More than 100 complaints have been filed with the Better Business Bureau of Atlanta against Rodney J. Murphy and Associates, a purported professional nanny service who advertised recently in the Richmond (Ky.) Register.

“They have a complaint record a mile long,” said Heather Clary, director of communications for the BBB of Central and Eastern Kentucky.

According to the nanny Web site, Rodney J. Murphy’s place of business is in Atlanta. Because that is where the business is located, all complaints about the business must go through the Atlanta BBB. The company is listed on the BBB Web site as having an “unsatisfactory record.”

“According to information in our database, we have received complaints from at least 23 different states,” the Atlanta BBB Web site states. “... When considering complaint information, please take into account the company’s size and volume of transactions and understand that the nature of complaints and a firm’s responses to them are often more important than the number of complaints.”

In the past 36 months, the BBB lists 102 complaints about the nanny business. Of those, 37 were closed in the past year, the Web site states. Among the complaints are issues about advertising, contracts, billing and collection, sales practices, delivery issues, service issues, customer service issues, product issues, refund and exchange issues and other undefined concerns.

Rodney J. Murphy and Associates resolved 16 of the 102 complaints in the past 36 months, according to the BBB. However, six complaints went unresolved, no response ever was received to 24 complaints, two were administratively closed and 54 were unpursuable.

Under the notation for each “unpursuable” issue, a comment is listed that the company could not be located.

Finding Rodney J. Murphy

Under the contact information for the company, a Georgia phone number is listed along with an e-mail address that is different from the number listed with the advertisement. No one answers the phone, but the same man’s voice who directs callers to the www.wonderfulnanny.com Web site on the other line, also directs callers to leave a message.

No one returned calls made by the Richmond Register.

A reverse address search for 1060 Riverbend Club Drive in Atlanta also returned no results.

Under the guise of a staged e-mail seeking employment, the Register contacted the company, stating that while we were interested in the job opening, we didn’t have a credit card to get to the application process. A response came the next day from a Caroline Richardson, whose e-mail identifies her as “customer service,” with a thank-you for our interest.

“However, to properly apply for this position, please refer to the ‘Looking for Work’ link on our Web site,” the e-mail states. “There you will find a full description of the position, our process and directions to apply.

“Otherwise, we have several families you may be better suited for and you will remain in our database to be matched with the appropriate family for you,” it states.