Couldn't sell a cold drink in the desert (Dixons)

Member Name: SWSt

Product:	Dixons
Date:	19/05/09 (52 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: They talk a good game

Disadvantages: And then fail to deliver on any of it

I have a supremely bad sense of timing when it comes to houses. When I last bought it was in a sellers' market and recently found myself trying to sell in a very difficult buyers' market. Here's another example of how spectacularly wrong I can get things.

The recent sale was forced upon us by a job-related move to a completely different part of the country. By the time we were ready to sell, the Credit Crunch (how I hate those two words) was in full swing, so we knew we it would be very tricky. In order to try and find the most promising estate agent we spoke with 5 or 6, getting them to come and value the property and tell us how they would market it in difficult conditions.

Having listened to them all, we narrowed it down to two and eventually decided to go with Dixons. There were a number of reasons for this, but they seemed to take the most proactive approach to selling, which we thought might get results in a static market. They also promised much more regular communication than the other agents: feedback after every visit, regular (at least monthly) reports on what they had been doing to sell our house and recommendations on actions we could take to make the property more attractive to potential buyers. They certainly talked a good game.

Sadly, talk and hot air is exactly what it turned out to be. When it came to actually delivering on those promises, Dixons were truly appalling.

Pretty much from the start, we experienced problems with the way Dixons did things. First of all, they sent in someone to take pictures. The first set they took were absolutely appalling, the pictures were washed out, saturated with light and taken from stupid angles. Despite this, they went on the website. We told them this was not good enough and ordered them to come back and do them again, which they did. Although the second set was better, they were, at best, adequate. Eventually, we got them to take a third lot, which were marginally better again, though I could still have done better myself.

Then, they started playing around with the pictures on the website. The ones we'd rejected would randomly appear, either with, or sometimes replacing, the ones that were acceptable. Then they removed some pictures, but duplicated others, so you would see two identical pictures of one room, but none of some of the others.

The description on their website was also uninspiring at best. A few lines of text, originally designed to be a place-holder which became semi-permanent until we told them to get it sorted.

Then there were the much-vaunted communications, which proved to be virtually non-existent. We had quite a few viewings (around a dozen or so), yet only got feedback on one of them - and that was only because I rang up to demand it. Even then, the feedback was just us that the buyer liked the house, but couldn't afford it... which begs the question why they showed him round.

The "monthly updates" are also conspicuous by their absence. These regular reports were supposed to tell us: how many hits the property had had on the website, how many sets of details they had sent out in the post, what they were doing to try and market the property and what things we could try next. Other than phoning for routine matters (such as to arrange a viewing), there was zero communication. If I have wanted to know what is going on, I had to ring them.

Similarly, for all their "marketing expertise" we'd have been better off just trying to sell privately, as any initiatives came from us. When the house first went on the market, it was priced pretty competitively. As prices dropped, it started to look a little expensive in relation to others available. Dixons had promised us they would keep an eye on the market and advise us of the best course of action. Yet they never once recommended dropping the price to make it comparable with similar properties. Each time this happened, it was at our suggestion.

The worst example of their "service" came with the very first viewing, when it turned out that the couple were very interested, but not sure they could afford it. We asked Dixons to tell them that we were open to negotiations on price, and would even consider gifting a 10% deposit if this would help. This information was never passed on. By the time this was done, it was too late: they had made an offer on another house... tempted by the promise of a 10% deposit. Whilst there's no guarantee they wouldn't have preferred the other house anyway, Dixons' failure to pass on information potentially cost us a lost sale and a lot of money.

Nor were these the only issues. We agreed to have the HIP done in-house, as this would save delays... except Dixons forgot to action this, which only came to light when we finally found a buyer. The lack of a HIP, of course, caused further delays. Similarly, we decided to use an in-house legal team to handle the conveyancing. Again, this should have sped things up by having the basic documentation drawn up and ready... except Dixons forgot to tell the legal team. We foolishly assumed that this was all in hand and it wasn't until a potential buyer came through that we discovered there would be further delays whilst this was done.

We repeatedly expressed our concerns to Dixons by phone and in writing. Each time, they accepted the service were not up to scratch and promised to do better. And for a brief period (usually about a day), things did improve. They would phone me about every tiny little detail (I always knew when they were trying to convince me they were doing their best - they called me "Sir"!). Then the calls would stop again and we'd be back to square one, not knowing what was going on unless we phoned them.

The only other response to our complaints was a concession that IF they sold our house, they would reduce their fee by £300. However, as we were operating on a no sale, no fee basis this would only benefit us if they actually sold it. In reality, as soon as the minimum 13 week contract was up, we got another estate agent in... who managed to sell it within a matter of weeks.

I can accept Dixons not being able to sell the house - that, unfortunately, was a reality of the market we were operating in, and we always expected it to be extremely difficult and fraught with problems. What I can't accept is their failure to deliver on the promises they so confidently made at our initial meeting. From the experience we had, they talk a good game, but once they have you tied into a 13 week contract, all their promises and fine words evaporate.

Selling a house is a stressful enough business anyway, especially in the current climate. Don't add to that stress by using Dixons.

Website: http://www.dixonsestateagents.co.uk/

Summary: Don't even THINK about using Dixons... unless you are a masochist