“One of the worse experiences of our lives selling with Connells...”
1 Star Review
Aug 19,2024
By:
'Emma'
Aug 19,2024
Branch: Southampton, 2 West End Road
Services: Sales (as a Vendor)
Sold price: £165000
Would you recommend?: No
Postcode: SO18
Branch: Southampton, 2 West End Road
Sales (as a Vendor)
Sold price: £165000
Postcode: SO18
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Sold our property though them and it was one of the worse experiences of our lives. Verbal agreements and prior discussions to signing with them were not honoured in the contract. After going through their compliance team and met with no resolution, our complaint is currently being reviewed by the property ombudsman. There is zero customer service or apologies for things that go wrong and if there are any delays or issues you will be met with the fact that when you sign a contact with them you are agreeing to pay their fee for completion of a sale only as it's not an SLA. Therefore you are not signing for an agreed level of service which basically means they can do whatever they want. Even management and Area Director's don't give a toss and was even told by one that we were making a mockery of their contracts. Connells are hard nosed and don't look at vendors as humans, but simply as a financial transaction, despite house moves being one of the most stressful experiences in peoples lives. We had to chase for feedback of which was always pretty vague, their vendor app never worked depsite asking numerous times for it to be resolved, we had to rewrite the description of our property, changed the photos on the advert and took better ones with a Samsung phone. Oh and be aware of their photographers who when you suggest photos for your property, you will likely be met with 'no that won't work' or when you make suggestions on a USP for your property for it to be ignored as what do you know? (You have only lived in the property for X number of years) As it turned out s requesting for a change in photos and layout ended up with the sale we needed. After being stuck in this contract with them and no way out to sell our property quickly (we had bought a I am Sold Auction property) we took matters in to our own hands and did the viewings ourselves. After Connells marketing the property for 6 weeks with 10 viewings and no offers, the 4 viewings we did ourselves resulted in 2 offers of which one we accepted. After questioning all of this with Connells their response is sorry you are unhappy but we did get you to completion....well after paying £2.5k they didn't really get to us completion on their own. They registered an applicant and we basically secured the buyer ourselves.
Please be warned about their tactics and their lack of transparency. The one saving grace was Adam who once we had an agreed sale was always amiable and friendly chasing up legal aspects. He is completely wasted in this toxic environment when it seems that the negotiators 'own' applicants, so don't be surprised when you call and want feedback, if you aren't talking to the negotiator who signed up the applicant you are unlikely to get any useful feedback.
We now have another property for sale and wouldn't touch a traditional agent with a bargepole and have signed up with purple bricks for £399. After learning that anyone can take photos, and do a floorplan plus your own viewings this is a considerable saving. We have been really impressed with the ease, speed and follow ups we have already recieved with an online agent compared to a traditional one. At he end of the day remember with Connells you are not signing a SLA, you are only signing to commit to paying their fees when you complete - regardless of how they perform until you get to that point. When you run into issues with them don't expect any apologies, or compensation with them, expect to be gas lit and blamed for not reading a contract properly.
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