Bangladesh Maid Agency: Clients allege fraud and unreliable service

Amzad Hossain and Sathi Akhter launched the Bangladesh Maid Agency in 2014 after noticing there was a market for providing domestic help in Dhaka. They themselves often struggled to find reliable people to work at their house – every month, they would have to look for a new help. Some stopped coming without notice, whereas some, they had to fire.

They started with a Facebook page, where clients, as well as people willing to work as domestic help or maids, contacted them.

Amzad claimed that from the beginning, they received a positive response from people desperately looking for reliable maids, babysitters and caregivers. Their business took off smoothly, and they started receiving requests for maids that exceeded their existing pool of workers.

In a recent interview with The Business Standard, Amzad Hossain and Sathi Akhter said that Bangladesh Maid Agency has served over 5,000 clients till now. They currently have a pool of over 1,000 maids, serving in households as bandha (live-in) and chhuta (part-time) maids, nannies and caregivers.

However, once TBS published the feature, many former clients of Bangladesh Maid Agency claimed on Facebook that even after paying hefty amounts to the agency, they did not receive the promised services. Another recurrent complaint was that Amzad does not receive phone calls once the initial amount is paid.  

One of the comments read, "This is a fraudulent company. Took our advance payment and never picked up our calls later!" Numerous other comments were similar in tone and message. 

When TBS contacted the Bangladesh Maid Agency, Amzad said these were false and baseless accusations. "I don't know any of the people who commented on the Facebook post. They never took services from the Bangladesh Maid Agency." 

He claimed that someone else may have used his agency's name to swindle money from these people. "I'd like these people – who claimed I took their money and disappeared – to come to my office with proof." 

But Bangladesh Maid Agency's office address is another complaint point for these people. Several former clients pointed out that BMA's address on their contract paper and Facebook page proved non-existent.

Shamim Siddiqui (pseudonym), a teacher, for example, went to the address of BMA at Uttara Sector 3 in 2019 but could not find their office. 

He told TBS, "When I went to BMA's office at HM Plaza in Sector 3, Uttara, the building security told me that there was no such office there." The security also said that many people occasionally came looking for Bangladesh Maid Agency and Amzad, but they had no idea what that agency was or who Amzad was.

"How did he come to seek help from the Bangladesh Maid Agency?" we asked Shamim. 

He replied, "I was looking for a full-time caregiver back in June 2019 for my mother." She fell and was badly injured. "I'm a full-time service holder so, I needed someone to care for her 24/7," he explained to us. 

After finding Bangladesh Maid Agency's Facebook page, he was so relieved that he immediately sent Tk14,000 to a Brac Bank account provided by Amzad. After receiving the deposit, BMA communicated with him frequently over the next few days. 

But once Shamim started pressing for a refund after two weeks of not getting a caregiver, Amzad stopped picking up calls. When Shamim started posting comments on BMA's Facebook page about his experience, they removed his comments and banned him from the page.

Frustrated and helpless, Shamim went to the police at Uttara and Dhanmondi Thana as a last resort. But the police could not help him much. 

"Looking back, I understand now that I was hasty and a bit stupid," Shamim said. "I should've taken more time and tried to verify the agency more." 

When asked about the false address of the Bangladesh Maid Agency, Amzad claimed that his agency never had any office in Uttara. "Our office is in Mukta Bangla Shopping Complex in Mirpur-1, and that has always been the case," Amzad said. He showed an empty contract form from Bangladesh Maid Agency containing the address in Mirpur as proof.

However, with 21 points terms and conditions, including the Brac Bank account number for depositing money and two cell phone numbers, the contract forms of most clients complaining against BMA are identical to the one Amzad shared with The Business Standard. Some of these forms have the office address in Uttara.   

Zeenat Yasmeen, a homemaker from Basundhara R/A, had a similar experience as Shamim. Zeenat told TBS that she paid Tk1,250 as a one-time instalment to Amzad for a live-in maid. But BMA never provided her with any maid or refunded the money. 

"For a while he kept saying that it's taking a little time because the maid will come work for us from Mymensingh. But after a while, he blocked my number," she shared. 

We asked her if she sought help from the police and, if not, why. She said, "I already knew that Amzad wasn't going to give back my money. I didn't want to deal with the hassle of going to the police on top of that." She added that seeking help from the police rarely proves fruitful, so she let go of the money as a donation to charity and made peace with it.

Sheela Emran, the wife of a DIG of Bangladesh Police, was elated to find a maid agency that provided domestic help. When we spoke to her about the TBS feature on Bangladesh Maid Agency in August 2023, she said she paid Tk13,000 as a one-time instalment for a live-in maid. But after less than two months, the maid left, and Amzad refused to provide another replacement. 

Sheela said when she called Amzad, he was very rude and said if she could not keep the maid, it was not his responsibility to provide a replacement or refund the money. Section 6 of the contract, however, states explicitly, "After the appointment of the maid/worker, if any client is unsatisfied, BMA will provide replacement of the maid/worker." 

Dipty Rashid (pseudonym), a former client of Bangladesh Maid Agency, also claims that Amzad had swindled her money. "We had a contract with BMA from April 2022 to October 2022. We paid Tk12,000 in advance for an experienced nanny who would look after our twin children." 

But when the first one arrived, they realised that that person had no work experience. "We were okay with the nanny not being experienced. But what worried us was that she left after two days," Dipty said.  

Once the nanny left, they kept requesting Amzad for a replacement, which took weeks. When he finally sent another nanny, she left as quickly as the first one.

This continued for the next nine months. Nine nannies, two experienced and seven inexperienced, came to work for the family, but none stayed. 

"You must understand the trauma we endured during this time," Dipty said, adding, "we were desperately looking for a nanny for our children; we have jobs. But the day-to-day uncertainty and Amzad's rude behaviour took a huge toll on us." 

Things were so chaotic that she mentioned they had to file a General Diary (GD) against one of the nannies. 

Tania Rahman (pseudonym), a banker, is another person who claimed to have a terrible experience with Bangladesh Maid Agency. Like Dipty, she too sought the service of a nanny for her child in 2018. 

"Within one month, we had to go through the hassle of replacing six nannies. But the contract specifically said that if the nanny leaves, they'll have to give at least one month's notice," she said. 

"But the agency never followed the terms and conditions of their contracts," Tania told TBS. "The maids simply left, sometimes even without notifying us."  

Like many other clients, Tania failed to communicate with Amzad after a month of their contract. 

"I paid around Tk20,000 that month, including service charge and one month's advance salary. Their unprofessional and unreliable service completely took away my trust from similar agencies," she said.