Grice & Hunter

Don't believe anything Grice and Hunter have to say. Question everything they tell you. Above all avoid using them.

Grice and hunter use a 'Ready, Willing and able' style contract which basically means if they find a buyer for your house, even if you don't want to sell to them or decide to withdraw your sale, you still have to pay them their fee!!

They also charged withdrawal fees plus advertising costs. So even if they haven't managed to sell your house in a year, and you decide to move to another estate agent because you feel they haven't lived up to their side of the contract, they will charge you a substantial fee to stop using them.

Please read the contract very carefully and make sure you understand everything and what you are letting yourself in for.

Grice & Hunter

After having canned our first choice estate agent, we attempted to get other quotes for the sale of our home. One of the alternative estate agents we approached was Grice & Hunter (Epworth Branch). Now my previous experience with Keith Clough (detailed in the review of that name) had taught me that I should get a copy of the selling contract. Frankly, we'd be just wasting the time of the Grice & Hunter property valuer if we didn't like the contract. So I popped along to the Grice & Hunter shop on Epworth High Street. It was there that I was told in no uncertain terms that a copy of the selling contract was NOT available. That if I wanted to see a copy then I'd have to arrange for a valuer to visit my home. So I did make an appointment, as further argument on the point seemed to be a waste of my time, and we are also very keen to sell and move to Sleaford as quickly as possible.

Move forward to Tuesday 12/9/06 (the appointment was made for the 14/9/06 at 1pm) and we receive a call from Grice & Hunter. We are informed that our appointment for the 14/9/06 had been cancelled. The reason for this? Because one of their staff had seen a "Keith Clough The Estate Agents Epworth" for sale sign on our property. I informed the Grice & Hunter people that we were NOT contracted with "Keith Clough The Estate Agents Epworth", that the sign had been removed and that we were unhappy that the appointment had been cancelled without any prior consultation. If they'd called us BEFORE cancelling the appointment then we could have put their minds at rest. The Grice & Hunter person said she'd call us back once the situation had been clarified.

They didn't get back to us.

By the afternoon of the 13/9/06 I was getting a trifle concerned. Was anyone from Grice & Hunter ever going to get back us? I tried calling the local Grice & Hunter office, but seemingly could only get through to an answer machine. I tried the Scunthorpe Branch (very nice and helpful lady), to be informed that only the Epworth Branch could help me, and that there should be staff available.

I called the Epworth branch and left a message. Then I waited, and waited. My wife then suggested calling the Epworth Branch of Grice & Hunter using the code prefix 141 before the rest of the telephone number. The suspicion was that the Epworth Branch of Grice & Hunter were screening their calls and putting us straight through to the answer machine. Perhaps this suspicion was correct because at the first attempt I got through to a person and not an answering machine.

The time is now 4:45pm. I'm still trying to find out what is going on. Are we going to be blessed with a visit from the Grice & Hunter valuer? Have Grice & Hunter become so successful that they don't need to sell property any more? Who knows? The lady I spoke to informed me that I had to speak to another lady who was on the phone. I held, I held and I held. To no avail. I give up. No response that evening at all.

Time is about 9:30am 14/9/06. We finally get a call from the valuer. His attitude is very "we're doing you a favour". No apology for cancelling an appointment without consulting us. A complaint from him that valuing property is "such a drain" - now if it's your job to value property surely you should be a little more positive about it? His response to my request for a copy of their selling contract was that the staff in the shop would show me one. When I told him that was not what they said (the shop staff) he just said "no". Never once was my question "why did you cancel the appointment without talking to us first?" answered. I was appalled by this telephone conversation.

I was invited to visit the Grice & Hunter shop, Epworth High Street, to view a copy of the terms and conditions. Considering all the above we felt that using Grice & Hunter wasn't a viable option. If they treat us badly, and they're potentially going to earn £3500+ from us, how do the treat the buyers?

An example of terrible customer service before we even became a customer!