Mashroom, the start-up property firm that bought Emoov out of administration earlier this year, has been reported to the advertising watchdog.
A complainant drew attention to claims on the home page.
These said: “Why emoov?”
Smaller text beneath stated: “We’ve got you covered when it comes to selling your home. Rated the UK’s No. 1 Hybrid Estate Agent for the past three years”.
Further down the page, under the heading “Why our customers love us”, was a carousel of Trustpilot reviews, some of which dated from January 2018.
Beneath that the page featured the Trustpilot and Google logos accompanied by emoov’s rating and the number of reviews it had acquired on those sites.
Estate Agency Insights and Strategies told the Advertising Standards Authority that emoov had only been trading in its current iteration since February 2019.
It challenged whether the following claims were misleading and could be substantiated:
1 “Rated the UK’s No.1 Hybrid Estate Agent for the past 3 years”;
2 the inclusion of Trustpilot reviews from prior to February 2019; and
3 the aggregated Trustpilot and Google review count and ratings, which included scores from prior to 2019.
A spokesperson for the ASA said: “We approached Mashroom with the concerns that had been raised. They provided an assurance that they would remove the claims.”
Yesterday emoov – which charges £895 – said on its home page that in 2018, customers saved £4.5m combined. It also showed how it was voted best online estate agent between 2015 and 2018 inclusively. Emoov, in its original format, was founded and owned by Russell Quirk before it went into administration last December.
You would have thought the new regime at Emoov would be seeking to put clear water from Headphones and the past
They currently have 204 properties listed for sale which means at least they have it up and running within 12 months so fair play to them
Putting it into context
Keller Williams Quirk’s latest home have been operating on these shores since 2014 have the grand total of 212 properties available nationwide
In Essex where he announced in September he has the franchise a property search reveals
We Couldn’t Find any Properties
Sorry but we don’t have any properties listed for sale in Essex within your search criteria.
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That being the case, the 204 vendors would be justified in tearing up the agency agreements as they were misled by the false claims.
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Yes you are right but shouldn’t imagine too many vendors were not aware of the history when instructing that there had been a regime change
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And their 180 Google reviews? https://www.google.com/search?q=emoov&oq=emoov&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l4j69i60.5058j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
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Erm… are the @ASA_UK – or Andrew Stanton – reading this?
As the article above states:
STILL displaying “awards” from 2018, 2017, 2016 and 2015.
STILL claiming “as seen on” the likes of CityAM -all the old soapbox pitches for The Quirkster’s MDT.
STILL displaying: “In 2018, Emoov customers saved £4.5 million* combined!”
That would be the “2018” before Mushroom popped up, would it…?
So basically – STILL trading under false pretences.
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Raised this situation here on EYE in March:
propertyindustryeye.com/emoov-buyer-mashroom-spells-out-its-business-model-ahead-of-launch/
at the same time I was also Tweeting the H£ll out of it to @ASA_UK
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