Connells Colchester reviews

★★★★★ 1/5

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I have had the misfortune to experience…

I have had the misfortune to experience Connells both as a buyer and through a valuation request. In buying a house the 'agent' forgot his keys, leaving us stranded several miles from public or local transport. He'd moved onto anotyer buyer. In them being passed on to them via zoopla in trying to value our home I received 8 telephone calls, and was signed up to numbered email 'services'. What an utter shambles.No manners, no accumen, no integrity. Avoid like the plague.

Samuel · 23 September 2026

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Lazy and amateurish

Extremely poor, lazy and amateurish. It's hard to know where to start but I suppose we should have been wary when our initial documents arrived with my name spelt wrongly. When I queried this, I was told it didn't matter. Call me old fashioned but I like my name spelt correctly - especially on legal documents!? Emails were often full of mistakes and the branch manager even told me that the 'bass rate' had been cut, 3 hours before the announcement had been made - psychic apparently.

Alan · 26 August 2025

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

I have had the most terrible time with…

I have had the most terrible time with O’Connells. They forced me to use KeySafe, a company I found out later to be struck off by the FCA and not regulated. I am not internet savvy & found it stressful. Either that or I pay 12 months rent up front for my granddaughter. I capitulated & allowed a year’s scrutiny of my bank (twice for some reason). Six months bank statements, savings accounts, tax info, P60s, ISAs, passport, bills and more. I sent it all to them but they wanted specific documents, I did that too. They demanded it in Digital format & PDF files. I was exhausted, I told them I felt blackmailed & cohersed as I got regular Final Notice warnings that I wasn’t getting the info out quickly enough. They took umbrage & made me feel small, I apologised if I’d upset them and asked for help as my granddaughter was due to move in next week. Finally they accused me of lying that I didn’t know the internet & blocked me meaning my granddaughter will be homeless next week, I am devastated. I am only the guarantor and they treat me like this. They deny hearing any other complaint but mine, boasted O’Connels were best & biggest estate agent,

Diane · 23 August 2025

★★★★★ 5/5

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Alicia has been absolutely brilliant as…

Alicia has been absolutely brilliant as our mortgage advisor. From the very beginning, she kept us consistently informed and updated throughout the entire process, even though things are still ongoing, she has already gone above and beyond for us. Her communication has been incredibly smooth, clear, and easy, and she’s always been available to answer questions or offer reassurance when needed.

Samanta · 29 November 2025

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

An Estate agent that is not interested in selling houses!

I called them to arrange a viewing and was told they would ring me back when a salesman was back in the office so I waited in for the afternoon and they never rang back. I called the next day told them I had waited in and didnt get an apology and was just told everyone was in a meeting. The property is listed with another agent so I just called them and arranged a viewing with them instead. Now looking at reviews on here I feel I have dodged a bullet! I would be most unhappy as a seller if I thought my agent was letting potential buyers slip away like this, especailly on a property listed with multiple agents!

Mark · 23 July 2026

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Terrible experience

Terrible experience. Lovely staff though. NO actual advice given. Didn't sell it but equally gave no advice about the little changes we could have made which would have helped us. The tenant left it in bad condition and we never visited the property. We relied on them to give us advice, they marketed it, conducted viewings but not once did they say - you should do x & y and this will help the sale. Persuaded us to use their auction option as 'in all the years of me working here, we've never not sold one at auction' - ours didn't sell and we had to pay £6k. We removed it, went on with another agent having done some work and then it sold straight away.

Sarah · 28 June 2026

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

I Am not happy with the service i…

I Am not happy with the service i received in connells kingsthorpe. The team were hard to communicate with and not pro active very arrogant and also at time very rude at times particularly the branch manager,My sale was delayed and eventually leading me to pull out because after 9 weeks after accepting an offer the buyer hadn’t even been ID verified.If you want to sell your house please avoid at all cost.

Christopher · 12 August 2026

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

The worst estate agent I have ever…

The worst estate agent I have ever used. If your looking to rent avoid them, once your in the property expect no help from them. If you have issues that require resolution with the property, they will not give you any assistance. We had several issues and everytime we wanted assistance nothing, they are always not reachable on phone or they never call back when they say they would.

Hamed · 11 August 2026

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

They are not honest they always team…

They are not honest they always team with landlord to claim money from tenants unlawfully they need to be diligent in dealing with customer , and the staff are very horrible and disrespectful if you claim money from customer unlawfully you might be happy but ut a life stigma and scam i will never recommende any one to d business with Cornell on any account.

Ese · 25 August 2026

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

I rented a flat in front of Connells 2…

I rented a flat throughConnells 2 years ago.. After 2 years and 3 months I moved out.. I painted the whole flat, cleaned all the carpets with carpet cleaner, changed all the curtains and returned it.. I didn't do any damage.. I didn't even use a nail. But they didn't give me back even 1 penny of my deposit amount. I don't know what to do. It's been 3 years since I came to the UK. They are taking advantage of me.

Binson · 2 May 2026

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Unfortunately I had a terrible…

Unfortunately I had a terrible experience with Connels. I was first advised to auction my house for a speedy sale. Although I did want a quick sale, they did not explain the implications in terms of fees and selling price. When I called, no one one would answer or return the call. The onus was always on me to get feedback from viewings. I changed estate agent as Connels lost a sale - they told me they gave up trying to contact the potential buyer as they didn't get through to him after a couple of attempts and they just assumed if he was still interested he would be in touch. When I changes, someone who viewed the house called the new estate agent to enquire. Obviously, they were not able to have a second viewing but explained to the new estate agent that Connels did not answer any of their questions and did not show the house properly.

Sam · 24 April 2026

★★★★★ 5/5

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All the staff were lovely and went…

All the staff were lovely and went above and beyond. So nice and so efficient and persistent. Big shout out to Lesley and Lauren. You ladies are the best and thank you so much.

Juliet · 25 March 2026

★★★★★ 3/5

Trustpilot

Bad landord

My daughter was in one of the poorer maintained properties for a year whilst finishing a degree.. on leaving the property without any damage etc and cleaned the landlord started to use silly excuses to withhold the deposit.I must point out conells were not responsible for the maintenance and care of the property.Connell management stepped in and resolved the matter and the deposit was released .So a bit thank you to Connell for doing this.I would’ve given five stars, but it took a couple of months and a lot of frustration which is mainly down to the landlord. Would I recommend Connells In the future? Yes I would.

MR · 3 September 2024

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Stay away - they are more interested in selling themselves than your house.

I contacted a branch of Connells in January with a view to choosing them as agents to sell my recently deceased sister's house. I felt in my meeting with them the agent made too big a deal about their success as large national company and their innovative sales methods and chose not use them and gave feedback to the agent. A few weeks later once the house was advertised by a rival local agency I was phoned by Connells trying to interest me in buying a house. I feel this was totally inappropriate use of my contact details. Rather than a giving a direct apology the young man (he sounded young) gave me a similiar spiel about the wonders of Connells I heard before. My advice is stay away from the corporate monolith that is more interested in selling itself than selling your house.

Roland · 25 February 2026

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Worse experience our lives

Sold our property though them and it was one of the worse experiences of our lives. Verbal agreements and prior discussions to signing with them were not honoured in the contract. After going through their compliance team and met with no resolution, our complaint is currently being reviewed by the property ombudsman. There is zero customer service or apologies for things that go wrong and if there are any delays or issues you will be met with the fact that when you sign a contact with them you are agreeing to pay their fee for completion of a sale only as it's not an SLA. Therefore you are not signing for an agreed level of service which basically means they can do whatever they want. Even management and Area Director's don't give a toss and was even told by one that we were making a mockery of their contracts. Connells are hard nosed and don't look at vendors as humans, but simply as a financial transaction, despite house moves being one of the most stressful experiences in peoples lives. We had to chase for feedback of which was always pretty vague, their vendor app never worked depsite asking numerous times for it to be resolved, we had to rewrite the description of our property, changed the photos on the advert and took better ones with a Samsung phone. Oh and be aware of their photographers who when you suggest photos for your property, you will likely be met with 'no that won't work' or when you make suggestions on a USP for your property for it to be ignored as what do you know? (You have only lived in the property for X number of years) As it turned out s requesting for a change in photos and layout ended up with the sale we needed. After being stuck in this contract with them and no way out to sell our property quickly (we had bought a I am Sold Auction property) we took matters in to our own hands and did the viewings ourselves. After Connells marketing the property for 6 weeks with 10 viewings and no offers, the 4 viewings we did ourselves resulted in 2 offers of which one we accepted. After questioning all of this with Connells their response is sorry you are unhappy but we did get you to completion....well after paying £2.5k they didn't really get to us completion on their own. They registered an applicant and we basically secured the buyer ourselves.Please be warned about their tactics and their lack of transparency. The one saving grace was Adam who once we had an agreed sale was always amiable and friendly chasing up legal aspects. He is completely wasted in this toxic environment when it seems that the negotiators 'own' applicants, so don't be surprised when you call and want feedback, if you aren't talking to the negotiator who signed up the applicant you are unlikely to get any useful feedback.We now have another property for sale and wouldn't touch a traditional agent with a bargepole and have signed up with purple bricks for £399. After learning that anyone can take photos, and do a floorplan plus your own viewings this is a considerable saving. We have been really impressed with the ease, speed and follow ups we have already recieved with an online agent compared to a traditional one. At he end of the day remember with Connells you are not signing a SLA, you are only signing to commit to paying their fees when you complete - regardless of how they perform until you get to that point. When you run into issues with them don't expect any apologies, or compensation with them, expect to be gas lit and blamed for not reading a contract properly.

Emma · 18 August 2024

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Terrible exerience with Connels

I am not sure if all estate agents are money grabbing, corner cutting vultures but my experience with Connels Worcester has been horrible. They ofcourse charged me with a £600 tenant finder fee, and have convinced me that the zero deposit scheme will ensure if there are any damages to the property they will be paid by the tenant(s). Ofcourse the apartment was left in shambles despite having regular inspection visits at my request and the repairs done to the flat were horrible. I would recommend finding a different management company to manage your property if you cant do it yourself. Absolute livid by their horrible service

Ahmed · 16 August 2024

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Absolutely positive experience

Absolutely positive experience. Please don't listen if someone says different it is marketing. I've been almost 7 months with this agency and I have only super positive experience. Sam, Ateja and a gentleman i forgot his name( i hope he forgives me ) super helpful, went above and beyond even out of working hours, on short notices honestly just can't find anything i could of complain. Absolutely awesome experience and would definitely recommend 👌 👍

Antra · 31 March 2026

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Irritatingly pushy, with an unwanted 'hard sell'.

Last year Connells valued my house. From that point on I was constantly being contacted to ask when I would be putting the house on the market. Phone calls, messages, contact cards through the letterbox (with handwritten notes saying please call me). It put me off them. When the time came, I used another agent. Recently, Ive arranged viewings of other properties, via various agents and there have been no issues. They all offer services but don't push and respect it when you decline. Yesterday, I arranged a viewing of a property which Connells are marketing. I expected to supply my details, give them my search criteria, my brief circumstances and arrange the viewing, but found myself subject to a 15 minute hard sell of a product where an agent 'does everything for me' and also a hard sell of their mortgage adviser. Despite telling the agent that Im satisfied with all my personal arrangements and that I just wanted to view the property, he persisted, which was quite irritating. The viewing itself was conducted by a different rep. (I was 15 mins early and he was 10 mins late, without any apology). There was little input about the property and I found some simple and perhaps obvious questions could not be answered. He did, however put a lot of effort and time into giving me the hard sell again, repeating the conversation Id had with his colleague earlier. He questioned my own financial decisions and pushed heavily for me to consider the Home Search package. It actually distracted from the viewing and highly irritated me, especially when someone won't take the hint that Im quite happy (at 56 yrs) with my own decisions and that I didn't want the product. I am porting my fixed rate mortgage via my lender. It is sorted. I don't need to pay someone else to do it. I can and do (constantly) look at all the property platforms. Im registered with various agents who send me details of new listings (often before they are published). I don't need to pay a Connells agent to 'do all that for me'. Connells staff need to listen. Im there to simply view a property. If only they put as much effort into selling the property as they do trying to sell their products. The persistence soured the viewing and not only I could I not wait to end the viewing, but I am actually put off viewing properties where I have to deal with Connells again because I have no wish to repeat my experience.

Mark · 9 August 2024

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

AVOID!!!!

AVOID!!!!! These are the worst solicitors to use for buying and selling your property. They are unprofessional, rude, accept no responsibility when things go wrong and speak to you in a derogatory tone, like your an inconvenience for asking for an update.Poor communication with internal departments and actually bad mouth their own solicitors! Do not speak to external companies to chase enquiries, or update them. Everything is done via email, no personal touch. Dismiss your complaints and bully/threaten you when you question things.Increase fees which they don't tell you about or ask you to authorise then refuse to explain them when you receive your final bill.The list is endless!

Kelly · 7 August 2024

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Appalling service

Made an appointment to view a property. For 3 days in a row they sent me a reminder to attend the viewing. I arrived & waited in the bitterly cold weather for someone to arrive. On phoning the company I was told someone would be with me in minutes. After a further 10 minutes I phoned for a taxi to collect me. The agent did eventually arrive but I told her that I no longer wished to view the property. I thought I would've received an apology from the branch manager but no such luck. Avoid the company.

Louise · 14 February 2026

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

GDPR breach and passive aggressive emails - AVOID CONNELLS AT AL COSTS

I am receiving passive aggressive emails from Connells 5 years after they made my house purchase 10x harder than it needed to be despite being told my information had been removed from their databases in line with GDPR regulations- clearly they cannot even manage that. As a first time buyer I was given a terrible deal as I unfortunately did not know any better- if you are a first time buyer, or really any buyer, AVOID CONNELLS.

Natalie · 9 March 2026

★★★★★ 2/5

Trustpilot

Like all estate agents

Like all estate agents, they are vague and not capable of providing buyers with the required information. Basically estate agents book in a handful of viewings, act as a path through to portals like Rightmove and that’s it. The house sells itself, not the agent. They just collect commission for hardly any work.

Mr · 20 August 2026

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Recent valuation

I recently had a valuation carried out by Steve Mather, from previous experience I wasent full of confidence with Connells however Steve did a superb job , he hit the nail on the head with the valuation and the rent figures and it was exactly what was put forward, I wish more surveyors where like Steve. I hope he gets this feedback and I hope I get him again on future projects. 10/10

Frazer · 19 March 2026

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

This is the worse most unprofessional…

This is the worse most unprofessional low class company I’ve had the misfortune to deal with in 50 years. They will do absolutely anything to wriggle and negate any responsibility when things go wrong, which they will I assure you.. do yourself a favour and steer well clear . They don’t deserve one star, the higher up the chain you go the more incompetent it gets. Awful, terrible service. I spoke to the police about the incident and the Seargent said “ oh they’re terrible , we’ve had problems.”

Christopher · 13 January 2026