John Francis Reviews 84

Terrible letting experience, I wish I had read reviews first, I wrongly assumed that because they were a large established company that they would be efficient and fair.
As a landlord I paid them to find a suitable tenant, 9 months later I was £3500 in rent arrears, £1250 solicitors fees £500 Court fees, a wrecked House, including police forcing entry, harassment from tenants, complaints from neighbours, stress and hours of my time, leaving me appropriately £8000 out of pocket. No genuine references, no accurate credit searches etc. I thought they would have least refunded the fee as they had bot found suitable tenants.
After delays and stalling they refused to accept any responsibility and are refusing to refund fees. Don't risk it they don't care and they don't vet the tenants. Terrible experience.

We used John Francis Ammanford to sell our house and definitely made the right decision to use them! Kayley practically sold my house back to me after coming over for the valuation, she was so enthusiastic and positive! The photographer they use made the house look amazing in the photos and the 3D walk through was great! Once the house went up for sale Louisa was really quick with communication and we had a viewing booked pretty much immediately. Louisa was also enthusiastic and friendly. Our house sold straight away for the full asking price that they had originally valued so they were spot on with that. Overall I can’t fault anyone at John Francis Ammanford, they were always at the end of phone to answer any questions and kept us well informed, would 100% recommend and use again!

I’d like to thank John Francis Lettings for my effortless experience from start to finish in securing my new home. Martynas was extremely helpful throughout the process and was always informative whenever I had any questions. Thank you so much

John Francis was telling us what the other buyers had offered for a property and was also telling them what we had offered. Had an offer officially accepted and went through the checks only to be told the next day that another buyer had offered more than us and we lost the house after messing us around for a week. Totally unethical. Also informed us that they were pushing the price up because the seller was buying a more expensive property off them so needed the money which is a massive conflict of interest. Very unprofessional advice and behaviour and we will be looking into their governing body. I would not recommend these at all. We were not treated with fairness and wholly unethical tactics were used. Right down to having back to back bookings and all the classic estate agent tricks I’ve read about since.

We were looking to purchase a property in the area and found the john Francis staff extremely helpful, knowledgeable about the area and considerate to both the viewer and the owners. Staff that accompanied us to viewings were on time and very professional it is a pity that our eventual purchase was with another agent. Can heartily recommend John Francis. Allan & Jean from Warrington

Wouldn't recommend this company to anyone. Used the Carmarthen branch and they were absolute crap. No communication or feedback for almost a year, they didn't even list the property anywhere but their own website for the first few months and only realized this mistake when our friends and others we talked to could never find it anywhere and we complained. They blamed problems on the initial agent but then we were never even told when he left the company and there was no one looking out for us. When the branch manager stepped in we thought their service would improve but its no different. Cant wait to list elsewhere but now they want to hold us to a notice period buried in the small print of their contract. STAY AWAY FROM THESE GUYS !!!!!!

I would strongly recommend the John Francis Team in Milford Haven as they go above and beyond and supported me through the sale of my house and the buying of my next even though my new house wasn't on with them, Jake gave me weekly updates and helped in any way he could sorting out problems, chasing solicitors and keeping me sane

Avoid this estate agent at all costs. The service they provide is less than one star! They are not professional or knowledgable about their services we have wasted 3 months of our time and we dread to think how many possible buyers we've missed out on. Do not waste your time or money on them.

I would suggest not wasting your time trying to sell your property through John Francis in Cardigan. You may get lucky but, along the way, you will experience poor communication and a complete lack of motivation to do their best. Talking to you is, it seems, far too much bother. You have to chase them every step of the way. It seems simple to me that, following every house viewing, feedback would shortly follow. No, not unless you ask for it. House viewings are treated like they are an inconvenience and if you were to get an offer they would probably forget to tell you. There is much more enthusiasm when it comes to trying to get you to sign up to their conveyancing company (Countrywide) - at least six times we were sent the form - and if you order an EPC be aware that you are paying nearly twice the usual price because they sneakily add in a charge for the floor plan that is supposed to be included in the marketing fee, which reminds me that the photographer was so obnoxious I refused to have him in the house. The final straw was having a couple appear unexpectedly on our doorstep for a house viewing. The couple had been expecting someone from John Francis to show them around, but no one turned up. As we were about to go on holiday, the timing was not great. Still, we showed them around, and thought we would get some feedback (perhaps) later, especially as they seemed to like our house very much. Silly us! In fact what happened instead was no one at John Francis in Cardigan or Lampeter, from where they were referred, knew anything about this couple. Well, this couple were certainly very convincing fibbers in that case, much more than anyone at John Francis to whom I spoke to when trying to find out what had happened. Somebody had messed up and nobody was going to admit it. Absolutely useless! By far the worst estate agent we have ever used.

Couldn't even view a property until I had seen their mortgage advisor despite having my own advisor and a very large deposit. They also asked to see my bank account for the deposit before even discussing things further. If you are selling go elsewhere if you are buying go elsewhere

Please do not believe this is standard practice this is all about countrywide making money from you in as many ways as possible. It is the first thing they say on the phone we are part of the biggest estate agent company in the u.k. This is what happens when companies sell out to big corporates. Use local instead lost a sale out of me and could have completed quickly.

I have bought and sold several houses in my life, but John Francis, in Cardigan, is the bottom of the pile when they were selling my property. In all my years I have never had such appalling service from an agent - they don't respond to emails, they don't return calls, they ignore any requests for information and ignored my feedback form. Something is definitely amiss with this company from my experience. Their communication & organisation of their Cardigan office is just not at a level that will ever achieve a sale. Weeks later and I still await some form of contact from them after several emails to them. They have not even responded to me after completing their feedback form and phoned to remove my property from them.

Whether a buyer or a landlord with a tenant there really is no difference. They hide behind the company, their colleagues, their associates at Countrywide along with a list of tricks to assure you they are acting in your best interests including the hardsell of their financial advisor too. Disgraceful. Occasionally, you'll speak to someone who really sounds like they want to help you but then the buck is passed back and forwards. Seriously, avoid unless you are related to someone there who will guide you properly.

John Francis Lampeter
Used JF Lampeter to sell our smallholding recently. The energy and enthusiasm of James and Becky appealed to us and they have always been fantastic to deal with. They are a small and busy team but always had time to be responsive, answer our questions and deal with our requests and queries. Thankyou

I would like to highly commend John Frances Ammanford. Kayley Kayl and the team were brilliant. i lost my husband suddenly so needed to move closer to family. They were so professional kind and supportive throughout Always giving feed back after a viewing. i was with another agent in Ammanford and changed after 6 months. Nothing was to much trouble for them they were brilliant. If you are looking to sell your house look no further than John Frances.Thank you so much Kayley for all your support which made selling my house so much easier.

Moving is always a headache, but with the right help, all difficulties seem smaller, and that is what, with the help of Martynas and Ruth from the John Francis agency in Carmarthen, happened to me. I couldn't ask for better help moving house. Thank you for your support.

Rang them weeks ago & left my contact details, as advised by the recorded message.
No reply. Tried again today. Got a reply this time. But upon booking a viewing, I was told that they’d only arrange the viewing if I can prove I have a mortgage in place for the value.
So they expect me to go through a mortgage application, which affects my credit score. During a time where rates are dropping regularly, so it’s best to hold off until you definitely need one. For a property that I haven’t even viewed yet, let alone decided I want to make an offer? Which leads to the next fact of no price agreed to even know an amount to borrow? What happens if I decide I don’t like the property? I would’ve gone through all that effort & lowered my credit rating for nothing.
When I do finally find a new house & move out. I definitely won’t be selling my existing house through them. They won’t let hardly anyone view it, to be able to make any offers. No wonder the property I wanted to view has been on the market so long.

I contacted John Francis with my complaint. Guess what happened?

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

Awful. Coerced into speaking with their financial advisor as a condition of viewing. Arranged second viewing and more coercion tactics. As a chain free buyer in this market I’m shocked they are putting up barriers like this (Gorseinon Swansea branch). If you’re listing-BEWARE!

Very unprofessional and and extended bad service all together

Just changed to a different agent to sell our house because John Francis in Swansea have let us down so badly. Slow, inaccurate, unreliable, garbled, uncommunicative, discourteous. Not just our own experience either - two different estate agents for houses we were interested in buying remarked to us that John Francis were hard to get hold of and then didn't seem to know the situation with our property and gave them wrong information. So, so disappointed and wish we'd heeded the early warning signs months ago. I'd very strongly advise avoiding this agent at all costs.