Dear ‘NIGHTMARE' / James McLaughlin MA Hons,

Thank you for your ridiculous review that we will go into detail shortly, and I'm sure some legal body will be in touch regarding your unsubstantiated, yet comical points. Firstly let's deal with the timeline of events leading up to your review.

8/5/18 - You enquire about one of our properties

8/5/18 - We responded via email advising that this specific property fits your criteria and do you wish to book a viewing?

8/5/18 @ 18.34pm - You respond saying that a viewing would be good and enquired about what financial information you need to provide

9/5/18 @ 9:44am - we book you in for a viewing and attached the application form advising what you are required to provide

SEEMS LIKE FAIRLY GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE SO FAR...

9/5/18 @ 1pm - you ask that the appointment be put on hold as it is going to take you some time to fill in our application pack

9/5/18 @ 19.48pm - you state that you cannot provide a particular crucial part of the application form and that you will need to look elsewhere

At this point you are then marked as inactive on our system as you had advised us that you would not be proceeding.

11/5/18 - you come into our office out of the blue to discuss the property you were initially interested in and spoke to myself, Craig Johnston. At this point you were made aware that the property in question had now been taken off of the market as someone had went through the referencing process rather swiftly with no quibbles. They filled out the application form, provided COMPLETE references and the Landlord accepted them, all without the need to come into our 'pokey office'.

I made you aware of another property that would suit you, showed you a 360 degree tour of the property and you said you liked it and we proceeded to look at the paperwork you had brought in.

You provided a 'credit check' as worthy as the attached as it was a print out of only one page, with a colourful graph yet your name and any form of identification to you or anyone was lacking. I advised that if you log in and show me that the report is yours then i will initial it as proof that it is yours, as on the current print out I cannot. You declined as you weren't able to at that point. You proceeded to show me a hand written cash book, and whilst there is nothing wrong with that for book keeping, i requested your most recent self assessment, which is a TRUE indication of your earnings as I'm sure you can understand that what you write in a book isn't as significant as what has been proofed / authorised by HMRC. At this point you started packing up your documents and said ‘there is no point' as you are not going to get the property. I distinctly remember asking you to give me the information to pass onto the Landlord for a decision, and again you said ‘what's the point'. I then asked 'well why did you come in here'? 'You came in for a property so let me put the documentation to the Landlord'. You somewhat smiled again and said there was no point and left our ‘pokey office'.

Now let's analyse your review...

*** 'Customer service... Zero' ***
You enquired after hours (close of business) about the process. The next morning you were furnished with the application form. You walked into our office unannounced with incomplete documentation, and i took about 20-30 minutes out of my day to guide you into providing easily accessible verifiable information, in order to help you try and find a property subject to a Landlords approval. I wonder where within that timeline a zero is justified. You basically wasted everyone's time, including myself, walking into our 'pokey office' with incomplete paperwork, and an inability to accept that we need FORMAL references for identity checks and to comply with money laundering regulations etc. Our customer service was above and beyond considering you failed to follow the process. I would say that you have 'ZERO' understanding on current legislation etc. No agent worth their salt would accept you as a tenant with what you were able to provide. However i wish you all the luck in securing a property in the near future, obviously not with ourselves as we only put forward eligible candidates. I thought you said we were 'only interested in money'. Perhaps someone else will be INTERESTED in your money as we are not.

*** 'Money grabbers looking for six weeks dosh up front' ***
I'm unsure if you have read the application form or not. Well clearly not seen as you waltzed into our office with incomplete references. Had you read the application form you would see that the 'six weeks dosh up front', although not written in that way is actually your deposit... WHICH IS LODGED IN A SCHEME!!! You also have the option of paying a months deposit, HAD YOU BOTHERED TO READ THE FORM!!! In terms of all of our tenancies, the vast majority pay a six weeks deposit, of which we have had no complaints, and if someone wasn't prepared to pay that, then they don't need to and can look elsewhere. Perhaps you should've done that instead of going back and forth on a bogus review.

*** 'A criteria list as long as your arm and sniffy about hard earned cash' ***
Thank you for this compliment. We are responsible for enormously expensive assets, and the persons in which we put forward to fill them. I'm not sure what 'sniffy about hard earned cash' means; however had it been in the form acceptable to money laundering regulations such as HMRC, perhaps we wouldn't have been as 'sniffy'.

*** A bad experience subject to interrogation in their pokey office ***
I guess we can agree on this point as i wasted 20-30 minutes trying to help you and you just walked away wasting my time, the Landlords time, our staffs time and your own. Plus i don't understand how i could 'interrogate' someone with references that were inconsistent, and unverified. I think Landlords would be happy that we do not put forward people such as you to be even considered for a tenancy. Our 'pokey' office has served our staff and our clients well over the years. Perhaps if your references weren't of the same insulting nature we wouldn't be doing this yet again whereby i have to take time out my day servicing our landlords and tenants to respond to this mundane nonsense.

*** Typical money grabbers only interested in money ***
I think we've covered this in the form that we are interested in protecting our landlord's assets at a level that is fair and reasonable to all parties in the form of either a 4 weeks deposit or that of a six weeks deposit that is transferred to a deposit scheme for holding throughout the duration of a tenancy. However you clearly failed to read the documentation.

*** 'Nightmare avoid' ***
Your statement doesn't make sense on so many levels, however I have deciphered it, and i would state that we would be looking to avoid potential tenants such as yourself and have done, so therefore we have fulfilled our remit to our Landlords on who is put forward for consideration.

*** 'And to landlords some good clients steamrollered by this mob of cowboys' ***
Again your statement doesn't make sense on so many levels. As per the above response, i feel that we have carried out our remit by not putting you forward for any of our properties. Had we been a 'mob of cowboys' we would have accepted your unverified references and fast tracked you into a property if we were also 'money grabbers', yet you find yourself without one of our properties writing this 'review', so I think that answers that statement.

Comment on agent fees;

*** Robbers ***
This statement is as mundane and redundant as your whole ‘review' and just epitomises the holes in this bogus piece. LETTING AGENTS CANNOT CHARGE TENANTS FEES IN ANY FORM!!! Maybe if you had educated yourself on this prior to your ‘review', again we wouldn't be in this place where your NAME, and ‘insights' are free to view in the public domain.

We wish you all the best in your search of a property and would perhaps suggest trying a private Landlord, as under the new AGENT CODE OF PRACTICE, no agent can put you forward for a property based on what you are willing to provide. However I think private Landlords would also question what you have to offer.

The Directors of Lomond Letting Ltd BA Hons, PGCE, PhD.