Holt needs to learn more about customer service... it's about the children, not the money

by Diana Gordon
(Tulsa, OK)

Over the years, I've heard wonderful stories about Holt. They started with the intent of helping and finding homes for every child they could. I think somewhere along the way they lost that.

I've had several interactions with them. The first interaction was when we found our child through their list. At that time, we had signed up and paid another agency, so changing to their agency wasn't an option. Our agency attempted to get the child's file from them and they blatently refused to give the file up. They had been sitting on the file for well over 2 months, without a bite. We had to wait and pray until they released the file several months later and then my agency had to track down the file again and lock it. We've now been home with Deena 4 years.

Our last adoption took a different route. Once again Holt had our son on their individual list. We ended up signing with them so we could lock his file. We signed up and then were told that we had to complete our home study before they would lock the file. This was something I had never heard of. By the time we completed what we did, his file had been pulled by the CCAA and locked by another family. We ended up going back to our old agency and completed another adoption a year later. Ironically it was with the same child, as the family disrupted before they went to China.

Lastly, I started advocating for children from a certain province. They had a little girl who several families were interested in adopting. Unfortunately neither of these families were with Holt. Holt flat out refused to release the file to another agency so this child could be adopted. This goes back to the old adage of... "Is it about the children or the money?" With Holt I believe they have lost their way. I could go on and on with stories I've heard from other families, but those are their stories to tell. The above is what I've experienced first hand.