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!