Marigold Caregivers - 7 Temasek Blvd

I engaged Marigold Caregivers for solutions, but walked away frustrated. After being assigned a helper whom I asked Marigold to take back within a day (because she was Facebook Live-ing while taking care of a wheelchair-bound elderly despite being trained and explicitly told not to do so at her interview), my experience went downhill. Up to the incident, Marigold‘s managing director was responsive. After the incident, she became hard to reach and evasive. For months, I had to proactively ask for updates. I was given no solutions. While I understand options were limited over the COVID period, I would have appreciated if clear communication instead of excuses were offered.

My experience with the consultant, Manmit has been appallingly unpleasant. She is unprofessional and I found that she has not been transparent when it came to advising our rights as an employer. This came about when I faced problems with my caregiver during a very challenging time when my dad who is in a vegetative state was critically ill with Covid-19. I’ve requested for the caregiver to monitor my dad’s condition on Zoom since she is unable to enter the isolation ward to take care of him. She claims that it was "boring" to do so. Soon after, she started to create issues for my family. Such episodes happen repeatedly. She then requested multiple times to let her leave. As the trust with my caregiver slowly disintegrated, I had no choice but to let her go. I made arrangement with the consultant to bring her back to her agency first to consider what is best for the caregiver. The consultant supported it and got her driver to pick the caregiver to let us have time for consideration. After consideration, I decided to offer to buy an air ticket for the caregiver to return home. I have always been in a good relationship with my caregiver and I understand that she has been missing her family a lot and she told me many times she has intention to return home. After hearing my decision, the consultant yelled at me and my family accusing us of being those typical employers who want to “punish” our caregiver when the relationship turned sour. We tried to explain to her that this wasn't the case as through our daily conversations with our caregiver, we understand that she has always missed home and had intentions to return home when the time is right. However, the consultant did not accept our explanation. We gathered that her anger stemmed from the fact that we didn’t follow her advice to continue keeping our caregiver at our household or transfer her to another employer. As such, this cost the consultant the extra agent’s fee which she would have obtained if we agreed to a transfer. We felt that the consultant was driven by money. She had no empathy for us as employers who is going through such a difficult time. If she had our best interests at heart, why would she urge us to retain the caregiver who has broken our trust? We will no longer be assured that this caregiver can take care of my dad well in the future. The consultant checked with my caregiver the next day and my caregiver was very glad that I’ve offered to buy her an air ticket. If only the consultant bothered to check before making such ungrounded accusations that we were out to "punish" our caregiver. This demonstrates how unprofessional she is! Without any apology, the consultant just sent me a whatsapp message to send her the air ticket details. I bought the air ticket and only then did the consultant told me that I could have saved on the air ticket if I transferred the caregiver to her name. I didn’t know about this regulation and the consultant said that I should have asked her. How could I ask a question about something when I never knew existed? I ended up having to pay for the air ticket and 2 weeks' worth of external accommodation. I felt that I did not have to do this at all as the caregiver did not serve her 1 week notice as per contract but to avoid further trouble, I relented. Prior to this incident, the consultant also gave verbal agreement to my caregiver without my knowledge that the caregiver will be provided 2 weeks paid leave and a return air ticket on an annual basis. This wasn’t stated in the contract that I've signed with my caregiver. I then had to settle this issue with my caregiver because of the verbal agreement given between the consultant and my caregiver. Although the agency compensated 2 weeks of paid leave to my caregiver, I had to pay for the air ticket and the agency only compensated me after I wrote a negative Google review. I had a very bad experience with a dishonest, unprofessional and rude consultant! I urge everyone to be careful of the terms stated in the contract given by them as their contract is unclear.

Marigold Caregivers and their consultants showed genuine care and great professionalism. During the evolving restrictions caused by COVID, the consultants went the extra mile to ensure that I was given a caregiver suited to my mother’s needs and as soon as possible. Manmit checks in on both myself and the caregiver, as well as mediates whenever the need arises. I would like to thank Marigold for being there and helping us. I strongly recommend them for anyone that needs a helping hand, caring caregiver and reliable agency.

I approached Marigold Caregivers when I needed assistance with my grandmother and they were readily available and prompt at attending to any situation that arose. Even when there were issues with the caregiver initially, the consultant would calmly speak to both parties to reach a mutually agreed solution. The best part was how they prioritize both employer and caregivers welfare, showing genuine care and professionalism. Thank you for being more than just an agency Marigold!