---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Julia Bruton <julia@aspire.co.uk>
Date: Mar 8, 2007 9:37 AM
Subject: RE: Complaint
Thanks for letting me know.
Sent: 08 March 2007 09:33
To: Julia Bruton
Cc: matt@aspire.co.uk
Subject: Re: Complaint
Hi Julia,
Just to let you know, Gemma did not arrive at the flat at 9:15 this morning as planned, I have just spoken to Jacqui and she is left standing in the road waiting again.
Luke
On 3/8/07, Julia Bruton < julia@aspire.co.uk> wrote:
Dear Luke, I acknowledge receipt of your e mail. I would like to have the opportunity of looking into this matter further before responding to you fully later today. Regards Julia Bruton.
07 March 2007 22:37
To: justin@aspire.co.uk; julia@aspire.co.uk
Subject: Complaint
To Whom It May Concern:
RE: Service received from Gemma Pugh from North Clapham Office regarding XXXXX.
The following email may appear to be longwinded but I urge you to please read the entire mail as I hope you will be able to see and understand the pure incompetence and bad service which I have had to endure over the past 2 weeks. I see myself as a client to Aspire yet have found myself chasing after Aspire for even the smallest of requests. This I could understand if I was not paying Aspire for their services, but paying the ludicrous amount of £300 for your services is beyond belief. I presume that the owner of the property in question is also paying you for your "services", and I too have sympathy for him because the performance of Gemma Pugh with whom I have been dealing with could not have been more pathetic. Please see below a diary of the events from the past 2 weeks.
Please take the time to read the email in its entirety as the ending is the perfect result to what has been an awfully disappointing time for us.
I now find myself in a position where I have to move on Saturday 10 March 2007 and have no choice but to hand over nearly £2500 pounds for a property I have seen once for 10 minutes and my girlfriend has never seen. Most of this amount is for deposit and rent but the £300 I am handing over for your services is money wasted as I have received nothing from your employees.
Diary between Gemma (Aspire) and Luke and/or Jacqui (Client)
Tuesday 20 February :
I received a phone call from Gemma stating that a property was available in XXXXX in Stockwell. Arranged to meet her at 6pm that evening. After viewing the flat I told her I wanted the flat and she informed me I should speak to Matthew Carter the following day as she was not in the office on Wednesday.
Wednesday 21 February :
Contact Matthew Carter in the morning and arranged to deposit the £235 security deposit into Aspires bank account. Emailed through proof of payment to Matthew & Gemma.
Shortly after I received a phonecall from Matthew explaining the next steps as well as documentation to return to get references checked. Included in this document was an administration fee of £150 X 2. (Which was for me and my girlfriend, I questioned this as I would be responsible for all bills and payments so didn't think it was necessary to pay it twice as she does not need reference checks done on her?)
Thursday 22 February :
Sent the following mail to Gemma & Matthew @ 9:21 AM :
Hi Gemma,
I have a couple questions on the tenancy application forms you sent through. Are you in today ?
Thanks
Luke
Received the following reply @ 9:48 AM :
Hi Luke,
Feel free to call me at the office i can answer any questions you may have.
Regards,
Gemma Pugh
I immediately replied with my questions I had, I could not phone from the office as I had just started a new job so thought email would be easier and more private. See email below.
I just wanted to double check the costs with you; I told Matt that my girlfriend would probably be staying with me when she gets here from SA. But as far as tenancy goes, I will be paying the rent, bills, council tax etc. but i am not sure then why I need to pay the £150 for her reference checks etc. because she won't be responsible for any of the costs in the flat as her staying with me would probably be a temporary thing.
The other thing was the personal reference, what kind of person should i be putting down for that ? Obviously not family or work people so I thought of putting down one of my current housemates. Is that OK?
Thanks
Luke
At 14:09 I followed that mail up with the following :
Gemma,
Did you get my previous mail with the questions on it?
Thanks
Luke
Friday 23 February :
Still having not received a reply I presumed she was not in the office even though she had said she was, I sent the following to Matt Carter @ 11:04 AM :
Hi Matt,
I haven't heard anything from Gemma, can you help me with this ?
Thanks
Luke
Having not received replies previously I thought the emails may be getting blocked by a firewall or something so I forwarded the same mail to Matt @ 11:12 AM saying the following :
Just sending it to this address again in case my mails are getting blocked.
Thanks
There was no reply from Matt!
I then managed to get through to Gemma on Friday afternoon on the telephone and asked her what was happening as I had not heard anything from her. She told me that she and her boss were busy discussing it and she would call me back in 10 minutes. She did not call back.
Saturday 24 February :
Hoping that the offices would be open on Saturday I tried to phone Gemma but only received her voicemail, I left a message asking if she had received my emails and what the situation was as since I had paid the £235 I had heard nothing from Aspire.
Monday 26 February :
I had hoped Gemma would reply first thing in the morning to my mails or my voicemail but did not get anything so sent the following email @ 10:24 AM :
Hi Gemma / Matt,
I am not sure of the whole process of this letting out of properties but since I paid the £235 deposit last Wednesday I have not really heard anything from anyone at Aspire. Despite numerous emails and voice messages and Gemma promising to get back to me in 10 minutes time on Friday lunchtime, I have still had no joy. Again, I am not sure of this process but I am also confident that this is not usual.
I would really appreciate it if either of you could please have the decency to actually reply to my email or my phonecalls and let me know what is going on as I have transferred what I believed to be a holding deposit on the property i.e securing the property for myself and have therefore stopped looking at other properties. However, if this is not the case someone should really let me know. Has the owner of the property been notified of this?
I would appreciate some sort of response to this email by lunchtime today.
Regards,
Luke
Finally I received a reply to one of my emails at 10:24 AM with the following :
Dear Luke,
I did try and call you back on Friday but kept hearing an error message, I then left the office on appointments.
In regards to the referencing fee for your partner this is £150 each and can not be avoided. Anybody who lives is the property needs to be on the tenancy agreement.
The personal reference can be a friend or a work colleague.
If I can be of any further assistance then please let me know on 020 7840 3700
Kind Regards,
Gemma Pugh
I gave Gemma the benefit of the doubt but thought it strange that my phone did not go to voicemail and that she didn't try phone again or simply pop me a mail saying she had tried to ring. My mobile phone is reliable and I have had no problems with it.
I replied to that email and as you will see from the mail I have asked her at the end of the email whether we could view the property again. I never received a reply to this email.
Hi Gemma,
Ok cool, thanks, was just double checking re the admin fee. If that is the process then i am happy to pay it. My girlfriend arrived from XX on the weekend so will get her to come and drop off the completed forms today so we can get the ball rolling.
Is there anyway of her viewing the flat as she is curious of what it looks like on the inside?
Thanks
Luke
That afternoon I got my girlfriend, Jacqui, to drop off the forms with our reference information on it. Jacqui spoke to Gemma in the Aspire offices and was told that we should get the reference check results back on Thursday and will let us know when she hears anything. She also requested to see the property during the course of the week. Gemma said she could show it to her on Tuesday at 13:00 which was agreed upon.
Tuesday 27 February :
Gemma contacted Jacqui to tell her she could not make the appointment to view the house as the cleaners had the keys and she was not sure when they would be getting them back. Jacqui asked Gemma to please let her know when she has them back so that she could see the house before we moved in, provided out references were accepted. Jacqui was never contacted by Gemma to view the house again.
Thursday 1 March :
Having given Aspire an entire day to contact me about the reference check which I know had been completed as I checked on the Maras website, I sent the following email at 15:41 :
Hey Gemma,
Was just wondering if you had heard anything about the flat re: the reference checks, and if you were in possession of the keys again?
Thanks
Luke
No reply!
Friday 2 March :
Having not received a reply I forwarded the same message on the Friday afternoon.
No reply!
By this stage I had organized someone to replace me at my current house and they wanted to move in on the 10 March which was the original date which I had agreed with Gemma to move into XXXXX. However how can I commit to this person to move in, in a week's time when I don't even know if I have been accepted for the flat?
Monday 5 March :
I phoned Gemma around lunchtime and asked her what was going on with our reference check. She said she did not deal with this but if I hold on she will check, she then confirmed we had been accepted and they had been planning on phoning me that afternoon to tell me. She then asked when I would have the deposit, rent etc.( £2500) ready so would could do sign over. I said Saturday the 10 March as agreed at 9:30. She said the appointment was booked for then.
Tuesday 6 March :
I phoned Gemma in the morning to check if Jacqui could view the house before the weekend as we are expected to handover £2500 on Saturday with my girlfriend never having seen the property and personally I would have liked to have seen it again now it didn't have all the previous tenants possessions in it. Gemma said she was fully booked in the evenings after work and could only do afternoons. Jacqui phoned Gemma and they agreed on meeting at 4pm on Wednesday.
For consistency's sake, some emails were sent on Tuesday requesting other information. Please see below :
Hi Gemma,
Would it be possible to meet us at 5pm either tonight or tomorrow ? and if not, what is the latest you could slot us in? We would really like to see the flat before we move in on Saturday so we cant see what (if anything) we need to buy.
The other thing I wanted to try organize was to get the phone line linked up in the meantime, could you send me the exact address of the flat or the telephone number so I can get onto BT ?
Will the other details be explained to us on Saturday, things like who we contact to perform landlord duties etc?
Thanks
Luke
No reply was received so I resent it 2 hours later and received the following reply. (In the meantime, Jacqui had called Gemma.)
Hi Luke,
I am booked up today from 4pm. The diary this week is very busy especially for evenings.
I could do Thursday about 5pm, is this suitable?
Full address - 10 XXXXX
Thanks,
Gemma Pugh
I remember the flat being No. @@ and seeing as though BT may be confused if it was the wrong address, I double checked it with Gemma.
Just to double check, it is 10 XXXXX ? For some reason I had in my head number @@ !
Thanks
Luke
Friday 7 March :
Gemma confirmed she had indeed sent me the wrong address. This is just pure laziness and had i not double checked would have caused me even more headaches.
Sorry Luke you are right it is @@!
Regards,
Gemma Pugh
Jacqui especially organised half a days leave so she could meet Gemma at 16:00. 16:00 was later changed to 16:30 by Gemma. Jacqui left her office at 14:30 to go to the bank before meeting Gemma. This is another example of the client going out of their way receing no assistance or compromise from the agency. Surely after the cleaners having the keys and al the other delays on the agency side, they will try and make a plan to satisfy the client? Jacqui phoned me at 17:00 asking for Gemma's number as she had not arrived. Gemma did not answer her direct line but when Jacqui phoned the main office number, surprisingly it was answered by Gemma! Gemma said she had sent an email canceling the appointment as her work colleague had left the office and she had to hold fort, see the email below.
Jacqui I am so sorry but my colleague has had to leave the office in
an emergency so I am going to be unable to make 4.30pm, my manager has
said I can show you in the morning instead, I normally can't do
viewings before 12pm but as this appointment has had to be changed we
can make an exception.
Please let me know what time tomorrow is convenient.
I would have thought if she had not received a reply by 16:00 she would have the courtesy to phone and confirm Jacqui received the mail, however she did not. The following day is not convenient at all as she had already organized time off to view it today.
Jacqui went past Aspire's offices at 17:30 on her evening jog. She saw Gemma and some of her work colleagues sitting in the office. This was strange as she said in her email that she was the only one in the office. So on her return past the office about 30 minutes later she decided to confront Gemma, who was still in the office with 4 colleagues. Gemma said that she had just returned from being out the office. Which can not be the truth as she ran past half and hour before and saw her in the office. (And she was supposed to be covering for her colleague that had to run out on an emergency?) Jacqui asked her if they could not go view the property immediately or later that evening. Gemma said she had an 18:30 appointment and the office closes at 19:00. (Again, I'm sure she could have stopped by for her client to view after 19:00 for a few minutes.) Gemma said she could only show her tomorrow morning at 9:15. Obviously Jacqui cannot be late for work after taking half a day off the day before so asked if Gemma would mind meeting her at 9 AM, Gemma said she couldn't, 9:15 was the earliest.
This is our first time renting a property through an agency and if Aspire were the "acting landlords" I think we would have just written off the £235 by now and looked for somewhere else even though XXXXX is a nice flat. Jacqui asked Gemma who the landlords would be, because as you can see from the correspondence above, the only information we have received is information we have fought for and even when I asked in an email for this information, it was ignored. Gemma checked with one of her colleagues as she didn't know the answer. The colleague confirmed Aspire would not be the landlords, but rather the owner themselves. That is the only reason I am pursuing the renting of this flat because if your company deals with new clients this way, how would they deal with existing clients. If you were to be the landlords, I would have no doubt forfeited the £235 as it is just not worth it. We have spent so much time, energy and money on running after Aspire, it is disgusting.
I am hoping that the 2 of you are the correct people to turn to, to get my issues solved. As you can see I tried to get Matt Carter involved who I understood was the branch manager but this was to no avail. O n www.aspire.co.uk, it states that Aspire is a member of the NAEA/ OEA and as it clearly states on their website, Member Agents must adopt and follow 'best practice'. I have read the full documentation on the NAEA/ OEA website and these guidelines have not been complied to.
At the very least I would like to see the £300 service fee dropped as there is no justification for paying it.
Please let me have your response and thoughts on this issue ASAP, preferably during the course of Thursday as I need to make certain decisions very quickly.
