Martin McKenzie
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Latest property news
Trustpilot and AllAgents lock horns over accusations of ‘fake reviews’
The spat kicked off after Trustpilot this week revealed plans to get tough with companies who manipulate or misuse its platform.
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AllAgents hooks up with Google Reviews to offer ‘game changer’
Reviews platform launches initiative that enables agents to manage their public reviews on both platforms from one console.
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Latest property news
allAgents calls for independent analysis of its and Trustpilot agent reviews
Call for investigation follows Facebook comments by a Purplebricks area manager following criticism of the hybrid agent's service by a customer.
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ASA rejects complaint against allAgents
Review site is successful in proving its ‘independent’ status, as used in its advertising and marketing, in a case involving negative Purplebricks reviews.
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You’re never gooner guess which football team most agents support!
Football has been a key part of the property industry for many decades and hundreds of agents around the UK support local teams from basic kit sponsorships to major financial support. This includes most recently Purplebricks founder Kenny Bruce, who put £500,000 of his newly-found wealth into a Northern Ireland club, Larne FC. But the clubs which agents support in their greatest numbers has often been a matter of conjecture – and sensitivity – given clients might not like their team of choice, until now. Reviews website allAgents has scanned the profiles of the 50,000 agents on its site and found that the largest group of supporters are Gooners. Premier league Arsenal fans make up a fifth of the property industry, allAgents claims, matching agents’ fondness of being underdogs. The club, remember have not won the Premier league for over a decade despite the more recent efforts of Arsene Wenger.] The next largest groups of supporters within in industry are Manchester (15%), Tottenham Hotspur (13%), Liverpool (11%) and Chelsea (10%). Agents also like to play football, as well as being supporters. Some 56% list it as their main sporting activity, although bowls is less popular – just half a percent…
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Purplebricks shares continue freefall despite robust radio defence of sales by new UK CEO
The Purplebricks share price has continued to tumble today dropping this morning by 10% to £3.74p a share, down from its all-time high of £5.13p. This follows a price crash late last week during which its share price dropped by nearly 15%, prompted in part – it is claimed by Purplebricks – by a market report from investment analyst Jefferies that claimed it is selling fewer properties than the 78% sales rate it currently promotes. The company’s new CEO Lee Wainwright (pictured, below) went public over the weekend and appeared on a BBC5Live radio programme, during which he called into question the basis of Jefferies report, saying: “Purplebricks wouldn’t be growing at the rate it is if we were only selling half the properties we list”. “The reason we’re capturing the imagination of consumers is that the old way [isn’t] working,” he added. “I’ve been in the estate agency for 26 years, I’ve worked on the high street, I know that the performance of Purplebricks is incredible compared to the high street estate agencies. “Customers want a better way, they want more transparency on fees and the convenience of 24-hour technology and they want a cost-effective way of doing estate…
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Purplebricks vs allAgents – who is the real ‘rogue one’ in this one-star war?
Agent reviews website allAgents has come out fighting after Purplebricks yesterday said its experience of the site had “been very poor”. The hybrid agency went on to say that “we have never sought or had any commercial agreement with allAgents and we have no desire to work with them in the future”. But the reviews website, which has been in dispute with Purplebricks since at least September after the agency challenged whether negative reviews on its website were true or not, is not taking the criticism lying down. allAgents says it welcomes Purplebricks statement that “they don’t want to work with the UK’s largest independent review website for the property industry” because the only people allAgents wants to work with “are consumers”. “When it comes to the 300,000 reviews on our site, we don’t want to work with Purplebricks, or any agent for that matter,” says allAgents director Martin McKenzie (pictured, left). “We work for the consumer. Unlike other sites, we have no commercial agreements with agents, which is why they are a fair reflection of consumers’ experiences – good and bad. “We’ re a business of course, and agents pay us for such services as branding and property listing…
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allAgents reinstates ‘majority’ of negative Purplebricks reviews after negotiations break down
Reviews website allAgents has reinstated Purplebricks’ reviews on its site including “the majority” of the negative ones and half of the questionable ‘five-star’ postings that sparked a two-month spat between the two organisations. allAgents says it has not reposted half of the ‘five star’ reviews after the people who originally wrote them failed to respond to checks by the reviews website’s team, and that it will in future only be accepting reviews from vendors who have sold their homes via Purplebricks or “withdrawn from the agreement with Purplebricks”. “We will continue not to allow duplicate postings by the same client for the same transaction. This will give a more complete picture of Purplebricks’ service, as customers may feel very different at the end of the process, than they do at the pre-sales stage,” says allAgents’ Martin McKenzie. This would appear to end the three-month long dispute between Purplebricks and allAgents, which saw the hybrid agent threaten legal action over 26 negative reviews posted on the agent reviews site. Negative reviews Purplebricks claimed the negative reviews were fake and, after allAgents investigated each one, only three could not be verified as real. A further five were also taken down by allAgents…
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allAgents to make ‘significant’ announcement about Purplebricks next week
Estate agent reviews website allAgents.com has said it is to make a ‘major announcement’ next week about its battle with Purplebricks and has confirmed that talks with the online agent have broken down. Martin McKenzie (pictured, below), Director of Business Development at Glasgow-based allAgents.co.uk, says the talks fell apart because “our negotiations with Purplebricks broke down as we feel their business ethics are not in line with our own”. “However, there’s been a lot going on behind the scenes and we plan to make a major announcement early next week. We will not be bullied into submission by them, or anyone else.” The row between the two sides kicked off in September when allAgents.co.uk refused to take down reviews that Purplebricks considered to be ‘fake’ or ‘could not be justified’, according to Purplebricks founder Michael Bruce (pictured, right). But allAgents.com refused to back down despite repeated threats from the online agent if the reviews were not removed and, after replacing the Purplebricks account page on its site with a message decrying the company’s actions, began a crowdfunding campaign to raise £50,000 legal fighting fund. It reached £45,380 before its closing date. Peace talks allAgents said at the time that it would…
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