Ombudsman to draw Purplebricks’ attention to use ‘Sold’ only after properties exchange

Everything is done wrong by this company to con & mislead all. I’ve just printed off the Fixed Fees Bill & it is £933, so there ya go.

Five star service for a fair fixed fee of £849
We provide a full estate agency service at a low cost because we’ve removed the expensive offices and fleets of cars that you see with traditional agents. Our one-off fee is payable when you instruct us but you can defer it for up to 10 months when you use our conveyancing service or until your property sells, whichever is sooner. If you don’t sell within 10 months we’ll continue to market your property until it does without asking you for more money. We think this is much simpler and fairer than paying a commission upon completion because, with us, you know exactly what will be charged from the start. We can also take care of viewings for you for just £300 but many of our customers prefer to do it themselves, we’d rather give you the choice.
What a load of lies this is what I have underlined above.

I had an Offer, it was initially on-line as SOLD Subject to Contract, but pretty quickly after that, it was put up as SOLD & taken off on-line, nearly 6 months on, the Sale fell through, but Joe Public didnt even know it was still on the market, cos PB took it off the Market on a basis of a Mortgage Agreed in Principle. Anyone can get a one of those but means nothing at all. So now what? Local Agent I had to tell via email. I will look into it tomorrow. That was 9days ago. PB last month already sent a reminder the Fee amount was due. Disgusting. For a property they have not got on Sale, nor have done for months now, taken down without even asking, just did it on a Mortgage in Principle  basis that is a load of rubbish. So I have read into their own web page & info more closely & what a shock they have given me, on-line for me to see as a Seller, but I also looked on as well, as a Buyer too.

On my web page it still has PROPERTY SOLD, 12days after it fell through & till chasing up on things & getting no-where. Nothing done at all. I looked as a Buyer to see if my property is on Sale cos it should be. 5x properties on sale in the area I live. Not x1 was my property. Not x1. Contradicts the underlined garbage in their Fixed Fee Statement, so never mind about misleading about fees, it is everything they say here in that one statement alone, & I have more on this statement of lies above.

Our one off fee can be deferred to the 10months after you instruct us. I made an app on 3rd Jan. He came back to take photos later in the month. My property didnt go up on-line till, 30th Jan, that was 4wks later, but has been started on the 3rd Jan on my 10months payment defer that also isn’t told to the customer it is that way, even though again it has but really how can it be classed as instructed from when App’s for phot etc has to be done the a page set up etc, taking time but really is using that time to take your service away from you? Very, very, underhand & misleading as well. It was 4wks for me. Again another misleading statement & way of providing a service that you not getting, just lesser than, is exactly what you getting. Not of any interest in any manner to the customer, & that’s at the kick-off. All that is practiced is to get the money  off pepple & give the customer the lesser the better, so my 10months went to pretty much 9months straight away. Disgusting. I didnt get that cos was taken off, for a non starter wasn’t it? But the worst is to still be said. I’m still within the 10months & the Local Agent never got back to say, or ask, or do anything, cos I have it all here to show it is not even on the market & haven’t got to the time of paying. So What the Hell have I Paid for then? But now we have the other issue of how they use a third party you have to pay & not them, using your Credit Card as back-up payment. Many say so what, doesn’t matter, even though customers are not informed of this. For me it is far from ok & I didn’t mind using my Card. I have to sell my property through divorce. So when told to pay up now or delay, I was put into a bit of a I need to go to the cheapest to try salvage as much as I can, but mainly why should I fork out when it was to be paid by two people here. But never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be in a disgusting worse place than I was when I started in all this. Cos the Solicitor initially was to pay the fees/bills etc. from the Sale.  But it’s now fell through, so NO equity to pay the fees/bills, is there? They,ve done their job. Not their role anymore is it? The third party lenders don’t know me from Adam, nor are they interested, nor do they care, either? They want their money. I’ve been told that if I haven’t paid in full by the 2nd they will use my credit card they were given by PB as back-up payment & take it all off me by the 7th. My Ex wont talk to me, so how is that position right or fair for me, then? Not only am I being charged for a sale not on sale, but in full cos nobody cares, nor takes responsibility, & I wasn’t told of the way a third party lender is the one’s who want that money. So to those who say you haven’t read this or that or shopped about etc, it’s being taken advantage of as well when in predicaments, & being totally mislead, not had a service, not even anything towards anything that I’m paying for within this 10months Service Agreement still not at it’s end yet. “Service Agreement?” Where in that is there a Service or an Agreement for me & my situation? There’s a Court Order to sell the house. So who is not doing what should be done here, cos it can be looked at that way, so whose head would that be on then? Shocking. But look at the situation in the financial side of it that I am now gonna be in, & how much will that cost to get my half back cos it will have to be on a legal level & it’svtaken from a Credit Card so the interest is big & I was never to be paying in full for tye fee, so why am I then & no-one taking any responsibility for the Court Order & how ot should work. PB, hs No anything on yhir site on when it falls through or goes wrong, nothing in place, no-one wants to even bother with you not even Im sorry you lost the Sale. Nothing at all. Disgusting.  I don’t know either, cos again no-one has got back to me, if the same will happen with the Lawyers fees, cos I haven’t been spoken to  by anyone to be told or even asked? Many calls to  get this & again my bills for all the hanging on lines & wasting my life sitting in all day waiting for someone to call, knowing there is no intention or a procedure to follow up o to call. Just Ignore. Simply nothing, nor given the decency to be spoken to, so  can be given a time & place to have a voice. They need to be stopped from trading as far as I’m concerned. But what I found the worst was, what many won’t realise. That’s because you have to a Seller to see this. It is downright blatant falsifying, conning crap. When Selling you have a Property Performance Report, updates everytime you go on. It’s logging total utter lies. So when people say PB aren’t doing this or that & they say but we are, here is the proof, it is that they are more than likely showing as there statistics that contradicts bad complaints saying only so many in the country at any one time?

It states my property has been on the market for 264days. But it hasn’t. It isnt on the market. My other page also says, PROPERTY Sold. It aint on their sales pages either for my area, so how has that figure arose? It was from the 30th Jan, that’s all. That is not correct but further down the line the audit trail looks pretty dam good doesn’t it, & do they care? Like hell they do, cos they got paid for nothing & conning all with the figures anyway. The whole Performance Report is clocking up numbers & it is not true? Like how many saw my property on advert views etc. in the past 7days? 194 it states on there but never been on the market for months now for anyone to view it at all. So luk at how much from one customer these figures are clocking up total utter lies. From one customer, 194 views in 7day when it aint on-line to be seen nor has it for months now & on their Sellers other Page, PROPERTY SOLD, on another, SOLD SUBJECT TO COTRACT. IT IS NOT SOLD NOR HAS A BUYER EITHER.  Load of rubbish, cos it isn’t on to view , NOT FOR ONE SINGLE SOLE. So just what is not in view but just not taken off fully here, or some kind of way that’s doing this. ? BUT CLEVER? Cos these figures can’t be true at all about everything in the Report. Is this how this company gets their figures to proove how good they are & proof & audit trails, etc. when the third party, after not telling customers at the start of company set up/ways of practice, was a blatant way to take money, set up that away cos if it wasn’t, why are they doing it for? Would be no need? It’s a way to get money whether they do the job, or not, really? It doesn’t matter, cos they get paid for not even doing the service and for making numbers in performance reports back up what they getting paid for. If ever there is a mega bad way to trade I found it today & many wouldn’t see that, cos only Sellers can, so Joe Public isn’t seeing that, cos specifically directed to the Seller only. Getting away with it time & Time again, covering themselves yet always having an answer. Audit Trail based on initial Sales only, regardless of what has gone on in that Sale Thats how it is being done. Thats how they have done this. But like most of Us, we couldn’t care less how many had a look on-line, blar, blar, blar. It’s the Sale we want. They could do it at a cheaper price if didnt set that up, cos mostly who cares, it means nothing, & dusnt get a buyer, or  get it on the market, either does it? It’s all there. Nd that’s why that is done so they can win wen all they get paid for, loose, & sadly for many thousands & they created it for many too. There is so much more I can state but it is a little confidential, but can be made into why wasn’t that picked up on, or questioned? Cos if it did, it may not have got to this? But it aint about the people, its about do that & this, & collect the money, & it doesn’t matter what goes on for either side? Sadly there is nothing to help the ever increasing sales that fall through nowadays, & for some, the chain is continuous. Someone is making money outer people consistently loosing. Money sadly is being generated from loss & these dont care even when people do? Cos for me, everything is a total contradictory outcome to the simplest of these advertised blatant, lies, cos it aint what has happened for me? Things happen? Things go wrong? But to do nothing when it does in all manners it can be incorrect? Yet at same time making figures appear the opposite but in a vast amount.                                                                 If not sold when 10months is Up, it states? I think it is a disgusting way to trade, because it is such a big thing in life for people & can come from many hardships or loss & makes a stressful occurrence, so bad, costly, & for some troublesome & can cost more cos legal agenda can arise, & these are taking advantage of some in vulnerable positions, yet are desperate to not loose anymore, cos if it goes wrong for me thats exactly what will happen, cos they have no intention of doing a job given money for doing it, never mind helping or just sorting anything out.

This practice that is happening is very bad, in many ways for some. So not looking into anything is not what is happening here to people that is creating the issues, but done in so many incorrect ways, with not the right performance outcomes as in the statistice & performance rates at all. By hundreds at any one time for just one seller let alone cpollectively. That ois so bad. Its real bad practice.