A post on a public forum has raised a seller’s concern that if he uses Purplebricks to sell his home, he will not be allowed on the books of a high street agent to buy through them.
He says this is unethical, but questions whether it is legal.
Purplebricks says it is aware of the practice happening.
The main part of the seller’s post on the MSE forum reads: “I have had several house valuations and as to be expected, the Purplebricks’ standard £849 was by far the cheapest.
“Other agencies have a very negative view of them and state they have no after-care service and once you have a buyer you get no further support (probably the case with a lot of EAs not just online ones…).
“One company has said very clearly that if someone sells with Purplebricks, they won’t let them buy a house on their books. (And stated this is direct from the company owner with the quote ‘if they don’t like it then sue me’.)
“My question is, is this legal? I know it’s a little unethical but I feel pushed into a corner as most houses in the area I want to move to are being sold by this company. So if I use Purplebricks to sell I won’t be able to buy from them.”
He says the agent that refuses to accept a buyer who is selling through Purplebricks charges £1,000 more.
The post has sparked some interesting comments from other users of the forum.
One person advised him to pop a note through the door of a property he likes the look of, saying he wants to put in an offer but the agent refuses to engage with him because they do not like his choice of selling agent.
Purplebricks also posts in the thread, saying they do indeed have a post-sales support team.
There is also advice to report the agent to an ombudsman, and to name and shame the agent publicly – something the poster has so far declined to do, as he’s hoping for some leeway on price.
A spokesperson for Purplebricks said that the firm is aware that this does sometimes happen.
The spokesperson said: “We are aware that some high street agents act in their own rather than their client’s best interests by not passing on every offer received. In doing so they are breaching the TPO code.
“At Purplebricks our technology facilitates direct messaging between buyer and seller, so our customers can rest assured they see every offer that’s made.
“We have long campaigned for greater transparency within estate agency, because we want to see customers treated fairly and honestly and poor practices like this underline just why it’s important.”
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5848783
Post is too contrived. Genuine posters just dont write like that.
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“Genuine posters just don’t write like that”? How exactly are you working this out? There are millions of posters out there, and I don’t see how suggesting that they all have the same tone, style, and depth of knowledge is reasonable.
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In my experience things have moved on even further than this post would suggest. I now have vendors that in those first few conversations tell me that they would not like to sell to anyone using one of those “online agents”. Not only do Purplebricks have a bad reputation with proper estate agents, vendors are now starting to cotton on as well.
From a legal point of view as long as every offer is put forward an agent wont do anything wrong. We are there to provide advice and support, with every offer i will always give a vendor my opinion. In cases where we have two buyers chasing the same house if one is selling through PB, or one of the others, i will point out the pitfalls of getting involved in that chain.
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I have to agree. We have just rejected an offer from a buyer with PB, Tepilo and a private sale in the chain. We estimated the chances of s successful conclusion to any sake to be about 0%. The Tepilo rep couldn’t understand why!!!!!
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Their after sales is a joke. There is nothing proactive about them. When you ring (If you can get through) all they do is ring the solicitor for an update, there are no file notes, no chasing and no cajoling buyers along to keep up. Any chain with them has disater written all over it
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Yet how you can turn down an offer? It is not your house, you are just a facilitator. It’s the owners decision and your job to progress the sale.
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” It’s the owners decision and your job to progress the sale.”
You really do talk like someone in the job and not an outsider.
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Quite simply – if you have it in writing from your vendor that you are to reject all offers irrespective of amount where the offeror is selling through PB or any other non-estate agent, then you are conforming with explicit instructions.
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Spot on. However the silly agent in this case seemed to infer no offers to any property on his books, which would seem to indicate his choice and not that of instructions from ALL his/hers vendors.
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Obviously someome is upset that full service, no sale no fee agents are unwilling to qualify and progress his purplechums sales.
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Don’t get confused with the estate agent not letting him buy, and the sellers not wanting their estate agent to accept an offer form someone who has a related sale handled by ….
If I were selling, I would not accept an offer from certain online estate agents, because of one single reason:
…..they have no after-care service and once you have a buyer you get no further support!
All buyers are not the same, as for me, the above buyer is a liability, and I will wait for someone else.
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All buyers are not the same, as for me, the above buyer is a liability, and I will wait for someone else.
Ooops … only if you have it confirmed by the vendor to do so. The other senario is how can you say you would ignore an offer before you know which property they may offer on and apparently making it a condition to get a listing?
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We have banned people using PB from our County all together – Or we make them pay the asking price, explaining to the vendor they have saved THOUSANDS by using PB…… so they have THOUSANDS MORE TO SPEND on your home… WIN WIN for my vendors.
We would consider flogging also.
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fantastic !
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shouldnt we make buyers pay asking price anyway? Isnt that our job- to get the most money for our client?
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Yes r29woolf. thanks for that! If we are being “smart” then I add:
You cannot “MAKE” anyone pay anything! you can simply request, encourage and/or persuade.
How-evs, for the purpose of comedy, just imagine when you negotiate with a PB buyer, saying… look the vendor wants more and you saved a bit using a reduced service agency, so come on, hand the money over… we only need a few PB sellers to say “I actually only saved about £300 but had to drop £10k when I agreed my sale” for the penny to drop!
But I promise to make people pay the asking price from this day onwards 🙂
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Brilliant – will have to remember that one !!
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Many Full Service Agents are dubious of online agents offers. It’s not done out of spite, it simply comes down to the lack of need by agents charging a fee up front to properly qualify and sales progress sales when they have no financial incentive or logic to do so? And full service agents simply get fed up doing the ‘charge up front agents’ jobs for them!
We have no obligation to facilitate the practices of budget agents just a legal duty and due diligence responsibility to our vendors before presenting a properly qualified offer for them to consider.
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Rightly so. Get the purple dicks seller to pay you upfront, after all you have to do all the work and they’ve already been paid so why shouldn’t you. You can’t recommend a buyer that it takes three days to get minimal chain info from and you’re gonna be doing all the work for. If he likes his email and internet so much, go and buy through Tepilo or Ewe won’t move! Oh they don’t have anything, wonder why!
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Anyone who has been in a chain with PB knows yes they say they have sakes support but the truth is like their favoured conveyancers they are useless.
I have been thinking of adding a note in my agency agreement that if an online / hybrid purchaser is introduced. We have the right to charge the buyer £1000 This is due to the considerable additional workload to get the property exchanged.
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If you have a buyers agreement?
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We allow the client to make an ‘informed’ decision about a buyer and their chain. Invariably if the client happens to have a choice of buyer, they usually choose a chain with no online agents due to the likelihood of communication complications down the line. Watch out as PB next advert will be all about after sales care. That’s why this post was put up – to lure us, and it has!
Some other news might be a nice break rather than top story PB five times a week… Unless someone on here has shares in PB?
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As has been said above, agents have a legal duty to their sellers to market the property correctly and submit all offers.
It would be churlish to refuse allow buyers to view a property but, as Ric and Newsboy say above, it is also reasonable to pass on legitimate concerns, use the additional money they have ‘saved’ as a negotiating tool and, as Arthur says, it is reasonable to make an additional charge for likely additional work in such circumstances wher we know that a) the chain will probably not have been checked properly, b) the solicitors used are often inept.
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So let me get this straight. Online agents are growing as more consumers are attracted to their low costs (despite potentially having sub-par sales progression) – and now the high streets want to bar or charge extra fees for buyers that are selling through an online agent. Do you guys seriously want to **** off consumers even more to drive them to online agents? Lol your choice guys.
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Yes, I would like to charge more for doing someone else’s job, Matt. Yes, yes I do.
However, I wouldn’t charge my client, who is paying for a service. I would want to charge the person not using my services but calls my staff every other day for an update because PB or any other sub standard agent isn’t providing a service.
Are you in business yourself? Genuine question.
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Maybe don’t ‘go sold’ if PB vendors are the buyers, keep it for sale on the internet until it exchanges. Why put our vendors at risk?
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Don’t you guys constantly claim that on-line agents never sell anything, so surely it’s not a problem? Or have I got that wrong?
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You got it wrong. We say they undersell when they do sell. Just for fun really. So we like to then make them over pay! WIN WIN.
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False, online agents achieve a higher percentage of asking price than the average high street agents.
http://www.propertyindustryeye.com/online-agents-achieving-up-to-98-of-asking-price-says-consumer-organisation/
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Fake news!
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Wednesday Morning at the Palladium starring dompritch134
but to be fair you are correct.
As ever though, these fail to point out, it could be the price was set to low!!!!!!! often the case, save a few quid, lose a few thousand. Have proof from an online agent, the “local Director” who emailed the vendor of a property I listed saying good luck and no chance” vendor was actually an EA… I have a lengthy email debate, before he stopped emailing me, when we acheived £25k more than his in black and white, you have no chance of getting above email and pretty abusive “couldn’t care less you are advising with 25 years behind you” he was a funny chap though.
I told him “Ew’ve got to be joking”…. but I will not give a clue as to Eew the company was…. but he did go all sheepish on me. un-baaaa-leivable he was. no companies mentioned though.
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How long did it take them to get asking price?
Because the client had paid upfront, perhaps they felt obliged too stick with them and try and get their money’s worth?
Maybe the vendors were just set on the asking price, it tells you nothing!
dumbpritch134 – fool.
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Dom how is your latest house sale going? Heathrow’s new runway hurt the sale at all 😉
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Nah, smile please…
…looks like the buyer withdrew AGES before that news came out.
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Wonder why the sale fell through?
Poor estate agent or perhaps poor refurb highlighted on survey?
Who knows!
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“False, online agents achieve a higher percentage of asking price than the average high street agents.”
Oh, dear, dom-boy – relying on fatally flawed information from a fatally flawed ‘organisation’ with as big a #fanboy crush on the online model as you seem to carry isn’t much to rely on to back up that “False” bit, sunshine.
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I see no evidence to the contrary.
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“I see no evidence to the contrary.”
Those seven words, dom-boy, don’t make it true.
In fact – the statement adds to the negative argument – as no evidence has been offered to its’ validity… despite requests.
Wonder why…
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We’ve had transactions with a PB sale in the chain, absolute nightmare to get any ‘reliable’ information and we have ended up doing all their work for them FOC.
Unfortunately the majority of the general public STILL do not realize that the work begins once a sale is agreed.. How do we go about better educating them??
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>it is also reasonable to pass on legitimate concerns
This could get interesting.
If Estate Agents are giving advice to customers then what happens if that advice is based on claims that can’t be substantiated? For example if the statement in the article is true ““Other agencies have a very negative view of them and state they have no after-care service and once you have a buyer you get no further support (probably the case with a lot of EAs not just online ones…).” then they’ve been told something that’s can’t be substantiated because you do get further support from PurpleBricks.
Perhaps an offer being put forward with incorrect advice is akin to not passing the offer forward in the eyes of the law and therefore a criminal offence? If not a criminal offence then perhaps civil? A seller who turns down a sale based on poor advice from an agent and who later sells for less may be able to claim damages.
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ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
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“In our opinion and experience…..” and “It may be this PB customer has the right LPE or team behind their sale, but so far (IF GENUINE) in our experience, we have found them tough to deal with”.
I have lots of solicitors I would openly tell a vendor – your buyer is using a solicitor notorious for being a ******* a solicitor who says, to many enquiries when acting for the vendor, yet asks the very same questions when acting for a buyer.
I agree, it would be dangerous to assume every deal will be *****… but if you have had 2, 3 or 4 bad dealings in chains…. then would be equally poor not to mention it.
So if genuine…. mention it… if you just happen to loathe a PB client, don’t let them view houses, bar their number from your phone system and stop the event from the start line LOL. joking… obvs. We actually divert their numbers to PB HQ to confuse them!
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Cyberduck:
Purple bricks
Is
Looking
Like
Overcooked
Cobblers and will soon
Keel over
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Cyberduck
After sale seller/buyer care is probably the most important aspect of a property transaction if you are paid on completion of the deal as without proper ‘hand holding’ by a motivated agent the transaction is more likely to fall through or prove incredibly stressful to all those involved.
An integral part of this process is working with efficient conveyancers who understand this and care.
With these ‘substantiated’ reviews as linked below, is it unreasonable for sellers or their agents to have concerns, particularly when a PB customer has to use their conveyancing partners if they defer their upfront fee payment or pay £360 for the privilege of not using them?
Is it actually the case that PB is letting their customers down by partnering with a company who clearly has problems dealing with volume referrals?
https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/ezie-eclient.co.uk
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Perhaps an offer being put forward with incorrect advice is akin to not passing the offer forward in the eyes of the law and therefore a criminal offence? If not a criminal offence then perhaps civil? A seller who turns down a sale based on poor advice from an agent and who later sells for less may be able to claim damages.
Answer is no to the first two. The third is down to the ombudsman.
You forget that in the case of history of service with any agent would be known from first hand experience. Subject to the requirements of the agents vendor, they would be foolish not to advice where their is a concern of potential delay if the vendor has need of a quick sale. Then the agent would be failing in their duty of care.
Poor after care service in chains is one of the biggest causes of chains collapsing or some vendors getting hot under the collar, often talking the frustration out on their own agents. Agents just need to be careful what they say.
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Various extracts of codes, law, legal advice and publications. Agents have a legal duty of care to check the proceedability of a buyer. This includes their claimed financial position and ability to complete the transaction. Where advice to a client is based on opinion, the agent must make it clear that it is an opinion and the basis of that opinion.
9c By law you cannot make it a condition of passing on offers to the seller that the buyer
must use services offered by you or another party. You must not discriminate, or threaten
to discriminate, against a buyer because that person declines to accept that you will
(directly or indirectly) provide related services to them. Discrimination includes but is not
limited to the following:
• Failing to tell the seller of an offer to buy the property.
• Telling the seller of an offer less quickly than other offers you have received.
• Misrepresenting the nature of the offer or that of rival offers.
• Giving details of properties for sale first to buyers who have indicated they are
prepared to let you provide services to them.
10a At the time that an offer has been made and is being considered by the seller, you must
take reasonable steps to find out from the buyer the source and availability of their funds
for buying the property and pass this information to the seller. Such information will
include whether the buyer needs to sell a property, requires a mortgage, claims to be a
cash buyer (*) or any combination of these. Such relevant information that is available
should be included in the memorandum of sale having regard to the provisions of the
Data Protection Act 1998.
10b You must put all offers to your seller client even if the buyer has not been financially
qualified at that stage.
10c These reasonable steps must continue after acceptance of the offer until exchange of
contracts and must include regular monitoring of the buyer’s progress in achieving the
funds required, and reporting such progress to the seller.
12. Between Acceptance and Exchange of Contracts
12a After acceptance of the offer by the seller, and until exchange of contracts you have no
direct influence on such matters as the conveyancing process or the mortgage lending
process. Your obligations to the client are:
• to monitor progress;
• to assist where possible, as asked;
• to report information deemed helpful to bringing the transaction to fruition.
You must keep written or electronic records of such activity.
12b If a buyer becomes involved in a contract race, the buyer should be told promptly of the
situation and given such information which comes to your attention as is consistent with
your duty to the seller and the other buyer(s).
Making misleading statements
It is illegal to mislead buyers or sellers in any way. Specifically, you must not give misleading information about:
Offers for a particular property, or invent bids
The existence or status of any potential buyer.
A statement that is factually true might be presented in a misleading way. You must take care to avoid this.
Examples of misleading statements:
You cannot claim to have first time or cash buyers, unless you can show why you think this is true.
You cannot advertise or claim that you have potential buyers, unless you can prove that this is true.
Negligence
Negligence is where something is done without the usual or expected standard of care or skill which causes some damage or injury to people or property. A case of negligence has three essential elements:
A duty of care must be owed: if one can reasonably foresee that if they are careless in carrying out a work role another will suffer loss, injury or damage. A duty of care is owed to all sellers and buyers or prospective buyers.
There must be a breach of that duty: if the work is not carried out to a reasonable standard. In this instance, that is the standard of an ordinary, competent estate agent which may be determined by codes of conduct.
There must be damage, harm or loss caused as a result of that breach: this may include physical damage to people or property, economic loss (e.g. providing an extremely inaccurate market appraisal) or psychological damage where this amounts to a medically recognised illness (e.g. depression).
If negligence occurs, the party harmed by the negligence will be able to recover damages. The aim of which is to put the party in the position they would have been in had the negligence not occurred.
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My understanding is that your vendor client can authorise you, the agent, to report offers to him/her only once they have been suitably qualified and chain details verified. Fire that back at offers from PB clients and see how they get on!
The penny will surely drop
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No offer should be recommended until the chain is totally checked and qualified. As PB is obviously a barrier to this happening they are, ultimately, victims of their own broken model. THE THING IS THEY DON’T GIVE A SH*T AS THEY HAVE ALREADY BEEN PAID!!
This is just the beginning. Proper agents just need to hang on in there as “once bitten twice shy”
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We have had a few terrible experiences when PB was involved in a sales chain and it is becoming more and more frequent that problems occur. Our sales progressor, who is an ex solicitor herself, has very strong opinions on just how bad or non existent their aftersales care is. We will always comply with legislation and put all offers forward to our vendors however we would place any PB sellers in a high risk category with regards to safety of chain and potential fall through therefore we advise our clients accordingly. We would not be doing our job correctly if we did not advise our clients of the best all round package in offer, chain and buyer.
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The seller and his/her agent has a duty of care to make aware to any party anything that may effect the sale/purchase of the property.
I would say that an agent is merely being responsible by advising a buyer that based on previous experience with said agent it is in all probability likely that the transaction will encounter problems down the track.
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This is the question.
“A post on a public forum has raised a seller’s concern that if he uses Purplebricks to sell his home, he will not be allowed on the books of a high street agent to buy through them”.
You can come up with all sorts of reason why any agent has poor service and wouldn’t want them in a chain. But can you block a buyer from getting to a property you have for sale? NO unless that seller has given specific instructions to you and the chances that every vendor on your books has asked for this …. come on!
As suggested if the buyer then puts a note through the vendors door … say goodbye to claiming any commission and it wouldn’t take long for word to get around.
Don’t let the mist of disliking PB for whatever reason you have cloud your judgement, you will get into an awful trouble. Suck it up, just as you do with non-on line agents. I’ve lost count of the amount of poor after service from many agents (and conveyancers) over the years and I even remember a certain Countrywide manager tried this on several years ago with clients, one vendor recounted he was confronted with the manager blocking the door to get out of the agents office. Result .. we have sold all his families and friends properties for years.
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Oh, dear.
Although the poster’s comments reads, as has been previously stated, contrived and false, and it is their first post on there, it appears that he has been an MSE Forum member for three years – which is a long time to keep your powder dry if you’re only there to stir up bother or try to make PB sound like the injured party.
There is only one way to look at this – factually and correctly in line with the applicable laws (Estate Agents Act 1979 and revisions, CPRs 2008, etc) and also those ‘rules’ that Agents have agreed to sign up to and agree to laid down by their chosen Redress Scheme/Ombudsman.
It is an offence not to put forward an offer for a property – regardless of the amount; the position of the prospective buyer; or the circumstances which dictate the offer’s validity, or to any way discriminate buyers in a way that would contravene any of the many applicable criteria.
Now “which Agent a buyer is using” does not, as far as I can see, breach any of those criteria. Who knows – maybe this will trigger calls for an amendment to the current, extensive, list – but today, having a Purple board outside your door don’t tick any of the boxes.
But the fact is, the offer must be submitted. In writing. Within 24 hours (by the rules I was brought up to follow) – but 2 working days, according to TPOS – which frankly amazes me!).
ONLY IF the Vendor has specifically instructed that ‘certain offers’ are not to be submitted can this requirement be disregarded – however those conditions cannot breach any Legal requirement as outlined above.
For the Agent involved to allegedly act in the manner stated is frankly appalling. PurpleBricks are many things – but their customers are simply potential customers of someone’s if and when they sell their current homes – or when they don’t… as a very recent ‘audit’ I undertook of 100 historic (10 months and older) properties showed that 19% of them had in fact went on to be sold by other Agents.
People. Just because certain others disregard the rules – don’t lower yourselves to their levels. Do the job right. Every time.
It is one of the real differentiators we can claim.
Sermon over. Hit the ‘Dislikes’ if you wish – but only if you disagree with following the rules of our industry.
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My word are you feeling ok?
This is actually a fairly reasonable response to the article.
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Sorry, dom-boy – you’ll need to draw a better picture than that shabby effort.
Are you somewhy surprised that I stand for decency, honesty, fair play – and for the good of my industry and the customers we serve?
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Exactly. Integrity is like virginity. Once it’s lost, you can’t regain it.
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Very very weird analogy in this context.
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It’s a perfect analogy, dom-boy. But how’s about this one if you prefer:
“Once a bubble is burst, it’s burst.”
There are many more, of course – but they steer away from the main thrust that honesty is paramount to a working relationship in my industry. I always tell prospective customers that if they can’t trust me to be honest with them on the first meeting then they shouldn’t expect me to be honest with them at all – and that they therefore shouldn’t instruct me as their Agent.
So pulling it back in line, here’s a few ‘honesty analogies and wise words:
“A lie – however little – can’t be untold.”
or…
“A half truth is a whole lie.”
or – and I personally like this one…
“Every lie is two lies — the lie we tell others and the lie we tell ourselves to justify it.”
And, of course, as Jimmy Cricket would say…
And there’s more!
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It’s ok, save your time pasting a load of analogies, I think most get the jist, albeit in a rather creepy way.
Also PeeBee don’t you say never to trust estate agents as they all lie?????????
Here is the Quote
PeeBee: “Don’t ask a homeowner who is selling, OR an Estate Agent – they have a vested interest in telling you what you want to hear”
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“Also PeeBee don’t you say never to trust estate agents as they all lie?????????”
Nope – not me. Never have.
Have another go, dom-boy. This time try to be accurate… factual… or just somewhere on the map – if possible.
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The comments here are genuinely disconcerting. Many agents living up to their reputation of being dishonest and unprincipled.
Spin it in whichever way you wish to, but it is not in your vendor’s interest to disallow a potential buyer from viewing the property or to not pass on an offer simply based on who they’ve instructed.
It is a petty – and ineffective – way of facing competition. And of course, you would clearly be breaching Trading Standards and TPO regulation. The fact that so many here condone this says a lot about our industry. Pretty sad.
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I agree. Sad that our industry has such an unhealthy obsession with online agents. The reason they have gained any traction is because of the poor service traditional agents offer, generally speaking.
In the absence of difference people will choose the cheapest.
Of course I’m not happy about the codswollop they say that’s completely untrue but I encounter just as much BS from local high street agents. Sure the GP laugh there heads off when we start accusing PB of telling lies!
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PB have effective sales control processes in the same way that Afghanistan has a successful commercial airline industry, you’ve planned a round the world trip flying Virgin, then KLM, Air France, Ryanair, Jet2, AfghanAir, American and Emirates, which link in that chain causes buttocks to clench?
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Has anyone actually tried to offer on a PB listing?
My thought is because their business model doesn’t support the vendor then technically you could really screw the vendor on price either at negotiation, after survey or gazunder before exchange.
In fact a property expect (such as we have on this forum) could outmanoeuvre and outsmart any vendor using PB, you could identify the more desperate vendors and really screw them to the ground.
The fact that most if not all of you wouldn’t take such a mercenary approach, simply because you inherently live by a higher moral standard it doesn’t mean someone wont catch on to PB’s glairing market weakness.
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dom-boy and ducky. Please comment on the following:
“Our ‘agent’ ignored messages from potential viewers, and it wasn’t until I contacted their Head Office that he actually got back in touch with me. Our eventual buyer contacted me at the property because our agent hadn’t responded to her messages!”
“I’m very upset with the after sale experience, I’ve waited 2 weeks for communication re continuing with sale, still no phone call.”
“If you have a problem or a complaint it is a faceless shocking organisation.”
“Got no feedback from the viewings he did for me and did not check validity of offer rec’d in Dec that buyer wanted to move in Feb. Now in June and sale has just fallen through.”
“If the regional director acts like this the ‘estate agents’ can basically act as badly.”
“Then the evening before i got a e mail ( not even a phone call!) saying the viewing is cancelled as the property sold. I sent a e mail asking how this was possible and stating as a cash buyer i would likely offer above the asking price. They never replied! Awful experience from my point of view! Also worth noting that they undersold the house so cant see how they work for the seller either!”
“We viewed a property with a Purplebricks employee. That same evening I submitted feedback and began dialogue with the Purplebricks rep through the messaging system. Not being familiar with the system, I asked the rep to submit an offer to the vendor on our behalf. She simply ceased messaging me!… I have emailed Purplebricks ‘Contact Us’ twice since then. Each time I receive responses from different people telling me they will contact the vendor and get back to me regarding my offer. What a joke – made an offer on 12 May and heard absolutely nothing further.”
“Had to go through 3 ageeed sales with purplebricks, each one failed, 2 of the so called buyers disappeared without a trace after weeks of going through the sale process. LPE useless and the call centre useless. Paid my fees after 10 months and changed to a local agent, hey presto first sale agreed has just completed.”
I’m looking forward to your responses.
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These are disappointing examples of a small percentage of clients who haven’t had the level of service they expect.
Unfortunately when you have a scale of a firm of this size there is invariably a small minority which may be dissatisfied.
Any social media feed of large organisations will have a littering of complaints, clients who are satisfied don’t need to comment on social media, they can leave a review on Trustpilot.
Yes you have issues with the way reviews are collected and disagree with some of the verification processes, however a 89% 5 star rating is impressive by any means.
Picking 10 negative comments when they have 10s of thousands of clients is just a pointless excerisce and doesn’t demonstrate anything.
Do you really think the LPEs wish to offer a poor service?
Do you really think these LPEs, the majority who are long standing estate agents want to leave properties unsold?
You need to be less blinkered and more logically objective.
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“Picking 10 negative comments when they have 10s of thousands of clients is just a pointless excerisce and doesn’t demonstrate anything.”
Actually, dom-boy, these were comments ‘picked’ (I’ll give you that much – but only as they were relevant to this actual ‘conversation’) from 1-star reviews (that have SO FAR* managed to dodge the now infamous PurpleBricks #NUKE_SQUAD) that have been posted on Trustpilot in the last 2 weeks. I only just brushed the top of page three – there are FORTY FIVE MORE PAGES – best part of 900 other 1-star reviews – to scroll through… PLUS THE COUNTLESS HUNDREDS that have been #NUKED over the last four years – a good deal of which I have screenshots, and a great deal more we have the comments saved to file.
“Do you really think these LPEs, the majority who are long standing estate agents…”
Define “majority”. I think your and my understanding of that word is different.
Define “long standing”. Again, our individual interpretations of the phrase appear to be essentially in opposition.
“You need to be less blinkered and more logically objective.”
I would respectfully suggest that I couldn’t be less “blinkered and logically objective” if I tried, dom-boy – and that it is yourself that should be taking notice of those very words.
“Unfortunately when you have a scale of a firm of this size there is invariably a small minority which may be dissatisfied.”
That’s complete b0110cks, Sir – and you know it. Which is the main part of your undoing – but you just can’t help yourself.
When you have what you describe as “a firm of this size” it is only what you describe as “the small minority” that are predominantly vocal.
Look at Virgin… M&S… John Lewis… BMW… to name just a few. Names that are infinitely more ‘household’ than PurpleBricks… and of a size that PB can only dream to hope to aspire to being on the shirt tails of.
They all score abysmally on TrustPilot. Only one of those has less than 50% 1-star ratings.
Jeez – even Bentley get a cr@p score – and they’ve only attracted four reviews of which 75% are single-star!
You’re seriously preaching to the wrong congregation, dom-boy – because this congregation believe in the real truth and the real light.
And trying to play down me or anyone else just ain’t gonna win – for every one of the reasons above and a whole host of others that you’ll never be able to comprehend.
But here’s something you need to know. Something you’ve clearly never taken the time to learn or understand. I offer it freely and without obligation for you to digest it – but I strongly suggest you do just that – as I believe in the spirit of fairness.
What you have failed to factor in is that your agenda is driving you down a single track – which leads to YOUR gain – however short-term. You don’t give a rats’ to anyone or anything else other than that. In that respect, you’re a one-trick pony with a gammy leg and mange. MY agenda is not to for the benefit of one single company – instead I’m crusading for the entity that is ‘the property industry’… and equally for its customers present and future.
In that one respect we’re very different animals – built for different uses, but running the same race that I’ve trained for now for four decades. Your problem being I’m the (metaphorical) thoroughbred in comparison to what the real dinosaurs of the industry reading this will remember being aptly described by Eli Pledge as a “knock-kneed knackered old nosebag” in an episode of ‘Nearest and Dearest’.
This ain’t tortoise and hare, pal. You ain’t cunning – that you’ve managed to prove to us all, time and time again. You’re profit-driven.
It always undoes you in the end.
But – keep up the attempt. I’m kinda enjoying the gentle practice… but to be honest I need a new… bigger… challenge than you, ducky – or anything currently out there being chucked into the room like some kind of lit firework begging to be wazzed on.
Do you think your #Purple_Pals have got a better nag to roll out next? Or a bigger banger?
I can but hope…
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Wonder who the thumbs down came from? Someone who has finally run out of ammunition perhaps? I would say run out of insults but he’s too busy spreading those around on twitter. If anyone has not seen his feed yet (@dompritch1), I recommend a quick peak, it will cheer you up no end.
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dompritch134 ……
Do you really think the LPEs wish to offer a poor service? Answer: They aren’t bothered, They would be working for nothing and it gets in the way of trying to mange the listings which is all they get paid from. They haven’t the hours in the day, according to PB listing figures.
Do you really think these LPEs, the majority who are long standing estate agents want to leave properties unsold? Answer: They have no incentive or commitment to give two hoots (or the listing or the eventual sale price is). If they were that good before, they wouldn’t have left …. more a case of an easy life, it certainly is than being in the high street.
You need to be less blinkered and more logically objective. Answer: Said this before, were you looking in the mirror when you posted this!
As for PeeBee only picking 10 negative comments, there are many, many more and any numskull can see the point well made. They mislead people with their marketing and Trust Pilot ratings and you defend come what may, which is very strange behaviour for a no-body. I’m glad he didn’t post them all, I want my tea.
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Contrived post – real clients don’t post like that.
There is a difference between refusing to:
A) Register them as an applicant. Many agencies only hold small databases of proceedable and desirable buyers
B) Put their offer forward. This is a requirement.
C) Recommend their position to the vendor. This is good practice, the agent prepresents the vendor, and if the buyer has undermined their position by balancing on the shoulders of a weak service then they are to expect to be downgraded by the vendor when considering their ability to complete.
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there was a guy on the news just, bemoaning the recent TSB shut down, he was scammed during it and tried to sort it when they came back to normal, he couldn’t understand why you couldn’t get anybody on the phone easily and if you could nobody who could solve a problem, made me think of this thread
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