Extremely disappointed with our experience. We initially offered £460,000 on a property which was rejected before increasing our offer to £485,000 the same day. We were then told the sellers wanted time to think because there was another offer on the table and that they wanted to honour the other buyers' second viewing before making a decision. We were told we would receive an update on the Monday. On Monday, we were informed that the sellers had decided to proceed with the other buyer. When my husband asked what our position was and whether we had any options, we were told that Friday had been the deadline for best and final offers. This was the first time we had heard anything about a best and final deadline. At no stage during the negotiations were we told that Friday would be the final opportunity to submit our highest offer. We were simply told the sellers wanted time to consider both offers after the Saturday viewing and would update us on Monday. Had we been given the same information, we would have approached the process very differently. When I raised these concerns with Tony, the Evaluations Manager, they were dismissed. Rather than acknowledging that this crucial information had never been communicated to us, he became defensive and focused solely on the fact that we hadn't increased our offer sooner completely missing the point. To make matters even more confusing, after being told on Monday that the sellers had accepted another offer, we asked whether we could increase ours to £491,000. We were told that doing so would be "morally incorrect" because the sellers had already accepted an offer. It is therefore difficult to understand how we can simultaneously be criticised for not increasing our offer sooner, yet also be told it would have been morally wrong to increase it once we were finally made aware of the supposed best and final process. We weren't asking for special treatment. We simply expected a transparent, fairly managed process where all serious buyers were given the same information at the same time. Whether or not we would have secured the property is beside the point. The lack of transparency, inconsistent communication and dismissive handling of our concerns have left us with very little confidence in this agency's professionalism.