Bridgfords Countrywide Estate Agents Review

Overall Rating

None

The high banded fees charged to sell your home (2.5% of the band you're in)
Terrible service
Staff
A highly stressful experience

I attempted to sell my house through their Warrington branch last year. They were the most expensive agent in the town by far, and they operated a banded commission system rather than a % commission (the sales pitch is that the fees are 2.5%, but the amount you pay is 2.5% of the upper limit of the band you fall in to).

Never the less, as a first time seller I was nervous about the process and willing to pay a bit more for better service, so I signed up with Bridgfords. The first week or so went fine and we had several good viewings. After this initial smooth period, followed what can only be described as a comedy of errors on Bridgfords behalf. They would take bookings to view other properties and tell us that the viewings were for our property. We had 3 'assisted' viewings, and the Bridgfords representative only showed up on the first one, so we gave up and carried out the viewings ourselves.

After your property has been 'marketed' by Bridgfords for 4 weeks I expected them to contact us for a marketing review; this never happened. Bridgfords ran a promotion to push properties which I only learned of when it was too late. When I later quizzed Bridgfords about this, they apologised, but this did not improve.

We managed to get several offers on the property from buyers who Bridgfords have vetted. I was assured these offers had been qualified by Bridgfords, but they fell through as the buyers did not have the finances in place to purchase the property.

Throughout all of this, the whole ordeal was dogged with poor service, and whenever we tried to contact our negotiator he was often unavailable. In several face to face meetings these complaints were dismissed excuses. When I asked how they would make the service I received better, they could not give an answer, but they assured me things would improve.

After many meetings without progress I terminated my contact with Bridgefords. I'm now marketing with a local agent and the experience is a world away from my previous experience. I learnt two valuable lessons here, bigger is not always better, and the most expensive option is not always the best.

Members' Comments onwebmister22's Review

• houzehunter on 18th Apr 2008

  Ive got to say that i have to disagree, I recently had some dealings with Bridgfords through looking for a property out of 10+ estate agents in the Warrington area they are the only company who contacted me on a regular basis to inform me about new property's, they asked for a viewing everytime and managed to talk me round to a few that i didn't want to look at. And in the end i offered on one with them and the whole process i was nothing but professional, i wouldn't hesitate in recommending them there the only agents in Warrington that got off there butt and did something for me and my house move.