Connells Faversham reviews in Swale

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Useless in every way!

When it comes to rent out propeties they only know to cash the money and that's about it.I have a anonymous neighbour complaining to Connells on a numerous occasions on fake basis and they did call me every time (as for my annoyance) to enquire about it.False company who cannot defend the interests of the customers !!!I better burn my money than to send them another penny!Avoid or you'll end up paying a lot for nothing!You've been warned!Now I am looking for the complaint procedure!

Erectzel · 7 June 2017

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Shocking -Purchased through Connells on last …

Purchased through Connells on last property and service was appalling lack of effective communication and both myself and seller were given different information - thereby delaying sale and day of sale I was chasing the keys and property was left unsure, with delay in obtaining keys from seller for 5 hours after exchange and completion. On attempting to sell current property we stupidly asked Connells to do a valuation - they overpriced by ridiculous amount clearly in order to try and obtain the marketing and offered to use previous pictures despite wanting to charge us the same price They were scathing of other agents and their more realistic valuation. Connells also said they had their own solicitor and quoted us an inflated price as we used same solicitor through another agent and they were not just 'Connells' solicitors. When trying to purchase we. Saw properties marketed through Connells and were unimpressed with the pictures or description of many of their properties - we also had problems with sales staff not returning calls when we wished to view or in one case did not know the property was been marketed with them as were unaware that it has a sales board up as they had no details - I had to chase this numerous times in an attempt to view the property. I also had call to remind me I had not attended an appointment with their financial advisor - I had not requested an appointment and did not require a mortgage. I requested viewing on property which I was unaware had been sold and asked if it return to market could they let me know - it did return to market and they did not inform me - as it was marketed with a second agent who did contact me I viewed and had offer accepted through them.I would never never sell with Connells and it's unfortunate that some properties I wished to view were marketed with them.

Wendy · 5 June 2017

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

BEWARE of Connells and NEVER use their Recommended Solicitors!

Just sold my flat with Connells. An absolute horrendous experience and would never use them again. I paid for high quality brochures to be given to potential buyers when holding an open day. I was told this would be the best motive but the brochures were not ready for 3 weeks after the open day and once the flat was sold, due to a continous, already known problem with the printers they contract! Connells did not think that this was there error even though they charged me for the service and did not deliver. A slight annoyance to say the least. The biggest problem was using Black Solicitors their 'recommended' solicitors. It took 8 months for them to conclude the sale. My buyers used Shoesmiths another recommended solicitors by Blacks. Both solicitors did everything in their power to try and and ensure that this would cost me hugely and were hell bent on not working together to progress the sale. Example being that even though this property had share of the freehold they wanted a DOV to include the balcony in the demise. I could understand this if this was a lease hold property. Anyhow, I agreed to do it and Blacks wanted to charge me £1500 which I feel is outrageous. I refused to pay and instructed another solicitors who charged my less than £500. I complained to Connells about their 'recommended' solicitors who were not acting in my best interests at all. I also felt that Connells seemed to be acting more in the buyers interests than mine. Constantly not telling me the hole picture and it transpires that my buyers did not have the funds available to buy the property. In the end I flipped out, and told them they had two weeks to exchange or I was putting the property back on the market with another agent. Suddenly after 8 months we got somewhere. Connells are unprofessional, and really should rethink who their 'recommend' solicitors are as they are not fit for purpose. They have totally put me off using and estate agents in the future and I can now see why Purple bricks do so well. Thats exactly where I will be going next time. Charging me lots of money and not being honest with me, fobbing me off and trying to stitch me up with solicitors. You should be a shamed of the way you conduct yourselves. The fact it took you 8 months to sell my flat and you think you did a good job is deplorable.

Christopher · 27 May 2017

★★★★★ 2/5

Trustpilot

No communication skills

So myself and my partner put our property on the market with Connells at the orbital, swindon in February. They were on the ball and very motivated.... for the first week! I had viewings before we'd even signed up with them however this attitude changed shortly afterwards: the wrong information was put up about our property, we had agreed an open house a few weeks after signing up to allow is to finish some decorating etc however the week before the open house was due I noticed that it wasn't actually advertised on their website, I called immediately and spoke to a member of staff who had no idea our property was even arranged for an open house, although he had been the one organising most of the viewings!!. So after 2 phonecalls the same day after being told they would call me back within the hour (4 hours later) I called again and got told it was on their website but for some reason wasn't showing on Zoopla or rightmove as we had paid for it to be displayed, once again I spent half the day chasing them as I wasn't contacted when I was told i would be ( by a senior member of staff) so we had our open house after eventually getting all the issues sorted, for me to then find out later that day that the reason we had only 3 people attend was because the particular member of staff calling out to registered interest had decided to do so at 6pm on a Friday for a Saturday morning viewing. This lack of communication went on for a number of weeks with different things, until the biggest issue occurred on Saturday ( if I hadn't already given them notice on selling my property I definately would be now!!) So I arrived back from a night away to an estate agent and an interested buyer on my doorstep that I had no knowledge of exactly why they were there!! Considering a week before I had spoken to a member of staff and asked them to postpone any further viewings until I told them otherwise, however despite this they had been calling me all that week to arrange viewings leaving a number of voicemails that unfortunately due to my job and working 12 he shifts I was unable to respond to these during office hours. So despite having no contact with myself a member of Connells staff still took it upon himself to send an estate agent and the interested buyer to my home!! When I called Connells understandably quite angry that this had happened without my knowledge I was told ' that's weird he wouldn't of just booked in a viewing as confirmed without speaking to someone!' Well I can assure them thats exactly what he did, not only that but he also ignored the instruction given the week before to postpone all viewings. I was then told while on the phone that this would be looked into yesterday (Monday morning) and I would receive a phonecall back, I had to contact Connells myself to discuss this at 5pm yesterday- giving them all day to contact me, I made it clear to them that I expected an apology from the person involved and was told he would call me as soon as he came off the phone and that the next person in line would contact me today which he did however he wasn't in the office when I was able to call him back and I was advised they would get him to call me between half 3 and 4pm when he was back and I was on my break from work, once again I have heard nothing from either of the two people I was told would contact me today I wouldn't recommend Connells to anyone anymore, estate agents are supposed to be there to.take the stress out of moving all they have done is created me more!

Rebecca · 23 May 2017

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Underhand, inefficient and rude. They give estate agents a bad name

Connells made buying a house extremely difficult. They refused to accept our offer unless we used their mortgage services which they charged at £600 and did not offer the best rates on the market at the time. Trying to discuss this with them was impossible, one member of staff became very rude and hostile towards us. We were lied to and told the seller was ready to move and had found a place when she had not. The whole experience dampened our interest in the property so we ended up withdrawing our offer.

Mr · 23 May 2017

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Useless

Useless, waiting hours to get in cntact with the vengeaful lettings agency that have opened accounts into our names with utility companies and council to pay tax for the period we HAVEN"T LIVED THERE, we have left the property and Connells knows but still Connells have sent emails to these guis to tax us? WHY?

Florin · 19 May 2023

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

So bad there funny

The worst estate agents/letting agents ive ever used. Rented a home from the swindon branch for a year and them and the office in cardiff were useless. Never returned phone calls,never logged any of the issues we raised with them regarding the property.numerous calls and emails to get our deposit back while being lied too.was given inventory upon leaving the property and was told there was various damage to the property and the landlord wanted to claim against our deposit. I happend to know our landlord who informed me the house was kept in excellent condition and he had not had any contact from connells regarding claiming.if you enjoy being lied to,messed about and love poor customer service this is the company for you.!!!

Gary · 8 May 2017

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

No problems when i was in the property

No problems when i was in the property. But once I gave my leave date it went down hill. Connells requested to shorten my contract so that they could let the property as soon as. I agreed as that would work better for me. I was promised that because I had paid a full month's rent, I would get half of that money back as my contract was ending two weeks earlier. On the paper correspondence, it was stated that if there were any significant problems when it would take up to 3 months. From the report, there were no significant problems.Literally 5 days later, the property was let for the agreed date. I handed my keys in and was told that my deposit and half of the rent would be with me after 5 days. I gave it two weeks and followed it up by e mail. I had the report through and it was good except for a couple of areas in the out building which had a leak and became mouldy. The landlord and letting agent knew about this it had been reported numerous times. Yet, nothing was done. I understood therefore that some of my deposit would be used to pay to clean this. Fair enough, shouldn't cost too much. So I gave it another 2 weeks and gave them another prompt for a timeframe. Yet again, another 5 days. 7 days later and no correspondence, I asked yet again where my money was. Luckily only had to wait another 2 days. But i didn't get my full deposit with which I kind of expected and no sign of the rest of the rent. So I gave up. Absolutely useless company and I will not be using them again.

Kath · 25 April 2017

★★★★★ 2/5

Trustpilot

My husband and I rented out our house

My husband and I rented out our house, and moved abroad. Connells were hired to manage the letting, which worked very well until:1. No one explained to us that being abroad we would have to pay tax at source on our rental income. This is the law, but no explanation.2. My husband died 8 months ago. Only now, after so many phone calls and emails, I have lost count, have they finally moved the account into my sole name.3. Every time there was an issue with their accounts department, i.e. a change had to be made, the rent just stopped coming, even though the tenant had paid. This usually tool up to 3 weeks to resolve, and the first time took a solicitors letter.4. My branch manager is polite and helpful, when I can get hold of her, but has never returned a call. I am a patient person, but finally, I decided to make an official complaint. Turns out they have a complaints department.5. The general attitude is: No empathy, no apology, no acknowledgement that a bereaved person might not actually want continual emails, and letters to their deceased husband.6. They do not have a process for dealing with the tax that has been paid to HMRC, so when my husband died, they continued to send his portion of the tax, despite my boring numerous requests. This is still ongoing after 8 months.7. The lease came to an end. What now? No contact from them, and no rent paid either. I had to initiate the call to consider renewing the lease, and have now changed my mind.8. The annual statement showing income and expenditure, does not show the tax paid, by either me or my husband. When asked why. was told, I can figure it out myself from the monthly statements!!!!! Not forgetting that they charge £66.00 x 2 for 2 useless bits of paper.9. They have no idea what to do in event of a death. I mean they are a huge company, and apparently no process. First send a death certificate. Then send a solicitors letter. Then 6 months later, oh we need probate. Basically they have no idea, just say whatever someone else in the office says.10. I am now going after them for the refund of all the management fees since my husband died. This is around £1113.60, and I am not afraid to take them to the small claims court.

Moira · 20 April 2017

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Avoid Connells Property surveyors!

Connells Property surveyors Did a home buyers survey which has proved to be completely inaccurate - the house has structural problems, failed double glazing, leaking conservatory roof with rotten wood on the door frames and windows - giving evidence that it has leaked for some years. We are looking at £30,000 minimum to put right what the surveyor who was either drunk or blind missed.Complained to them and they fobbed me off with an offer of £1000?!! Now taken it to their Ombudsman for full investigation Complete cowboys! Terrible customer service AVOID THIS COMPANY

Rosa · 3 April 2017

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Unacceptable behaviour

When making an enquiry to view a rental property, their agent wanted a lot of personal information upfront, which as I explained, was not willing to provide over the phone. The agent became rude, basically stating he did not want to waste his time and needed to establish affordability, even though I stated I'd act as guarantor, however he then asked me if I earned in excess of £60k per annum and owned my own property. My enquiry was to simply arrange a viewing, his poor customer service and rudeness means I will no longer deal with them.

Paul · 21 March 2017

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Liars and scammers

I've had such a bad experience with them trying to buy a home. Put an offer which had been accepted - as a First Time Buyer they are trying to blackmail us to use their mortgage broker rather then look around. If we don't use theirs then we will not get the house/ won't be in our favor as the seller are all using Connells broker and solicitors. Really poor customer service and do not trust them with buying or selling my house. they give people a bad experience and lie to make you increase your original offer.

K · 13 March 2017

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Its all gone wrong for Connells Letting

I used to speak highly of Connells letting department, but unfortunately this is no more since they've moved all the property management to a call centre in the Wirral. They are a waste of time and don't seem to have the experience, to deal with any thing that is out of the ordinary. I have threatened to terminate my contract with them, they are so reactive, they actually send you a email telling you how to do it, instead of trying to calm the situation down and get problems sorted.My advice find a letting agent, with their property management locally, who can know the area and may have even seen your property. ( I have had a couple of times, where the call centre staff talked about a flat when I own a house that I rent)

Pip · 8 March 2017

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

What a waste of time!

What a waste of time! The branch manger (Giuseppe Varano) valued our house and did his sales pitch etc. and then we began negotiating rates. We eventually settled on a rate which was 0.3% lower than their original rate. Another week went by with me considering other agents. I decided to go with Connells and asked him to send me the contract. I then got a phone call from the Giuseppe saying that they could not offer the rate they promised and it has to be the original percentage offered on day one. He said he doesn't have the authority (even as branch manager) to offer rates below the 1% they originally stated. So the couple of weeks negotiating was a complete waste of time. If he doesn't have the authority offer different rates then why did he waste my time. I'm really glad this happened at this stage as it shows how trustworthy they are and how unprofessional they are.

James · 26 January 2017

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Fantastic Estate agents

First time i have rented a property through Connells Estate agent, and was the best choice I made! The staff have been fantastic keeping me up to date with the process of my application form, was so patient with it all, and answered all questions every time i called them (was a lot)And even now I'm in my lovely new home they are still always happy to help. I would definitely recommend to anyone who is looking to private rent 😊

Steph · 17 November 2016

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

First time buyer with wolverhampton branch

As we are first time buyer Connells Wton couldnt have made our experience any easier. From calling and arranging viewings with Tish, To going through the buying process with Amo/Jackie. We cant thank you all enough for your hard work in helping us to get the house we wanted. The professionalism was brilliant, always keeping us posted with any update and doing the chasing for us. Its been a weight lifted knowing now we've got our first home all thanks to the fab team at Connells. Will recommend 100%..... Thanks you.

Amy · 20 October 2016

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Failed to sell house then when other agent sold it demanded over 12K 3 years later

We instructed Connells to sell our property in late 2012 after moving from another agent. The were utterly useless, they promised to accompany all viewing but ended up by use doing most viewings, sending people round when no body in. When we went away for a few days requested no viewings they sent people round again. After the 8 week contract period was up we could wait to get rid of them. I phoned and wrote to them informing them we were terminating the agreement. We moved to another agent who sold the property within weeks. We didn't hear from Connells again or have any more viewings from them but three years later they demanded £12840.00 as an unpaid fee for a house they didn't sell!!!!! This is still ongoing.Update two months of grief with them taking them to the Ombudsmen and they finally admitted their mistake and offered £75 compensation!!!!!!!!

Tim · 4 October 2016

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

DO NOT USE - DO NOT CARE & BREACH GOVERMENT RULES

This is there worst experience I have ever had in terms of a letting agency. Branch don't care as pass buck to property management company who also don't care. They said here's your landlords number and deal with it. Thankfully we had a nice landlord but who knows why he would pay them a fee. Despite repeated warnings about breaching government code for return of deposit - we still have not had it even though we had full agreement. Court action here we come - I think the other comments speak for themselves and sincerely hope management change their ways but unlikely.

Helen · 26 September 2016

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Avoid like the plague

Use another agent you will regret it if you do notAs a landlord we persistently pestered Connells who were managing our properties to get maintenance issues done etc as quickly as possible,some jobs really took forever when instruction had been given early We have now moved this property to another Agent and in the process of removing other property as maintenance is only one issue of a really really poor service givenCommunicate is absolutely appalling I have got to give a star rating but it should be zero rated

Richard · 22 September 2016

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Failed to sell house then when other agent sold it demanded over 10K 2 years later

Tim - we have had a similar experience. After terminating agreement in 2014 due to poor service we went to another agent who sold the house in 2015.We have just received a bill for professional services?? for around £10,500. Is this happening to other ex Connells clients. Perhaps the Property Ombudsman should get involved? UPDATE: after having sent an email giving information of sale etc. and informing them that we would be consulting the Property Ombudsman they have emailed an apology and retracted the request for payment.

Vanessa · 7 September 2016

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Giving estate agents a bad name

The initial sales experience was very positive, but that ended once we were signed. After that, they never returned or calls, they would not deal with interested prospects of our property outside of the chain they were dealing with. Very non-proactive, very rude when we could get hold of them. Never provided feedback post open day so we had no idea of the level of interest; only had one prospect presented to us which I can assume was also a Connells prospect in their chain.I would NOT recommended this estate agent. When I raised my concerns they acted as though they were not delivering a service, and as long as they found a buyer for our house why should it be a problem. The epitome of bad service, as, it IS a service they are delivering. And until they can get their heads around that fact, they will never stand out above the smaller estate agents that actually give a s**t. DO NOT USE.

Michael · 11 August 2016

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

aviod at all costs

First impressions on this company were great. Friendly staff & very informative. Once we found a property we liked negotiations started. The estate agent wanted this done over the phone.. cut a long story short we offered just a little over our budget with the promise of the house being taken off the market and future viewings cancelled. Once the offer was accepted i emailed to find out if the viewings had been cancelled and i got no reply for 5 days! We phoned the agent and he assured us things were ok even gave us some advice on a solicitor. 45 minutes later he phoned and said 'no easy way to tell you but you've been out bid, im so sorry, it came from someone who saw the house before you, it was from another branch i didn't even know the viewing took place they have offered 5k more than you so lets just get all the final figures together and put final offers on the table' I was devastated and angry as on the phone 5 days before he led me to believe that the house was ours! We had been gazumped! He knew that we was already pushing our budget and he was trying to squeeze more out of us! I emailed and explained that 5k was too much and our final offer would be the one we previously agreed on and do you know what.. i didn't even receive an email back! nothing! Disgusting customer service! I do not believe the offer came from a buyer who saw the house previous to us. I do believe that the viewings went ahead on that saturday and the offer came from there! Greedy Liars. They lead you to believe lies. Im glad that the sale didn't go through though actually as i can only imagine the hassle we would of had with them! We have now found another house & offered with another estate agent and once our offer was accepted the house has been taken off the market like they promised. See not that hard is it connells...

Belle · 4 August 2016

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Disgraceful and dishonest service

We was going to buy a house with these chimps. Certainly would never buy or sell with them again. They didn't pass on correct information. Also lied to us on occasion and when I pulled them up about contradicting what they said they could only apologise. Their misconduct is one of the reasons we lost the house in the end and 3.5 k out of pocket due to them allowing gazumping. I received an email apologising for what happened because she couldn't sleep at night knowing that we did nothing wrong. (Guilt talking there) they are not very professional either. They promised to take the house off the market but then changed their mind. As the sale was going through our anxieties were high because it was still for sale on the open market. They promised no one would view it and they wouldn't accept any offers however they did do both! Not very happy with this company at all :(

Nicola · 3 August 2016

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Incompetent

Not a single action taken by Connells has been successful in my 18 months of letting a property with them. First of all we lost the property due to them forgetting to pass on our application to the landlord, we were subsequently then offered the property as they had failed to conduct proper referencing on the successful Tennant. Minor maintenance issues went unresolved due to staff simply taking the call and forgetting about any actions. Staff are frequently rude and threaten to gain access to the property without permission due to tenants not being available for house inspections at 24 hours notice due to them forgetting to arrange with the tenants. Upon renewing the property contract, we paid the fee only to find Connells had failed to action our request, as a result of this we were left out of pocket and without a contract, Connells then failed to pass our rental amounts onto the Landlord for a period of months due to there being no contract. Upon the property being sold off by the Landlord, Connells failed to show up to any house viewings leaving it up to myself to completely manage the requirements for the house sale independently. Once the house was sold and we were required to vacate, Connells failed to process our end of tenancy request leaving us again receiving correspondence saying we were in rental arrears despite clearing a previously agreed amount as agreed with both Connells and the Landlord. I have not had a single successful interaction with Connells & in future will actively avoid either renting a property or purchasing a property via Connells due to their total incompetence & inability to perform even the simplest of tasks.

J · 29 July 2016