Maid Agency review: Dishonest Maid Agency

The owner of this Anthony Manpower and Employment Agency (Anthony) at Kovan/Hougang Area oversells before a customer signs on the line. Ultimately, the maids do not match what he promised (and said he personally interviewed) in terms of verbal ability and other work attitude areas. These are minor - after the third failed maid (first did not arrive, the next two were really horrible and were return almost immediately), we decided to change maid agency. This is when the horror began.

1. The previous maids (first maid that arrived) was still not issued with a maid permit by the agency. This is apparently done by the agency to allow maximum time to juggle all his various maids when they are "rejected". However, this disallows the customer (me) to change an agency as MOM would not allow me to issue another maid when the earlier ones are not issued.

2. When I pushed the agency to eissue the earlier maids, I realised that my returned maid (which is placed under my name and maid levy paid by me) had already been working in another home whose maid has also not been eissued. The agency told me this.

3. Before the agency revealed the breach in item (2) above, he tried to shout to threaten us away. When we revealed the authorities are going to be involved, he revealed this breach.

4. The maid agency did not return calls, did not pick up calls for extended periods when it came to the placement fee refund. He would shout at us to try to frighten us into not pushing for payment.

5. After an extended ordeal, Agency issue a cheque from what he claimed to be his wife's account. The cheque bounced.

6. The agency's phone then went into no pickup mode again and there were also no further responses to text messages. I will be lodging the complaint to the authorities including those pertaining to cheque fraud.