Any Recommendation of a Good Maid Agency

[briskcross]

Has anyone heard of or used Workforce Manpower Agency? Are they reliable?

[Mybabyme]

I been using Signature Employment for years. Just chosen another Indon maid from them, and so far their maids from Central Java turned out to be quite good. Most of my Helpers just complete 2 years and want to go home. Generally Signature services I can say is ok. But their maids there are not too maid. You can Check out their website at http://www.signature.com.sg or call them. I still got my in don helper salary at $420.00 for fresh maids from Indon.

[sokkuen]

Took me a long time to decide on changing my maid. She had 2 employers before me , one for 8 yrs and another for 2.5 years. She has been with me for 4 years. She is very patient with the 3 boys and my youngest really likes her very much. The boys were very happy that we agreed to renew her for another 2 years at higher salary and better benefit. I heard that her previous employer’s kids like her very much too. I must admit she’s good with young and older kids. But after much consideration, I decided not to renew her work permit coming Dec and went ahead to apply for a new maid. Though she gets along well with the kids, behave well, reasonable with her off days, she is not gentle with the laundry, keeps cooking the same dishes and does things her way. Not sure if I make the right decision to change her but I hope to have a maid who follows my instructions and more capable in houseworks.

[dianeingrid]

I have tried a few agencies over the last few years and my 2cents worth.


Home/Budget maid- They give you bio-data, it’s up to you to choose. Really depends on your luck and they will not try to match you with a suitable one. But they are responsive when there is trouble and you need to change/transfer your maid. I didn’t face any objections from them as opposed to some agencies where they insisted it’s employers fault and/or make things difficult for you. They also did "counsel" one of my ex-maids when I faced some problems with her.

Comfort - The one in Tampines has good cs and generally try to do a matching for you. But their prices are soooo high I did not get any maid from them.

TM Global - Do NOT ever use them! I got a Myanmar maid from them and it was a NIGHTMARE!!! I told them what I was looking for (can understand english, childcare experience), they "matched" and allowed me to do so over the phone interview. 1st prospective maid, I could hear someone coaching her one what to reply so out. Next one seemingly had good responses to my questions and I confirmed her. When she came, the only think she could do was nod or shake her head and say "I not speak". For 3 days, she stood by and watched me do all the housework and look after the kids and did not lift her finger to help or even try. Got fed up, called the agency to ask for a replacement and was told that I was not allowed to under MOM rules. I had to keep her for 30 days. I called MOM and they told me not true. So they were just trying to pull a fast one on me. Gave me all sorts of excuses, blamed the Myanmar agent etc til I blew and told them that I would complain to MOM if they did not solve my problem IMMEDIATELY. Well, I got to return the maid and they refunded me most of my $$ within the week.

A.Pratama - tel# 62976913. Finally an agency that I’m happy with. They might not suit all though as they do believe in maid rights But the conditions are what I can work with. They only have ex-SIN maids. Their agency fee is also quite resonable (about 4-5mths of the maids salary) as they don’t believe in charging the girls too much. Maids that come in have off days and most have hp but are ok with requests that they keep it to off hours. If you have a problem, they are willing to help you solve it. They do have mis-matches at times but they are willing to sit down with both you and the maid to talk about the problem and help work it out to a win-win situation. Their bio-datas are quite limited but from what I can see, most are pretty good and their salary is not too high either, about $450 + 1 off day for an experienced maid which I thought was quite ok considering what some other agencies are quoting for their inexperience maids. They are also the 1st agency that actually sat down with me and went thru the whole set of documents that I was signing point by point. The rest just pointed to here, here and here and gave you the dox to go home and read. So I can safely say that I’d definately be using them again for all my and my extended families’ future maid needs.

[jlimk]

Anyone tried Bestlink agency?

[bbsin]

Awonder:

Hi, thanks for all your recommendation. I had just pop into this Ricky's maid agency at Far East and he had arranged a maid to our place for interview. Sadly, she dont want to work for us and the reason given was we had 3 kids.


I had always empathize all these maids who leave their homeland and love ones to come here to work to earn more money for their love ones back home and I really treat my previous maid like part of my family, but after 2 years, I find that the scene now had change drastically. After we interview about 5 maids, I am beginning to change my view of them. They are no longer desperate to find work here and instead of they asking, \"can you please employ me?\", now its the other way round of us asking, \"do you want to work for us?\" and you dont get immediately response from them.

I was wondering, dont they know the job requirement here before coming over working as a domestic helper? and they should be make known that their prospective employer is someone like me who desperately need help as my husband often travel also, family with both parents working and taking care of the elderly. Dont tell me they are just expecting to walk the dog.

I am trying to be more rationale towards this issue and also knew that they also have the right to choose, but I also thought that since they desperately need money back home, they should take up any job offer to them since they came a long way. I am really fine with anyone as long as their bio-data \"tick\" that they can take care of toddle and do housework. Even when we apply for job, we would tell the interviewer that I am willing to learn. This is what my previous maid said to me many times during the interview 2 years back but now not a single one said that clause.

I really applause those employer who let their maid dancing through the night at Orchard road, ya, you may said, they have the freedom and yes they need to relax too. Well I'm quite OK with that but that had really let them spoilt for choice. Although they come to Singapore to work but they are not looking for singaporean employer.

Of course not all maid are like that as my previous maid was indeed very hardworking but I am still not that lucky to meet another one yet. Now I had lost confidence of Philipino maid and probably would try to look for Indonesian maid instead but still not known how is their attitude.

The above is strictly just my point of view. I love my country and I really dont like to see what I had seen and hope that the agency can be more responsible and bring in those foreign workers that geniuely wants to work.

I totally agreed with you. Nowadays, Philipino maid are so picky and they just want to came here to \"play. enjoy\", most of them want to work only for Ang Mo.. and good hardworking maid are so hard to get.

Like you I gave up using Philipino maid and had hired two Indo maid , my conclusion, Philipino is still better in terms of language and characters.

Maybe ít's just my luck, two of my Indo maid are \"theives\" they look very decent and ok.. then after few months, I caught them ... so really don't know what to say...

Now am looking for new Phil maid, but those I interview.. does not seems to have the mind to came to work.. ././ so sien and hard to find one...

Good luck to me and u.

[icemochi]

I got mine from best home.


#1 is clean neatly but face black black like own her money and cook substandard.
#2 is clean neatly, can cook decently and like kids. Just that she is blur and leave lights on and slow in cleaning.

Another maid I got from netmaid.com.sg
She cooks very well and cleans very well and attitude very good … until she got pregnant and flares up easily and slap my DD.

I’ve always got good relationships with my maids but I maintain a limit too.

[jessjerr03]

dianeingrid:

I have tried a few agencies over the last few years and my 2cents worth.


Home/Budget maid- They give you bio-data, it's up to you to choose. Really depends on your luck and they will not try to match you with a suitable one. But they are responsive when there is trouble and you need to change/transfer your maid. I didn't face any objections from them as opposed to some agencies where they insisted it's employers fault and/or make things difficult for you. They also did \"counsel\" one of my ex-maids when I faced some problems with her.

Comfort - The one in Tampines has good cs and generally try to do a matching for you. But their prices are soooo high I did not get any maid from them.

TM Global - Do NOT ever use them! I got a Myanmar maid from them and it was a NIGHTMARE!!! I told them what I was looking for (can understand english, childcare experience), they \"matched\" and allowed me to do so over the phone interview. 1st prospective maid, I could hear someone coaching her one what to reply so out. Next one seemingly had good responses to my questions and I confirmed her. When she came, the only think she could do was nod or shake her head and say \"I not speak\". For 3 days, she stood by and watched me do all the housework and look after the kids and did not lift her finger to help or even try. Got fed up, called the agency to ask for a replacement and was told that I was not allowed to under MOM rules. I had to keep her for 30 days. I called MOM and they told me not true. So they were just trying to pull a fast one on me. Gave me all sorts of excuses, blamed the Myanmar agent etc til I blew and told them that I would complain to MOM if they did not solve my problem IMMEDIATELY. Well, I got to return the maid and they refunded me most of my $$ within the week.

A.Pratama - tel# 62976913. Finally an agency that I'm happy with. They might not suit all though as they do believe in maid rights But the conditions are what I can work with. They only have ex-SIN maids. Their agency fee is also quite resonable (about 4-5mths of the maids salary) as they don't believe in charging the girls too much. Maids that come in have off days and most have hp but are ok with requests that they keep it to off hours. If you have a problem, they are willing to help you solve it. They do have mis-matches at times but they are willing to sit down with both you and the maid to talk about the problem and help work it out to a win-win situation. Their bio-datas are quite limited but from what I can see, most are pretty good and their salary is not too high either, about $450 + 1 off day for an experienced maid which I thought was quite ok considering what some other agencies are quoting for their inexperience maids. They are also the 1st agency that actually sat down with me and went thru the whole set of documents that I was signing point by point. The rest just pointed to here, here and here and gave you the dox to go home and read. So I can safely say that I'd definately be using them again for all my and my extended families' future maid needs.

You are lucky you got your refund back from TM Global within a week. I returned my poor-quality Myanmar maid to them abt 2 mth ago, yet to get my refund of the $2000+ loan. Have called every week, and they always said have been sent out few days ago ... and always come up with different excuses on why I didn't receive the cheque, and they said I cannot go down their agency to collect... What nonsense!

[autumnbronze]

Ricky Ho was indeed from Abel and Joe.


He is unscrupulous.

[MMM]

My Indo maid of 5 years is going home in October and told me this week.


For me, my priority was the bio data selection rather than agent. So I went online and search under netmaid (who consisted of biodatas from several agents). I also search the big names such as nation, javamaids, etc… In the end, I found a couple from javamaids and 1 from netmaid. My current maid was from nation.

At this moment, Javamaids appear to have more biodatas. When I called them and told them my requirements, they were very responsive and recommended some based on our family needs. Even managed to setup the phone interview quickly. I got someone from them.

I realised that agency fees is not cheap these days as they are charging $888 + $148 admin fee. But then again, when I called a few others, it’s not much cheaper as well. But one thing that I thought was good is that their maid only has 3 months loan. Some of the agency I called is still talking about 7-8 months loan which employer need to pay outfront. If you want to use PD cheques, you need to pay $150 more. It kind of shocked me as I was wondering at the amount of outfront payment that a family has to come out for maid and also what happens if it’s the wrong maid???

For the last 10 years, we only had 2 maids. Each working for us for around 5 years. So I am hoping the replacement thingy never has to happen. For javamaids they have unlimited replacements but you need to pay the admin fees $148 again. But of course, we need to make it work so hopefully we never have to use this.

Another observation is that they seem to want to strike a balance between maids’ needs and employers’ needs. They mentioned that due to human rights education to the maids, maids are allowed to have hp but the policy is can only use at night (eg. 9-11pm) otherwise employers can forfeit. Employer can choose to keep the hp during daytime. Also at their compound, the maids that were sitting there were like opening doors for us when they see us coming and leaving, etc… Not bitter gourd face. They shared with us that indo maids these days have alot of information about what’s happening, human rights, etc… so if the employers are too stringent

In any case, my new maid is only coming in Sept and hopefully she will be good. No one is perfect but so long as she is honest, does not steal or lie and does the housework, cook, etc… that’s all I am asking for.