Adoption Agency Ratings
Homecoming Adoptions
Phone: 1 407-420-1900
Fax: 1 407-420-1201
Website: http://www.homecomingadoptions.com
E-mail: info@homecomingadoptions.com
Address:
200 East Robinson Street
Orlando, FL 32801
Reviews
Investigated for Fraud / If you choose them - you WILL lose
This agency has threatened us, so everything in this review is only "my opinion", just to qualify it.
This is a very very dangerous agency. They are only allowed to continue through technicalities in my opinion. In my opinion, they are only out for money, don't care about the children, and lack appropriate experience.
--The FBI were involved in investigating this agency for fraud
--The police were involved in investigating this agency for fraud
--The adoption licensing board was actively investigating this agency for fraud.
--25 other families at least have had some complaint against this agency according to the adoption licensing board
--they took our money
--they refused to answer our calls
--they did not give us accurate information
--they flat out lied to us
--they should be shut down
--employees have left their company
--they use a facilitator banned by the US Embassy by the name of Thanasis who uses different aliases and even after being banned was still being used by HCA for "adoptions"
--Dateline NBC did a piece on them
-DCR took their license in 2006
- here's a news piece on them
http://www.local6.com/news/15338057/detail.html?rss=orlpn&psp=news
--why they are so different, because they only want your money
--"a home for every child", not every child, the ones we tried to adopt we believe were not legally available for adoption, things just don't add up
--we were told we were in the DNA phase, and 6 months later after visiting found out our paperwork was NEVER even sent !
--so why are they still allowed a website to defraud other families
--this should have been stopped 3 years ago
--we were fortunate to get at least most of our money back, but we still lost thousands and many many months of trying to adopt
they should be shut down
--I am at least glad the court as of Feb 2008 is looking into this and finally questioning them. It certainly has taken long enough.
--Our complaint was several years ago, so this has been going on for a while. Very sad.
The children are the ones who lose.
you are right.....
You said in your comment that a lot of times parents bring this on themselves...
You couldn't be more right in our case!
When we were referred our daughter at 6 WEEKS of age and her pediatrician in Guatemala suggested she go through a NEWBORN SCREENING test and we told your agency to charge it to our cc immediately and you kept telling us over and over again the test was done.....
Again you were right -
We brought it on ourselves...
to choose to FIGHT FOR THE LIFE AND/OR WELL BEING OF OUR CHILD. We kept asking for results of a test we were told we would get within 4 - 6 weeks then 6 - 8 weeks and after months and months of this, we were told to send a letter to the review board and ask for our money back.
We said that we didn't want our money back, we wanted our daughter to receive this test or we wante evidence she had been given the MEDICAL test! We were told to put that we wanted our money back in the letter to the review board - well we sent in the letter and said that, but we focused mainly on the fact we WANTED TO BE SURE SHE HAD THIS MEDICAL TEST THAT THE DOCTOR HAD SAID OUR DAUGHTER NEEDED - so yes, again we brought it on ourselves to FIGHT FOR THE RIGHTS OF OUR DAUGHTER TO MAKE SURE SHE RECEIVED PROPER MEDICAL CARE but we chose to fight for her even more, especially after we received a NASTY letter signed by this 4 or 5 of the HCA employee review committee!
This terrible letter again was sent in a response to a letter we sent BEGGING YOU TO MAKE SURE THIS TEST WAS DONE (by this time our daughter was about 8 MONTHS old and we had been pleading and begging for this test to be completed and we kept getting told it was but no one would give us a copy of this 'test' - we realized they must be lying to us (this is simply our opinion - since no evidence was being provided that it was done)!) -
This letter basically said that we didn't have to believe the test was done and besides the money we were charged for this VERY EXPENSIVE MEDICAL TEST belonged to HCA because of all the 'stuff' that you all had done for us and we should just keep our mouths shut and not say anything more about it (ie: these are my words that my hubby and I used to explain this ridiculous letter recieved by us and SIGNED by HCA employees) --- when we sent a REPLY back to EVERYONE we could think of at this agency, Kurt Alexander immediately refunded our money and we had the NEWBORN screening test results to us within a matter of weeks - of course our darling daughter was about 9 MONTHS OLD at this point.........
Now they won't reply and tell us if they will forward our information onto our daughters BIOLOGICAL sibling that lives here in the states that they once provided for us - at NO REQUEST FROM US - in fact this is when we found out she has a sibling that lives here......... Due to a broken computer, we have lost this information and have contacted HCA 2 times requesting this information! Hopefully God will touch their hearts and will send our information onto this other family. Our daughter DESERVES to know her extended family.
How sad - that people at this agency are CHOOSING to have this kind of reputation.
RUN!
Adoption processes are always difficult because you're dealing with outside governments and it is a long and tedious process. I would tell you that the process has been a dance in the park compared to dealing with these ridiculous and arrogant lawyers. I have never dealt with anything more traumatic that the constant mis-information, or outright untruths, the finger-pointing, and refusal to answer pertinent questions to our adoption. It was a nightmare that I never saw coming.
If you are looking into this agency as one for your adoption, I beg of you to run. This agency doesn't care about you.
It's true
Everything I've read is my experience also. I have kept quiet, but not anymore. This agency took our money and will not send it to Guatemala to pay for our paperwork to be processed and our child to be cared for. When I call, I am required to make a phone appt. usually for another day. They are using a banned facilitator who doesn't always tell the truth. They do not care about us or our children, just our money, but they have it so they are done with us. No updates, no medicals, no pictures. I do not recommend this agency.
A couple of links...
... to check out before you consider going with this terrible agency.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAfMle0KMWU
http://www.guatadopt.com/archives/000818.html#000818
Very Poor
This agency is extremely poor and deceptive. Public information will tell you that the DCF has revoked their license as a child placement agency, after which they changed their name and had their clients re-sign their paperwork telling them it was just clerical housekeeping. STAY AWAY FROM THESE PEOPLE!
Do not use Homecoming Adoptions
Since getting my son home from Guatemla, I promised myself I would spread the word.....Homecoming Adoptions is terrible. My husband and I spent many nights sleepless and helpless because of this agency. They were wonderful before they got our money, which we had to pay upfront..all of it. After we accepted our referral and paid they were unresponsive to my phone calls and when I did demand answers all I got were lies. They used "Teo" as our facilitator in Guatemala and he lied as much as them. When I questioned HCA about Teo and being banned they told me I was wrong....when I kept up with questions about my sons case..they told me it was all my fault his case was delayed in PGN....when in fact it was never there. They threatened to cancel our contract and we would lose our referral. We eventually had to hire a third party lawyer in Guatemla to aide with our sons adoption. I feel HCA could have cared less if we ever brought our son home. They made it perfectly clear to me ...IT"S ALL ABOUT MONEY to them. They played on our vulnerbility to be parents....when they could care less about children anywhere let alone Guatemala.
Russian Victim
Who was the poor woman whose husband committed suicide from the TV report?
Lord, what a mess.
Homecoming seems even worse than my adoption agency - and that's saying alot.
Victims/angry people: KEEP POSTING!!!!!!! Don't let the agency hacks subdue you.
Elizabeth Case
http://www.bewareofbbas.org
Changing for the better
though i have heard many unfortunate things about HCA, i still use them and recommend them because they are sincerely changing for the better. sure certain families will have bad experiences adopting internationally- alot of times the family bring upon themselves their own trouble- HCA has made significant improvement withtheir new staff and i feel sure about the resolution of my adoptions with them.
Homecoming Adoptions - Don't fall victims like we did!!!
Please, if you are reading this and considering hiring HCA....DON'T!!!! We were stuck in process 21 months before completing our adoption. They took all of our money at the time of our referral and had the infamous banned Facilitator "Teo", "Thanassis" handle our case on the Guatemalan side (unbenounced to us). It was a horrible experience, when we challenged them or questioned why were stuck in PGN for 8 months we were bullied by the owner Kurt Alexander to back off or we'd lose our referral!!!! They are heartless, crude, manipulative, money-mongers who have no regard for the children of Guatemala or adoptive parents. They are purely in it for the money!!! They backed Teo 150% and called us liars and accused of medling in our case and blamed us for the major delays!!! In reality, Teo is running the show in Guatemala and has a couple of attorneys doctoring up his paperwork with their seals. We thought we did our research and we felt so stupid for getting into such a mess. We spent countless nights not sleeping, wondering if Teo would just throw our file in a ditch somewhere. Please do not hire these people, I know for a fact they still use Teo and I know several other families who fell victims to their greed as well. There are some wonderful agencies out there, do your homework and redo it. Google: Homecoming Adoptions, Kurt Alexander....you'll see the complaints on the Better Business Bureau and the local news station Chanel 9 did a piece on HCA about a family they ruined. They lost their license to process adoptions in the US; and they never got approved to process adoptions in Guatemala as they changed their name to "Homecoming Adoptions - An International Law Firm" to dodge being called an "Adoption Agency." Pure SLIME!!!!
Again, I can't stress enough to run from this agency!!!!
Very Disappointed
Since beginning to work with agency almost a year ago, our case has been handled by three successive "coordinators." Only one of those coordinators have had any clue about what's really going on in-country, as we've come to find out. The agency's record for returning phone calls and providing or relaying information from the country has been extremely poor. Emails and requests for information sent to the attorney to whom our checks are made out go unanswered. In-country staff, attorneys, doctors and foster moms all have reported concerns about cashflow. (And yet all agency cliets pay up front for services.) If we can actually get our child home, it will have been a good experience overall, but I will never use or recommend this agency again. I recommended them once and have been sorry since. The person I referred has experienced the same non-contact and lack of information that I have.
Please Investigate This Agency
I just have one piece of advice, please check with Florida Department of Children and Family. I think your decision will be made after that call. My only goal is to not have you go through what I and at least ten other families I know have gone through. I implore you seek other agencies.
Terrible
Homecoming Adoptions is using and has used the same facilitator they showed on Dateline on January 20th. You know, the one that has been banned from the Embassy since 2005? The one who suggested to Dateline's reporter posing as a new Agency that she falsify a home study record that showed that one of her adoptive parents had sexually abused children?
They have been negligent in many other ways, including failure to pay foster families and other fees (to the tune of over $100,000). They have been terrible about returning phone calls and emails. They do not organize visits to Guatemala well and have generally provided a terrible experience for many, many families ... many of whom are still trying to complete their adoptions.