Sunday, June 22, 2008

Maid agent nightmare begans

This post is gonna make me sound like a complainer like how I’ve been with my other posts! LOL…this is not the intention but how can you not be frustrated when your maid agent all of a sudden starts showing its true colours after you have paid them?!!

Last Wednesday, hubby received an sms from the lady at the agent to say that the maid has arrived after medical and that we can collect her on Friday. Hubby was in Shanghai then and called her to say that I will call her the next day to make arrangements.

I called her to find out she was on leave and was given her mobile number. I called her mobile but she didn’t pick up so I text her to tell her that we can’t collect the maid on Friday but Saturday morning instead and to let me know when is a good time to call her. No reply at all till the next morning and that also she text me back to say to confirm the collection time asap so she can make the arrangements. I called her at her mobile, no answer. Called her at the agent, not in yet. And by now I’m getting really irritated. I mean if it’s urgent, why can’t she call me?! So I had to try several times after that at the agent and she was mostly engaged with customers. I happened to call at 1 plus in the afternoon and was told that she was having lunch.

So finally I managed to get hold of her before 3pm on Friday. Told her that we can only come the next morning (Saturday) and she asked what time as she would be busy the whole day (what cheek of her!). I asked her how long will it take since this is our first time and we need to know the “do’s and don’ts” and she replied about 20-30 minutes. So I told we will be there before 10am in the morning. Then I asked her if the maid’s medical report is out yet and she said no. I was shocked and she said she didn’t mention to hubby at all that the report is out and that it will usually take 2-3 days for the report to be out. And then I asked her, “you expect me to bring the maid home first?!”. She then replied that she understands as I have a young kid at home. I told her not only that, the fact I’m pregnant as well and also the maid is to follow Rye Li to her day care on Monday morning and how can I take the risk of sending the maid to the day care?! Think she realized my tone of voice and she quickly added that she will put in my file to wait till the maid is medically fit first before pickup. I told her that I won’t be able to pick her up during the week and that I will pick the maid up the following Saturday only. And she went “no choice-la, we will keep her”.

I was really mad and lucky for her, I managed to maintain my cool but I was bitching away to my friends and family after that about this. I mean isn’t it standard practice for the report to come back first before releasing them to families?!!! I will definitely ask the lady at the agent this when I see her this coming Saturday! Anyway, I also intend to take the maid for another medical check up when I pick her up, only thing is I have to wait a few days for her x-ray results to come back. So at least I will know her blood and urine test results the same day. I hope she is really medically fit, if not, I will definitely bombard the agent more.

Their image was already ruined when I can’t seem to get hold of this lady all the time before this when I wanted to know when my maid will arrive. We submitted the documents for application early May in which she told us that it will be really fast but when I called her towards the end of May, she said our application has not been approved yet! She has the cheek to say that it takes 1 to 1 and a half months for approval! So when I called her up first week of June, she said our application was only approved end of May and now we have to wait 2-3 weeks for the maid to arrive. And now this?!

After this incident, I got a feeling that this is only the beginning of many more headaches to come. I’m really disappointed in this agent as they are not cheap and I thought with the number of years they have been around (15 years) with an ISO cert some more, they are at least professional in handling these things but they have not proofed this so far to me! Anyone else dealing with Philimore who share the same experiences as me?!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Geez..that's pretty bad service. I would blacklist them.

KittyCat said...

Sorry to hear this. ISO certification isn't for qualitylah...just for quality documentation.

It sounds like they are so established, they've decided they have enough clients to keep the $ rolling in.

Hope that the maid is OK even if the agent is not. You've got your family nearby , right? Get all your valuables, personal docs etc locked up out of sight ok. It's better not to tempt them.

Anonymous said...

I have just lost my jewellery, $ and other items in just 2 mths of employing a new Indo Maid from an Agent in Malacca. The maid was well looked after and i was shocked to find my house left open.
She ran away stealing my jewellery and $. What did the agent do??? Nothing. The maid stole her passport too. She broke into my wardrobe , the drawers and steal anything she could. The agent cannot do anything? Why..1st - The maid ran off with passport, we can do anything, 2nd- Pay us another RM$7K for replacement. Why can't this be the agent work?? Think about it. The agent can earn the 6 mths advance salary,+ replacement fee of 7K + they could probably get a share of what the maid stole too. Any 1 knows where I can report this, please help with info or contact nos. I have made the police report, reported to Immigration and looked for the maid everywhere. This is total nightmare. The maid tied up my dad! Thats was the worst thing I could ever want to return home to see. The agen is still very cool about it. Avoid all my calls & emails. I feel like publishing this on the straight times and let the public know how useless this agent is. Agent Office is Malacca. I asked for the advance salary refund and didn;t want to return. When I called the Maid, home & neighbours in Indo, they told me that the maid is a big crook. How can an agent employ a maid without checking her background. For all you know the maids can be a murderer, theif ...
Even the advance salary doesn't go to the maid. I really need help on reporting this. If anyone knows of any contact, pls let me know. The agents needs to be thought a lesson.