Just been told off by Estate Agent

waribai

Have been looking at a few properties with an estate agent for the past few months. Recently I have been busy at work and could never reply to the EA's call asking for feedback on the viewings. Always mean to but after finishing work it slipped my mind.
Anyway, I phoned up about viewing another property and was told off by the EA who accused me of being discourteous because I never gave feedback after the viewings.
I explained my long hours etc during the week and that it's not always easy to talk on the phone during the day. Also, if they emailed me I could reply at my leisure.
Anyway the estate agent said they would give us one more chance
but if it happens again, they wo't be showing us anymore properties!

Have I behaved inappropriately? Should I apologise?

Thanks for any advice

poppysarah

Ignore them.

Maybe they think you're a time waster buyer.

You could ring them up when you get time and go through all the viewings you've had and give feedback. Or email them now.

It's very rare I've been asked for feedback about a property - but I've always thought that was odd too.

Honest_EA

Yes, you are a discourteous person with no thought for the poor vendor who is sitting by the phone waiting for some feedback from their agent.

Im not being serious as I can see that you have a busy life and work takes up alot of time but see it from the vendors point of view as they need to know what people think of their house rather than being left in limbo not knowing if anyone will make an offer. The EA also has a duty to give vendors feedback so your lack of communication is making them look bad in the eyes of the vendor. Even a quick call back to them in your lunch break wouldnt have been so difficult, would it? Keep them on side if you want to view more properties in the future.

Jenniefour

Being told off by EA? I think that's a tad out of order. Could have asked you courteously since they are relying on enough feedback coming in to pass on potentially useful information to vendors. However, since you haven't had time to give them any feedback are they wondering whether you are a serious buyer. Doesn't excuse telling off though ! And you have let them know how they can get feedback.

I think it pays to keep relationships wtih EA's reasonably good - if they take on a property that is exactly what you're looking for then you want, presumably, to be the first person they call before they put it on rightmove.

kingstreet

It depends if it was a bit of a quip with humerous intent, or a full-on rant with the associated bulging blood vessels.

If it was the former, I think it's perfectly reasonable to be asked, and to give feedback.

The latter? Ask them if they've really got that many potential buyers they can afford to pee them off in large numbers. Then tell the vendor what they said.

waribai

I understand all those points but the fact I haven't given feedback would suggest that we are not that interested in the property I would have thought.
Also, it is difficult to avoid being seen as a timewaster if you don't make any offers. But we won't make an offer till we find something we like!

JQ.

I don't think it's necessarily rude to the EA, but I think it is rude to the people selling the house. I'm guessing they probably spent a few hours cleaning the house and getting it pristine for your visit, all you needed to do was spend 60 secs on the phone to the EA why you do or don't like the house - I don't think it's asking very much and would have saved fair bit of heartache on their part as they wait for the feedback which never came.

evoke

Jeez.

OP: If you're not ready to buy a property then stop wasting everyone's time. Selling a property is hard enough in these times and feedback from viewers is an essential service that sellers get from decent EAs. Why don't you get the EAs email address and drop them a line as feedback after each viewing? It takes seconds.

Mallotum_X

You dont have to give feedback, its a personal thing anyway. And to be honest how many people will just say any old thing as feedback.

When I last bought agents would ask for feedback and if i didnt like a place i wouldnt want to get into some big debate over it - usually negative feedback was then turned into a discussion. If you dont like a place it can be for all sorts of reasons, quite often these are not always logical so why agents think they are gaining useful info from it I dont know.

waribai

JQ. wrote: »

I don't think it's necessarily rude to the EA, but I think it is rude to the people selling the house. I'm guessing they probably spent a few hours cleaning the house and getting it pristine for your visit, all you needed to do was spend 60 secs on the phone to the EA why you do or don't like the house - I don't think it's asking very much and would have saved fair bit of heartache on their part as they wait for the feedback which never came.

They probably cleaned the house but in this area viewings for the properties we are looking at tend to be the case of ,one in, one out. Sometimes the EA even does two viewings at once. So althought htey cleaned it, it wasn't just for us. It was also for the other 10 people who viewed it that Saturday.

celyn90

I work a stupid number of hours and so I also can't phone during working hours; nor can I slip out in my lunch break easily to make a call (building is mobile signal dead) - but I do have net access so prefer to respond by email as I can be more considered in my response. As I knew this, I asked for an email adddress when I started viewing so I already had a point of contact to send feedback to; but then it was mainly so I could thank the person that had taken the time to show me round.

Sometimes it will take me a couple of days to do it - but I try to be as fast as I can.

I do find it difficult to give feedback though; although I always try - the last house we saw; we didn't dislike it, but it just wasn't for us. And I couldn't tell you why really - but I still e-mailed to say thank you to the person that showed us round.

I would drop them a line, apologise for being busy and not remembering to reply - send feedback on the list of properties you've viewed and ask them for an email address as a point of contact in future.

I can see if you are new to this, that you wouldn't perhaps understand the importance of it and I think that maybe they should have been clear with you that it is expected, or perhaps tried a different line of communication (rather than have a go at you) or just politely mentioned it to you next time you rang - but also they are very busy people as well so you can't expect to be chased. The essence of what they said is right - even if it wasn't communicated gently, so an apology wouldn't go amiss.

cel x