Parents of Preschoolers  Discussion Forum

Dear Friends,
Most of us feel the need to have a housemaid when the second baby arrive.I would request you to share your good or bad experiences with the agency you have dealt with.Trust me this is going to help a lot of parents.So please do reply.
Thanks MISSY replied. HI DOES ANY ONE KNOW ABT AGENCY IN LAJPAT NAGAR \" KUMAR PERSONAL BURAEU\" MRS. JAY. iTS SO HORRIBLE. i TAKE A MID FROM THIS OFICE N GAVE rS. 11000 AS A COMMISSION. THEY SAID SHE KNOW ALL WORKS AND REQURED SALARY rS. 3000/. BUT SHE IS FRESH FROM NEPAL. SHE DOESN' T KNOW HINDI AS WEL. SHE CAME HONE AND AFTER THREE DAYS SHE COMPLAINED MY HUSBAND MISBEHAVED WITH HER AND WITH OUT MY INFORMATION THEY CAME AND BRING BACK HER. AND I CALLED THEM, MR. KUMAR SIAD COME AND MEET ME IN OFFICE, BEFORE GOING THERE I CALLED MR. KUMAR BUT HE DIDN' T PICKED UP MY PHONE, HIS OFFICE STAFF SAID HE IS OUT OF STATION FROM PAST TWO WEEKS. I SURPRISED AND CALLED HIM BUT MRS. JAYA PICKED UP PHONE AND STARTED TO ABUSE ME. THEY ARE SAYING THEY ARE FROM 19 YEARS IN THIS FIELD. BUT I NEVER THINK A BUSINESS LADY IS BEHAVING LIKE THIS. I CONTINUOULY CONTACTED WITH THEM BUT THEY ARE NOT RESPONDING. ATLAST I SAID I AM COMING WITH MY HUSBAND AND WANTS TO CLEAR THE INCIDENT WAT IS THE REALITY. BUT THEY ARE NOT GIVING PERMISSION TO GO THERE. THEIR STAFF SAYING WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS. CONTACT TO OWNERS. OWNERS ARE NOT PICKING UP PHONE. NOW ATLAST THEY SAID WE WILL GIVE U REFUN IN DEC. PLS BEWARE THIS AGENCY. divya replied. hi does anyone know anything about phoolchand maid agency in lajpat ngr. Nidhi replied. We went to an agency called Sahyog, registered and the owner is a lady called Mrs. Sen. This is based near Qutub Minar. The maid she provided also ran away after 3 days. The second one came after a week, and this one had an affair with the driver in the 15 days that she was with me. Then she went on a 3 day leave and never came back.
Please avoid Mrs. Sen and Sahyog.

If you live in Gurgaon, there is a maid called Sangeeta Adhikari. She is a Nepali, about 5' 4' ' . Her only interest in life is sleeping, watching TV and eating. Torture like asking her to cook, work around the house, or even play with the child while you finish work, is too much work for her. Please do not subject her to this kind of torture. Also, she will blatantly lie to everyone who will listen, how you never give her anything to eat, how you are forever making her work and how you are cruel. If you try to hire a replacement, her connections within the Nepali community in Gurgaon will ensure that your potential maid does not finally turn up. I have no idea what happens!

She is in the habit of working for a few months at a time. She starts off by being very sweet tempered. But i got the shock of my life when i finally found out that the facade is a carefully crafted act that she puts up everywhere. Rohini replied. Hi, i would also like to share my experience which had with an agency called PSW which is zamrudpur. These people provided me with a maid who was suppose to be trained and having worked in taking of babies as i have a 1 yr old son. But she did not know anything and the agency did not budge in changing. Also she went on leave after four months and did not return. when i approached the agency , they did not and have also not returned the money. The people there are Vijay, Basu and Manju.
Please beware and not approach them. Dinsh replied. Can I contact this writer for more info? Please send contact details. Reema replied. Hi I got in touch with several agencies, one of them was Bharti Maid Services, Khanpur (Ajay Bharti & Sanjay Bharti) registered. Their maid worked good for the first two months and she wanted to leave for her vacation. When I tried getting in touch with the agnecy their mobiles are switched off and moved their office too.

We also came across Munjal Services Ltd. (Regd), Lajpat Nagar, Rakhi Munjal who also have a website. As we had a locational, we checked with the local police station and were surprised how the cops warned us against hiring maids from them, as according to them, they receive about 5-6 complaints every week against this agancy, that the maids run away after working for 2-3days. Pooja replied. I got a maid thru Heera Domestic Services in Maidangarhi, South Delhi. He took 6000/- commission and i paid 3000/- for a full trained maid.
The girl worked nicely for 1 month but after 1 month i found that the girl was having illegitimate relations with outsiders. she used to take so many leaves and made so many excuses.
Then i searched her bag and found that she was taking oral contraceptive pills and was in such business.so i told the agency to take her back.
the agent ranjeet told that he' ll arrange for another girl in a week but hasen' t turned up since one month.

Pls. be beware of this agency ' Heera Domestic Services' and the girls name is Sangeeta Kujur from Gumla, Jharkhand. Ragini s replied. Hi Ruchika,
were u able to manage a refferd maid for urself?
If yes then kindly lemme know the agencies which provides you such services?

Ragini s replied. Hi All,
Evn I had a similar exp with one such maid agencies..
First there is no clear definition of Trained, fully trained.
Plus they do not allow you to verify things by talking to the girl.(The agent had seriuos objection to my asking about her past employers.)
Once the maid is at your place..forget any guarantee provided by agent...
My maid started demading..shampoos, creams,,, started asking for jeans...
To this ..the agent replied\" ab sheher mien reh ke aaadmi ke shauk bi to hote hain.
thenI had tedious task of prtecting her form...\" smarties\" nearby..whom she encouraged...
Though fortunately nothing happened.But it required my constant vigil...
Though agent told me she is semi skilled..she did not know even how to read a clock???
i tought her everything...
Im listing the name of the agent who harased us..pls beware of him...
Manoj....President of Tribal women workers association\"
Once the girl has been fixed at your pace...thier rudeness is unmatched.

But I guess..all these agencies are like this only..there is no regulation at all.
Whwn we ar paying so much money...why should we be at the recieving end,,,
pls come forward with Suggestions ........ Jyoti Verma replied. Hi

I am having a small baby, 7 months old I m working so anyone please suggest a trustworthy agency which deals with providing maids.

Thanks!!!!!!! ruchika replied. Hi ,

I am looking for a maid, but the kind of past experiences , i have had, i only would for a refferred maid. There was this one ad in Hindustan Times from a maid agency, who took 4k as registration and ran away in few hours! The second one stayed for 4 months, and we couhght her stealing and money and jewellery at home..!!
Pl let me know if you have had a /if you have a good maid from a professional running agency.

Cheers!

Ruchika Shikha replied. Can you please let me know the tel numbers of some good placement agencies for house maids. Anjana Sen replied. Hi,
I am looking for contact details of some good placement agencies in Delhi. It will be of great help to me.

Thanks
Anjana sweety replied. Hi all!
I also once got a maid from an agency called S.C.Placement, from friends colony in Delhi.Though he promised that the girl would stay for a year, after 4 months the maid wanted to go home saying that her father is very sick.Then he provided a substitute which we were told wanted 800 rupees more as she was fully trained.It turned out that she didn' t know how to operate a lift also and was related to the person who was running the agency.Anyway that was ok but the thing that shocked us the most was,when after six months we came to know that the girl has TB.I am so upset and worried now as she used to take care of both my daughters, one only 2 years old.I have learned my lesson not to trust them thinking they are poor and honest. pam replied. Good post sushmita. Good information from Saheli and Poonam, thanks.
Does anybody know if any laws are there for these agencies? My agency charges more from me because I am from Gurgaon, and I wanted to know if this is correct.

Then i came across one gurgaon based agency and when i called them up they said they drop the maid home. They were charging more and when i asked why, they said rates are high in gurgaon and we will not have to reavel to delhi so its almost same.
I said ok but I want to pick her from your office. Initially he denied. After discussion distributed in 2-3 days he finally agreed to let me visit his office and gave his address.
The office was in nehru place!
and he was just fooling me with gurgaon name.
poonam replied. I am going next ..
I once was fooled by one agency who takes advance. They took 1000Rs from me as booking amount and promised me a maid in 7 days but never gave one.
Most young maids from the agencies need to be strictly kept as they do an affair with someone around. My 3 out of 4 have done that and I have seen most others also doind same. Finally, women in our society got together and are informing each other when they see others maids talking to boys. shriya replied. I too had similar experiences with the agencies. And they are so dirty always, first time i visited one, i couldnt tolerate. But kya karen, we are helpless and have to keep maid. Saheli replied. I can talk for hours about this! Before that. Sushmita, you have put up a very good question and this kind of information was also something I was looking for, even though I have my share of experiences with the agencies. I am sure your post is going to help many. I am adding my experiences in terms of what we should be looking for when choosing an agency ...

- Avoid agencies who ask for advance booking and promise to provide maid in a week or so.
- Avoid agencies who only drop maids to your home. They should have a office. Visit their office atleast once. (one of my friends when visited an agency, she felt that that was also a place to \" provide\" girls!)
- Agency should be a registered one, check their registration
- Check if they do the police verification, ask them where do they get the maids from. Check if they perform any medical tests on the maids, and what do they do when a maid falls sick.
- If the maid they are providing you has worked in delhi earlier, ask why did she leave earlier job and see if you can talk to the previous employer (for maids who have good feedback, they provide the contact number, this is what i hv experienced)
- Check advance, comminsion, registration, salary amount with the agency. They generally provide categories of maid (trained, untrained, semitrained). Ask them clearly how to differentiate and when a maid is available, ask same qs to the maid to make sure they are not fooling you.
- Ask them about their clients in your area, meet them up and collect feedback. Preferably, approach agencies through reference of someone you can trust.
- Check their ' leave' policy. Some agencies ask for 1-2 days leave per month and you are required to srop/pick them (all the way to delhi!), or provide taxi charges for the same!
- Untrained maids may not know hindi. Check for that.
- Check duration of contract
- Read their terms and conditions and check with them what u r supposed to do if maid falls sick (minor or major)
- some agencies may request your passport/electricity bill/etc information. Make sure you are passing information to right people.

- Check terms and conditions for replacement and ask them \" what if you are not able to provide a maid for more than X duration?\"

- Make a list of your requirements for which you need a maid and tell it to the agency
- Combine this list with other things that you would like to ensure about the maid
- When a maid is available, talk to her on a phone and ask questions referring to your list
- name, place, age, language, experience, if she knows hindi, her family, whats making her work
- education,
- if she can dial a number
- overall health
- tell her job profile in DETAILS and ask if she is willing to work (for eg, some maid may be ok with feeding the baby but not with cleaning baby' s potty)
- check her skills, right from making tea, to feeding a baby, cutting veggies, making rotis, first aid, everything that comes to your mind
- Tell her your rules and regulations of the house if needed
- check her previous experience, what was exactly her job profile there (a semi-trained maid means she knows hindi, knows operating a cooking gas, is professional enough to know that tea-cup should be brought in tray and not in hand, but the agent may call a maid as semi-trained who has served an old patient for just 2m before and doesnt know how to make tea)
- if she is willing to work

- The agencies sometimes trick the clients like this -- A maid is NOT available. An already appointed maid at some other place finishes her contract and is waiting to go home. They send this maid to your place, that maid works for 3-4 days and then throws tantrums or says ' i dont like the place' . Now you are stuck. They dont have a replacement and you have paid them already.
CLEARLY ask the agent if they are doing anything like that.
Ask the maid then and there - ' are you willing to work? Would you not refuse after 3-4 days?'

- If a maid is married, enquire about her hubby and check if she is pregnant. I once got a maid home and realised next day she was 4m pregnant!

- Once the maid has arrived, get her medical checkup and police verification done. Take her snaps and video and let her know that you are sending this for police verification (even if you are not)

- If possible, talk to maid' s family/parents and store their number with you

Thats all i can remember for now. Will post again if anything comes to my mind.

Who' s going next ...?