Nanny Poppinz of Austin

As other reviewers have mentioned, this agency is misleading, not transparent and yes, could be considered a scam. We were going to hire two nannies through Amber at the same time. The first one did not show up for her first day of work so we had to quickly find a new one. We were able to find a new one on our own faster than Amber could provide. She would not refund the extra money we had paid her for a second nanny even though her nanny failed to come to work and wasted a lot of our time. The second nanny we paid the 2k to hire used almost all of her sick and vacation days for the entire year and quit just after six months with zero notice over Christmas time. We also had several issues with this nanny’s attitude and demeanor. When speaking with Amber about replacements, she assured me in the beginning of our dealings with her they covered replacements «for a long time.» Well I should have read the fine print because you are only covered for a replacement for six months which in my opinion is not a long time. If your nanny quits at six months you can end up paying $ 4k a year just to be referred two nannies. I have had much better success finding and hiring my own nannies through online services and would not recommend this nanny agency. The fees they are charging are astronomical compared with nanny web sites that offer connections to experienced nannies for under $ 50. You just have to do your homework and be sure to call references and run your own background checks. I have heard much better things about about the other nanny agencies in town. As a side note, I have received personal messages from others thanking me for posting this review as they too had negative experiences with this business.

I think Amber had my review taken down so will try again. Was not a good experience. Worked with her a little over 7mo’s ago. She re-​posted my ad on craigslist without my permission when she knew I was already advertising my available job in that market. She used unethical behavior and did not handle it well when I confronted her about it. I would not recommend this nanny service. I am in need of nanny services again and will be turning to one of the other agencies in Austin. Hope this is helpful to other mamas out there.

Since January we had been searching for a nanny, mostly on online sites. Everyone we interviewed was completely unqualified for the job so we resorted to using nanny agencies. We signed with a few different ones but it was Nanny Poppinz and Amber Mayhew that came through for us. She sent us some really great candidates and from them we finally selected the right one for our family. Amber is great to deal with and you can tell she really cares about matching the right person for the job.

DO NOT TRUST THIS nanny service unless you want an unqualified nanny to care for your children and have to pay over $ 1000 for it. Amber, the owner, is only after your money. She hounded me multiple times a day to pick a nanny even though I told her I did not feel any of the candidates were great. She told me one girl was perfect for me and said she was highly recommended by her personally. Even though I was not completely sold, I trusted Amber and said I would give her a try. Huge mistake. Let’s just say two minutes later my credit card was charged. A few days later I called the nanny to talk about a start date, etc. she asked me if Amber had called me. I said no, why? Long story short she said she told Amber she couldn’t take the job because she was sick and bed ridden. She said Amber had pressured her into applying for my position and was not offering her other positions. I called Amber immediately and asked for an explanation. I got a lot of back and forth and finally after becoming frustrated and losing complete faith in her ability to find trustworthy caretakers asked for my money back. She said she was not in the business of returning money (even though the service was never rendered). Please fellow parents save your money and spare your children, do not use nanny poppinz!

Amber is a scam artist. We were looking for a part time nanny. She pushed nannies on us that did not fit our criteria. We finally found a decent nanny. We agreed to hire her. Amber at Nanny Poppinz immediately charged our credit card $ 2000. The potential nanny soon called us to tell us that she could not start work because of health issues. This had never come up before in the hiring process but the nanny made it clear that Amber was aware of this.
We asked for a refund of the money since the nanny had never even started the job. All of sudden, Amber was very hard to get a hold of on the phone. When we did finally talk to her, Amber stated she couldn’t refund the money because she had found us a nanny. The nanny never worked a single minute with us. She was very rude from this point forward.
Beware.

I had to go into Austin for a last minute conference, and since I had family in the area I was able to bring my 6 month old along. Since it was SXSW and we were located in a hotel right downtown, we wanted to take one night to go out and have some fun. At that point I had never used a nanny service and had only left my son with his grandparents.
I was so impressed with how easy Nanny Poppinz made the entire process. I submitted a request online, did not have to pay any registration fees and received a call promptly following my online submission. Within a couple of minutes all of the details were organized and confirmed with the service.
The nanny that watched my son was very experienced and was so great with him. She put me at ease instantly and also sent me a couple of text messages throughout the night when he went down and how he did that made it so much easier to have a good time.
The overall experience was very positive and I can’t say enough great things about the staff and nanny. I definitely recommend this service to parents in the Austin area and beyond.

I just want to say that this company is a pleasure to work with! I have worked with another nanny agency and find that the quality of these nannies are the same (if not better). college educated, background checked, and with references, but since it is a smaller company and newer they are working very hard to please and seem to know each nanny and try to find the right nanny for the family. I feel other agencies are just too big and treat their nannies like they are disposable so they often bring that attitude to the job. These nannies seem like they are excited to work for this company and the owner is directly involved with the dealings so it seems like everything runs smoothly.
I think if you are in need of a super nanny either for last minute or for a special occasion they are great to call. They have a super fast response time and plenty of nannies waiting to help you! Love it!
I was surprised no one else reviewed them, so glad that I am the first.

We currently employ 6 nannies. When we had 2 nannies unexpectedly walk out on us at the same time another nanny went full time at another job — and then we decided to create the 6^th nanny position — we found ourselves looking for 4 nannies all at one time. I had previously used another nanny agency, but I did not want to sign their new contract that requires up front payment + a fee whether you find a nanny through their agency or not. So, I was a little hesitant about calling another agency — however, one of our nannies recommended Nanny Poppinz. First of all, Nanny Poppinz requires NO up front fee. In fact, Nanny Poppinz never requires any kind of fee at all UNLESS you find your nanny through their agency. This gave me the ability to continue searching on my own as they were searching for nannies for us. Steve actually came out to meet us and our children. He took the time to understand our rather difficult situation, and he really seemed to care about finding us the right nannies. When we would interview a nanny he had sent over who did not meet what we were looking for, he would make note of that and he would not send out the same issue in another individual. Although I continued looking on my own the entire month it took us to fill the positions, 3 of the 4 nannies I hired were through Nanny Poppinz. The Nanny Poppinz candidates were pre-​screened to the point that I knew when a Nanny Poppinz candidate arrived, I needed to take notice because they were going to be good. They might not be the right person for MY job, but I knew that if Steve was sending them, it would be a person that he could see In my household. If we had a problem, Steve was on it immediately. And what is so nice that, even if Steve is unavailable for whatever reason, you can always call the national number and Tracy is so nice and so willing to help. If we ever find ourselves in the nanny hiring position again, we will not even bother looking on our own next time. We will leave it completely up to Steve & Nanny Poppinz. We will also recommend Nanny Poppinz to everyone we know, as it is the most honest & professional agency out there!
Rick & Cara Ryckman
Austin, TX