Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:06/14/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  My Family Lounge claims to provide personal assistant services to individuals who become members of their company. They offer to hire the personal assistant and then provide you with a certain number of hours of support per week while they supervise the personal assistant. We entered into an agreement and after the first two weeks the personal assistant they hired was claiming to do work but was not actually providing an work products. Additionally, a day or two after the personal assistant was hired, the personal assistant went to ****** and did not bring her computer to do work, but the company claimed she was working. I was not provided the said work products. My Family Lounge said the personal assistant was a not a good fit and that they would find me another personal assistant. They connected me with a new personal assistant who did produce some products, but they were products I did not ask for and/or explicitly stated that I did not want. I requested to end the contract within 4 days of that person coming on board. I then requested an invoice for any money I owed them. I thought that this invoice would be minimal given the limited amount of work that occurred. When they produced an invoice of nearly ****, I asked for a detailed explanation of what the invoice was for. They produced the detailed information which included statements that were false, inflated, or made claims that items were produced that I was never provided. When I indicated that I had not been provide these products they claimed to be charging me for, they increased the invoice by another $400 and did not provide the products. When I indicated I would be requesting external assistance in resolving the issue because I was concerned their company was a scam, they continued to claim that the invoice was correct and asked me to call them to discuss. I do not believe this company is engaged in legitimate practices and do not feel safe calling them. I have extensive documentation if needed.

  Business Response

  Date: 06/28/2023

  Hello ******, I appreciate you reiterating your concerns from our email exchange, but because we were never able to talk on the phone as I requested, I think there is some confusion here. When you first started working with My Family Lounge, we let you know that we would be able to provide you with recruitment services to find the best personal assistant in your area. In the majority of our memberships, including the one you were on (premium), we also includes two hours of project management support per month, in addition to the personal assistant hours, to help with the following: conduct check-in calls with the assistant/client to ensure everything is going smooth, provide an extra set of hands and eyes for tasks that need additional support beyond the assistant and to be able to provide coaching, mentorship and guidance on difficult tasks when needed. We agreed that you needed 10 hours of support from a personal assistant each week ( in addition to the two PM hours), so we engaged into a contract for 10 hours of support a week or roughly 40 hours a month, depending on how many days are in the month. After about 2-3 weeks of recruiting, we found 3 candidates for you and set up 2 interviews. After the first interview, you were ready to move forward and thought she would be an absolute great fit for your needs, feeling like you didn't need to interview the second. We strongly urged you to interview the second candidate, as we felt she might be a better fit, but you didn't want to. We moved forward with the first candidate, who did go to ****** a few days after being hired (this trip was already preplanned and communicated) and because she was working from her phone and not a computer, we provided a 10 hour discount (basically a full week) because we understood that was an inconvenience. 

  
  When she returned from ****** we completed a check-in call with her and brought to your attention that we felt she might not be the best fit for your needs. We recommended that we bring in a different assistant to support you, which was mutually agreed upon. It seems there are some concerns about the work that was completed by assistant number one, but we will be sure to include as many screenshots as possible from Asana (project management tool) of the work that was started and handed off in an email to assistant number 2. I believe I am limited to send 5, but I can provide more if needed. As you probably already know, the contract we engaged in was not based on deliverables, it was based on time and materials, as we can not control the specific work that you and your assistant are engaging in.

  
  Assistant number 2 started on a Thursday and because she felt due dates were behind in the project management tool, she worked all weekend to get up to speed on your tasks and really took it upon herself to make as big of an impact as she could right away. I got an email from you over the weekend saying she was behind on tasks, when you had just updated the due dates a few minutes prior (on a Saturday to the previous Friday) and had mentioned she was working on tasks you didn't want her to do. I was on our initial call with the assistant and she simply completed the tasks you had asked her to do, it wasn't until after the work was completed that you asked her not to do it. For example, on our call she mentioned she would create a spreadsheet, to which you said that would be a great idea, and then after she did it, you told her she should have done it differently.
  

  You let us know the following Wednesday, after the second assistant had worked 6 days, that you would like to end your contract and that you would like your final invoice. At this point, I felt like this was the best thing to do, so I agreed. My team sent over your invoice for **** to which you had concerns about, so I detailed all the work that was worked on by assistant number 1, but let you know that assistant number 2 started in June and that I would combine both invoices for you and resend. I outlined what assistant number 2 worked on for you in that email as well. At this point, we got an email back from you accusing us of misrepresenting the work that was done under your supervision and called our company a scam. I tried to get on a phone call with you to find a solution that worked for both ends, but you disregarded my email. After providing a discount to you in good faith and trying to get on a phone call to find a mutually agreeable solution, you ignored my attempts and filed this complaint. We are completely at a loss, as this type of issue has not come up in our years of business and we work with multiple families who would vouch for our integrity and our customer centric approach.
  

  
  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 06/29/2023

   
  Complaint: 20178218
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  (1) ******************ontinues to misrepresent the work that occurred by personal assistants. She claims work was done that I never saw and that I was never provided. So why would I be charged for work that I have no evidence occurred? She says the work was passed on to the second assistant. However, it was never passed on to me. So I never benefited from it but I am being charged for it. This is like asking a customer to pay for painting your house but the paint never gets on the house. How can one justify this approach? 

  (2) ******** continues to deny any responsibility and lay out some facts in a way that makes a case that makes it appear as if they did everything they were supposed to. But her argument changes each time. And, if the personal assistants that her company recruited and that her company hired to be employees of the company and that her company charged me for and that she was involved with managing and that she hired and pays directly (not the customer as she implied), then why is she charging me for the work that her company and her employee did not do? She also has mentioned several times that I did not want to interview the second candidate (the third candidate moved after they interviewed her). However, the second candidate was a local professor wanting to help people with creative writing and the production of other types of products. I was looking for someone to pay bills, schedule events, and run errands. It was not a good fit. But she continues to insist that because I did not interview that candidate, I am somehow responsible for the first candidate that her company hired did not do the job that ********'s company hired her to do. 

  (3) ******** continues to refuse to offer any solutions. She claims that she gave a discount. That "discount" was for hours that her employee said she could work while she was in ****** but then forgot her computer and therefore could not work. How is it a discount to the customer when your employee does not show up to work? Again, ******** continues to pass off her company's responsibility onto the customer and charge them for it. Her "discount" was offset by adding $300 to the next bill she sent me. 

  (4) ******** claims I was nonresponsive for her requests for a phone call. However, that too, is a misrepresentation. I told her, in email (attached), that I would be contacting BBB and/or another third party to resolve the matter because I did not believe that she was handling the matter in a way that was honest. And I did contact BBB the next day. And her company did not respond to the first two contact attempts by BBB. And, now, consistent with how she was handled in the past, she is acting suprised that this is the direction things headed. Additionally, during the time that ********'s company was not responding to BBB, they charged me an additional 1.5% fee for not paying the invoice I am refuting within 30 days. 

  (5) ******** indicates that I said I felt her company was a scam. I do believe that her company is engaged in fraudulent behaviors. I have resisted posting bad reviews on any webbased platforms to warn other families to avoid this company despite my belief that doing so would be the right thing to do. I am trying to give ******** even an ounce of benefit of the doubt when everyone around me who has watched me go through this process has said the company is a scam. I am trying to resolve this through a third party and in a professional way. As you may note, ******** offered no resolution in her correspondence. 

  (6). I have questions about how this is a member-based entity that then bills people for hourly work performed by their employees. 

  (7) I am willing to pay $500 of the $1500 bill for recruitment services and the very few (mostly unfinished) results of work that did occur. 
  

  Sincerely, 

  ******

  Business Response

  Date: 06/29/2023

  Hi ******,

  We appreciate you outlining your additional concerns, I want to assure you that we take feedback very seriously at My Family Lounge. 

  Yesterday was the first notice of any sort of complaint that we received from the BBB and I have already contacted them to find out why we didn't know sooner. In fact, we had actually proactively reached out to them on the 14th based on an email we received from them stating they wanted to add us to their database and asked them if there was a complaint filed due to the email we received from you saying you were going to move forward with doing so. At that time, they told us no. After receiving the complaint yesterday, I had followed up within a few hours, as the goal from the start was to find a solution that worked on both ends. This is why I immediately responded to the initial email you sent suggesting we get on a call to find a solution. You ignored my attempt to find a solution as seen in the email I submitted to the BBB for review. 

  The second candidate that we wanted you to interview had not been a professor since 2021 and more recently had supported a local Author in your area doing exactly what you were requesting/we even outlined this in our email to you with her resume. Unfortunately, you decided not to interview her, which is most likely why you were not able to know this information. 

  I also want to assure you that we have not added a late fee to your invoice. In each of our invoices that get sent out, we do include a message that states there will be a 1.5 percent late fee for invoices that are not paid within 30 days of the due date. However, this is a standard business practice and we have chosen not to add a late fee to your invoice if you look at the actual line items. 

  As mentioned, My Family Lounge provides recruitment services for our clients and does our best to facilitate a smooth experience, however, we can't guarantee what transpires between you and the assistant you choose to move forward with. We do not/can not provide management services of your assistant that is under your supervision. I have already attached files from your Asana account that shows what was worked on, in addition to the emails I sent that outlines all the work that was produced, but I will also include the *** that was handed off from assistant 1 to 2. The contract we have in place is based on time and materials, not deliverables. Rest assured, we are not charging you more than what was included in your contract, in fact, we are actually charging you less as mentioned in my emails to you as well as my previous response here ( we deducted 10 hours for when assistant 1 was in ****** and are not billing for additional hours our internal team and I invested). 

  In addition to not charging for the multiple internal hours that were used to try and make this work for you, as well as not charging for 10 hours that were included in your time and materials contract, I am willing to provide a discount of $500. We have a contract in place with our assistant, just as we do with you, so we legally need to pay them for the hours they worked and we have honored this. We are losing money on this relationship, but in good faith and to settle this matter, I hope you see our discount as a genuine offer to put this issue to rest. 

  I will have our team resend an updated invoice to reflect the discount, we consider this matter closed. Thank you. 

  ********

  
  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 06/29/2023

   
  Complaint: 20178218
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  My Family Lounge continues to deny responsibility and make excuses out of facts. ******** even claims she did not receive a message from BBB, when in fact BBB has evidence that two messages were sent to the business email address. 
  

  My choosing not to interact with a company that is dishonest is not refusal to seek a solution. I indicated I would involve a third party because you are untrustworthy and misleading. 
  

  I will pay $500 for your recruitment services. I will not pay for work that was not performed or work that was performed without my permission and / or with my explicit instruction not to do. If we get to the point of debating facts, I am happy to provide evidence of everything that was provided to me which a reasonable person would agree is inconsistent with the claims of your organization in not only what was provided to me, but what is reasonable to charge $1500 for compared to what was promised. 
  
  To the BBB representative, I think it is time bring in a mediator or arbitrator. 

  Sincerely,
  
  Carrie