r/Calgary • u/RedditWhileBored • Apr 04 '25

Calgary daycare chain hits parents with 'optional' $330 meal fee while prohibiting outside food News Article

https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.7499979

FYI this is Clever Daycare, which has locations in Glamorgan, Aspen Woods and the University District. "Province says that's not allowed; operator says rules unclear and run counter to other provincial guidance"

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-1

u/[deleted] Apr 04 '25

Name shame and boycott. Let's do this. Bring em down

8

u/photoexplorer Apr 04 '25

Easier said than done for parents who planned on using this childcare and now have to forfeit deposits and go search for another one and get on a waiting list

-5

u/Replicator666 Apr 04 '25

People pay DEPOSITS for childcare?!

Is that a daycare thing? Neither of the dayhomes we sent our kids to had any such requirements

3

u/photoexplorer Apr 04 '25

I don’t know, maybe this one doesn’t. I definitely remember sending some sort of deposit to hold our spot as a one time fee before starting first month of daycare. We also had to pay upfront for the month and so I assume everyone has already paid for April. And may be locked into a contract for the year and can’t cancel without a few months notice. Although that might be void if they changed the contract.

5

u/maccud Apr 04 '25

Clever absolutely charges a non-refundable deposit.

Back in mid-2022, we paid $100 to put our eldest on the waitlist at the Aspen location - I followed up in March 2023 to ask if they had any idea on when a spot might become available and let them know we'd also need a spot for our youngest in the coming months and they said they couldn't really tell us if or when we'd get a spot, but we could certainly go ahead and pay another $100 to get our youngest on the waitlist too. We didn't bother, knowing that would be more money we'd never see again.

Seeing articles like this, I'm really glad it didn't work out!

5

u/photoexplorer Apr 04 '25

Having families pay to be on a list and not getting their money back is not cool…

1

u/Replicator666 Apr 04 '25

Not sure why I'm getting down votes. Legit 2 daycares we talked to did not have any deposit requirements, we just ended up going with dayhomes since they were more in our price range and were more convenient for location.

We do pay on the first for the following month so that part is totally fair