BookMyBai — unethical practices

We would like to highlight our terrible experiences with book my bai. We requested for a full time maid who can cook, clean and look after our two pet dogs. The pet handling experience was stressed upon as a “must have” requirement in our request.
We were told by ms. Maria that we would be provided a maid as per our requirement for a monthly salary of ₹17000. However the agency demanded a service fee equivalent to one month’s salary plus gst which amounted to ₹20060 which we promptly paid. We were never informed that this fee was non refundable and non adjustable. This was also never mentioned to us by the agent who came home with the maids for interview and he simply gave us an invoice on the back side of which it’s stated that the said amount is non refundable, something most people are bound to miss.

However we selected a maid named lata from the two that were sent for interview and she was employed shortly thereafter. We noticed that the maid was extremely unprofessional, unhygienic and used to back answer whenever corrected. She used to sleep until late and had to be woken up daily. Our calls to the agency regarding the same were only acknowledged with the option of a replacement. However we decided to give her a chance as she claimed severe financial crisis. One day when we had guests at home, she demanded a day off to meet her ex employer with whom we suspect that she had struck an unofficial deal as she started throwing tantrums the next day demanding that she couldn’t continue to work and that she be relieved immediately with remuneration according to days which she had worked. The agency refused to help or intervene and we were simply asked to clear her dues and relieve her and wait for a replacement. We had to pay her ₹10300. Also there was absolutely no communication between our coordinator and the maid coordinator. We tried to desperately call the agency but all we got were false promises from ms maria and were kept waiting for 10 days. Finally when we ran out of patience and after an intervention of a manager mr. Nizam, they sent another maid for interview. This maid was never briefed about our requirement and she was obviously rejected.

The drama continued and after few more calls to the mr. Nizam they sent a couple of maids for interview. By now we had lost faith in the agency and we just gave it a last shot since we had paid for the service. The maids were again not as per our requirement and seemed like they were just sent as a knee jerk reaction to our calls. We asked them a few questions about their past experiences and family details and eventually selected a maid called roji. When she showed up for work, we were shocked to hear that her name was not roji but nikita and that the agency had asked her to lie about her family background for reasons best known to them. She did not have any id proof with her and claimed it was with the agency. We also weren’t sure if her background credentials were duly verified. This maid was extremely bad at basic chores like cleaning and her cooking was terrible and she had no experience with pets. And all she did was sleep, watch tv and spend hours on the phone. When we appraised mr. Nizam about the situation we were told to keep her as a trial till a replacement was found. Finally when we told the maid that we couldn’t continue with her, she started throwing a fit and packed her bags and demanded remuneration for her “trial period”. To our shock and disbelief, the agency distanced itself from the whole issue once again and we were left to deal with an ugly situation ourselves.

We can sum up the functioning of this agency as per our experience as follows:

1) they just randomly send candidates and never as per the clients requirements.

2) they send inexperienced rookies and tutor them to make false claims about their credentials and past experience

3) they don’t make background checks about their candidates as the candidates themselves have given us different information than that provided by the agency. This can be a major security issue as we entrust our house, kids and belongings with them

4) it is totally unethical on their part to not inform clients about the fact that their service fee is non refundable and expect you to read the fine print on the back of their invoice which can go unnoticed, thereby letting them easily pocket the entire amount. Also their agents rush you through the entire process and just ask you to sign on the dotted line. We would’ve never agreed to pay the said amount had they mentioned the same.

6) their agents and managers blatantly lie and make false promises and there’s absolutely no inter-departmental communication. When we told our coordinator ms maria that we were considering legal actions she just challenged us to do whatever we wanted.

7) they don’t care about the maids once they’re sent and totally distance themselves should any problems or issues arise thereby leaving us to deal with the maids on our own. Also we’re made to look like people who ill treat them and treat them unfairly whereas it’s actually the agency which is doing the same.

We’ve lost about ₹30000 after our miserable experience and we feel we’ve been unfairly cheated and ripped off. They have broken our trust and they don’t care as there are many more unsuspecting customers like us. And sure enough, we came across numerous other cases online where this agency has cheated people.

We’ve decided to file an nc with our local police station and consult a lawyer for further legal course of action.