22 September 2009

Maid agencies to avoid

Like most things, we try to obtain references or recommendations when trying something new - a new restaurant, a new tutor, a new beautician. So I think it would be really useful (for me, definitely) for others to share the positive experiences they've had with maid agencies and to put a word of caution on agencies you wouldn't want your friends and families to go to.

The good: In my experience, Zaha (KL) and Kawasama (PJ) are honest maid agencies that have been around for many years. At least they didn't shutter down and disappear after taking my deposit. When you need their follow-up counselling service for the maid (and maybe for yourself too!), they are also responsive. A reader posted that she has used Top Management (Ipoh) several times.

The bad: A family member used an agency called Global Access Sdn Bhd or Global Management & Services (Puchong). It was a very bad experience. They were very prompt in coming over to get you to sign the agreement and to collect a huge deposit - then it took them 5 months to deliver the maid, when they promised no more than 2-3 months. Each time a follow-up call was made to the agency to enquire about the progress, the manager cum owner was rude and liked to say "you are not our only customer". Then the maid ran away after 2 weeks. No apologies, nothing from the agency. It took almost 3 months for the agency to deliver a replacement, and guess what, the maid who finally arrived was not the maid that my relative chose, it was a completely different maid whose biodata they had not seen before! The agency had taken the liberty of sending the maid that was chosen somewhere else and giving my relative any maid they had, without first informing of the change. When queried on the change and that we had not been informed, the rude manager merely said "Take it or leave it". Once your money is with the agency, the bad ones know they have the upper hand as you are not about to let your money sit with this agency and go to another maid agency - besides you can't, as you would have to cancel the maid application made through the bad agency first.

4 comments:

  1. My family uses this person Mr. Lau Kee Meng, at 18 Laluan Pinji Seni 3, Tmn Pinji Seni, 31650 Ipoh. Very bad experience. They kept the maid passport for a year after collectng it for permit renewal. Now Mr. Lau uses it asa upper hand for you to do as he wishes. He even decides when to send back the maid by booking the air ticket himself and refused to answer your calls. He is holding your maid's passport. Dont ever use his service. When ask for his company details, like name and email, fax, he refuse to reveal. Suspect he has no licenece too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. In the future if need any housemaid in Kuala Lumpur why not come to visit our company
    maid agency in KL

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. From Tan and skyts ang's posts (which skyts ang later removed), I haven't yet heard of a good trustworthy maid agency in Ipoh.

    ReplyDelete