They used to be good when Andrew and Viv actually worked there but now many of their staff are clueless and treat landlords and prospective sellers very badly. You will lose money through their excessive charges and delays... Stay well away!

We moved in to a house that was ill prepared. Outside hadn't been seen to, light bulbs either not working or missing and no parking permits available for the first 5 months of our tenancy. We were then told we could park in the complex because we had permits pending printing. After 15 tickets and 4 months of hassle from the parking agency who operate in the car park outside my accommodation we finally spoke to the operator who told us how to not receive any more tickets but still told us we had to pay the fines. After asking M&C to solve this issue and sort out our fines we received more than 50 letters asking us to pay £150 each ticket or face court action. Again M&C said they would sort this for us. 3 months later more and more letters arrived. The days prior to moving out we still received letters asking us to pay fines of £90 for each or face court action. All the way through our tenancy we spoke and kept in contact with M&C regarding this and only met "we will sort it" replies. Yet to this day I could be facing court action. Then here's the kicker: moving out deposit quote I spent 15 hours cleaning the house, carpets, windows (which hadn't been cleaned when I moved in) and garden (again hadn't been weeded, cleaned or tidied prior to moving in). I spent £70 on a carpet cleaner two days prior to moving out. These scammers then charged me for carpet cleaning £150 and then general cleaning of £110 for a 2 bed one floor apartment. Are you kidding me? Sort yourselves out because I'm never using you again!!!! Nor would I recommend it

This looks like War & Peace, but the below is a letter sent to head office in respect to my dealings at Martin & Co… I would like to express my upset after being spoken with so rudely and in fact nastily from a member of the Basingstoke branch on Thursday 09/12/2015. My initial involvement with the Basingstoke Martin & Co branch was in connection with a viewing in November. I placed an offer forward via phone having spoken with Andrew Sheldon the following morning. I was later informed the offer was never actually provided across (discovery after the property was re-listed). Accidents happen I appreciate that, but my real bug-bear is the insulting call. The reason for such was for a re-offer (having had a price agreed following relisting) due to the discovery of ground rent increasing in substantial increments, in excess of three thousands pounds a year. I have purchased many leasehold properties and never had anything resembling such figures. Andrew was rather obstructive with a re-offer going forward, questioning detailed reasoning to why and was not happy with my explanation. He said he needed everything in email form and to say precisely the increments. It kept repeatedly saying ‘what is it in ten years, what is it in ten years?’ He was sarcastic and at times continually talking over me. I had to say on at least three occasions ‘I do not wish to be drawn into an argument’ A call expecting to be straight forward was made incredible difficult. I indicated to Andrew I was finding his tone rather offensive and unprofessional. With the buy to let in mind with tenants currently being managed by the agent, he was not enticing me to stay with a fully Management Service and his reply was ‘oh good’. I reiterated the reason for my call however he was not willing to place across, but rather being obstructive even further, saying he would call the vendor to say I have withdrawn my offer. That of course was not my reason for the call or intention or per instruction. To try and diffuse the tension/ situation, I said I would ask the solicitor to carry out the job of what I would expect the estate agent would normally, and for him NOT to make the reoffer, as he would not be impartial. He obviously had a hostile attitude and actually makes me wonder if he has an invested interest in the property himself, with how highly strung he comes across, or if he is like this with every customer? As he pointed out, ‘he works for the seller not the buyer’. Since that time, Andrew actually ignored the fact the re-offer was going via the solicitor and he placed it across within a very short time period without my agreement or acknowledgement to do so. No update to me but rather, my solicitor updated myself with the response from the vendors solicitor to say, 'My client was somewhat bemused that this has already been communicated via the agent to your client'. This was of course not the case. Had the vendor turned down the offer, I would have liked to have come to some kind of negotiation/ agreement that I believed was only fair in the situation of the lease rather than to lose the property in it’s entirety. Of course I don’t know what’s gone on behind the scene with the vendor and Andrew in terms of communication, but how I was dealt with as a customer is far below what you would consider as standard. I have never had need to make a complaint, however I feel if everyone was spoken with in the same manner and dealt with in the same way, then there would not be a business in existence. The call was actually quite unbelievable and with the following, I feel Andrew needs to be spoken with, placed on an action plan or and attend some customer services classes, however I feel the basic qualities of being polite and courteous should be present without having to be placed on special measures. Next time I am looking to sell in Basingstoke, I will be making sure an Andrew Sheldon is not working for that particular agent.

I had an appointment with this agency today to view a house. It was a complete waste of ny time as the agent did not show up and refused to answer calls. That was really rude.

Awful service, I highly recommend a customer service course for the employees.

Just awful, why would you use them?

Awful, avoid at all costs. Don't return calls, damn right rude to. There are much much better agents.

ABYSMAL service / Lack of common sense / Not reliable when things go wrong - AVOID!! If there was a zero rating then Martin and Co would get it. We signed up with them shortly before leaving to live abroad several years back. It went well initially and they got a few people through the door however their tactics to get us to sign up the client we eventually ended up with were on a par with car salesmen. The agent conveniently failed to mention to us that the new tenant would have a pet (something we had specifically asked to avoid) until it was basically so far down the line that we'd missed out on getting other potential tenants without pets. We'd even agreed to a slight drop in rent which we absolutely would not have done had we been told this up front. We were in our new residence abroad for not longer than two months when we had reports that there was water leaking through the kitchen diner ceiling. The agents had attended the site but apparently could not work out what the issue was...obviously putting two and two together (that the bathroom was directly above the dining area was too hard). And after I pointed this out they double checked and found that the silicone sealant on the bath had come away. Anyway after the initial few stumbles all seemed to go well enough for a few years. The staff were polite enough but as soon as any problem arose they were pretty much useless. And I say that with my hand on my heart. The water issues in the bathroom reared their ugly head again in about year 3 after a routine house inspection. Again, putting two and two together is something that the agents don't seem to be good at: they took photos of the property and reported that "all was well". Well, I checked the photos carefully given the previous experience with the tenant and noticed the floor tiles in the bathroom were bowing. I asked them to investigate as this generally means some kind of water damage. They were unusually slow at arranging someone to visit and once they did they quoted an outrageous amount of money to merely replace the floor tiling and effectively cover up the problem. I said this was ridiculous and it needed proper investigating. So I sourced a contractor from the other side of the world and got them around. They advised that there was significant water damage as some of the tiles on the bathroom were cracked and letting water seep down below the bath where it spread outward to the floor tiles. In all the job cost us >£1000!!!! What's worse was that not less than a few months before Martin and Co had visited our property and gave the all clear. Something like this, we were advised, would have been ongoing for a while and they should have noticed it. We eventually moved back to the UK and annoyingly found the house in a state of disrepair and completely unclean. The stringent check out that they had the inventory company perform on us (upon leaving the UK) was clearly not adhered to in the same manner upon check out of the last set of tenants. Dirt and clumps of dog hairs were found all over the house, dirty sills / windows. The tenants had also not kept up the garden maintenance and in fact have basically killed off a whole row of 5 conifers by hacking off the lower branches. We advised that professional cleaners had to be employed and so Martin and Co clearly got their mates around for a kickback. They did a pathetic job for £200 and basically left it in a sub par condition. I dread to think what it looked like before they 'cleaned up'. Martin and Co also seem to think its acceptable to dump their lettings signs on your property when you're not there to protest. I asked them politely to remove the sign so they did but only the board part that identifies it as theirs! I eventually gave up and reported them for fly tipping. All in all they are a bunch of cowboys who want to sign you up to get your 10% or whatever ridiculous fee it is they charge. If things start to go wrong then start worrying as they have little common sense let alone professionalism when it comes to the lettings business.

Martin and Co are an absolute disgrace, their actions verge on illegal and you should avoid letting your property or renting one from them at all costs. This absolute embarrassment of a company handled the letting of a flat I lived in last year and were rude, incompetent and aggressive. Towards the end of my tenancy, Chris Billingham harassed me so much and was so aggressive towards me over the phone and via email that the housing department of the council issued them a warning. When I reported that my front door had melted during a heat wave and I was stuck in my first floor apartment, I was told that this "wasn't an emergency" and it wasn't fixed for over a week. During this time it would take two people around 20 minutes to get the door open, and closed again every morning and evening. They then gave my door key (without my consent) to a neighbour, who then never returned it to them. AVOID THIS TERRIBLE SHAM OF A COMPANY AT ALL COSTS.

Spoke at length with the manager of this branch yesterday and as many of the other reviews have mentioned here, he was rude, stubborn, and seemed to think it was ok to make up his own version of the law regarding tenancy rights for those on a time-restricted visa. Despite reciting passages from the government website, he was still insistent that he was right, or that he would have to follow up with the legal department, which when I asked him to do so, he had absolutely no intention of doing so. Since speaking with this agency, I've spoken with a few others in the area and have had absolutely no issues surrounding the visa "issue". Despicable behaviour, very unprofessional.