Estate agent dramas

[Justcake]

Anyone successful complained to an estate about the crap service and constant lies when selling and actually received a positive result!??? Really fed up and not sure what to do..

Our is a cunt. Added sneaked 3 weeks into the contract, which I stupidly signed without re-reading with a magnifying glass. I'll just be glad to be rid of them tbh. Complaints go nowhere, shitty reviews online do.

Got 2 more weeks stuck with them. Confident the new agents are as decent as estate agents can be. I have made very clear I want honesty not babble. Also I've got all their terms and percentages locked down.

Ours have been very good, crosses fingers we are nearly at exchange. They are a local agent with four offices and a good understanding of the local market. I originally got in touch with them because they showed me stuff to buy I liked, and the person who did viewings was good. It is apparent they are preferred in my specific area as lots of properties are on with them.

Ugh, no. We got shafted by an estate agent we'd used loads in the past, I will never use them again and will advise anyone I know not to use them. We complained and got bullshit back. We were going to go down the ombudsman's route but I was about to pop with DD so it took a backseat. Still gives me the rage

Very unhappy with lots of the larger chains we have used, most of the people working for them were total knobs who were usually stereotypical wide boy estate agents and they wonder why the industry has such a poor reputation. Best experience was with an older independent with superb local knowledge who really cared about delivering excellent customer service.

Yes, I did. We went initially with a large chain agent. Their organisation was crap, someone took calls about viewings, but didn’t necessarily pass them on and the left hand didn’t know what the right hand was doing.

The first viewing, supposedly by the agents, he failed to turn up, so we did it, havingvreturned from holiday half an hour previously.

After a fortnight and several viewings, there was no feedback at all. I rang to enquire and was fobbed off with vague comments and no information that would help us to get a sale.

This went on for several weeks, no offers and still no feedback, but the final straw was when they asked us for a viewing one evening. I asked them to rearrange because we had guests that evening. Sure enough, that message didn’t get through and they turned up on the doorstep.

I emailed the manager with a long list of their failings and he agreed that they had ‘fallen short of their usual high stsndards’ and they released us from the contract.

I also agree with PPs. Use a local agent with a few local branches, who will allocate someone to have overall responsibility for your property, get to know it well and do the viewings. You also have to give notice three weeks before the end of the contract, otherwise they add it on.

We used a local agent (small business) he was bloody brilliant.

They are a nightmare. Last time we used one was to sell MiL's place. She chose "a good local agent" who smarmed her into a contract. Several price drops later, they found a demanding buyer and then managed to get the business to sell the buyer's house too. From that moment onwards, they didn't give 2 hoots about us/MiL, only the buyer.

Our solicitor was brilliant; they gave her a load of flannel one Friday after the 3rd failed exchange of contracts so she rang me and I gave them an absolute mouthful. After a number of threats (by me) and denials (by them), I told them they had an hour to sort the situation or the house was back on the market elsewhere. There was quite a lot I also conveyed, but this is the gist. Solicitor called back 20 minutes later to say we had exchanged. We refused to pay them (backed up by the solicitor) and in the end settled on covering the costs of advertising only.

When we sold our own house, we just stuck a poster up in the window and did the job ourselves. No hassle and £5k saved.

I'm not sure whether I can ever say all the things that have been awful about my estate agents as it's very outting.. it's so bad I've never been so upset/angry

Oh mine were shocking. I could go on and on ... main points listed the place at the wrong price, said it was leasehold (its freehold), the only feedback I got (despite 7 viewings!) was she was worried as there was no management company ... except there was. All information I gave them at the time.

We agreed to part ways and then they updated my property to sold on their website.

Left them a glowing review on Facebook, they responded calling me a liar. I responded that I’d be happy for them to list each point they thought was a lie and I’d be happy to provide proof ... they never responded

No. I’m a LL and mine have been awful, they let my property out and a lower rate than agreed and for a longer period. Then when i challenged it I was called a liar. The estate agents was Bridgfords

Yes ~ put complaint in writing by e mail and include the fact that unless all your monies are refunded in full within ... days you will refer them to their professional association/ombudsman.
(I forget the name, but it is easy to find if you google).
Mine did an appalling job ~ and they subsequently offered to market my property free with only part of the commission on sale.
I declined as all trust was lost ~ moved to another agent when I got my money back.

The Ines we bought from were terrible. They lost one set of keys and in complaining to the ombudsman they quickly agreed to cover the cost of a locksmith.

I did get my own back though - but too outing to say on a forum. But I basically found a way to waste the time of the manager who'd behaved like a shit.

The EA we sold our last place with was really good - they were a local firm. Their sales progression consultant really did earn her money as we had an absolute nightmare from start to finish due to our onward purchase. I quite happily paid their fee as they deserved every penny of it.

Buying on the other hand... The first EA was one of these online outfits and absolutely hopeless. They are cheap for a reason - because you are dealing with a call centre and having to explain your story from scratch to a different person every time. We ended up having to pull out of that purchase due to survey issues. The EA for the second house we offered on was a snotty nightmare who was extremely rude. Having told us what the vendor's "bottom line number" was, she then tried to up it by 5 grand 3 days later and denied she'd ever given us a bottom line number at all. Went quiet when I pointed out that they have a message saying all of their calls are recorded so we could always go back and check...

The EA for the third house was a lying cunt. Lied about the chain. Lied about the number of people who were in it. Lied about the state of readiness and lied about the sales progression they were doing (zero). Finding all of this out when you are ready to exchange having spent thousands on surveys and legal fees was pretty soul destroying. After months of being messed about it all fell apart and we started again with house number 4 - which fortunately went through and we're now happily installed! The EA who sold us this house was very good and really helpful. So much so I dropped some chocolates into them to say thank you (and to apologise for the many times I cried down the phone to them when it was all going wrong!).

They are a mixed bag. Some excellent, some horrendous. Do your research and read as many reviews as you can. Try and find people in the area who have used them and have direct experience.