Mary Portas takes on the Estate agents

vivatifosi

My favourite quote from the trailer:

"West facing is the new south facing"!

hollieannx

Shes brilliant! Wonder if anyone on here has used any of the estate agents?

NorthernStudent

She's great! I only hope that what she's doing would actually have an effect on service in this country!

harrup

MiserlyMartin wrote: »

I watched her prog on the furniture stores. Am I the only person that thinks she is combining BBC watchdog or rogue trader investigation techniques along with her selling her own services? And that the programme is not what its cracked up to be? I feel there is something not right about this programme, it has the same sort of feeling one gets from watching property ladder with that god awful Kirsty Allsop.

I totally agree.

This "secret shopper" series COULD have been something great ....but thus far it's just banal and pointless.

Example: it's hard to get stellar customer service in places like Primark! Don't say. Surely, paying rock bottom prices for a badly constructed item made in some gawdawful sweatshop in the Far East and sold by an untrained, minimum wage sales assistant should entitle the customer to attentiveness & politeness found at ,say, Tiffany's.

She has a very valid premise.... customer service in the UK is often attrocious....but she picks idiotic examples to highlight it. And now EA's. Pffffffffftttttttttttt.

gadjah543

MiserlyMartin wrote: »

I watched her prog on the furniture stores. Am I the only person that thinks she is combining BBC watchdog or rogue trader investigation techniques along with her selling her own services? And that the programme is not what its cracked up to be? I feel there is something not right about this programme, it has the same sort of feeling one gets from watching property ladder with that god awful Kirsty Allsop.

Think you'll find it is Sarah Beeny who presents property ladder:)

Cleaver

harrup wrote: »

thus far it's just banal and pointless.

Example: it's hard to get stellar customer service in places like Primark! Don't say. Surely, paying rock bottom prices for a badly constructed item made in some gawdawful sweatshop in the Far East and sold by an untrained, minimum wage sales assistant should entitle the customer to attentiveness & politeness found at ,say, Tiffany's.

She has a very valid premise.... customer service in the UK is often attrocious....but she picks idiotic examples to highlight it. And now EA's. Pffffffffftttttttttttt.

I don't really agree with you here.

When my Mum was in hospital she was cared for by a Health Care Assistant who was probably on the lowest wage in the hospital (and probably one of the lowest wages full stop) and the care, humour and downright lovliness she showed my Mum was amazing. Another example would be the local caff and sandwich shop around the corner from my work. I'm sure that the girls who work in there are on minimum wage and they are all lovely. They know my name, remember what I like and are always happy to have a chat. I know lots of bars and restaurants where people will be on low wages and they also provide excellent customer service. So if they can all do it, why can't everyone?

I've been in Primark (never personally bought anything as I find the place maddening, but my wife has / does) and their staff are downright rude. Why does the fact that the shop sells cheap clothes means the staff are automatically going to be rude? Manners and politeness costs very little and it's the attitute of the shop that creates this, there's loads of high street shops that presumably pay the same as Primark and their staff are lovely (off the top of my head I've had good customer service from Lush and B&Q recently).

I kinda know what you mean about this show though - I'm watching the EA one at the moment and it is pretty one sided. Maybe you're right.

phil_b_2

That EA guy with the spiked hair looks like he should be on the apprentice.

Cleaver

phil_b wrote: »

That EA guy with the spiked hair looks like he should be on the apprentice.

God, what a pr*ck he was. The sad thing is, he's not really a caricature as I reckon 50% of the young, male estate agents I've met are just like him. Massive stupid hair, sharp suit and an opinion that they're god.

I actually agree with Mary when she says that EAs are not really that necessary any more. Can't we all just pay a small fee to list on Rightmove and sell each other our homes?

JanCee

phil_b wrote: »

That EA guy with the spiked hair looks like he should be on the apprentice.

I'm hoping she books him an appointment with a decent hairdresser before she finishes.

Cleaver

JanCee wrote: »

I'm hoping she books him an appointment with a decent hairdresser before she finishes.

Funnily enough I just said to Mrs Cleaver: "They've changed the approach, changed the description and changed the viewing style yet for some reason they've left his f*cking hair alone."