I've been watching this happen for the past 6 weeks or so. Many daycares all in my area seem to be having a CL ad posting war. Every time someone posts about openings, there's 2-3 others that come back and post immediately following with some outrageous "I'm better than everyone" post. It's almost amusing seeing what the next one will come up with trying to outdo the previous poster. By themselves the ads aren't terrible, but when they come like rapid fire after other posts, it's so blatantly obvious what they are doing.
Wouldn't a parent see this as petty and unprofessional?

"The child care your child DESERVES!"
"NEVER SETTLE for 2nd BEST!"
"Unmatched experience"

Reply

That's silly. I understand that times are tough, but to be petty among your peers, ugh. It's hard to see other providers as more than competition sometimes and that's where the ugliness stems from. I hope parents see right through this as well and go with someone who's above cut-throat tactics.

Reply

I know CL around here has gotten a bit nasty. I have had other providers copy my posts and even my titles!

Reply

I guess I see it differently than you do. Doesn't every product or company portray themselves as the best value or choice out there? Why shouldn't you provide care that YOU feel is the best out there? It is really up to each parent to decide if you Best and their Best are a match and I think most providers get that.

What I hate to see is other providers tear each other to shreds publicly on CL. I have seen them attack others for spelling or grammar errors and everything else they can think of. That shows a real lack of professionalism and I think it is embarrassing to the rest of us who post ads there.

Reply

I saw one that actually listed a daycare name and said a lot of inflammatory things like they feed them top ramen all day and their house is dirty etc. I just can't believe how bad it gets here. I think because it's free to post and anonymous ..people are horrible

Reply

That happened to me on facebook. I posted on my status that I had some openings and not even an hour later a facebook friend did the exact same thing. I'm like, really?

Reply

You're right. I guess I see it as petty because of the timing of the posts. If it was a once or twice occurrence, I'd chop it up to coincidence. But it's clearly posting in a "one up" manner, taking pieces of the previous post and twisting it to us as their title.

For example, an ad states that DCP #1 has an excellent after school program with x, y, z. Minutes later DCP #2 post "THE BEST AFTERSCHOOL PROGRAM EVER OFFERED" in all caps just like that.

Reply

lol true, but perhaps more effective than saying fairly average daycare provider with basic program

Reply

I have been watching all the CL postings just to see what people in my city are publishing online. No one has a personal website so that would be a perk to me if I decide to create one. I have noticed that 2 daycares have been posting every other day with a slightly different title and the second daycare just posts 2-3 ads back to back with different titles and everything, yet the same phone number! I just want to compare all of them and make mine better. I'm a person who only posts once and be done with it.

Once I sold something on CL and used a picture I took myself to sell the item. A few weeks later I saw someone selling the same toy and they used MY PERSONAL PICTURE of the item. It bothered me because it wasn't theirs and they didn't specify they found the image online. It was my bed comforter and my item, that was it, but just makes me extra careful what images I put out there as well!

Reply

I do have the same sentiments with all of you here. But I think CL has become a not so good place to post daycare services online - since there are some bashings going on around there.

So take care when posting.. Just my two cents...

Reply