Not sure how to feel about change in daycare contract-thoughts please

Not a regular poster but I wanted a large audience to compare my reaction to about a daycare situation as I'm not sure how to feel.

When I enrolled my children in daycare we signed a contract in March 2010 that included a paragraph that stated after one year you get one week vacation without having to pay for you child's daycare..Great considering they have yearly registration fees, extra summer "camp" fees and already cost over 2k a month ( 2 kids)......This summer they asked everyone to sign a new contract they were updating the records. I remember questioning it because I just enrolled them and the contract is a lot of paperwork for each child. I was told they ask everyone to sign a new one all at the same time. No mention of changes.....

Today I was telling the front desk that I was taking the girls out for a week later this month when we go on vacation and mentioned that I cannot wait until next year when I can do that and not have to pay, they said "umm, he took that out of the most recent contract"

ok I signed it. Im stuck not the end of the world BUT I think it was sneaky. There were at least two notices about the new rates effective September, they made you sign acknowledging them but I feel like they just slipped the vacation thing in. I asked if I was the only one to miss it and they said it hasn't really come up too much. Well, yeah until we mention it. I asked what else did I miss and they said that was the major one.

I have to take responsibility for signing and not comparing the 2 versions ( even though they keep them) and terms change all the time BUT I think the change should have been highlighted.

I will be more careful next time but really wanted to know what others thought.

Re: Not sure how to feel about change in daycare contract-thoughts please

I do think that is sneaky. For what you are paying in daycare, I think 1 week vacation is courteous and they should have left it in there.

Re: Not sure how to feel about change in daycare contract-thoughts please

Def sneaky.. they should have highlighted ANY changes to the original contract. They made it seem like they were just "updating their records"? That's very sneaky!

Re: Not sure how to feel about change in daycare contract-thoughts please

I personally don't consider that sneaky.

Would it have been nice if they had highlighted it for all the parents? Yes. Is it still every parent's responsibility to read the contract they are signing to make sure everything looks ok? I think so.

Just seems to go along with everything else in the world today.... pay more, get less.

I do think it's nice that you got one year of not paying for daycare when you're on vacation! I've never heard of that before... we will be going on vacation the last week of August and paying daycare for both kids.

Re: Not sure how to feel about change in daycare contract-thoughts please

Just got off the phone with Lori Kerri and she KNOWS I am NOT happy.

I told her in this economy with parents losing jobs and struggling just to KEEP their kids in daycare, I find it disgusting that they would take away something that many parents find to be a major perk.

I place an extraordinary amount of trust in this center to do the right thing, especially when it comes to my child, and I do not appreciate this sneaky tactic.

YES, it IS my responsibility to go through the contracts page by page and compare to see if there MIGHT be a change, but that thing is LONG!
I also told her a separate page of changes should have been supplied. I ALSO told her that I don't HAVE to keep my kids there, that I can send DS to Bright Star which is a SCHOOL and the newborn to Loving and Learning or BOTH to L&L and it would be cheaper.

And if HE can make these type of adjustments then he should also be open to further negotiations than just 10% of the cheaper child, and I am more than willing to have a meeting over it.

Lori's keeping me posted......this is B.S......

Re: Not sure how to feel about change in daycare contract-thoughts please

Posted by jerseypanda

I personally don't consider that sneaky.

Would it have been nice if they had highlighted it for all the parents? Yes. Is it still every parent's responsibility to read the contract they are signing to make sure everything looks ok? I think so.

Just seems to go along with everything else in the world today.... pay more, get less.

I do think it's nice that you got one year of not paying for daycare when you're on vacation! I've never heard of that before... we will be going on vacation the last week of August and paying daycare for both kids.

Re: Not sure how to feel about change in daycare contract-thoughts please

Sneaky and uncool. Do you even get a discount for the vaca? We get one week and we still pay for it but it's at a discounted rate.

Re: Not sure how to feel about change in daycare contract-thoughts please

I really don't consider it sneaky.

The fact that they wanted everyone to sign a new contract, for me, would have sent up a red flag that there are changes in the contract and I would have looked for them.

I'm sorry that you lost this perk though. My day care doesn't offer anything like that but it would definitely be nice.

Re: Not sure how to feel about change in daycare contract-thoughts please

Re: Not sure how to feel about change in daycare contract-thoughts please

Yes, it was sneaky. Lots of big chain daycares offer that free week. It's not uncommon at all!

And yes, you get charged for registration fee. Like what? Printing, signing a new contract and they file it??????

It does get ridiculous!

Re: Not sure how to feel about change in daycare contract-thoughts please

Posted by Tine73

Posted by jerseypanda

I personally don't consider that sneaky.

Would it have been nice if they had highlighted it for all the parents? Yes. Is it still every parent's responsibility to read the contract they are signing to make sure everything looks ok? I think so.

Just seems to go along with everything else in the world today.... pay more, get less.

I do think it's nice that you got one year of not paying for daycare when you're on vacation! I've never heard of that before... we will be going on vacation the last week of August and paying daycare for both kids.

ITA!

Re: Not sure how to feel about change in daycare contract-thoughts please

I do think it's sneaky that they didn't tell you, probably b/c they didn't want to hear the complaints. But it's not uncommon for a daycare to not offer vacations.

Re: Not sure how to feel about change in daycare contract-thoughts please

Posted by curliegirl

Posted by eroxgirl

I really don't consider it sneaky.

The fact that they wanted everyone to sign a new contract, for me, would have sent up a red flag that there are changes in the contract and I would have looked for them.

I'm sorry that you lost this perk though. My day care doesn't offer anything like that but it would definitely be nice.

They make you sign a new contract every year regardless of chenges, which I'm sure there are some stupid minor ones every year that again, I don't notice. They also make you sign a new registration form and pay $100 registration yearly per child too, plus $100 for "camp", which for the little ones, it's really BS.....
So they already nickel and dime us to death, and for them to take something like this away, that's not cool.

When you refer another family and they stay for a month the referring family is supposed to get a free week too. I wonder if they took THAT away also.

Hey Kerri, did you tell them I sent you, because unless you stay on top of them they don't automatically give you the free week....naturally....

Re: Not sure how to feel about change in daycare contract-thoughts please

What they did is totally legal and they have every right to do it but remember you have every right totake your money and kids somewhere else

Re: Not sure how to feel about change in daycare contract-thoughts please

I agree they have every right to make changes I just don't care for the way it was done.

This is a center that kills thousands of trees daily the way the inundate us with paper , notices, confirmed sickness notices, staff changes, updates and the likes.

It is interesting that they chose not to mention any changes in the contract and it was intentional. Like I said, I will have to be more diligent and will review everything since I cannot count on them being forthright. Its more of an integrity issue and I hate that for me they have compromised their integrity

ETA- thank you all for your input

Message edited 8/11/2010 12:53:48 PM.

Re: Not sure how to feel about change in daycare contract-thoughts please

Re: Not sure how to feel about change in daycare contract-thoughts please

I agree that I don't think it was really "sneaky" since it was a new contract - and a new contract to me does mean a change in terms. If you asked if there were changes & they said there are none (while you shouldn't rely on that), then I'd say it was sneaky.

I feel your pain. I hated the registration fees, camp fees, re-registration fees...ridiculous - and then they want you to participate in a fund raiser...ugh, forget it. Every daycare nickels & dimes.

If it helps you feel better, I haven't heard of any daycare (we've been in 3) giving you unpaid vacation time.

Re: Not sure how to feel about change in daycare contract-thoughts please

Posted by nrthshgrl

I agree that I don't think it was really "sneaky" since it was a new contract - and a new contract to me does mean a change in terms. If you asked if there were changes & they said there are none (while you shouldn't rely on that), then I'd say it was sneaky.

I feel your pain. I hated the registration fees, camp fees, re-registration fees...ridiculous - and then they want you to participate in a fund raiser...ugh, forget it. Every daycare nickels & dimes.

If it helps you feel better, I haven't heard of any daycare (we've been in 3) giving you unpaid vacation time.

Re: Not sure how to feel about change in daycare contract-thoughts please

Message edited 8/11/2010 1:05:56 PM.