Complain about a product or service

Home Instead Senior Care

R of Kingsport, TN April 10, 2009

BE AWARE OF THIS AGENCY: Home Instead Senior Care in Blountville, TN. The staff totally mislead me when I called inquiring about long term caregiver employment and what their services entailed, pay wages for long term caregivers, etc.. In addition, I found that their advertising for caregivers was totally misleading. The agency offers long term/sitter services but it is actually a cleaning/errand service.

Home Instead kept my wages for 4 hours of work stating that I had signed an Agreement form for a Criminal Background check and that if I quit before I worked 40 hours, my wages would be withheld. I quit after 4 hours work because the staff was totally dishonest with me about a long term assignment that I had been promised. Also, the staff was very unprofessional and rude.

I did call and write the owner about my ordeal. His response was,he would take what I had told him into consideration. The 4 hours that I worked for the agency, I cleaned, cooked and ran an errand. I would have been much better off to have applied with a local cleaning service. The customer that I was assigned to for the 4 hours wasn't happy with Home Instead either. She wasn't aware that anyone from the agency was coming to her home the day I started. Just hope this Information might be helpful to someone else. I sincerely thought Home Instead Senior Care was a reputable company but Home Instead in Blountville, TN will never be a place that I recommend for employment or services.

Jill of Washington, DC October 29, 2008

Paul Hogan worked for Merry Maids and started the senior care agency after learning the franchise business model from Merry Maids- they are all about making money and their clients pay extra to support the franchise fee.

It is clear Home Instead is a franchise system seeking to profit from senior car.

Elaine of Wylie, TX October 26, 2008

I worked for them for several years (I was 52 until apx 55, and had a disability which prevented me from working except for P-T). I was not scheduled for work on Sundays (went to church). John begged me to work that afternoon. I finally agreed. Walking up steel steps at church, I hit my foot bone just right, and cracked a bone in my foot. Had to go to the ER. Of course, I immediately called work to tell them what happened. John Fritz was SCREAMING at me to go to the client's house. I tried to explain quietly once again...he interrupted by screaming. Told him I'd have the x-ray of my foot to him that week -- continued to scream.

At another point, due to disability, went to the doctor. Told me I needed to work less. I called 24 hrs ahead of next schedule day to work and told him that Dr. told me I needed to take off and had a note. He started screaming at that time again. Yelling at me that I had to go to the doctor to get a note -- told him I already had one -- continued screaming. John called me to work extra hours (12 hr shift). Told him I couldn't do that due to disability. Requested that I go ahead and go over there and he would have someone replace me.

I ended up spending 48 hrs there. I felt so sorry for the client. Her family for paying for care and I wasn't able to give her the attention I should have been able to give her. I made sure to see to her immediate needs but couldn't do the usual high quality care giving I usually give.

At the point where I described calling in 24 hrs in advance as policy due to doctor's orders, he basically fired me by telling me not to go to another of the client's homes (2 clients) until he called me. This was common with this company. They don't fire you -- they just don't call you to work. I called the client to tell them I was ill and wouldn't be in. They had other people who filled in when I wasn't there they did not like.

They offered to buy my contract from Home Instead (totally upfront and appropriate business manner). It was not my responsibility to pay Home Instead for my hire. It was the client's place to pay for my contract. And, she did. However, Philip Fritz (Home Instead) tried to file a law suit against me on top of money he had already received from the clients. I wrote back to the attorney for Phillip Fritz describing the treatment I had received. Told him I would welcome to see them in court so that it would be public record how he treated his clients and his employees.

This is a franchise that one purchases. I am sure that there are professional business people that buy with common decency behaviors towards their employees. Phillip Fritz and His Son, John are not.

Scott of Northborough, MA October 22, 2008

We were mislead and got ripped off 11K within one month.

My Mother was discharged back to her home from a local rehab facility under the condition that she had someone with her in the home at all times, which my wife and I couldn't do as we live out of the state.

A social service worker recommended Home Instead as an agency which could provide someone to do this.

We contacted the local office and explained that my Mother couldn't walk, or make it to the bathroom by herself. However, she was very pleasant to be around, and slept 8-9 hours every night.

After being very vague about pricing over the phone. A representative came to my Mother house and said that we would need two caregivers to work 12 hour shifts at an hourly cost of 23.50, or they would report back to the rehab facility and my Mother would not be able to return home.

My wife and I didn't know much about homecare and agreed. The cost of care after two weeks was nearly 8K. Realizing that something didn't seem right I made some calls and learned that many homecare companies offer a LIVE-IN package, which would have satisfied the condition of my Mother's release for less then half the price we were paying Home Instead.

I feel we were taken advantage of, as the people we spoke with at Home Instead presented themselves as experts in this feild, and obviously should have known about the type of coverage we needed.

I was later told by a friend who is a registered nurse that we were paying for the most expensive type of home care, usually required when someone is dying in their home.

Kim of Tucson, AZ December 26, 2004

I worked as an employee for Home Instead Senior Care and saw things that should be considered illegal. Being that Home Instead is a Franchise, there are company rules, but Mr. Ersahm decided to mock employees by charging 3.00 counted against their paycheck each time that they did not call in their daily hours. The office of Home Instead had the hours recognized for the employee working, both in-house and with the client, yet they made this rule possible, only for profit.

This company also has also kept an employee working under their roof in a situation where an employee was told by a member of a family to drive him to the bank, whereby, he attempted to withdraw his Grandmother's funds. This employee instead of losing her job, was retained as an employee, but taken off the case and given even MORE HOURS (40 plus) then I was offered!

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