Foxtons ripoff - Poor Marketing; Unprofessional Staff Metuchen New Jersey

I have many complaints about Foxtons.....and some details sound all too familiar to what I have read in these other posts. When our listing agent, Ryan Preesada, came to visit us, we loved him. My children even commented on how nice he was after he left. Unfortunately, the rest of our experience with Foxtons has been far from enjoyable.

After listing, I found out that other realtors don't like to work with Foxtons and I even had one tell me she would not show a Foxtons house unless the buyer agreed to pay her a commission if they purchased the home.

Like others, we were suckered into listing high and then having to reduce more than once. When I read about them frequently increasing the square footage listed, I checked ours and found all the measurements were accurate, but they didn't add up to the total indicated. We also missed out on several showings due to unprofessional behavior by staff and agents.

In one case, we received a call at home that an agent wanted to show our house immediately. I was not at home and my son answered the phone - they never asked to speak with my husband so we missed the showing....this is after I had requested to be contacted on my cell phone so that they could always reach me.

In another case, a Foxtons agent who had never called to make an appointment, called me to tell me that the buyers didn't show and she had to leave. Besides the fact that she never made the appointment as she insisted she did, I later found out that she made that call from her car while sitting in front of my neighbor's house and she left when the buyers arrived. I had to answer the door to them and ask them to reschedule their appointment while I was on the phone with the agent! Needless to say, they never came back.

In another case, a buyer showed up at the end of the time for our first open house and the hosting agent said she had to leave and refused to show our home.

I have many other complaints and could go on forever. When I was completely fed up and had begun working hard to market my home on my own, I requested an unconditional release from my listing agreement. The CONDITIONAL withdrawal I received had insane conditions that I could just not agree to.

I wrote a formal letter detailing all my reasons for being unhappy with Foxtons and asked that my agent share it with his manager as I feel I am entitled to an unconditional withdrawal. After getting no immediate response, I requested that the manager either call me or that they give me his name and contact information. My agent replied with his name - Robert DiBiase - and his "direct line". When I called him, I discovered it was a cell phone number because I could hear the different ring tone indicating a cell phone user is on the phone.

When I finally got to talk to him, we were on the phone for a long time. He played dumb saying he couldn't understand why I was unhappy. Even after going through my reasons AGAIN(he had read my letter), he still thought my request for an unconditional release was unwarranted. He kept insisting that Foxtons never allows an unconditional release. I told him that maybe they don't normally do that but he could if he wanted to. He kept refusing, so I wanted to go above his head. I told him that if he could not make the decision to offer an unconditional release, then I wanted to speak to the person who could.

He told me that there was no one else above him - that he was the branch manager and had the final word. I asked who his boss was and he told me it was Jon Hunt. I knew that was BS....there is no way that every branch manager is a direct repot of Mr. Hunt's but I could see I was getting no where with him. Fortunately, I discovered I am entitled to some free legal advice through my benefits at work, so I am hoping they will find some other option to help me get out of this.

When I saw the post from 6/15/2006, I thought there was hope yet. Someone was able to get an unconditional release which they supposedly NEVER allow!

Jill
Mine Hill, New Jersey
U.S.A.