A terrible experience and huge privacy breach, created MORE work for me than if I had never contacted them, plus wrong information. Worse than zero help. They only care about claiming you to get commissions. Keep reading to find out:
Privacy Breach
Basically they give you a google search
Bad information
Rude Team
Costs Money on the backend
Bad Reputation
Time Waste
I was given the name of a A Place for Mom representative and number by a social worker. I called to gather information about how she could help me and what services they provide. She asked if she could talk with her team and call me back in a half hour I said okay. Then the issues started.
1) PRIVACY BREACH - without permission they blasted my name and contact info out all the nearby assisted living places (whether they qualified for my situation or not). Those facilities all started contacting me and opted me in to newsletters. This was so A Place for Mom could "claim" me as a commission if we sent our loved one to any nearby facility. I was not asked permission to share my info or told they would do this, and i would have say NO if they had.
2) NO VETTING - one place on the list I already knew wouldn't work for my situation which was being able to take a medicaid waiver after 2 years of private pay. So they didn't even vet the places they sent. It was the same service as doing a google search on assisted living in my area. And they think they should get a commission for a google search?
3) BAD INFO - I had asked if my loved one could live in independent living during her 2-year private pay period and was told No that the two years must be spent on Assisted Living. That is not true, it actually depends on the facility, it IS possible and would let her stay on private pay longer (since Medicaid only lets you have $50/mo for ALL other expenses, you want to keep them on private pay as long as they can). If I hadn't pursued this on my own, we would have used up the money a lot faster.
4) RUDE TEAM - The "team member" who blasted my info to everyone without permission I emailed 3 times to remove all my data from their systems. She never responded but did continue to call me to find out if I selected one of the places. That was literally all the help I would have gotten if I used them, a google search of nearby places. I answered the call finally and asked why she hadn't responded. She said maybe they all went to spam. I said well I am asking you to remove all my data and she said we will mark you as do not call, i said no, I want the actual data removed. She would talk over me and say "i'll mark you as do not call, have a nice day" in a very passive aggressive way. She was NOT going to remove my data as requested so I finally said fine i'll call home office and hung up. There they gave me the email of a regional manager and that person did agree to remove my data. So it took me 4 emails to undo what they did without my permission, and honestly I dont' even really trust them that they removed it.
5) COSTS MONEY - One facility we already were in contact with told me they'd have to raise their monthly price if they had to give commissions to A Place for Mom each month, so now it would come out of our pocket on the backend. And really wouldn't you rather the facility that is caring for your loved one get all of the money paid so they can spend it on wages for quality caregivers?
6) BAD REPUTATION - I was told by more than one facility that they hate working with A Place for Mom because they provide no value to the client but take a lot of money for it.
7) TIME WASTE - this service is supposed to make your life easier. Instead I wasted a ton of time on it and got no benefit from it.
RESULT: Save yourself time and hassle, just google the places nearby and start there. I found the directors at the places all VERY helpful. A lot can be found on facility websites too. And you can find reviews online of all facilities (the google list they sent me didn't even include reviews). I was actually pleasantly surprised by the quality of facilities out there. My stepmom even said she'd like to move into one now! read more