London & Country - poor service?

theboylard

Evening all,

this is a general moan as I'm severely unimpressed with L&C now, and if we weren't so close to finishing the mortgage I'd tell them to shove it.

After browsing here, we read through the guide, did a bit more research on t'internet and made a couple of calls.

We made some comparisons and actually had 3 different people all looking at the same time.

I spoke to L&C, my wife was speaking with the Credit Centre in Brum and we also had our own IFA looking at it.
After looking at the three deals on offer, we went with L&C because the offer seemed the best, it was a high street lender and L&C seemed really pro-active.

However, I do feel severely mislead by L&C, with the subsequent poor level of service contributing to unecessary delays which means we have missed our ideal exchange date. This costs us another month which means that I won't be recommending them to anyone else.

Once we actually conclude everything then I'll be writing in full to L&C, Martin here at MSE and to Abbey as I feel they should be aware of the failings, with Martin may be needing to reassess his recommenadtions?

So, L&C. Lots of pzazz up front that gets you in, then p-poor performance afterwards that does nothing to help the stress of getting this sorted.

Got to get dinner ready before I go to work, back again tomorrow.

:mad: Andy.

avondale

I have now used Land C twice, the first time as a complete novice as a first time buyer and found them really helpful. This time on my remortgage i found them poor to be perfectly honest. I found the mortgage myself online. with NATIONAL COUNTIES. L and C continually kept offering me a 2 year mortgage with the CHELTENHAM AND GLOUCESTER, i informed them that i didn't want the deal that was being offered , but was continually via email correspondence mortgage offered it. My thoughts which could be totally wrong were that they wanted business for a local provider. All in all i don't know how good they are compared to other brokers/ mortgage advisors, but will say i was disappointed this time as i appeared to do all the running to set the mortgage in place.

luckyfool

It is probably more an issue of preferring to deal with one of their main panel lenders. This normally means they will have service level agreements in place and will have more confidence in the ability of the lender to process the quickly and efficiently. There may also be an issue with C&G likely to pay a higher procuration fee, though I doubt this would be the only factor.

Mortgageman

theboylard: I'm sorry that you haven't had the level of service you expected - I hope things are progressing OK now - if I can do anything to help please feel free to contact me via this site. It's no excuse but Abbey have taken a really aggressive stance pricing wise so far this year, and as a result have taken on a huge amount of business - scant comfort to you I'm sure.

Avondale - I think I've replied to your other thread - but I will reiterate it here - if you want me to help, let me know and I will look in to your case, and answer any questions you have got.

We have no lender bias - neither higher proc fees not locality will effect our reccomendation - and we are genuinely whole of market (We've already sent business to 70 different providers this year). I suspect the reason for the recomendation being C&G will be either ones of economic argument (as we all know, it's not all about rate!), or underwriting.

As I said, if I can do anything to help, then please do let me know.

POORBUTHONEST

Ahh, glad I found this thread... I am currently applying for a Mortgage through L+C, and must say, so far I am completely unimpressed.
It seems that the only way of actually contacting the people who are sorting out the Mortgage is by leaving messages on their Voicemail. Messages that they do not bother to answer...ever.
In the end I have had to contact the lender directly to find out at what stage my application is at - but any snags have to be sorted 'through your broker'; so it's back to the Voicemail then.

End of last week did eventually speak to someone at L+C, who would find out what is happening, 'and get back to you later'.................Yep! you've guessed it - still waiting, as is the chain of people in my sale.

Will give it until Friday to see if anyone contacts me, if not then will find another broker - or source my own Mortgage.

A very disgruntled PBH.

dunstonh

It seems that the only way of actually contacting the people who are sorting out the Mortgage is by leaving messages on their Voicemail. Messages that they do not bother to answer...ever.

Have you considered that the business model of L&C isnt appropriate for you and you? Past threads with complaints about L&C seem to have come from people who would have been better placed dealing with a local face-to-face advisor (obviously with easy telephone contact) rather than a direct service broker like L&C.

L&C are great if you want the service that they offer and fall within their target market. If you want a bit more hand holding, then a local broker would usually be better placed to offer that than a telephone/internet service.

payless

Although that said ... if they their model is to offer a telephone service, surely clients would expect to be able to speak on the telephone to their adviser

POORBUTHONEST

dunstonh wrote:

Have you considered that the business model of L&C isnt appropriate for you and you? Past threads with complaints about L&C seem to have come from people who would have been better placed dealing with a local face-to-face advisor (obviously with easy telephone contact) rather than a direct service broker like L&C.

L&C are great if you want the service that they offer and fall within their target market. If you want a bit more hand holding, then a local broker would usually be better placed to offer that than a telephone/internet service.

I don't want 'hand holding', i just want to know when a Mortgage offer is likely to be made!!

Free_Mike

Got to agree with the comments about poor service from L&C. Unresponsive, lose mail and don't chase down solicitors or mortgage companies.

My last remortgage took 4 weeks. To remortgage with L&C has so far taken 16 weeks and counting.

I shall not be using/recommending them again. The few hundred pounds spent on a broker is I think well spent and at least gives you some leverage when the service is not as required. You get what you pay for with this free service - ie no service.

sainthalo

no fee?

abbey mortgage offer with L&C - £1250 arrangement fee (according to small print a whopping £875 goes to L&C).

abbey mortgage offer direct same terms - £250 arrangement fee saving me £1000.

so is it really true to say L&C charge no fee and get their money from the M company? yes its "true" but they will get a huge commission which you pay as an arrangemnt fee to the M company to pay L&C!

watch out folks

dunstonh

this is at least the third thread you have spammed that on sainthalo and I suggest you take a look at the figures again before you spam it any more as I believe you are wrong.

I have just looked at the L&C site and the abbey deals listed are identical in charges to those from Abbey direct. There are no additional charges.