JS-SS wrote on 04-15-2012

Absolute Cowboys

These agents were absolutely outrageous - me and my partner will never be entertaining them again. It started off bad from the first initial phone call, I rang up to view a property, but the female receptionist was so incredibly rude, regardless a few days later we arrived at our agreed appointment time... they were 20 minutes late to the appointment, they didn't pick up the phone when I tried ringing to see where they were - in fact we were just about to get back into the car and leave when they pulled up. Not even an apology. We actually really liked the property, and decided to go ahead and apply for the place... HERE IS THE HORRENDOUS PART... They gave us the forms, and we filled them in (which might I add are so incredibly unprofessional, it's not worth the paper its printed on, plus they had spelling mistakes)... regardless, we still completed them and arrived at their office to hand them in, pay the deposit and get the ball rolling... the office was completely empty, no customers in, yet they made us sit and watch their "agents" type away on their computers for 10 minutes - literally!! Eventually being seen to, we then got told they only accept cash, no cheques, no cards, just cash... thanks for the heads up Tierney Property, so, we left and came back 10 minutes later with the cash... We had to pay £150 (give or take a little) for all the checks to be carried out, plus a months deposit - no problem, nothing unusual you may think? yes, that's what we thought... A week went by and we heard nothing, fair enough thats no problem, then another 5 days went by and nothing, so I rang up to check the progress - they then SHOUTED AT ME on the phone, and then told me that I was the one having to get all my references and checks etc... WHAT??!?? What on earth did I pay the £150 checking fees for then? I've never known an estate agent to make the tenant do all their own checks and then deliver it to them - horrendous! PLUS, no where in their forms did it say they don't do they checks and the tenant does!! Anyway... I eventually agreed and said I'll get onto it... 1 day later I got a phonecall from them, saying the land-lady is getting inpatient with us and she will decline us as tenants if they don't have the checks done within 5 working days!!! One by one, all the checks managed to get delivered to them, they accepted them all (2 employment checks, 2 character checks and 2 credit checks), then, the day before their "deadline" I rang up (bearing in mind they had ALL the required checks)... they then shouted at me again and called me slow, said I was getting everything confused and I had until tomorrow afternoon to get everything sorted... Slightly puzzled, I questioned them about where i was going wrong... they said that the Character References have to be on headed paper. Yes, that's right, CHARACTER REFERENCES have to be on headed paper, forgive me if I and every other professional in the world is wrong, but character references are a reference about you PERSONALLY, not as an employee, so a company will not supply character references on HEADED PAPER!! As it is the opinion from one person, not a company! Regardless, we managed to get all checks on headed paper within their afternoon deadline, so thats 2 employment references on headed paper and 2 character references on paper... I rang up hours before their "deadline" to double check they had everything, they said yes and instantly put the phone down!! HOW RUDE I thought! Then, about 7pm at night (2 hours after their closing time, so this is out of office hours), i get a phone call from an unknown mobile... they'd rang from their own personal phone and said they are now rejecting us from being tenants!!! WHAT ON EARTH!!! FURTHERMORE... They then said they will not be refunding us our deposits or "checking" fees - it was only when we threatened action from Trading Standards that they did give us our deposit back... in cheque format!! not even cash like we paid. They then dated the cheque in the FUTURE so we couldn't cash it for 1 week - looks dodgey to me!! They did absolutely NOTHING, we supplied ALL REFERENCES and CHECKS, and then we got rejected with no reason - I'm sorry but we are two professionals, who have never had ANY trouble with property or finances, and they rejected us?!? To this day we are determined it was done out of spite. Regardless, the property we applied for is still on the market and has been for 5 months now. Genuinely, I will never ever entertain these cowboys again, and I recommend them same to others.