London and Country Mortgages - Bad Service

Bluebunny

bedfordshireboy wrote: »

The first advisor was very helpful however the case manage I have been assigned to has been terrible. NEVER available on the phone, takes 2 days to reply to emails and clearly doesn't understand the most BASIC details of pay/BIK/tax or P60's.

I had the same issues - Advisor was absolutely fantastic, and now, if I need to chase up I phone them and they chase up the case manager. I have been keeping an eye on the Nationwide intermediary website stating what day's documents they are working on so that I can chase once I know they have looked at the information I have submitted. To be honest, if our case wasn't a little out of the ordinary I would have gone direct as the rate we are getting we could get directly with Nationwide.

Case workers clearly need more training and a better customer managment system!!!

ACG

This is always going to be the case with big companies, you could get someone really good, you could get someone really bad. The reviews you read are irrelevant as you have no idea who you will end up with.

Smaller firms in general I have always found to offer better service whether were talking about offering mortgage advice or carpet fitting.

The fee free/pay a fee argument... again there will be good and bad fee free brokers just like good and bad paid for advisors. Personally I charge a fee as it means I can take on less work and spend more time helping each client. If I was fee free I would have to pile the work high and spend less time with each client. But I respect that some people would begrudge paying it. In general I am of the opinion you get what you pay for.

Ianh82

i spoke to an advisor and told him what i have and what i wanted and he quoted me a 'best deal' rate that was actually one of the highest. i informed him i was looking at his website and found a much better deal. he simply said that's the best i can find. found them a bit crap. went to a local broker in the end. applied for a skipton 2 yr fixed and found out after 2 wks its all been AIP. they are requesting the valuation now.

BeauLiLuLu

I ended up ditching them, and going direct with a different lender - 10 weeks after initial contact with them, I was still waiting for underwriting to be completed! Due to documents being requested I had already sent to them!

Initial advisor was really friendly / helpful, then once I agreed to go with them it felt like they didnt really care.
I was told by the case manager if I called the lender direct, (I wanted to establish exactly what the hold up was L&C or lender) they would pull my application! That among other rudeness and attitude problems she had, completely took away any kind of respect or conviction that she was competent in doing the job. Their internal case tracking system was not updated to reflect the actual status of the case - why have a system in place if its not used?!

user1168934

I think it depends who you end up with. They were recommended through MSE and seemed quite good at first until I actually had an offer approved. The first person I was dealing with was not available then so I was assigned to another person which is when things went south. The person took ages to take down all my details and yet in the paperwork I received a few days down the line half the details were wrong including my name spelled incorrectly. At that point I decided to ditch them for a local mortgage advisor who offered me exactly the same deal with no fees.

danielanthony

None of these brokers are 'free', if they place your mortgage with a lender they get a kick-back worth several £100's. In our case, the broker got £500 for our remortgage, not bad for a half day work.

I used L&C for the remortgage and they were very good, tried to use them 2 years later for a mortgage on our new house and they were utter crap. Was with the same person within L&C too, so not sure what happened there.

ACG

danielanthony wrote: »

In our case, the broker got £500 for our remortgage, not bad for a half day work.

I dont know whether to laugh or be annoyed... Half a days work!!

Oh and it is free as you are not paying for it. In most cases the rates are identical if you want direct to the lender. If I get something without paying for it, I would class that as free.

Barricade

ACG wrote: »

This is always going to be the case with big companies, you could get someone really good, you could get someone really bad. The reviews you read are irrelevant as you have no idea who you will end up with.

Completely agree with this statement.
Unfortunately my experience of L&C also copies that of everyone else on this thread, a poor experience overall. When looking at mortgages and the relevant fixed rate deals, we were fairly confident on what we were looking for.. 5 year fixed, lowest rate possible with 15% deposit, fees/surveys not an issue.
Post Office came out on top of my own searches, however L&C were very quick to dismiss them because of the fee and opted to recommend a higher interest deal with less fee.

Ditched L&C and went direct. Currently in process now.

bedfordshireboy

ACG wrote: »

I dont know whether to laugh or be annoyed... Half a days work!!

Oh and it is free as you are not paying for it. In most cases the rates are identical if you want direct to the lender. If I get something without paying for it, I would class that as free.

I agree with this.


Clearly the broker gets a kick back from the lender but I don't pay them a penny, so their service to me is free.


If I could've got the same rate by going direct or via broker who charges a small fee I would've gone down either of those options. To pay a competent broker a few hundred £ in the grand scheme of buying a house is nothing when it would've taken a lot of the hassle out of the transaction.


Going fee free has eventually worked out for me, but it's probably cost me more than the £295 broker fee in time spent faffing around and chasing up the damn broker to find out how many mistakes they've made and what they haven't done!

zayn

Thank you all for your post's. Just an update 10 days and i have managed to track down the agent, still no proposal on my remortgage keeps telling me i am searching good deals for you. I already sent him my PAYE slips. Should i be concerned ? why is L&C even recommended on MSE ? Can i even trust what MSE recommends anymore