Dourish and Day

This review is my opinion of Dourish and Day estate agents in Stafford.

We used Dourish and day to sell a property, trusting this relatively new company as we had previously dealt with one of their managers at a previous firm, all seemed to go well and we accepted an offer however I fell that we were bullied into committing to a completion date that it since transpired wasn’t feasible or ever requested by the chain. I have asked for evidence to confirm the date we were given was at any point requested and they have been unable to provide this. We went to a great deal of trouble and expense to comply with a date that I believe was fabricated in order to meet monthly sales targets. Now the company have us tied into a contract which means it absolves them this kind of underhand tactics so they’ve essentially got us cornered. I made payment to them on completion minus around half of the expenses we had incurred along with a verbal and written complaint, basically they take no responsibility, they quote file notes though the manager has admitted verbally that these notes don’t accurately reflect the conversations we had had. Dourish and Day have since made numerous threats and phone calls bordering on harassment despite the fact that they are aware I have suffered a very recent bereavement of a family member. I have found them as a firm to have no compassion or reasonableness and feel them to simply be money grabbing, certainly not a company I would recommend.

 

In my experience of dealing with various purchases, sales and rentals on behalf of others, I have found them to be the least offensive of the local agents, that's not really a ringing endorsement, though, it's like being deemed to be the world's least prolific serial killer.

 

It's been a nightmare, I've settled the balance they have been demanding this morning and told them they ought to be ashamed of themselves and that they don't deserve the money and they should be donating it to charity.

I wont hold me breath.

 

Sorry to hear about your recent bereavement. I am selling with them and have had quite the opposite experience. I have barely heard from them at all and it is usually me chasing them for updates from by buyer/buyer's solicitor.
They only complaint I have is that they arranged a viewing for my property and the potential buyer had put in offers on 3 other properties only to lower his price close the exchange date. I think they should refuse him as a potential customer and told them as such.

Again, sorry to hear about your experience, selling a house is stressful enough without these sort of issues! I just wanted to share my experience also.
They do seem to be shifting the bulk of the housing stock in town at the minute!

 

Why not pop a review on their facebook and google page.

 

I think they’ve seen this, he’s just rang again to say that they don’t appreciate the reviews and their marketing team will be responding.

 

Says it all when they say the Marketing team will be responding..

 

Great customer service by the sounds of it.

Ask for their complaints procedure and any data they hold on you showing how they've managed your complaint.

There's a complaints escalation form on Which that you can use to escalate to the Ombudsman for estate agents.

Hope this helps.

 

And Twitter. They're quite active.

https://mobile.twitter.com/DourishandDay

 

They did send the details through for the ombudsman, I haven't the time, energy or inclination, I have enough going on at the moment and I just want to never have to deal with them again. They have their money now, that's all they care about.

I think they're probably fine to deal with if there's no issues or if their scheming works out but it left us with an empty property, a removals bill and loss of earnings all equating to around £1500, we moved heaven and earth to comply with a fictional date because we were told the chain would collapse if we didn't. More fool me for trusting them and their contract absolves them of just this very kind of thing, having dealt with the manager over several transactions previously I didn't question it. I probably should have.

I paid them over £1000 on completion deducting less than half what they cost us, which I thought was more than reasonable but apparently not, their good will gesture was to knock off an amount that will barely cover the fuel for the removal van that we wouldn't have needed if it wasn't for their bull but then add daily interest and harass me while I'm going through a difficult time - which they were aware of.

 

I'm not on twitter.

 

This post will shortly appear on a Google search for Dourish and Day

 

I did just try to add it to that 'Spotted Stafford' thing on Facebook but they wont post it.

Seems a little harsh given what they do actually post on there but hey ho.

 

Didn't something get posted there recently about The Wildwood which got taken down fairly quickly.

 

Estate agents make my flesh creep. That said, this (government) website gives three ombudsman schemes if that's any help :

https://www.gov.uk/buy-sell-your-home/estate-agents

 

My (albeit limited) experience with chains is that it's very rare for this to happen, as people expect completion to be a long, drawn out process. We were at the bottom of a 5 house chain and it still took 4 months to complete. Worth noting for the future perhaps.

They can bugger off then, you get reviews whether you like it or not. They should be glad they don't have a massive thread like a certain building company has on here (yet...)


I'd take this time to say, however, that most of our chain was managed by Clothier & Day and we had absolutely no issues with them - they kept on top of the chain as we were eager to close as soon as possible due to renting and probably got a bit sick of me if anything - so I honestly have no problem recommending them. I've also dealt with the commercial side of Louis Taylor who were great too but cannot speak for their residential side.

 

The chain wasn’t big, we were told a mortgage offer expired on a certain date and couldn’t be renewed so we pulled out all the stops to comply, I didn’t have any reason to doubt what they said was true.

I believe with having two of the chain they wanted the sales figures for that month, it didn’t complete until weeks after and the house was sat empty.

 

In my experience of quite a few house moves, they rarely go smoothly as there's always someone in the chain who finds a way of buggering things up, usually buyers or solicitors.

 

I believe most offers are 3-6 months, don't know if it's till exchange or completion though. From what I've heard most lenders are happy to extend if things are taking a while though

Our seller's seller went on holiday half-way through, cost us over £600 because we had to pay another month's rent.

 

I get that that things don’t go to plan but when you’re deliberately lied to it’s a different matter.