying? I also contacted centrelink today about what camp australia said about them and they rung but I was at work, yet centrelink were able to email me and leave a message that they tries to ring, Didnt see any prudent behavior like that from Camp Australia.
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