UrbanSitter.com is fantastic!!

[Anonymous]

I have used US for several months and it is one of the best sites out there. I strongly suspect there is a troll who has a personal beef with them who is posting negative things.
UrbanSitter uses FB so parents can see if any of their "friends" have used a sitter. You can also find out if a parent in your playgroup, school or your "Mama & Me" class etc has used a sitter. You can then reach out to and get a personal reference from your "friend".
As a sitter I have never received a scam email from an UrbanSitter parent. I can not say the same for Sittercity or Care.com.
As for the rate of pay, I skip over low paying jobs. Yes, I have seen parents advertise jobs for $5 - $8/ hour. I do not respond to those jobs. It is that simple.
I have met most of my amazing families through my online profile on UrbanSitter. Parents review my profile, then they contact me. I have glowing reviews from many parents who have paid me top dollar at a flat fee or hourly rate. I state in my profile my rate of pay and what I will and will not do. For example, I am not willing to drive children around to events etc.
I have hardly ever seen a negative review of UrbanSitter.com so I hope parents will do their research before they take the word of someone who has a personal problem with UrbanSitter. It is a fantastic site!

[Anonymous]

1. It's shitty, unethical and illegal to post jobs for $5/hr.

2. I'd like to know how they handle negative reviews posted by dishonest parents.

[Anonymous]

Folks, here we have the founder of UrbanSitter so feel free to ask OP any questions you might have.

[Anonymous]

There are several of us who have issues with urbansitter. My problems are:
1. I don't link my social media to my work life for any reason. So, if the site won't allow me to sign up without it, I can't and won't use it.
2. Hearsay has told me that I wouldn't be interested, due to the prevalence for low rate jobs and dearth of average to high rate jobs.
3. I don't want my NF's friends to contact me to see if I'm available. I won't work for a friend of my MB or DB, there's too much risk of a reference being ruined if the friend doesn't want to pay my rate or we don't agree on something major.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Folks, here we have the founder of UrbanSitter so feel free to ask OP any questions you might have.

Ha, ha
OP here
Again I say this is a bitter troll. The CEO of UrbanSitter.com and in Cali. I am just a sitter here in Washington area.
I am not going to go back and forth with you.
Parents and sitters can search the web for themselves.
Is UrbanSitter a bad site or not? I say no, it is great and I have met some very nice families.
Every and I mean every web business site may encounter a problem as they are dealing with thousands of people daily.
What I am saying is in my opinion US has been a great resource for parents and sitters.
It is NOT illegal for a parent to pay a sitter $5 -$8/hr. I would not respond to those jobs. But maybe an 18 year old student needs money for their cell phone bill. They might just take it.
Sitters can respond to bad reviews from parents if they have a membership.
Sorry it didn't work out for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Folks, here we have the founder of UrbanSitter so feel free to ask OP any questions you might have.

Ha, ha
OP here
Again I say this is a bitter troll. The CEO of UrbanSitter.com and in Cali. I am just a sitter here in Washington area.
I am not going to go back and forth with you.
Parents and sitters can search the web for themselves.
Is UrbanSitter a bad site or not? I say no, it is great and I have met some very nice families.
Every and I mean every web business site may encounter a problem as they are dealing with thousands of people daily.
What I am saying is in my opinion US has been a great resource for parents and sitters.
It is NOT illegal for a parent to pay a sitter $5 -$8/hr. I would not respond to those jobs. But maybe an 18 year old student needs money for their cell phone bill. They might just take it.
Sitters can respond to bad reviews from parents if they have a membership.
Sorry it didn't work out for you.

It most certainly is illegal to pay less than minimum wage. Hence the word "minimum". Any site that allows parents to post jobs so out of whack of market rates and legal requirements cares nothing about the sitters and nannies through which they make their money. All they care about is making money off of the paying parents. They don't even care about the desperate inexperienced quality parents might hire at a rate of $5/hour.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are several of us who have issues with urbansitter. My problems are:
1. I don't link my social media to my work life for any reason. So, if the site won't allow me to sign up without it, I can't and won't use it.
2. Hearsay has told me that I wouldn't be interested, due to the prevalence for low rate jobs and dearth of average to high rate jobs.
3. I don't want my NF's friends to contact me to see if I'm available. I won't work for a friend of my MB or DB, there's too much risk of a reference being ruined if the friend doesn't want to pay my rate or we don't agree on something major.[/quot

1. Ok, it is your choice not to use the site if their platform does not work for you. It is not a problem for other parents/sitters who choose to use UrbanSitter BECAUSE it is linked to FB and Linkedin
2. You really just started off a sentence with "hearsay has told me"??
Again I say to parents/sitters- do your research- so you won't end up sounding less than intelligent...
3. This has never, ever, ever happened to me. I did not know any of the parents I worked with prior to them contacting me through UrbanSitter. If one of your friends passes along your name to a parent, why would they need to go through UrbanSitter?
No hearsay, parents/sitters -research UrbanSitter yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Folks, here we have the founder of UrbanSitter so feel free to ask OP any questions you might have.

Ha, ha
OP here
Again I say this is a bitter troll. The CEO of UrbanSitter.com and in Cali. I am just a sitter here in Washington area.
I am not going to go back and forth with you.
Parents and sitters can search the web for themselves.
Is UrbanSitter a bad site or not? I say no, it is great and I have met some very nice families.
Every and I mean every web business site may encounter a problem as they are dealing with thousands of people daily.
What I am saying is in my opinion US has been a great resource for parents and sitters.
It is NOT illegal for a parent to pay a sitter $5 -$8/hr. I would not respond to those jobs. But maybe an 18 year old student needs money for their cell phone bill. They might just take it.
Sitters can respond to bad reviews from parents if they have a membership.
Sorry it didn't work out for you.

It most certainly is illegal to pay less than minimum wage. Hence the word "minimum". Any site that allows parents to post jobs so out of whack of market rates and legal requirements cares nothing about the sitters and nannies through which they make their money. All they care about is making money off of the paying parents. They don't even care about the desperate inexperienced quality parents might hire at a rate of $5/hour.

OP here again

It is not illegal for UrbanSitter to post jobs that are less than the minimum wage. It is a marketplace web site and they are not bound by those regulations.

I get paid at rates of more than $15/hr. If there is a low paying job on the site I scroll past it and go to the next listing.

NEARLY ALL jobs on the site pay at a rate well above the minimum wage.
One more reason I think you are a bitter unemployed babysitter.

You are purposely misleading people when you create a post badmouthing UrbanSitter.

[Anonymous]

their nannies always badmouths the parents in their fb club

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Folks, here we have the founder of UrbanSitter so feel free to ask OP any questions you might have.

Ha, ha
OP here
Again I say this is a bitter troll. The CEO of UrbanSitter.com and in Cali. I am just a sitter here in Washington area.
I am not going to go back and forth with you.
Parents and sitters can search the web for themselves.
Is UrbanSitter a bad site or not? I say no, it is great and I have met some very nice families.
Every and I mean every web business site may encounter a problem as they are dealing with thousands of people daily.
What I am saying is in my opinion US has been a great resource for parents and sitters.
It is NOT illegal for a parent to pay a sitter $5 -$8/hr. I would not respond to those jobs. But maybe an 18 year old student needs money for their cell phone bill. They might just take it.
Sitters can respond to bad reviews from parents if they have a membership.
Sorry it didn't work out for you.

It most certainly is illegal to pay less than minimum wage. Hence the word "minimum". Any site that allows parents to post jobs so out of whack of market rates and legal requirements cares nothing about the sitters and nannies through which they make their money. All they care about is making money off of the paying parents. They don't even care about the desperate inexperienced quality parents might hire at a rate of $5/hour.

OP here again

It is not illegal for UrbanSitter to post jobs that are less than the minimum wage. It is a marketplace web site and they are not bound by those regulations.

I get paid at rates of more than $15/hr. If there is a low paying job on the site I scroll past it and go to the next listing.

NEARLY ALL jobs on the site pay at a rate well above the minimum wage.
One more reason I think you are a bitter unemployed babysitter.

You are purposely misleading people when you create a post badmouthing UrbanSitter.

You're talking to more than one poster, genius. No one is misleading anyone. A site that allows parents to post jobs with illegal conditions is an unscrupulous company, that I personally want nothing to do with. They make money on the backs of caregivers, but don't give a shit about them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Folks, here we have the founder of UrbanSitter so feel free to ask OP any questions you might have.

Ha, ha
OP here
Again I say this is a bitter troll. The CEO of UrbanSitter.com and in Cali. I am just a sitter here in Washington area.
I am not going to go back and forth with you.
Parents and sitters can search the web for themselves.
Is UrbanSitter a bad site or not? I say no, it is great and I have met some very nice families.
Every and I mean every web business site may encounter a problem as they are dealing with thousands of people daily.
What I am saying is in my opinion US has been a great resource for parents and sitters.
It is NOT illegal for a parent to pay a sitter $5 -$8/hr. I would not respond to those jobs. But maybe an 18 year old student needs money for their cell phone bill. They might just take it.
Sitters can respond to bad reviews from parents if they have a membership.
Sorry it didn't work out for you.

Actually, it is illegal. Minimum wage is higher than that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are several of us who have issues with urbansitter. My problems are:
1. I don't link my social media to my work life for any reason. So, if the site won't allow me to sign up without it, I can't and won't use it.
2. Hearsay has told me that I wouldn't be interested, due to the prevalence for low rate jobs and dearth of average to high rate jobs.
3. I don't want my NF's friends to contact me to see if I'm available. I won't work for a friend of my MB or DB, there's too much risk of a reference being ruined if the friend doesn't want to pay my rate or we don't agree on something major.[/quote/]

1. Ok, it is your choice not to use the site if their platform does not work for you. It is not a problem for other parents/sitters who choose to use UrbanSitter BECAUSE it is linked to FB and Linkedin
2. You really just started off a sentence with "hearsay has told me"??
Again I say to parents/sitters- do your research- so you won't end up sounding less than intelligent...
3. This has never, ever, ever happened to me. I did not know any of the parents I worked with prior to them contacting me through UrbanSitter. If one of your friends passes along your name to a parent, why would they need to go through UrbanSitter?
No hearsay, parents/sitters -research UrbanSitter yourself.

You didn't read clearly. I said that I don't want to work for a friend of my MB/DB, not a friend of one of my friends. If my reference's friend goes back to them, angry that I'm charging too much (in their opinion), or irritated because I'm not willing to interview with them, I don't want to endanger my references' goodwill, so I refuse to work for a friend of my NF's.

[Anonymous]

You are as full of it as a Christmas goose, OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Folks, here we have the founder of UrbanSitter so feel free to ask OP any questions you might have.

Ha, ha
OP here
Again I say this is a bitter troll. The CEO of UrbanSitter.com and in Cali. I am just a sitter here in Washington area.
I am not going to go back and forth with you.
Parents and sitters can search the web for themselves.
Is UrbanSitter a bad site or not? I say no, it is great and I have met some very nice families.
Every and I mean every web business site may encounter a problem as they are dealing with thousands of people daily.
What I am saying is in my opinion US has been a great resource for parents and sitters.
It is NOT illegal for a parent to pay a sitter $5 -$8/hr. I would not respond to those jobs. But maybe an 18 year old student needs money for their cell phone bill. They might just take it.
Sitters can respond to bad reviews from parents if they have a membership.
Sorry it didn't work out for you.

It most certainly is illegal to pay less than minimum wage. Hence the word "minimum". Any site that allows parents to post jobs so out of whack of market rates and legal requirements cares nothing about the sitters and nannies through which they make their money. All they care about is making money off of the paying parents. They don't even care about the desperate inexperienced quality parents might hire at a rate of $5/hour.

OP here again

It is not illegal for UrbanSitter to post jobs that are less than the minimum wage. It is a marketplace web site and they are not bound by those regulations.

I get paid at rates of more than $15/hr. If there is a low paying job on the site I scroll past it and go to the next listing.

NEARLY ALL jobs on the site pay at a rate well above the minimum wage.
One more reason I think you are a bitter unemployed babysitter.

You are purposely misleading people when you create a post badmouthing UrbanSitter.

You're talking to more than one poster, genius. No one is misleading anyone. A site that allows parents to post jobs with illegal conditions is an unscrupulous company, that I personally want nothing to do with. They make money on the backs of caregivers, but don't give a shit about them.

You are being misleading. Most readers of dcurbanmoms will be able to see through you.
It is not, it is not, IT IS NOT illegal for a parent to offer a job less than minimum wage. I am not an employee. I am an independent contractor. I do not get a tax form from UrbanSitter.
If there is a job posted for $7/hour, UrbanSitter can not take it down. As long as the parent meets all other conditions, UrbanSitter can not remove the post from the job board. These low wage postings are few and far between. Most parents offer jobs paying well above minimum wage.
When I see a low wage job on the job board, I scroll past it. All sitters can do the same thing.
Again, I urge any parent or sitter to research reviews of UrbanSitter. Google the hell out of it. You can see for youself. Do not take my word for it. Most importantly, do not take the the word of a salty unemployed babysitter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Folks, here we have the founder of UrbanSitter so feel free to ask OP any questions you might have.

Ha, ha
OP here
Again I say this is a bitter troll. The CEO of UrbanSitter.com and in Cali. I am just a sitter here in Washington area.
I am not going to go back and forth with you.
Parents and sitters can search the web for themselves.
Is UrbanSitter a bad site or not? I say no, it is great and I have met some very nice families.
Every and I mean every web business site may encounter a problem as they are dealing with thousands of people daily.
What I am saying is in my opinion US has been a great resource for parents and sitters.
It is NOT illegal for a parent to pay a sitter $5 -$8/hr. I would not respond to those jobs. But maybe an 18 year old student needs money for their cell phone bill. They might just take it.
Sitters can respond to bad reviews from parents if they have a membership.
Sorry it didn't work out for you.

It most certainly is illegal to pay less than minimum wage. Hence the word "minimum". Any site that allows parents to post jobs so out of whack of market rates and legal requirements cares nothing about the sitters and nannies through which they make their money. All they care about is making money off of the paying parents. They don't even care about the desperate inexperienced quality parents might hire at a rate of $5/hour.

OP here again

It is not illegal for UrbanSitter to post jobs that are less than the minimum wage. It is a marketplace web site and they are not bound by those regulations.

I get paid at rates of more than $15/hr. If there is a low paying job on the site I scroll past it and go to the next listing.

NEARLY ALL jobs on the site pay at a rate well above the minimum wage.
One more reason I think you are a bitter unemployed babysitter.

You are purposely misleading people when you create a post badmouthing UrbanSitter.

You're talking to more than one poster, genius. No one is misleading anyone. A site that allows parents to post jobs with illegal conditions is an unscrupulous company, that I personally want nothing to do with. They make money on the backs of caregivers, but don't give a shit about them.

You are being misleading. Most readers of dcurbanmoms will be able to see through you.
It is not, it is not, IT IS NOT illegal for a parent to offer a job less than minimum wage.

It is, it is, it is illegal. Every job not subject to minimum wage must pay... minimum wage! Babysitters and nannies are ot paid commission, tips or per piece, so unless the sitter qualifies for the youth reduction for the first few months, they must be paid at least minimum wage.

I am not an employee. I am an independent contractor. I do not get a tax form from UrbanSitter.

You are NOT an independent contractor. You are not an employee of urbansitter, you are an employee for each family who hires you. Every family who pays you at least $1k in a quarter or $1.9K for the year should be giving you a W-2. Whether they pay you enough to require a W-2 or not, YOU are still required to submit the information.

If there is a job posted for $7/hour, UrbanSitter can not take it down. As long as the parent meets all other conditions, UrbanSitter can not remove the post from the job board. These low wage postings are few and far between. Most parents offer jobs paying well above minimum wage.

Bull pucky. If the site cared at all about sitters and nannies, they would not allow positions to be posted which violate federal laws... like minimum wage laws.

When I see a low wage job on the job board, I scroll past it. All sitters can do the same thing.
Again, I urge any parent or sitter to research reviews of UrbanSitter. Google the hell out of it. You can see for youself. Do not take my word for it. Most importantly, do not take the the word of a salty unemployed babysitter.