Connells Avis 

If I could give 0 stars I would. Stay well clear of the Winton, Bournemouth branch. Our letting agent didn’t have clue about the property we were looking to rent - when we had further questions about the property, it was ignored or palmed off with wishy washy comments. We went weeks without useful communication regarding our tenancy agreement then right before we were about to sign said tenancy agreement they ‘realised’ the price was going to be £100 more expensive per month. Utterly disgusting handling of the whole process and the sooner this business goes under, the better.

Oh my gosh they deserve 0 stars, what a complete rubbish of a company

We requested a valuation for our shared ownership flat, to sell it, it was very urgent for us to receive it, they came, literally spent 2 minutes in the flat only to send me this ridiculous report showing the value of the flat is Zero, and claiming that it was to remortgage even though I specifically said it was to sell the flat, I emailed them they never replied so I got another valuation with another company, days later they replied saying that because of The cladding we needed an EWS1 as the cladding was dangerously, it’s a brand new building! We have the EWS1 form, they refused to amend the report or refund the money, this company is a disgrace, AVOID!!!!!!!

By the time you manage to get a reply from these estate agents, the property you are enquiring about has already had an offer accepted. Horrendous service. Had to chase them three times before getting a reply. Then they say the earliest you can view is 4 days after the call to then on the day be called to say the property has had an offer accepted. Shocking service.

Highly unprofessional branch manager at Connells Hitchin (Paul), who resorted to bully mentality and refused to deal with us when things didn’t go in his favour. He was pushing for us to go with a specific buyer because he was selling their house as well (meaning he would get double commission - obvious conflict of interest here which we saw straight away). When we ultimately decided to go with a higher offer from a different buyer, he shouted at us down the phone (clearly angry because it meant he loses the potential commission of the other house) and said he did not want to deal with us for the rest of the transaction. When we had to call the office for the team’s support, he would pick up the phone and immediately cut us off, then get someone more junior to call us back. Utterly disgusting behaviour especially as they would still be getting commission from the sale of our house. The more junior agents are great though and hopefully they never pick up their manager’s unacceptable behaviour and deserve to work for a better leader.

If I could give less than 1 star. I would. Literally the most incompetent surveyors you could imagine. They made an obvious error on their report which resulted in the sale of our property falling through. Wouldn’t discuss anything with me, had zero interest in investigating my complaint and concerns. They have caused a huge amount of emotional distress and you should do everything you possibly can to avoid them.

Should be shut down for their horrendous tactics. Stealing potential profitability from a seller to line your own pockets. Poor very poor

Awful company. I paid for a RICS survey the valuation was based on comparable sales that were a year old and another that was 9 months old. And not even similar properties. Complete waste of money and you can’t talk to them you have to email details of any issues and get a generic response to say they won’t look into it! You have to appeal and do the work yourself, If I could give them zero stars I would! Use anyone else!

Lmao,
This agency is the worst just after HAART Lettings, I lived in the property at metropolitan house for over 2 weeks without electricity( a pending bill the landlord refused to pay), being bounced around on calls, with no clear communication, mind you I was pregnant at the time, had to go stay with a friend just to have access basic living conditions. no apology, no consideration, no compensation, NOTHING!!

Run away please.

Stay well away. Pushy incompetent staff as well as non cooperative. Do not answer calls or emails. Refuse to transfer tenant’s deposit to a new account. Lots of excuses. If you use The Stevenage branch, they will make sure you lost money as a landlord by giving bad advice and not chasing bad tenants for unpaid rent. Avoid at any cost!

Awful, do not use Connells Exeter. 3 months on market 7 viewings of which 5 were cancelled last minute and never happened. Absolutely disgraceful, offered open days - nothing happened, customer service was poor. Told us to reduce price and still nothing, now leaving them. After seeing Panorama they should be thoroughly investigated.

All experiences have been rubbish. I would never use them to sell my house. Just to get viewings is a shambles

We were asked to quote them for some windows in the NG2 area of Nottingham, we agreed a price, I informed them that we needed a contract signing and a deposit paying, I was asked to send the paperwork to a totally different email address, it was a maintenance companies email, we then received a call from a finance company asking if they could buy the windows directly from our suppliers, this immediately rang alarm bells, so I informed them that we would no longer carry on with the work, we then received a 1-star review on here, awful to deal with, phone calls to my mobile at 9pm, constantly messaging on whattsapp, I genuinely believe that we have had a lucky escape.

Let's face it, most estate agents are somewhat shady but Connells take it to the next level! Unbelievable. stay WELL away!

Absolutely disgraceful service, won't give back deposit after long time partner passed away. Told to put a dispute In but will only get half back as not married. Been going on over a month backwards and forwards to different departments will no good outcome. Do not use them they are disgraceful and diabolical company.

Absolutely the Worst Experience — Avoid Connells Birmingham at All Costs

Our experience with Connells (Birmingham City Centre branch) was nothing short of appalling from start to finish.

1. Phone Calls Ignored for Days
Trying to get in touch with the branch was a nightmare. On multiple occasions, I called the office over 50 times within an hour, and not once did anyone answer. Emails would go unanswered for days, sometimes over a week. Even a formal complaint to Connells head office about this was completely ignored.

2. Withholding Offers and Acting in Their Own Interest
We later discovered Connells withheld a cash offer from us and never informed us. When questioned, they initially denied it — only to later admit it after being presented with evidence. Their excuse? That they were “acting in our best interests” because the buyer was part of a chain. This was a major decision made without our consent, and it's hard to see it as anything but unethical and manipulative.

3. Pressure to Stick with Buyer They Could Profit From
The buyer whose offer we had accepted was using Connells for both their mortgage and conveyancing, and we were too. Once we raised concerns with Connells about the withheld cash offer, they strongly pressured us not to reconsider or back out of the current sale. In hindsight, this was clearly because Connells stood to profit significantly from keeping that particular buyer in place — through commission, broker fees, and legal referrals. Their priority was never our best interests, only their own pockets.

4. Viewings Seemed Rigged Toward Investors
The first 10+ viewings arranged were exclusively from investors, all making insulting low-ball offers and planning to convert the property into an HMO. It felt like Connells were hand-picking investor buyers, possibly due to financial incentives such as referral fees, rather than matching us with serious residential buyers as we had requested.

5. Attempted to Overcharge Us
Connells also tried to overcharge us on fees, and only when we produced the original email agreement did they reluctantly honour the correct amount. Had we not kept written proof, we would have been forced to pay hundreds more than what was agreed.

At the very start of the process, Connells were extremely helpful and couldn’t do enough for us. But the moment we signed with them and the listing went live, everything went downhill. Communication became poor, their conduct turned self-serving, and their attitude shifted to being dismissive and manipulative. Their actions undoubtedly cost us a better sale and made the entire experience far more stressful than it needed to be.

Save yourself the stress and stay far away from Connells Birmingham.
If you need further proof, watch the BBC Panorama documentary “Undercover Estate Agent” — it reflects our experience almost exactly.

They over state value of your property then get you to reduce.
They promise they have enough interested parties for open days.
But after months and 2 price reductions they fail to even produce one viewing. Avoid these scam artists.
They have no ethics and then tie you in to a 26 week sole agency contract that means you miss serious buyers who are not beneficial to their sales bonus incentive programmes.
Plymouth

Wish I could give them zero stars. They are absolutely shocking. My elderly father had his holiday home in Paignton on sale with them for the last 6 months. They were rubbish from the start. Very little communication, always promise a call back, never bothered. They’d book a viewing and cancel it the same day. He had a cash buyer, who made a very cheeky offer that was excepted. 2 weeks later fell through, as the buyer pulled out. (Apparently) after watching the paranorma show on BBC about them, we see it’s a common sneaky tactic they use. Put off cash buyers in favour of someone taking out a mortgage. They called him last week and said he needs to drop by £10,000 to get people through the door. He’s not desperate to sell, so said no. Yesterday we sacked them after waiting or a week for them to call us back. They are pure filth, do not trust these people!! Any of them. He was dealing with the branch in Paignton. Absolutely shocking.

Far too pushy .
Working to constantly increase sellers offer whilst supplying buyer with mortgage.
Is this even legal?

AVOID - Connells of Taunton have invoiced me (as a landlord) a £300 bill for a £25 a month rent increase notice to my tenant. That will mean taking their monthly management fee into account, it will take more than a year of this £25 rent increase to pay their fees, and by this time it will be time for me to possibly look at another rent increase. With fees like this its no wonder landlords have to put in large rent increases. I wish I had now!!

I had put a lot of trust in the house buying process until I came across the Connells Walsall branch. Everything went smoothly up until the point I was being upsold on the in-house mortgage brokers (with Neelam), this was at the not so amazing price of £800!! I refused as I had my own brokers and the entire sale and agent communications went cold.

This £800 for an internal lifetime mortgage broker fee seems very suspiciously like taking money under the table to complete a sale, anyone dealing with these estate agents need to know that you are not obligated to take these and other services they are forcing to sell you (commission based Solicitors or Surveyors).

These unethical and unprofessional tactics has really been one of the most off putting experiences I have ever witnessed.

Anyone in communication with these agents please proceed with caution.

Do a quick google search of “Dubious sales tactics at two leading estate agencies uncovered”, this article brings more light to exactly the experience I’ve just had, there is also a documentary aired recently by BBC on this too.