Au Pair Internatinal

United States, Boulder
aupairint.com

Failure to perform services/child endangerment

We hired Maria Catherine Barlis as an au pair from the Philippines through Au Pair International. We had prior been with Au Pair in America. Karen represented her self and a driving, caring, aspiring professional nanny. When she arrived, we quickly learned that this was a complete lie. Karen told me that she did not pass a drivers course in the Philippines, but instead paid someone to give her license. Karen told me she was never interviewed in person only by text message, and only met someone for 5 minutes at the Consulate after we paid a $1,500 match fee. Karen told me her sister Mary Anne has a son, and it is unclear if Karen has a child or not. I was able to verify this by looking at their facebook pages. Karen told me that she did not really have 10,000 hours of experience with children and she did not have the skills to safely care for my children. When Karen, she did not return our house key. She said she lost it. She also left the bedroom a huge mess. During her time with us, I spent a huge amount of time taking her to get a SS card, taking her to the local college, training her, spent 3-hours at the DMV in which she failed the written driving test, and paid $150 for driving lessons for her. The agency will only refund $3,500 of our $7,000 fee. We are seeking legal action. I contacted Katrina Vanderhulst 2 weeks prior to Karen's departure, and she never returned my call. Our local coordinator was on vacation and the regional coordinator had quit. This agency did not provide the support it was supposed to.