OnTheMarket tight-lipped on claim that it has given critical agent a month to quit

OnTheMarket has declined to comment on claims that an agent has been given a month’s notice to leave the portal.

James Pendleton, with nine branches in London, had been given a free trial.

But chief executive Lee Pendleton told trade publication The Negotiator that it was unlikely his firm would pay to list on the portal when the trial ended, although meanwhile it was happy to benefit from trying out its service for free.

Pendleton later told the publication that the day after his comments appeared, he received an email saying that after a month his firm will be removed from OTM.

Pendleton described the move as a “bit vindictive” and said that his observation had been candid. He said he had been on the verge of signing up to another free year with the portal.

OTM told us: “We cannot comment on individual contractual matters.”

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6 Comments

  1. smile please

    Well they may as well give all free agents 30 days notice. Penedletons only saying how others feel.

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  2. NotAdoctor32

    Not one agent I’ve spoken with about it intends to start paying after the free trial.

    Why all the For smile-please?

     

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  3. Bless You

    On market proving their brand is worthless while rightmove is still number 1.

    CEO needs to leave. Why aren’t the shareholders asking him to go?

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  4. GPL

     
    It’s disheartening that OTM simply appears to have settled down into its 3rd Portal position.
     
    The reality is this …..I served my notice with OTM, leaving in January 2020. I’m a long served Estate Agent who clearly wanted OTM V1 to succeed, was then forcibly locked into OTM V2 which drove an enormous wedge between an original member like me and OTM.
     
    Yet… Yet….. I may well have set aside OTM’s poor treatment of me as a forcibly locked in member and remained …..if I saw clear signs that they were listening, adapting, reacting, changing, driven etc…. however, can anyone show me evidence that OTM has not simply created a static Portal No 3?
     
    The evidence is this …..OTM V2 is simply floating in virtual water, waiting for……?
     
    Just imagine if all the dinosaurs in the OTM V2 Management Bunker actually changed strategy/marketing & gave agents a real Portal to get behind.
     
    OTM V2 is Brigadoon – unless/until it takes a deep breath, looks in the mirror, wakes up & decides to really rip up the portal world …..it’s a lifeless virtual thing …..that is failing to deliver what so many agents want/wanted – an Advertising Portal that we all want to be part of.
     
    With Rightmove forever playing the cackling Witch, how could OTM fail to rescue us?
     
    ………Answers on the back of a fag packet & throw in the nearest bin! ……as OTM V2 won’t bother reading them & learning how to change their dreary path.      
     
     

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  5. Woodentop

    So he milked the free period for all its worth and now he refuses to pay like everyone else, cries!  
     
    So what is his service for his customers, that is better than his competitors, for them to choose his agency? Putting affordability a side, an agent on one web site or multiple web sites and one that lists before the other ones? A string to a bow that is ignored and cannot be used at potential listing and brand service to customers/public perception and portal costs well under half of a new instruction a month. But then some agents can’t see themselves getting an extra listing per month and trundle through the normal low key, half hearted attempt with a potential vendor, offering nothing better than the competitors.

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    1. 1TB

      Why would an agent not milk a free uncontracted to pay offer?  Makes total business sense. As for OTM listing before the others, this is just comical.  It’s just a gimmick, volumes of such properties are clearly low.  And what are the odds on one of the few visitors OTM get vs RM/Z, on getting a listing which matches the visitors needs in the area they are looking for, and them seeing it before it appears on other portals – nearing zero.  Certainly not something for an agent to pay £100’s for each month.

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