How to avoid cut price agencies

Sometimes an advertisement is so cleverly designed we see what the advertiser wants us to see and miss out the details which are in small print. At other times the price is not clearly stated but is falsely implied. For example, the price may read "from $25". Because "from" is in small print and "$25" is bold and big, we see only $25. But really, the price is anything from $25 and up. So if we are careless we think the item is going to cost us $25 but because "it is out of stock" we end up buying another item which costs twice or three times as much.

Now let us see how we can benefit from analysing an advertisement that is not meant for us to read. It is like listening to a conversation to which we are not a party. This is the case if we listen to what the owner of an employment agency is saying to an employer : "We have obedient maids who will work for peanuts without off days." Are we rude to snoop? Is this not like eaves-dropping? Maybe, but, really, if someone is talking behind our back, we want to know what he is saying about us, don't we?

Some people think eaves-dropping is like spying. However, reading the agency's message to the employer is not really eaves-dropping, for the message is not whispered but shouted out from the highest rooftop. When you open The Straits Times to the classified ads where employment agencies advertise, you will understand what I mean by "shouting" out their message. When someone shouts, you cannot avoid hearing. (Sometimes when people talk on their mobile we hear everything, even if we try not to.) When an Agency splashes its message in the classified ads, no one cannot avoid seeing them. So if you study one such ad, you are not spying.

Take the advertisement above. We can benefit by analysing this imaginary advertisement by the imaginary Cut Price Agency. Let's take a close look at it.

• Free replacement for two years. Nothing in life is free. If it is free to the employer, then the domestic worker (FDW) will have to pay for it out of her future salary.
• Free $5,000 Bank Guarantee Banks are not charitable organizations and charge a premium for the guarantee. If it is free to the employer, then it must come out of the pocket of the FDW. Sorry, not out of her pocket. The domestic worker's salary does not go into her pocket but straight into the agent's pocket. The agent goes laughing all the way to the bank. The maid who has a heavy "utang" to carry will look like an ampalaya for many months, maybe 8 months, maybe longer.
• Free Accident and Hospitalization Insurance MOM requires the employer to provide insurance for the FDW. So the employer will have to pay. If the cut price agent gives it to her for free, it is because he is making the FDW pay. This is like robbing the DH to help the employer. Is this not unjust? Will anyone give her sister, cousin or townmate's biodata to this cut rate agency?
• Free Pre-Employment and 6-monthly medical check-ups! Yet again the FDW will have to pay so that the employer can have it for free.
• Free Nissan or Toyota for the lucky employer I know the cut price agency is not running a charity like NKF. Can you guess who is paying for the prize?
• Placement Fee: $888 to $2,888 This is what the cut price agency will charge the domestic helper. Do you think the nanny will have to pay cut price agent $888 or $2,888? If the new DH does not even read before signing, will the agency ask her to pay $2,888?

  Notice that Cut Price Agency is charging employer only $77 but is charging the domestic helper forty times as much.

After analyzing the contents of this advertisement, no thinking person will give the biodata of her sister, cousin or townmate to the cut price agent, not even if the cut price agent is willing to pay for it. It will be selling her sister, cousin or townmate into slavery. Not forever, but it is bad enough if it is for 8 months, possibly longer.