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Time for some transparency here about APEX Pro Au Pair
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I am disappointed with this agency for several reasons.
1. Our au pair arrived in late January 2020. When Covid 19 hit, she routinely reminded me that "all the other au pairs are going home to Germany." (A veiled threat when we are in a vulnerable situation.) We took incredibly good care of our au pair through the pandemic and minimized her workday to ensure she was never stressed out. We provided her with a terrific vacation experience with our family over the summer and more. A week before the start of the fall school year she announced her ultimatum to return to Germany several weeks later. She broke the contract knowing we couldn't get another special needs au pair from abroad and after only 7 months of her year-long term.
2. Despite the "special needs qualified" claim of the agency, our au pair had very little experience with small children and in fact no relevant qualifications other than working as an occupational therapist in German for adults with mobility disorders. None of her alleged training in other special needs areas was put into practice.
3. When our au pair quit on us, the agency told us we would need to sign a NEW contract with any replacement au pair including a price increase of $7K. A new $7K contract fee was also due immediately vs in January 2021 when we expected to hire a new au pair. (Roughly $13K of agency contract 'signing' fees alone in 7 months) The most the agency did was to "grandfather" our monthly 2020 fee for a few months until January 2021 when they would hit us up for the next price increase.
I feel like this agency is taking advantage of families with children of special needs in a covid pandemic and other families should be aware of this.
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