Purple Bricks Complaint... anyone else had success?

Charlotte1404

I won't go into too much detail as I have submitted an official complaint, but I wanted to hear from others' experience if possible.

As said, I submitted a complaint to PB due to the "service" received. I supplied a lot of evidence of how they fell short of the Terms of Service etc. I explained that I was not happy/ prepared to pay the full amount of their agreed fee due to these issues.

When I signed up with them, I chose the 'pay later' option. Due to a sale taking over 6 months, then falling through, it has now come round to the end of the 10 month payment period, and I am due to pay them at the end of this month.

I can see in their email acknowledging my complaint that they copied in Duologi, the payment company they deal with.
I am sincerely hoping for some kind of 'discount', or maybe a refund, but I know that could be wishful thinking...

I was wondering if anyone else had experience with taking a complaint to Purple Bricks? Was anyone able to get a reduction in the fee, or a refund?
(Not talking about their new 'we sell or your money back' promise...)

Any advice/ anecdotes/ anything really welcome! Thanks in advance.

Thrugelmir

If they found you a buyer. Then they delivered their contractual service. EA's aren't generally responsible for anything more. 

Does your employer dock your wages when you make a mistake? 

Gavin83

What have they done wrong?

TXC

Appreciate you cant share specifics but I'm intrigued to know what could have been so lacking in their service that you feel a refund is necessary. Fallen through sales (from a buyer they found you) are rarely the result of the EAs action I would have thought and it feels like that is your main bone of contention? 

london21

The agreement was was for them to sell your property.
Did they sell your property?
Then their payment will be due.

Without details, difficult to give input. 

PB are not perfect, I had a purchase fall through as the seller did not seem happy with the price but accepted and just wasted my searches money. I feel as though normal EA are more proactive
.
PB are cheaper for a reason I suppose you do not get the outstanding service.

eddddy

london21 said:

The agreement was was for them to sell your property.
Did they sell your property?
Then their payment will be due.

That's a risky thing to suggest, if you haven't read PB's contract. PB's contract doesn't say that.


The contract says PB charge a fee for marketing the property - not selling it.
The contract also talks about a 'Money Back Guarantee' if you don't get a Credible Proceedable Offer' within 10 months

But @charlotte1404 says she is not talking about their 'Money Back Promise'


@charlotte1404 - you need to be a bit clearer why you think you shouldn't pay the fee. If it's because of breach of contract, you need to be clear about the contract terms they've breached.

onylon

I don't think you can withhold payment unless PB agree or you have already got a decision from the ombudsman.

We went to the ombudsman and got a partial refund when our EA managed to tell both buyer and seller that the other party had pulled out. Fortunately we were directly in touch and it didn't impact the transaction.

Charlotte1404

To provide a little more clarification:

They lost the keys to my property. My LPE left the company and they didn't tell me who was taking over. It had been transferred to someone else in the company and said person hadn't been made aware. 
When viewings started back up again, they had to send people away because they told me they had located the keys, but turns out they went to the viewing with the wrong keys. I was assured they would rearrange these viewings, but whenever I have chased this, no-one will give me an answer.

The second LPE to be assigned to my case also left the company, and no-one was assigned to the case for a month. In that time, someone requested a viewing. I could not attend as I have already moved out of the area, and (and this is a key part of my complaint) I had agreed to pay the extra fee for the accompanied viewing service. When I tried to reach someone at PB, they said my case was due to be assigned to someone soon, and they would pick up the viewing. To this day I never heard back from this prospective viewer, thereby losing a potential buyer.

googler

Nobody's perfect. 

Maybe they were caught unawares by your LPE leaving? Maybe it took them by surprise too, so they didn't have anyone - in your area - available to take over. Same with the second LPE.

It seems like the sum total of your damages is to be refunded for the extra fee you paid for the viewing service. How much was that?

Your viewer was only a potential buyer, as you agree. 

Charlotte1404

googler said:

Nobody's perfect

Absolutely, I agree.

They were only potential buyers, I concur, and yes perhaps they were caught as unaware with the LPEs leaving, but the bottom line of my complaint is that I had agreed to pay them for a service that, through no fault of my own, I wasn't receiving.

I'm not unreasonable, but this is the truth. I'm not expecting the biggest reduction in the fee or what have you. I genuinely did come to the forum to see if people had any other experience with complaints and/or a refund with them is all.

Sadly, it does seem that as someone has said, they are cheaper for a reason. 

googler

Again, it seems like the sum total of your damages is to be refunded for the extra fee you paid for the viewing service.

How much was that?