Childcare search: 2000 days pre-kindergarten review

Hello darlings,
This will be a new series of posts reviewing childcare places I have looked into! The first one I will review is the first one I have ever looked into when looking for a daycare for my daughter.

Important note!
I have not gone as far as having my child at this daycare, this is a research-based review, everything in this post is based on online research and my interaction with the childcare providers and my observation. I have not visited this place, because I did not feel the need to before I knew this place wasn't right for my child. This review is my personal opinion on the service I received.

Alright, let's get to the review.
When I typed 'best daycare in Calgary' in Google search, this was the first daycare that showed up. Their website looks very well maintained and professionally done, overall it looks very promising. My favorite part was that they said "we are not a daycare, we are a school", as education is very important to me, as well as the arts. Me and my husband are both creative, artistic people and this place looked so perfect. It did not have a single negative review, not even one! And it was within walking distance from my home. Without hesitation I hurried to put my baby on the waitlist, paying a deposit fee of $150. A big mistake.

My issues with this place:
1) Removed/Deleted negative reviews:
I was researching this place every day since I filled out the application, slowly, the negative reviews started popping up. Parents were claiming their children did not receive the services that were promised, and claiming the owners are very confrontational and aggressive, and did not address the issues and chose to ignore them instead. I thought "oh well, one bad review among 10 good ones isn't that bad, right?" WRONG. As I kept checking the review website, more negative reviews came up.
However, strangely enough, many of the negative reviews disappeared as if never existed (poof!). I regret print-screening them. I am not sure how they did it (possibly marking the reviews as inappropriate, or not helpful, or something), but they got at least 2 negative reviews removed from a daycare search website (it was either Godaycare.com or Daycarebear.com), both have one negative review on each right now, but I am 100% sure there were AT LEAST 3 negative reviews.
Here is one negative review, somehow it did not get deleted.

 

 

2) Not getting back to me on time.
Their website guarantees to get back to you within 2 business days. My application did not get a response until TWO AND A HALF weeks. After two weeks, I asked for a refund of my deposit. So what if it says 'non refundable'. It is only non refundable if you get service and they keep their promises. I was urgently seeking childcare for my baby, and after two weeks I received a voice mail saying that their "system was down", how the heck do you have a functioning business when your "system is down" for two and a half weeks?! Does it really take 2 weeks to fix an email account? After I was denied a refund, I called the place, their customer service lady, mumbling and stuttering, after putting me on hold for 5 minutes, replied: "um... mam... I... I am sorry but... the website says the deposit is non refundable so....."
me "yes, and THE WEBSITE ALSO SAYS that you will get back to me within 2 business days, mot two and a half weeks. The deposit is non refundable if you get proper service, or any service at all. And since this was a mistake on YOUR end, I am asking you to make the exception and issue me a refund."
Once again the lady repeated herself saying the deposit is non-refundable. Did she even listen to anything I said?
After that awkward phone conversation, I have sent them an email, again asking for a refund, to which they never bothered responding. I guess once they realized I am not interested in their service nor willing to invest any more money in their business, customer service became non-important to them, all of a sudden.

3) This is something I observed based on the pictures from the facilities only, I have not physically visited the daycare. But as they say, an image is worth a 1000 words.

 

This is their baby room, one thing that really concerned me is nap time. It looks like the babies have nap time on the floor carpet, as I do not see any beds or anything that would be comfortable for babies to sleep on (other than those large pillows), so this was a big concern for me.

 

 

This is their art room. It looks nice and clean, but there are two things that concern me about this one:

- Their daycare costs $1000/month, and for that cost, I'd think they would invest in better quality furniture than the cheap Ikea bookcases, these are actually the old ones that are no longer sold at Ikea due to not being child-safe enough (Expedit), they were replaced with the almost identical but softer-edged one called Kallax (yes, I am an Ikea nerd)

-They claim to be having art classes for them kids, but I only see one easel ! Do they all share, or what?

It may be a little harsh to be judging a book by its cover, but those little details just make it more of a deal-breaker for me, personally.

 
4) Research of the owners names lead to awful reviews from their previous occupation as real estate agents. 
I have googled their names (as one negative review that got deleted advised), and these are the reviews that popped up.

Now I do believe in giving people a second chance, and it is unfair to judge someone based upon their past, because I, in all my naivity, believe that all people strive to better themselves. This was the last part of my research, and I was disappointed with the results, as I really wanted to give this place a chance. I hoped that the things said about their real estate are incorrect about their daycare, but judging by the way I was treated and the negative reviews I found, it all kept adding up and I just won't feel comfortable sending my child to 2000 Days. I refuse to compromise on less than the best care for my child.


And since they seem to be researching reviews about their business often, I would be glad if they commented on this post.