“When I first called to ask for a viewing I ......”
1 Star Review
Jun 22,2013
By:
'purplelibra'
Jun 22,2013
Branch: Norwich, 14 St George's Street
Services: Lettings (Prospective customer)
Would you recommend?: No
Postcode: NR6
Branch: Norwich, 14 St George's Street
Lettings (Prospective customer)
Postcode: NR6
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When I first called to ask for a viewing I was told that you don't do viewings after 5pm - I work full time until 5.30/6pm most weeks as I am sure many people do and Saturdays until 1pm, there didn't seem much flexibility on this apart from being told that they would need to speak to the tenants to see if they can be flexible and in the lady's words 'a lot of tenants aren't flexible though so could you take time off work instead?' - I feel that this is very unhelpful and they are not looking out for their customer's needs....No phone call after a day of waiting to hear back from them, so I had to call the next day but no answer so I emailed and had a response from another person apologising that they hadn't let me know and organised for a Saturday appointment at 12.30 - which we had to take time of work for.
We then had a phone call on Saturday saying that the tenant couldn't show us the property on this day so could we re-schedule for 7pm on Monday!.. we agreed but were annoyed as we took time off work on Saturday!.
When we viewed the property, 3 other people were there at the same time and the tenant seemed a bit flustered - hardly suprising if he has to do all the viewings himself - not very professional of an agency to not do the viewings in my opinion and a bit awkward with others viewing at the same time!!
As we couldn't ask the tenant a lot of questions I had to go back and ask staff at the agency on the phone the next day when I received a call to ask if interested (probably the quickest response I had throughout!) I wanted to know the deposits and fees and they told me they were going to be a month and a half's rent on the day we move in and £120 plus vat each for admin fees so in my head that told me in total it would be just over £1000- so naturally I jumped at the chance as most fees elsewhere were 2 months on the day we move in plus fees. No other fees were mentioned over the telephone and I was never told a total amount of fees.
So imagine my surprise when I get sent documents after paying the fees stating that we would have to pay another £495 rent in advance on top plus £60 check in charge, £10 statutory deposit protection plus VAT of £12, so about another £600 on top of the £742.50 that I originally thought. As well as a check out fee and renewal fee which I am very confused about as no other agency charges £60 check out fee and £80 to renew after a year, and then even worse - £60 to leave the property! this is ridiculous and certainly wasn't explained over the phone.
They asked me to scan documents such as passport, driving licence, bank statements etc - Which would have been so much easier to do face to face again and less risky sending those details over the net, this was also difficult as my partner drives around all day and I had to take time out of my working hours to do all this emailing and scanning - yes that sounds ridiculous but my company doesn't take kindly to me using the internet and their equiptment for personal use in working hours.
I just think everything from the start has been very un-organised, very unclear, very lazy and impersonal - It would have been much better service for me and my partner to be met by the agency at the property so we could ask questions there, then asked to go through everything face to face so that we fully understood everything before handing over our money to send a few forms by email - Many other agencies detail full fees in their ads and meet you at the property and discuss everything face to face or over the telephone. I don't trust this company now and have never known a company like it.
What agent could do to change your mind?
They could have been honest from the start to tell us all the hidden fees, they could have been more flexible with times, they could have been friendlier over the phone and seen us face to face, and after complaining, we have been told that the fees are non refundable which I am extremely angry about.
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