Complaints

This profile includes complaints for Doodlebugs Childrens Center's headquarters and its corporate-owned locations. To view all corporate locations, see Find Local Branches.

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Doodlebugs Childrens Center has 12 locations, listed below.

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  Doodlebugs Childrens Center

  20 Losson Rd Ste 215 Cheektowaga, NY 14227-2394

• 

  Doodlebugs Childrens Center

  100 N French Rd Amherst, NY 14228-2005

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  Doodlebugs Childrens Center

  8900 Duncan Avenue McCandless, PA 15237

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  Doodlebugs Childrens Center

  14 Rehm Rd Depew, NY 14043-1114

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  Doodlebugs Childrens Center

  215 Red Tail Rd Orchard Park, NY 14127-1562

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:06/20/2025

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  UnresolvedMore 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.

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint. I request that my family not be banned from ALL doodle bugs if an explanation cannot be provided. If actions of said employee cannot be justified  a consequence against a family should not be administered. Please reverse the determination made against my family. Thank you.
  
  
  Regards,
  
  ********** *****wed my child to nap outside of that guideline.
  
  4. Inappropriate Clothing for Weather Conditions: On one particular day, the morning weather was around 40-50 degrees, and I dressed my baby in a sweatshirt for the cooler morning hours. By the afternoon, the temperature had risen to 89 degrees, and I had specifically asked the staff to remove the sweatshirt to avoid overheating. When I returned eight hours later to pick up my child, they were still wearing the same sweatshirt and sweatpants.
  
  5. Failure to Apply Sunscreen
  On multiple occasions, there was no evidence or report that sunscreen had been applied to my child, despite the daycare being made aware of the importance of sun protection.
  
  6. Lack of Warm and Welcoming Interactions
  There was never a "warm hand-off" or a warm welcome when I dropped off or picked up my child. The cold and dismissive attitude of the staff created a hostile atmosphere, adding to my concerns about the level of care my child was receiving.

  Business Response

  Date: 07/08/2025

  Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. Unfortunately, the Director who was in charge at the time of the incident is no longer employed with our organization. As a result, we do not have direct insight into the specific details of the situation.
  We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience or dissatisfaction this may have caused. While we are limited in what we can provide in terms of a detailed response, we are committed to continuous improvement and we will use the situation as a training opportunity.
  
  

• Initial Complaint

  Date:05/20/2024

  Type:Customer Service 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.

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
  
  All in all, this reply is a complete fabrication of facts and seriously slanders us. I will correct these facts. If the other party continues to deny their issues in this way, we will provide more evidence and hold the other party legally responsible.First, we never violated any parental code of conduct.The facts are corrected as follows:When we got the call we rushed to the center as quickly as possible and the first thing we did was take our child out of her class and I touched our child's hands and body as she ran towards me smiling. , I found that her temperature was very normal and even a little cold, and she was having a lot of fun. Then I took out the thermometer I brought and measured her multiple times, and the results were all around 97 degrees Fahrenheit (the reason I brought the thermometer was because I wanted to know the child’s specific temperature at that time and then give her appropriate medicine, because different fevers Different medications are required depending on the degree). Then I felt very strange, so I communicated the situation with the teacher. The teacher patiently explained to me that they were not sure and asked me to go to the front desk to ask. So we came to the front desk and very friendly and sincerely explained the situation to the director who was present and asked if the temperature could be taken again on the spot or if there were any photos or proof that could show that the temperature they had indeed measured was 100.9 degrees Fahrenheit. What is surprising is that the director told us very rudely that she did not need to measure it. She said that a fever was a fever. I explained to her that whether my child had a fever or not, it depends on the result of the thermometer measurement. If she is unwilling to measure on the spot, can she provide any pictures of the thermometer that previously measured my daughter's fever or other evidence to prove that my daughter did have a fever that day? On the same principle, I took out my thermometer and measured my daughter, and the result showed that it was normal. (Again, we just want to know whether my daughter has a fever and give her appropriate medicine)At this point the director became even more rude and started threatening us that she would call the police if we didn't leave immediately. It is worth noting that her rude threats and driving behavior were not only directed at us, but also in front of our daughter, which severely frightened my daughter and caused a certain degree of psychological trauma. When I first met her from class, she was all smiles. When she faced the director's serious threat of calling the police and driving her away, she started crying and shouting, "Mom, I want to leave." Then we immediately left the center and sat on a chair outside the safety gate to comfort our frightened daughter (we were already outside the center’s safety gate and just wanted to comfort our daughter who was very frightened at the time). At this time, the director opened the safety door and drove us away again in front of our daughter who was already frightened by her. My daughter was threatened and driven away by her again, and her emotions became uncontrollable. This shows that it is necessary for us to express our dissatisfaction with the director's rude behavior towards my daughter and conduct a professional psychological evaluation of my daughter to measure the psychological harm this director has caused to my daughter.When we were evicted again we got right back to our car and we started trying to calm my daughter down while trying to call the center to sort out the problem. When the director of the center received the call, she directly told us that she would save money with us. We had no choice but to accept it. When we wanted to continue discussing the follow-up matters related to the termination of the contract, she rudely hung up the phone before we could finish. We tried calling several times to resolve the issue, but they kept ignoring our calls and not answering.Later, we expressed our demands to our superiors and the central mailbox again via email, but never received any reply. So now we want to use a third party to support justice and solve the problem. This reply is their first reply to us after the incident. The entire reply is fabricating facts and slandering us.We reiterate that our demands are the same as before, and we ask the other party to admit their problems and compensate us. The amount of compensation remains unchanged.If the other party still cannot meet our requirements, we will continue to follow up. As a graduate student in a law school, when reasonable demands cannot be resolved through non-litigation channels, I will also consider legal means to safeguard our legitimate rights and interests. I will consider charging the center and the director as follows: First, the center and the director have caused psychological trauma to our daughter, as evidenced by psychological evaluations. Second, we have reason to suspect that the director’s many behaviors were discriminatory against Chinese people, as evidenced by her unwelcoming attitude and rude behavior towards us from beginning to end (she never showed a smile to us. On the contrary, another front desk clerk always smile politely and we greet each other), as well as her similar indifference and rude behavior towards other Chinese parents in the center. (I have the co-signatures of other Chinese parents)
  Regards,
  
  ******* ****   us out in front of our kid Anji Wu, who was very scared by her and cried loudly. Furthermore, she even used the scared behavior of Anji as the proof that my kid was sick, which was totally unacceptable. Again, I would like to emphasize that we didn't show any disrespectiveness during the whole process. After we were kicked out, we called her, but she hung up on us before we finished speaking, and then continued to call without answering. Jennifer M***** sent an email to us, it stated that we violated the rules and he did not communicate with us (the parents involved in the incident) to investigate the facts of the incident.
  
  We need Stephanie to apologize for her rude and disrespectful and threatening behavior towards my little daughter and us.

  Business Response

  Date: 06/10/2024

  This family was dismissed due to breaking the code of conduct listed in the policies. (Attached is the Parent Code of Conduct and the Health Policies)The parents were contacted because their child had a 100.9 fever and wasn't feeling well. When they arrived, the parents were argumentative and refused to remove the sick child from the center. The parent questioned the accuracy of the temperature. Regardless of the temperature, sick children should be excluded from care in the best interest of that ill child and in the best interest and safety of the other children and faculty. The parents were disrespectful towards management when the Director attempted to explain the policy. They were raising their voices and refused to comply with the policy and remove the child from care. They then refused to exit the building upon request as the altercation escalated. The manager felt very threatened and questioned calling 911 to manage the situation. A healthy, respectful, trusting, collaborative relationship is necessary between families and faculty in an early childhood education environment. The parents were unwilling.This was not the first instance we struggled with this family. The parents were very disrespectful and argumentative previously when they challenged our immunization policy also.Billing was discontinued and the family's full security deposit was refunded. The past tuition paid which they are requesting was for service provided and a refund will not be provided.

  Business Response

  Date: 06/12/2024

  No further comment is necessary. Our response remains the same.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:08/29/2022

  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.

  I arrived at Doodlebugs this morning with my son, ******* (8/29). No one was present to greet us or tell us that his classroom was closed. I finally located an individual who informed me that the classroom would not be open for at least 30 minutes-45 minutes. She informed me that none of his classmates were in (which was not true as I saw at least 1 other student from his class). At this point, his teacher arrived, but I was told that classroom 9 was still closed.
  
  My son and I took a ride around town to give classroom 9 time to open. When we arrived, it was still closed. I once again had to wait to find an adult. I asked the adult if this was a consistent problem and she informed me that they are short staffed. This has been a consistent statement from the staff at Doodlebugs (when available to talk).
  
  As a result, I had to leave with my son.
  
  I called the center at approximately 10:30 to ask if I could be credited for the day. I was told that their policy would not allow for this.
  
  Doodlebugs was not equipped this day to receive my child. I should not have to pay for a day of service that was not provided to me due to no fault of my own.

  Business Response

  Date: 09/16/2022

  Care was available for this child in another classroom. A refund is not warranted in this situation. Management contacted the family to explain the situation, and the family has since returned to care without issue.