There was fury yesterday after Rightmove announced its deferred payment option for agents, while the founder of the portal called for the board to urgently reconsider.
While agents can defer £275 a month for six months, the money will then have to be repaid. Pressure had been building on Rightmove for a much more radical offer in the form of a payment holiday or a halving of charges.
Harry Hill, who founded Rightmove when he was CEO of Countrywide, said: “I have been an enormous admirer of the Rightmove business since being part of the Countrywide team.
“This initiative however appears to me to be grossly ill-considered at a time of high national concern over the health and wellbeing of its people and when agency will be hard pressed to prosper.
“I respectfully suggest that the board should urgently reconsider their position, or the weight of customer rebellion may become VERY uncomfortable – and when a rapid downward spiral starts…..ask Countrywide shareholders.”
On EYE yesterday we had an unprecedented number of comments.
A number of agents angrily threatened to give in notice, and some said they already just had.
Others simply expressed total rage and despair.
One agent posted: “Today I will start the closure of a branch and probably make 8-10 people redundant.
“But it’s okay. Rightmove will give me a tiny interest-free loan. Which I will need to pay back, right at the time that my cash flow is likely to be struggling the most.
“What a joke. I am so angry right now, it’s crazy.”
Industry trainer Sarah Edmundson said on social media that the “behemoth that is Rightmove might have made the largest strategic mistake in their history”.
One agent told Rightmove in an email: “Your offer is derisory and utterly lacking in empathy for the dire situation that the business of estate agency finds itself in.”
Another, a Cornish agent, told Rightmove: “This offer is a pure insult. You should be offering a six-month payment break with no requirement to pay back.
“You can afford it. We can’t.”
We’re giving notice to RM today as are a number of other agents have already done in our region (Coventry & Warwickshire). The beginning of the end for Rightmove, they’ve made a huge mistake and will suffer the consequences now.
I’d encourage all other business owners to now consider their position carefully.
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Good Move ED! We made this decision a year ago, also in Coventry. This has had no impact on our business to date. The beginning of the end i really do hope.
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yep swapping to OTM now.
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We handed in our notice yesterday, we’re more concerned with paying our staff than paying more into Rightmoves already overflowing coffers. Rightmove are on a totally different wavelength to everyone else and just don’t get it. Time to move away from them folks, we don’t need them as much as they need us.
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The comments made and offer given by RM is just simply Business Suicide. At a time when every single business from every sector is looking to make cuts/changes and those costs who have the least impact at this time, which can be RM, due to the very limited number of home movers, viewings and the amount of sales that will fall through, they will be the first to go. For most the costs is as much as one member of staff, who, will need this income more than RM. That member of staff will do everything they can in return to make sure the business they are in works and adapts. After all RM will be there when all this ends, begging for old customers to return anyway!
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…….and we perhaps overlook this
Those overpaid overlords that slumber comfortably in the cash lined towers of Rightmove? …….it’s NOT that they can’t see or hear Our Industry screaming about “a real helping financial hand” …….they just choose NOT TO LOOK OR TO LISTEN!
I suppose the multimillion pound salaries & share options easily outweigh the heavy coat of shame that should be welded to their backs.
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