Ashtons Estate Agency - Welwyn Garden City

I did not have one

Used Ashtons as was a prospective buyer of a property they marketed. Not so many issues with the office but the sales progression team were always quite slow to respond and could never get through to the assigned person to my case. Additionally used ashtons to sell my property and I feel compelled to share my deeply disappointing experience. The problems began immediately. The agency provided an initial valuation to secure our business in July, only to suggest a £25,000 price reduction after just one week, admitting there was no interest. Despite agreeing to the reduction, it did not correlate to an increase in activity which would lead to questions around marketing and resource as Ashtons list a lot of properties. By September, they had only managed to secure two viewings. We received absolutely no feedback from either of these viewings, despite requesting it, leaving us completely in the dark. Lastly thier fees are quite opaque and if youre new to selling read through everything very carefully. In the non flex fees there are baked in withdrawal fees that ensure ashtons get paid regardless if they sell or not. Which gives them little incentive to really push your property in my opinion. The alternative is you pay money up front to them to sell your property which is preposterous. Fundamentally all the agents use rightmove to market your property and that's where most people go to find houses. In summary: an inaccurate valuation, negligible effort, a complete lack of communication, and a devious fee structure designed to charge you even when they fail to perform.

Our experience with Ashtons started on a very positive note. Tom and the marketing team did an excellent job promoting our property online, and the brochure they created was beautifully done. Their efforts generated strong interest quickly …

It's an estate agent

It's an estate agent

Significantly overpromised and underdelivered, quoting a higher sale price than other agents but once we had signed their contract suggesting we reduce the price as it was unachievable. Post-sale support was responsive and very good

Worst letting agency experience we have had. We moved into a property that was filthy and clearly not ready for tenants: food remnants and dust throughout, damaged walls and oven, broken lights, a large hole/gap by a window, a broken freezer door left in the living area, and no properly functioning hot water. It has now been over a month, and despite emailing and calling every single week, most of these issues are still unresolved. Many emails are not even acknowledged or replied to. The only major issue eventually addressed was the shower, after around two weeks of having to shower with cold water. The freezer is still unusable, other repairs remain outstanding, and we are still having to chase Ashtons constantly for basic maintenance. Staff may be polite when you eventually manage to speak to someone, but the overall management, communication and lack of action have been completely unacceptable. This has genuinely been the worst experience we have had with a letting agency, and I would not recommend Ashtons Welwyn Garden City.

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.

Highly Disappointed by Ashton's As a tenant who has lived in the property for the past 7 years, I was utterly …