Lost Job & Conned by Maid Agency
Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2014 10:41 pm
My wife and I were looking for a maid to look after our newborn infant and shortlisted an English-speaking ex-Singapore Myanmar maid from a newly registered maid agency called Bestmaid Employment Pte Ltd (Licence 13C6689) located (strangely!) at Everton Park. On hindsight, we should have known better!
We waited around 2 weeks for MOM to approve our maid application after submitting all necessary documents and full payment to Bestmaid who kept insisting that the delay was not at their end. Unfortunately, I then received news that I WILL BE RETRENCHED! I immediately asked my wife to check with MOM on the status of the maid application and how it would be affected if I lost my job. They informed her that they would reject our application since she was also not working.
A few days later, the agency called to ask "why we cancelled the maid application without informing them" and REFUSED TO REFUND OUR PAYMENT even though their contract stated that they have to return the full payment less a $100 admin fee should MOM reject the application as was the case here.
Our attempts to resolve this matter amicably and reasonably with them over the phone fell on deaf ears so I decided to pay them a visit to reason things out in person. To my horror, one of their senior staff suddenly turned nasty and accused me of lying about my retrenchment! When I offered to provide proof from my employer, he then said that my retrenchment was none of their business anyway. I pointed out to him that we would not be able to pay for the maid's wages and bond and that's probably why MOM rejected the application but he just DID NOT CARE!
I pointed out that their contract stated that they would refund any payment made less the $100 admin fee even though they claim any payment made is non refundable. He stated that the contract is not valid anyway as our endorsement was sent by email and not signed in their presence even though they were the ones who offered this arrangement. He then proceeded to shout at me and causing them to lose their deposit with their agent in Myanmar and kept shoving his finger in my face aggressively! I asked him to calm down and pointed out that I should be the one who's upset since I lost my job and my maid deposit but he continued his aggressive behaviour and told me to get out or he would remove me by force! All this while, I was sitting down and he was standing over me. Truth be told, I felt like teaching him a lesson but told myself to remain calm in order to have any chance of getting a refund.
According to them, the MOM officer had told them that we wanted to withdraw our application even though all we did was to enquire about how my retrenchment would affect our application. They also accused us of 'going behind their back' to MOM instead of checking with and telling them first. However, our intention was simply to find out exactly why the application was taking so long to approve and frankly if they had nothing to hide, why should they get so bothered about us checking directly with MOM and telling MOM about losing my job?
They were not able to give me the name of the MOM officer whom they claimed told them that we cancelled the application. When we checked on the MOM website, the status indicated is "REJECTED" but they claimed that this could also be due to voluntary cancellation on our part.
We are just seeking a partial refund of our full payment as provided for by their contract which they are now refusing to honour. In fact, we were originally prepared to consider letting them hold our deposit until either of us get a job as we definitely still need a maid to help look after our infant anyway.
I am now considering lodging an official complaint to MOM about their dishonourable business practices and to recover our rightful refund via the Small Claims Tribunal.
Moral of our story:
Stick to established maid agencies with a good track record instead of newly registered ones situated away from where most agencies are located.
We waited around 2 weeks for MOM to approve our maid application after submitting all necessary documents and full payment to Bestmaid who kept insisting that the delay was not at their end. Unfortunately, I then received news that I WILL BE RETRENCHED! I immediately asked my wife to check with MOM on the status of the maid application and how it would be affected if I lost my job. They informed her that they would reject our application since she was also not working.
A few days later, the agency called to ask "why we cancelled the maid application without informing them" and REFUSED TO REFUND OUR PAYMENT even though their contract stated that they have to return the full payment less a $100 admin fee should MOM reject the application as was the case here.
Our attempts to resolve this matter amicably and reasonably with them over the phone fell on deaf ears so I decided to pay them a visit to reason things out in person. To my horror, one of their senior staff suddenly turned nasty and accused me of lying about my retrenchment! When I offered to provide proof from my employer, he then said that my retrenchment was none of their business anyway. I pointed out to him that we would not be able to pay for the maid's wages and bond and that's probably why MOM rejected the application but he just DID NOT CARE!
I pointed out that their contract stated that they would refund any payment made less the $100 admin fee even though they claim any payment made is non refundable. He stated that the contract is not valid anyway as our endorsement was sent by email and not signed in their presence even though they were the ones who offered this arrangement. He then proceeded to shout at me and causing them to lose their deposit with their agent in Myanmar and kept shoving his finger in my face aggressively! I asked him to calm down and pointed out that I should be the one who's upset since I lost my job and my maid deposit but he continued his aggressive behaviour and told me to get out or he would remove me by force! All this while, I was sitting down and he was standing over me. Truth be told, I felt like teaching him a lesson but told myself to remain calm in order to have any chance of getting a refund.
According to them, the MOM officer had told them that we wanted to withdraw our application even though all we did was to enquire about how my retrenchment would affect our application. They also accused us of 'going behind their back' to MOM instead of checking with and telling them first. However, our intention was simply to find out exactly why the application was taking so long to approve and frankly if they had nothing to hide, why should they get so bothered about us checking directly with MOM and telling MOM about losing my job?
They were not able to give me the name of the MOM officer whom they claimed told them that we cancelled the application. When we checked on the MOM website, the status indicated is "REJECTED" but they claimed that this could also be due to voluntary cancellation on our part.
We are just seeking a partial refund of our full payment as provided for by their contract which they are now refusing to honour. In fact, we were originally prepared to consider letting them hold our deposit until either of us get a job as we definitely still need a maid to help look after our infant anyway.
I am now considering lodging an official complaint to MOM about their dishonourable business practices and to recover our rightful refund via the Small Claims Tribunal.
Moral of our story:
Stick to established maid agencies with a good track record instead of newly registered ones situated away from where most agencies are located.