To be surprised this estate agent wasn’t sacked?

[Easack]

We listed our house with the biggest estate agent in our area (also with the best reviews/reputation).

We approved the photos to be used and description to be added to the usual portals such as RightMove.

Shortly after it went live, a friend told me it had been posted on our town’s community Facebook page. On one of the living room photos, the TV on the wall had been edited to include a couple having sex.

I immediately called the estate agent who got back to me shortly after, apologised and said they’d remove the photo and instigated a full investigation.

They contacted me today and said they had identified it was a junior colleague who did this ‘as a joke’ and that they’d been reprimanded. They confirmed they’ve kept their job.

I am perplexed by this. Surely that is a sackable offence?

But the pp is completely correct. The OP has every right to complain and absolutely should, but the EA has no right to disclose what has happened to the employee as that would be a breach of the employees confidentiality. It's completely standard practice to advise appropriate measures have been taken but not disclose the outcome when a customer complaint is made - it's two separate processes, a customer complaint and internal HR processes.

That being said OP I would not be happy at all and would expect a huge apology, gogw and to be released from contract or a huge discount if you decide to stay with them

Everyone saying go nuclear; cancel the contract and leave a one star review, what happens when the house the OP wants to buy is marketed with the same EA? This, I think, is one of the reasons EAs throw their weight around, they are the gatekeepers.

I would assume “junior colleague” who hasn’t been sacked means the owner’s teenage child. Because surely no adult could do something like that as a joke and keep their job after. I would take my business elsewhere and ask for a refund if you have paid for the photos or listing. EAs are sometimes a bit slippery anyway, so if this idiocy can slip through their net, what else are they not being professional about?

I don’t think he should be sacked, but reprimanded and placed on final written warning.

Young people make errors of judgement, in the workplace, if as an employer we immediately sack everyone who does a practical joke in the workplace that backfires it would be legally unreasonable, especially if it was his first offence, it’s a learning opportunity not a sacking offence.

@Onetimeusername1 I'd never buy a house marketed by that agency. I'm very petty that way. I'd make sure EVERYONE I knew was aware too - and the full story.

Reviews would be dropped everywhere I could possibly think of. I've found this technique to be effective. Had a nightmare experience with builders - they were very much acting like they were doing me a massive favour by accepting the huge project I had (loft conversion with large dormer).

I lost my patience, cancelled them and left a 1 star Google review - a simple factual overview of my experience with them. Both myself and my partner ended up having to block the owner as he harassed us to take it down (in voicemails and texts). He threatened legal action. I kept it up - funnily enough legal action never happened (this was a year ago) as everything in my review was true and I had emails/texts to prove it.

Yeah fucking hilarious. I worked with estate agents as a conveyancing solicitor and though some I became friendly with an explained the transaction process to, so they knew when their commission was due, others I just wouldn’t bother with. Some were so appallingly rude and one made our client cry unfairly by putting pressure on them. I’d only ever dealt with estate agents through buying and selling property myself before.

I’m surprised they told you anything other than it’s been investigated and dealt with
it’s a massive no discussing and divulging the details with you

honestly it wouldn’t make the slightest difference but of difference to you if he was sacked or not it won’t change anything

if I saw it I would blame the estate agent not they home owner as the EA obviously took the pictures

I hope you replied in the face book group surely the bad publicity is enough

all I’d be interested I would be a discount rather than sackings

I’m interested to know where
people work that they wouldn’t be sacked for this? Accessing and distributing porn in the course of one’s employment, with very obvious potential for damage to the reputations of the client and the business?

There are quite a few situations where this could have an impact on people's jobs or careers. I know porn is common but this would put me off a doctor, counsellor or a tradie if it involved them being in my house with me alone.

I'd ditch the agent as I just couldn't trust them.

This. 100%. People you know may have thought this was genuine and that you’d left porn on the tv. 🙈. I’d be very unhappy.

I'd take my business elsewhere

I would ditch the agent, they don’t deserve your custom. At the very least the culprit should have been made to apologise to you in person. And I agree they should have been sacked.

@Wetcoatsandmudagain absolutely. I'd dump them and find another estate agent.

Reply back that you intend to report it to trading standards and that you will be reviewing them, specifically mentioning this most distasteful experience.

I would take it very seriously and withdraw my business from them immediately.

Its every bit of her business when it's her house thats up for sale with them,and doing stupid stuff like that,so unprofessional. I'd take my business elsewhere and give them a bad review

This.

its not really up to you to have an opinion on whether or not they should be sacked.

but what you can control is what you now do. I.e. put your house on with an estate agent you trust with reimbursement of fees. And whether you think any damage has been done by the Facebook post - but I can’t really get my head round it and what that would mean! I don’t think I could carry on working with these wallies though.

She’s right though .

Sigh.

You are entitled to take your business elsewhere.

Youre not entitled to know about a company’s internal HR policies. No matter what the person did.

I mean, it would reflect well on them if they sacked the person, but they still may or may never divulge that information.

They don’t have to. They have to rectify/remove the image. Which they did.

The high horse ‘of COURSE it’s my business’ is just…all high horse tbh.

If there’s genuine misconduct and not just poor service you are dealing with then you post a note to the vendor explaining that you are interested in the property but are uncomfortable going through said Estate Agents due to having ongoing issues with them. Then it’s up to the vendor if they want to contact you or not. We did this and the vendor was very grateful as she was getting no viewings. It’s about time Estate Agents had more stringent regulations and were held to account.

Absolutely no way would they continue marketing my house unless they offered to do it for free (which they won't). I'd be leaving one-star reviews about the lack of professionalism shown by some of their staff (ie not implying all the staff are at fault) all over the place.

I’d report it to the police. Whether they do anything about it I’m not sure, but surely making and distributing a pornographic photo is a crime isn’t it?

I’d also be telling the estate agent that using my property to commit a criminal offence is unacceptable. To do so in the course of employment is even worse (although their internal procedures are down to them in terms of warnings/dismissal). I’d probably go a bit further and tell them I’d be listing with another agent immediately, need written confirmation that this would not be in breach of contract with them (because usually you’d have a period of time in between ending your contract with them and being able to instruct another agent) and if the sale price is lower than it should otherwise be because you’ve had to use a second agent, you’ll be pursuing them for the losses.

This is so grossly unprofessional, estate agents really should not be unregulated in the way that they are.

where do we get all these free hours? none round here

How did they actually do that, from a technical point of view?

It’s easy @GoneWithTHeWindJammersyou can use any amount of apps to do it. Photoshop etc.