Brightwheel: Child Care App Negative Reviews

Brightwheel: Child Care App App Complaints & User Negative Comments 2024

Brightwheel: Child Care App app received 21 complaints, negative comments and reviews by users. Have you ever had a bad experience using Brightwheel: Child Care App? Can you share your negative thoughts about brightwheel: child care app?

Brightwheel: Child Care App for Negative User Reviews

✓ USED to LOVE brightwheel......We used to LOVE brightwheel. We have been using it for almost 2 years now. It was free, and they priced themselves on ALWAYS being free, but that changed when they asked us to try the premium version, which had lots of cool new features, such as videos, or assessment tools! All awesome features, but the owner would not pay for prices they were asking for so we couldn’t use brightwheel premium anymore... When we went back to the free version.. so many of our beloved free features such as parent messaging, incident reports, name to face, etc. are no longer available for free users. :( We have worked so hard to get our parents on board, and they all LOVE brightwheel so much and how much we are able to communicate through it. Makes us sad we will no longer be able to use brightwheel anymore. It also brings a lot of confusion that we will have to explain to our parents. 😔.AmberGee1993Version: 3.3.9

✓ WhyLol this is bad.Luckyhd2011Version: 3.6.0

✓ Badges do not workI've had multiple conversations with the developers and they have "taken feedback" and yet no one had addressed the badge issue. "That's the way it works" unfortunately does not work for users of this application. In case developers need clarification: "The iPhone uses badges to indicate that a new message, email, push notification, or voicemail is waiting. Each app with new unread information has a white number with a red background in the upper right hand corner of the appicon. This is a badge." This IS NOT how Brightwheel (looking more like ReinventingWheel) works.. The technicians say that the push notifications on lock screen are the only notification you get and that's the way it is. Once this app comes into some recent century and starts using badges correctly this app would be amazing. But for now it just sits unused and not letting me know about my child so it's a waste of funding and developers time..Foxy3lsVersion: 3.12.21

✓ Confusing to useAs a teacher, I am saddened my work switched to Brightwheel. First of all, when you are posting or messaging someone, the send button is right above the keyboard. I type fast and amounts of times I have accidentally pressed the send button half way through my message is ridiculous. It wouldn’t be half as bad if you could edit or delete, but to edit or delete the post you have to manually do it for EACH child, you can’t even select multiple kids. There’s no such a thing as a timeline for the whole class, each kid has its own profile that you have to edit. Horrible interface needs major work..Mrs. NkaVersion: 3.13.4

✓ No accessThe only thing on this app is a signup page, and they never let you access it. Looks like a great app but they don't let anyone use it. Stay away!.AmylovesmusicVersion: 1.4.2

✓ Daycare now unable to accommodate schedule due to brightwheelNoticed my bill for daughters daycare service was more money then usual. So I contacted the manager at children’s first and was told through the new app she would be unable to accommodate my wife and myself’s work schedule . Some weeks we need only part Time care, and other weeks we full time care. I would always be sure to give daycare our schedule months In advance. (Knowing how they are running a business and trying to maximize profits) We were told from the manager the app was to blame and furthermore we can only keep our daughter enrolled and was forced to choose to be “full time” or “part-time” with very very short notice to do so. We are cash paying parents with a 2nd child coming soon. So if I could give bright wheel “0” stars I would..BobBirkVersion: 3.11.22

✓ Default payment isn’t a default paymentIf my daughter’s school didn’t require I use this app for payments, I wouldn’t. I had a temporary payment method set up when I first enrolled her. When I was able to set my actual bank account, I set it as the default method. Seems easy enough, right? Wrong. It kept charging my back up for three consecutive weeks. What the app does when this happens is it will “pay” her school automatically and I have to go in and pay them in cash or cashiers check PLUS an additional $20. I even tried deleting the secondary account myself but the app doesn’t allow me to. I had to have someone from the brightwheel app do it for me. Oh, and the whole “we’ll get back to you within 30 minutes thing... it took almost an hour and half for them to get back to me. So on top of the $2/month I pay in service fees, I’ve paid an additional $60 this month all because the app doesn’t actually acknowledge a default payment method as just that AND the fees my back up payment institution charged me for bouncing payments. So unfortunately, because I love my daughters teachers and school, I am forced to continue giving this company my money every month. Never mind how embarrassing it is to constantly have your payments bounce even though you have the money to cover it. I would give zero stars if I could..Wrawr!!Version: 3.11.23

✓ Double viewI am both a staff member who uses this app as well as a parent of a child who uses the app. As I parent I like it. My son’s teacher is able to communicate with me and share stuff going on. As a staff member I hate that certain features are “premium only” especially the message feature. It doesn’t make sense that as a parent I can message in but as a staff member I can’t answer back on the same screen. Also would love the ability to tag certain pictures into categories to make finding them for NAEYC portfolio easier..Causal game playerVersion: 3.12.22

✓ Recent changes - booooooRecently - within the last week or so - Brightwheel eliminated the check in and check out notifications in this app. We have been using this app with our daycare for nearly four years and have LOVED IT, but this particular change drops it from 5 stars to 3 stars. As my husband and I sometimes have to trade off drop off and pick up at the last minute, having that drop off/pick up notification really gave us both peace of mind that the kids were safe and where they were supposed to be. PLEASE CHANGE IT BACK..KlarastanVersion: 3.21.9

✓ Nice app buttttttDefinitely room for improvement. As a mom obsessed with my kid I demand 1. Bulk-save option for parents to download photos at least on the web ( currently we have to download each picture everyday or you may forget a day and lose those precious memories) 2. Downloading photo from app should be easier 3. Your most recent update should have always existed because it doesn’t the entire daycare doesn’t need to know about conversations you have with directors and admins regarding your child’s development or account/billing.Sarai oVersion: 3.21.9

✓ Hate everything about thisGreat, yet another way for daycare to bother me. Why don’t parents understand that it’s ok to leave your children at school without knowing what is happening every second of the day? The teachers now have to spend all day writing updates for this stupid app instead of just playing with the kids. I don’t need to know how many fishes the kids counted, I’m in a goddam business meeting! I don’t even understand the point of this. I can see how much they ate when you send the lunchbox home. I don’t need them to write it down if they ate or not. And this app does nothing else but make you obsess over how much your kid is eating and sleeping and learning. It’s not healthy! Holy cow its a whole new level of clingy obnoxiousness that doesn’t let parents or kids get a two minute break from each other..Shay jaywhydoineedauniquenameVersion: 3.30.1

✓ Lags severelyIt works well when it decides to work. However, when it doesn’t, it’s incredibly frustrating. Several parents, my coworkers, and I have encountered issues with the app freezing, lagging, and forced logouts. When you restart the app after force quitting, it gets stuck on the loading page with the Brightwheel logo. It’s really disappointing because when it works, it’s fantastic and is a great way to streamline communication with the families of children in our care. But when it doesn’t work, it’s like being thrown back 20 years back technologically speaking..NjhchungVersion: 3.21.11

✓ Very Disappointed with this CoWe have been using the app regularly since our daughter joined daycare over a year ago. The school just informed us that the messaging function will no longer be available starting next week due to it becoming a ‘premium’ feature. This is horrible, taking something away that was included before and that as parents we rely on heavily on a daily basis when we need to communicate with the teacher. If you’re going to have a premium package, make it for new features coming out not for features that your customers have been using for years. I’m sure now other features will follow this path eventually making the whole app useless. Corporate greed at its finest, thanks a lot..Jets14NYVersion: 3.4.3

✓ This app is really bad.I have a lot of complaints with this app! 1. It looks bad to parents. It is set up so that categories can only be entered weekly, not monthly. This means that on the daily plans, if you use different days for different target areas like we do, it looks to parents like there’s lots of missing areas each day. 2. No sense of community. There is no place for posts to the whole school, or the whole class. Parent engagement with pictures and lesson plans has dropped to almost nothing since we switched to this app. Disappointing! 3. Pictures are incredibly difficult to post, and the appearances of the posts are messy. You must tag each child in the picture, which takes a very long time. The pictures are posted to the child’s profile as an individual post each. This means that the caption you put is repeatedly posted with each photo. It looks so awful and unprofessional! 4. You can’t enter lesson plans from your phone. This is so inconvenient! Additionally, the entire system of entering lesson plans takes so long. My prep time isn’t enough anymore because of all the hoops you have to jump through just to post an activity. TL;DR I sincerely recommend choosing a different platform if you care about professionalism, parent engagement, or completing lesson plans efficiently..Untrustworthy sourceVersion: 3.14.1

✓ Checking In/OutI’ve been advised by our daycare provider that Brightwheel no longer allows staff to check children in and out, only parents. The problem is, my dad drops my daughter off and isn’t tech savvy, so he’s not able to. I like to know when my daughter has been dropped off and picked up with the convenience of the app. He takes her because of my working hours, so calling him isn’t always convenient (or safe if he’s on the road). ***Also, this is an extra check during the summer months when children are left in hot cars accidentally. Why not make this feature available for providers and thwart any accidental occurrences? If a dad is used to seeing those notifications at work and doesn’t get one, he can text mom and a crisis can possibly be avoided early… just because of a simple check in notification. It also helps the daycare providers keep tabs on everyone. Please reconsider including this feature again!.CBrownSigVersion: 3.21.9

✓ BrightwheelGreat program! But sadly when signing up for invoices and payments it is only set up for US no option for Canada.....JeanettegeorgeVersion: 2.4.5

✓ HorribleWe have had brightwheel for 3 months. They have undercharged customers 2 out of 3 months and then sent an apology email both times asking for us to please bear with them. A business can not pay its bills on apologies. They also misrepresented the features of the billing section of this app, one can not send out an invoice immediately or go back and add late charges or extra day charges to customers. They again asked us to bear with them as they fix this glitch and promised a discount until it’s fixed.....no discount. The customers get confused because we have to tell them that brightwheel is undercharging them for some reason that we can’t explain because brightwheel has yet to explain the problem to us. Also customer service is nonexistent after the 1st month. We are currently looking for better quality services and there are many that do the same things and hopefully better!!!.Asmith7769Version: 3.11.19

✓ Great until recentlyI have been using Brightwheel for my in home daycare since the very beginning when it first premiered on Shark Tank. It has always been a useful tool for me, and my daycare parents have enjoyed it too. Recently, however, the app itself has been extremely, painfully sluggish, making check-in very inconvenient for parents and activity updates throughout the day very burdensome for me. I emailed customer service about the issue and have received no response, which has added to my frustration. I hope this can be remedied so I can get back to loving this app as much as I used to!.BH216Version: 3.11.23

✓ Good start, some key features still neededThis app is fairly reliable, intuitive to navigate and has a clean, appealing UI. Adding a few key features for parents would take it to the next level: 1. Display who sent a message. Currently, I only know if a note is from my child’s teacher, preschool director or an assistant if she/he remembers to sign their name. 2. Allow message threads. I need to be able to reply back to a specific message (this is compounded by not knowing who wrote a message). 3. Badge notifications. I want to be able to see quickly whether there are new notifications without opening the app and scrolling. 4. Enable payments. I should be able to view and pay an invoice from within the app. With these 4 features, this app would be a solid five stars. A bonus feature would be the ability to customize notifications by child (e.g. I have two kids and want to receive food notifications for one child but not the other)..M_PrincessVersion: 3.6.9

✓ AWFUL UpdateI’ve never felt so strongly about any app to leave a review but this new update is absolutely horrendous. Paying ahead of time is a super long process that unless you ask their support, you will never figure out. You cannot pay more than the current invoice unless it’s two separate payments which in turn has two separate fees from this company. If you’re going to make updates, maybe it should be to better the app not to make it extremely frustrating. Or at least provide instructions/help without the need to wait for support to answer in 3-5 business days. You need a new developer. Update - the instructions the company sent back in their reply below NO LONGER WORKS. You described how it used to work, not how it does now. It used to work great. Now you click make a payment now and if there is no balance due, it doesn’t let you click or pay anything. The fees aren’t the issue, the issue is your update has taken the app backwards and made it more difficult and less convenient..Tori PakosVersion: 3.34.1

✓ Bad for teachers! Bad for kids!Would you rather your child’s teacher have their focus on a tablet, entering information, or would you rather they were with your children, 100% focused, playing and giving them learning experiences? The problem with this app, and similar apps, is that it pulls too much of a teacher’s focus. As a former teacher and current administrator, I have seen how much of a distraction and interruption Brighthwheel is. I get that parents, especially new parents, like to stay informed, but part of sending your child to daycare is learning how to let go. Brightwheel implies no trust between parents and teachers, and it’s insulting. It doesn’t surprise me that a parent, not a teacher, developed this app. Bottom line- a teacher texting their friend vs a teacher entering in what the kids are for lunch; to the children it’s all the same! Their teacher is looking at a screen, not them, and what kind of lesson does that teach?.MstamellVersion: 3.11.18

Brightwheel: Child Care App works most of the time. If it is not working for you, we recommend you excersise some patience and retry later or contact Brightwheel: Child Care App.