Singapore Expats

We've had a maid for a year, but recently let her go as we found her stealing from us...used one transfer maid thereafter but was rather hopeless too. Anyone know of any reliable maid agency here that provide good support for hiring a new maid for expat? We've heard horror stories about maid agency...thought it'll be good if anyone has any good experiences to share. Thanks bunch.

pete&jess wrote:We've had a maid for a year, but recently let her go as we found her stealing from us...used one transfer maid thereafter but was rather hopeless too. Anyone know of any reliable maid agency here that provide good support for hiring a new maid for expat? We've heard horror stories about maid agency...thought it'll be good if anyone has any good experiences to share. Thanks bunch.

We're just beginning our maid search, if you find a good agency please let me know!

The long and short of it, you can get the best agency in Singapore and still end up with a lemon, in fact the smarter and more cunning the dodgy maid is, the easier she can get through the agency selection process. On the other side of the coin you can go to the crappiest agency and find a real gem there.

Best is word of mouth from a person you know. Alot of people put adverts up saying they have a lovely helper they no longer need, and would like to transfer. This is to avoid paying all the repatriation cost of a FDW that they did not get along with.

The big giveaway:

Check how long they have been working if its 2 months walk away. ( though it could be the employer who was the lemon)

If its a local pretending to be a relocating expat, ask a few question about where they are going etc. the story soon starts to fall apart.

what about possibly flying to the Philippines ourselves and selecting a maid there, doing all the paperwork to bring her back here? maids there are paid much less, not that we want to low-ball them on wages, but they might be more appreciative of the higher pay here. another thing, the agencies charge 3-6 months fees to the poor maids, that just doesn't feel right they're working for free basically... so a transfer sounds like a better idea. but all the nightmares i've read about transfer maids, then the agency could at least swap... arggh!!!

We are a nice easy-going Canadian couple, with two boys aged 3 and 11 months. Ideally we're looking for the maid to be willing to come on 3-4 vacations per year around Asia to assist with the children, at our expense. After 1.5 to 3 years once we return to Canada, we would like Maid to come with us for additional 5+ years.

We think that these are pretty big bonuses, but would want a single maid with no children; my wife hates the idea of taking a mother away from her children. Having a husband they wouldn't want to have the long term commitment to come to Canada.

so confused!

In many ways that's what we ended up doing, after a few disasters here, we had them all, Pregnant, A certified nut, Police arrest, Bonking employers husband etc. you can read about them on the forum somewhere.

Anyway we ended up getting a lady from the Philippines direct she worked in one of the hospitals there. She was the daughter in law of our helper in London.

I could not sleep easy giving a grown up person just 25 bucks a months, as suggested by the agency, the bulk of her salary went to the agent for the upfront fees. We ended up paying all the fees for her, its the least we could to do for someone who has to spend the next two years picking up my dirty undies from the floor.

If you go on holiday to the Philippines and find, for example one of the hotel, airline, shop, staff was very good, no harm in asking for them to come over to work.

Be upfront about how restrictive things are in Singapore being a FDW, and what a crap window less room the size of a shoe box they are going to be living in. So far the current one has worked out very well, lovely lady, I can hear her now singing away in the background, bit like the chained slaves in the old days, ( sorry bad joke).

Anyway Good luck

I had a good experience with Noble Maids - I specifically spoke to Juliet there. I interviewed quite a few people over a couple of months - I took my time to get it right. I also talked at length with their previous employers.

Thanks for the tips, these forums have been helpful, as is your advice. We'll keep searching, practice "The Secret", and believe the perfect one will arrive for us. It's worked in our lives extremely well so far!

We used Recruit Asia Pvt. Ltd. and are very happy with our maid. This was one place that didn't feel so much like a fish market although ultimately, its all luck. I know people who have gone through terrible agencies and got good maids and vice versa.

peacekeepa wrote:what about possibly flying to the Philippines ourselves and selecting a maid there, doing all the paperwork to bring her back here?

A lot of Filipino IT professionals who have families here in Singapore do hire back in the Philippines and arrange the paperwork themselves. They pay for the airfare and the FDW fees.

is there alot of paperwork involved in finding a maid yourself? granted you couldn't easily swap a maid out as easily without an agency without paying the return airfare home, but with cheap flights this shouldn't be TOO much of an issue.

of greater concern would be what does the agency really do, apart from setting medical appointments and posting the 5k bond? the paperwork shouldn't be too much given the guidlines posted by the MOM.

has anyone here had experience or know of anyone who has "done it themselves"?

TiA!!!

Ones to avoid - Jobuzz and Maid Management. At Maid Management they couldn't even be bothered calling me by my name, instead I was called "the ang mo". Don't think they've had too many non-locals through their door.

Go to Katong Shopping Centre, looking for Cheryl from Nation Maid Agency.

She will be the best person to talk to. Very professional and very knowledgeable.

She don't just give you a list of maids to choose from, she will look at your requirements and recommend the type of maids for you.

My first maid was found by her recommendation, and she work with us for 3 years without much problems. This maid returns to the Philippines as a RICH tai tai...