All About Full-Time Maids
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Will you pay $300-$400 for agency fee? One agency I enquired actually charges that amount, while others I know charges around $88-$200. What is the regulated market rate? Why is the difference so great? Hope someone can enlighten me. Many thanks!
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my new maid just arrived yesterday, very new, very fresh, appeared to be very nervous all the time. hehe…although i strongly believe fear is a good thing comparing to those who is fearless like my previous maid.
one thing i notice is although she is even younger than my previous maid, she is much more mature and considerate, possibly because she is married with one child. i can feel that she is trying to figure out what we like and dislike all the time. for my previous maid, who is a single, she seemed to live in her own world all the time and didnt bother to talk/understand us at all. most of the time she expected us to understand her and treat her like a doll/pet.
i give her a sunshine phone card for her to call home. she only talked 5 mins over the phone to her husband and thats all.
in agent office she said she has no handphone. after come back home and i showed her the house rule (no handphone, no secret handphone), she admit she had a handphone and surrendered it to me. so for now, i keep the phone for her. my wife also checked her belongings, she showed us everything but kept a tiny bag always from us. my wife said there is few packet of sanitary pad inside and not sure about rest. but think that is ok for us.
so far so good, not sure if because of she is new or personality, she is so much more obedient than my previous maid. my previous maid just walked around in the house like nobody’s business in the first day.
i remember once i asked my previous maid that how long she planned to work in SG. she replied "my contract is two years sir!" with her back facing me. i asked the same question to this new maid and she said "as long as you want me in the house", with a smile in the face. what a difference! -
Angelight:
Will you pay $300-$400 for agency fee? One agency I enquired actually charges that amount, while others I know charges around $88-$200. What is the regulated market rate? Why is the difference so great? Hope someone can enlighten me. Many thanks!
一分钱,一分货
why are those charging much more expensively seems to be surviving well in this cut throat business sector ?
there must be something going for them which make families willing to part with more costly agency fees to get the maid
think
of course not everything more expensive is better - this is not the point -
liuhao:
Congrats to you.... :celebrate:my new maid just arrived yesterday, very new, very fresh, appeared to be very nervous all the time. hehe...although i strongly believe fear is a good thing comparing to those who is fearless like my previous maid.
one thing i notice is although she is even younger than my previous maid, she is much more mature and considerate, possibly because she is married with one child. i can feel that she is trying to figure out what we like and dislike all the time. for my previous maid, who is a single, she seemed to live in her own world all the time and didnt bother to talk/understand us at all. most of the time she expected us to understand her and treat her like a doll/pet.
i give her a sunshine phone card for her to call home. she only talked 5 mins over the phone to her husband and thats all.
in agent office she said she has no handphone. after come back home and i showed her the house rule (no handphone, no secret handphone), she admit she had a handphone and surrendered it to me. so for now, i keep the phone for her. my wife also checked her belongings, she showed us everything but kept a tiny bag always from us. my wife said there is few packet of sanitary pad inside and not sure about rest. but think that is ok for us.
so far so good, not sure if because of she is new or personality, she is so much more obedient than my previous maid. my previous maid just walked around in the house like nobody's business in the first day.
i remember once i asked my previous maid that how long she planned to work in SG. she replied \"my contract is two years sir!\" with her back facing me. i asked the same question to this new maid and she said \"as long as you want me in the house\", with a smile in the face. what a difference! -
:?
:nailbite:
Pardon my long story.. but I'm at my wit's end of what to do...
I had a very good relationship with my first maid and maid agency and do not wish to jeopardise my relations. However, I am at my wit's end of what to do with my recent maid. My family has always been kind to our maids and treated them fairly. We understand that they are far away from their families and we gave them comfort at our home. We are blessed to get a maid who is able to work sincerely. We entrusted my 2 year old son (last year) with her at home alone. However, she has to return to her home town in April this year, after working with us for one year, to take care of her sick sister and aged mother.
After my maid left, I employed another maid, P, who worked with us for 1.5 months. She was sent back to the agency after working with us for 1 month plus, because she lied to us when we found out she has been using the home phone to call her family, when we are working. I noe this is a minor reason for us to send her back to agency. She was very egoistic and did not own up even after catching her red-handed. She also gave my son wrong medication because she said she couldn't read the label.
My third maid, R, whom we employ shortly after P, worked with us from 27 May till 12 June 2010. She was homesick, cannot do any housework, always sleep. We had a good talk with her, counselled her with empathy and concerns. But one day, she went out from the house to go jalan-jalan, without anyone knowing (she came back 1 hour later). Luckily, she was at my MIL's plc and my younger son who was sleeping at that time was taken care by my MIL. Of course, we questioned her and accoding to her, she wants to get 'fresh air'!!! She's supposed to take care of my 2.5yr old son!!! That was the last straw. We did not want her to do similar things when she's alone at my own house with my son.
We intended to send her back to her home town and had read MOM's website that we are supposed to cancel her work permit if her services are no longer required. However, we had no choice. We called up the agency and was told of the following:
a. We cannot cancel R's work permit and repatriate her to her home town, because she still has loan and need to work in Singapore to finish her loan.
b. If we decide to cancel her work permit and repatriate her, we will lose all the loan (about $3K) that we paid to the agency, without any replacement given.
Since we had no choice, we sent R back to our agency on 12 June, while waiting for a suitable replacement. Two days later, we found out that R ran to Indonesian embassy (from our agent's house). No one told us about this untill we called our agency for updates on our two maids who are still under my name. We were rather shocked, however, our agency told us that they will settle it with the Indonesian embassy. R complained to embassy that she had to work in 2 houses and help my MIL with kuih business. This is of course, lies. She's trying to go back to her home town, w/o bearing any charges and repaying her loan. She was suppose to understudy the housework and how to cook for my family at my MIL. My MIL did not force her to help making kuih. She was the one who wants to try making, saying that she wants to learn. Luckily, our 2nd maid who is still with our agency speak up for us and tell the truth (yes, she learnt her lesson from telling lies to us. I'm thankful for her telling the truth. The good news is she has got a prospective employer and am glad that she repented now).
To date, we have heard no news about R. In fact, everytime we tried to contact our agent on her case, they avoided the topic or did not respond to our calls/sms.
We are helpless of what we can do now.
- How can we get R out from Indonesian embassy?
- Can R be repatriated back with our consent, and without us losing our request to get replacement?
- Can MOM help?
- How long will the embassy keep her there?
I am very worried for her well being there. Also, I am concerned that if she has to stay at the embassy for long, her work permit will forever be under my name and I have to pay for her levy, even though she is not working for me right now.
Pls help to advise what are we suppose to do now... -
hi pinkycheeks,
Sorry to hear about your case, but I think the only thing you can do is to call MOM and hound them for updates. Go meet your MP and see if they can write any letter to assist.
Embassy will want to ‘protect’ their countryman and is not likely to release her unless she say she wants to leave.
It’s very important to establish your innocence in the matter regarding working in 2 house and helping out in the kuih business. I heard of a maid who, on her own requested to help out in dressmaking biz of employer, and then turn around to claim that she was forced into it. The employer kena of course…even if employer was not at fault. problem is that there is no witness and even if maid was willing - cannot do it means cannot. So even if your future maid say they want to help, tell her to stay off…you don’t know if these are angels or serpents.
This case may be under investigation - I’m not sure if you can even cancel her work permit. Note that at the end of the day, if R wants to go home, you will have to bear the costs of sending her back - even if she had not paid off her loan with you. -
btw my previous maid just found a new employer too. congrats to her.
heard the new employer is a first time local employer who hasnt even taken MOM certs course yet. guess she does not have much experience handling maid and so may not be awared of the handphone issue.
anyway will see if they work out. well maybe there are some employers do not mind maid talking over the phone all the time....shine_fs:
Congrats to you.... :celebrate:liuhao:
my new maid just arrived yesterday, very new, very fresh, appeared to be very nervous all the time. hehe...although i strongly believe fear is a good thing comparing to those who is fearless like my previous maid.
one thing i notice is although she is even younger than my previous maid, she is much more mature and considerate, possibly because she is married with one child. i can feel that she is trying to figure out what we like and dislike all the time. for my previous maid, who is a single, she seemed to live in her own world all the time and didnt bother to talk/understand us at all. most of the time she expected us to understand her and treat her like a doll/pet.
i give her a sunshine phone card for her to call home. she only talked 5 mins over the phone to her husband and thats all.
in agent office she said she has no handphone. after come back home and i showed her the house rule (no handphone, no secret handphone), she admit she had a handphone and surrendered it to me. so for now, i keep the phone for her. my wife also checked her belongings, she showed us everything but kept a tiny bag always from us. my wife said there is few packet of sanitary pad inside and not sure about rest. but think that is ok for us.
so far so good, not sure if because of she is new or personality, she is so much more obedient than my previous maid. my previous maid just walked around in the house like nobody's business in the first day.
i remember once i asked my previous maid that how long she planned to work in SG. she replied \"my contract is two years sir!\" with her back facing me. i asked the same question to this new maid and she said \"as long as you want me in the house\", with a smile in the face. what a difference! -
Angelight:
Will you pay $300-$400 for agency fee? One agency I enquired actually charges that amount, while others I know charges around $88-$200. What is the regulated market rate? Why is the difference so great? Hope someone can enlighten me. Many thanks!
Hi Hi!
I dug out the receipt from my maid agency and saw that I paid S$488 for the maid \"package\", whatever that is. I did not call any other agency hence I do not know what are the other charges and differences. Perhaps you can ask in further details like do they allow for maid changes (& how many times) within a certain period of time?
:celebrate: -
I encountered the same thing, but is with my previous Filipina maid. She told the embassy that we ill-treated her (never give her enough food and rest).
My husband called up the embassy direct and spoke to them. Then we arranged to take her luggage there (her luggage was still with us as we have not sent it down to the maid agency yet).
When we arrived at the embassy, the staff was very friendly and sat down with us to chat and find out what happened exactly. Yes, they try to protect their own countrymen but they were fair to us also.
My husband and I produced evidence of her theft (the reason we sent her back to agency) and when we passed her passport back to the staff of the embassy, she was shocked. In her passport photo, she looked so slim and haggard, but in real person, after 6mths working for us, she put on alot of weight and looked so radiant.
I do not ill treat my maids and those who know me well enough know that I treat my maids like family. One of the evidence we handed over to the embassy was my maid’s personal diary. In it, she wrote that we treated her very well, like family and she feels bad stealing from us.
The embassy sent her home quickly, fearing we would make a police report on the theft. We did write in to MOM to ‘blacklist’ that maid, but they said it can’t be done (like don’t allow the maid to enter SG again). What they can do is to put on the maid’s record so if she comes back again, future employers can check online and see her records.
I suggest you call up the embassy to find out what is going on. -
Anyone hired maids from TM Global and HR Consultancy maid agency? Do they provide good service? This is the first time I’m using their service, so would like to ask around.
May be getting a Myanmar maid from them, my friend told me that Myanmarese maid more teachable than Indonesian and Filippino maids. Is it true? Any mummies got experience to share?
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