“I came away from Ocean feeling patronised and condescended to ......”
1 Star Review
Oct 11,2013
By:
'Paul'
Oct 11,2013
Branch: Bristol, 201 Gloucester Road
Services: Lettings (Prospective customer)
Would you recommend?: No
Postcode: BS6
Branch: Bristol, 201 Gloucester Road
Lettings (Prospective customer)
Postcode: BS6
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people found
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I came away from Ocean feeling patronised and condescended to by their staff. There was a distinct lack of clarity at every stage of the process and communication from them regarding whether or not we had been agreed to take a house was not good. There also seemed to be vastly too many prospective viewings for the properties that we saw, (the second had 20 viewings that morning) so not only were we rushed through our viewing, but also needed to queue with five other parties, (and we were one of the first to put down a holding fee) to apply. This seems to be overkill as surely a landlord doesn't need to choose from 20 sets of suitable applicants and their policy to then deposit all of your holding fees into their own bank account makes this process seem somewhat circumspect. We were, after all, only one of 20 potential applicants, (5 sets of which definitely put down a holding fee), for one property of possibly dozens on their books. At £400 each, that's a significant amount of money. When we asked whether any of us were smokers i said that I might have an occasional cigarette in the pub on the weekend but never smoke at home which the agent insisted made me a full time smoker and that she had to put it on the form. She did this for both properties we applied for despite my express wishes for her not to, something which I'm sure contributed to us not securing either property. We are all professionals on good salaries in our late 20's to early 30's and had no feedback as to why we had not been accepted on either property or what else we could do to help future applications.
It's a real shame as they have numerous awards, however, after talking to some of our friends it seems they have had similar experiences. I would definitely not use them again.
What agent could do to change your mind?
- Greater clarity and communication regarding where the process was at.
- More polite and less pedantic staff.
- Greater clarity over exactly when the holding fee would be returned to us.
- Fewer viewings for properties with some minimal feedback if rejected.
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