“We had found a property we wanted to buy with ......”
1 Star Review
Oct 31,2013
By:
'Emotionally'
Oct 31,2013
Branch: Milton Keynes, 26A Fyfield Barrow, The Walnut Tree Local Centre
Services: Sales (as a Vendor)
Would you recommend?: No
Postcode: MK10
Branch: Milton Keynes, 26A Fyfield Barrow, The Walnut Tree Local Centre
Sales (as a Vendor)
Postcode: MK10
4
people found
this helpful
We had found a property we wanted to buy with Connells main office in CMK and as we hadn't yet advertised our property with anyone they offered us a discounted fee (because we were going to buy through them) to advertise it through them. So we said yes.
We had been dealing with people from the main CMK office, but to sell it went over to the Walnut Tree office (the other side of the city), with people we had never met or spoken to. Our experience and opinion at this time with Connells was that the lady who showed us round the house we wanted to buy, Bernie, was lovely and we hoped all staff would be like her.
Turns out..............really not. They couldn't have got further from being the total opposite of Bernie. (I must add that Bernie was new and then left the company within 3 weeks of us finding a house with Connells....clearly she came to her senses and figured out what an awful company she was working for).
So we had the manager of the Walnut tree office come round and quote (even though as it was a Housing association property they had to sell at the figure we had already been told to sell our % at).
He took photos and measured the rooms. Told us that once we were out of nomination period with the HA, it would be on rightmove/zoopla etc the very next day. Well it was however there was lots of errors and wrong information, so I spent the next week or so emailing and phoning asking them to change certain bits and having to chase when I was told it would be done then the next day nothing had changed.
From there it went totally downhill. We had signed up for a 6 week contract for them to sell and advertise it as a premium listing. In the 6 weeks we had maybe 3-4 viewings after constantly chasing every couple of days via emails and phone calls. At the time the manager came round to take the photos he had said they had a big list of clients waiting for apartments just like ours........then when they actually had our custom.......these people were no where to be seen!
Due to the pressures coming down on us from the seller who we had agreed an offer with on the house we would buy, we were getting really desperate to sell after 8 weeks with the HA advertising it (with ONE viewing in that time! I no its a free service they provide, that you have to take mind, but thats rediculous) then another 6 weeks with Connells apparently looking after it. I emailed the manager at the head branch of Connells in CMK and made complaints (yes more than one) regarding how completely rubbish and useless the Walnut tree branch was. His responses were he would chase up blah blah blah etc. Still nothing happened.
Towards the end of our 6 week contract, we sent them an email advising we were giving them the one/two weeks notice to leave the contract and go with someone else. If we hadn't of done that they could of tried to charge us an extra like £2k for going with multiple agencies, preposterous amount! So we made sure to do things by the book. We also said that they hadn't given us the premium listing we signed up for along with doing basically nothing for 6 weeks, so we wouldn't be paying them anything.
Their response? Absolutely nothing. They didn't contest it at all. They knew full well they had done bugger all for us and were in no position to argue otherwise!
So we left, went with Elevation and sold within the first week!
We are still (this all started in March 2013) trying to exchange and complete, lots of complications along the way, the biggest issue was caused by another part of Connells not warning us of complications that maybe encountered if we didn't use mortgage providers approved solicitors.... which has lead to at least an extra 2-3 months of time with extra parties going back and forth. That, however, is another story and will be written up once we have completed as it mainly relates to the main CMK branch of Connells.
Connells, overall in my opinion, are a waste of space, time and money. I would never use them to sell with again and if a house I wanted to buy was being sold by them I would have to seriously consider how much I actually wanted that house!
4
people found
this helpful
Was this helpful?
Yes