18th Mar 2024 (8 weeks ago)
I had a terrible experience two times over with Hamptons.
The first was the Clapham branch which failed to inform me for weeks of any update after placing an offer during the final stages for a place to rent. I had to personally reach out two weeks post submitting the offer to be told I had lost out. Seems a little slack for me.
Then the worst of it, the Pimlico Branch, particularly an agent accurately named Henry Douch. I wrote to this one four times in order to get one simple viewing for a flat I was very keen on, just across the road from me. After finally managing to get one, he had absolutely zero knowledge or information on the apartment and seemed to "wing" the details, of which I knew more of from the advert. Despite that, the apartment was beautiful and so I followed up by requesting an offer form on numerous occasions, even though he said he'd send it right over after the viewing. Then, after putting in a very generous offer (£200 above asking price, almost perfect move-in date, long tenancy, etc.) I again had no response for over a week and so had to follow-up even more times. After getting worn out from the incomprehensibly poor communication, I decided to visit in branch to confront him. "A rabbit caught in headlights" wouldn't even justify it. I was told he was "just replying to my email" (yuh-huh) and then proceeded to offer me a multitude of excuses as to why it was taking so long and that he'd keep me informed. Finally, after not being informed yet again, I went ahead and chased some more. He surprisingly replied instantly this time to tell me that the property had been "removed from the market with no reasons from the landlord." Knowing this was a complete lie, I decided to visit the initial ad on Rightmove to discover that the property was now "Let Agreed" (posted by Hamptons) which leads me to believe he never even put my offer forward in the first place for whatever ulterior motive he may have had, so I lost out on my ideal flat with only 2 weeks remaining to find another one.
Overall, absolutely appalling service and will never deal with these guys again. How there is not more protection around this kind of misconduct is beyond me.... Read more