On January 27, I received this reply from Theo Karangis, Licensee-In-Charge Coogee at estate agency NG Farah after I’d written my original complaint to its agent David Lee, copying it to his directors.
Hi Graham I am sorry to hear of a such a (sic) negative experience with Ng Farah Real Estate and David lee (sic) in particular. We take such emails very seriously and I would like to apologise on behalf of the company in advance. I will be following up all parties involved to ensure this doesn’t happen again. In the meantime we have removed you from our database and please let me know if I can be of any assistance in the future. I am not at all sure how he thought he was apologising “on behalf of the company in advance.” (sic)
I am not at all sure how he thought he was apologising “on behalf of the company in advance,” (sic) nor how he thought he could “be of any assistance in the future,” as his company has tried to rip me off, and I consider there to be almost nothing less likely.
So, this was my reply:
So, this was my reply:
Your apology is somewhat meaningless to me, Theo, as the damage has been done. And as I have the documentary evidence, as a former Australian Financial Review sub-editor and journalist with a keen academic interest (borne of an MBA – Technology, from UNSW) in customer experience (CX), with a published interest in social media applied to property, I intend to use it.My original complaint to David Lee ran as follows:
I now have all I need to make your business the centrepiece of a feature I am writing on the appalling CX suffered by buyers and sellers at the hands of agents. And, as I also suspect that Aaron Milligan isn’t yet aware of this, at the same time as I research and conduct my interviews for this next piece, I will be bringing his attention to it.
These are the reasons I think you have a bigger problem than I do. For a start, you employ someone whose dishonesty attracts all the wrong kind of attention to your business.
Then, if this is my experience, how many others have suffered similarly at his hands? I can’t imagine for a moment that I am unique, and that if I am a buyer, how on earth does he treat sellers?
And, if he tries to rip off customers, how has he been fiddling your own business as long as he has been in your employ? I am sure he has found a way to do something that costs you to his benefit without you recognising it. I imagine I have no chance of actually getting an apology from David Lee himself, as that would mean he has to admit his culpability, so he has brought whatever comes out of this on both himself and you, as long as it runs. And, because of the nature of the social-web CX project I am currently working on, in parallel with the feature I am writing to launch it, this could be a long time, with a lot of pain ahead. Sorry, Theo, but he has brought you a big, nasty problem, and it’s up to you to fix it. When you do, I’d like to know more. Graham Lauren
David Lee: You tried to rip us off, which is why you will never sell our unit for us, why I will persuade all others here not to sell through NG Farah, and why this may have cost your agency much further project-marketing business
David
My wife has frequently remarked that you can tell from someone’s eyes how dim they are, and the first time we met, as you let us down and were late to our appointment, she told me she could tell just from yours that you weren’t exactly the sharpest tool in the shed.
Yet, that aside, you now compound this impression.
Only someone as dim as you would include on a list someone you have knowingly recently pissed off and sold to in the hope of selling them something further, when they have just bought their new home. Duh, really. You have simply no idea of how close you came to losing this sale to us. So unpleasant was our customer experience (CX) in dealing with you that we strove, with urgency, visiting many other places, to find something else we wanted to buy to replace it.
And, now, after you deliberately and purposefully attempted to stiff us, I will deny you the possibility of ever making even a single cent out of me, or from anyone I know or can influence.
So, let me now spell out for other present and future readers of this letter just why I write this.
First, when, after we had put down our good-faith deposit on our unit, I made clear to you that unless the desk space was hard wired to the internet, so as not to have to depend on wi-fi, this could be a deal-breaker.
You then sent me an invoice, dated August 29, from an electrical business, Energex Group, for “Run 1 x Data point in Unit 301(303) as requested by Aaron Milligan.”
I immediately replied, “I am not sure on what basis you have sent us this invoice, as it’s not something we’ve agreed or approved at any point, nor did we see any competing quotes for this work.”
At this point, we were not the owners of the place, and I considered this to be a developer cost and had no intention of paying anything for work I had not commissioned. It seems only someone as dishonest and dim as you would try such a stunt to rip off a buyer like this.
Interestingly, thereafter, after I admonished you for your shameless act, throughout the completion of our purchase, simply, it appeared out of shame and weakness, because you no longer had the courage to deal with us, you disappeared from any contact with us.
Instead, our subsequent dealings through to completion were with Nick Ujvary, who, unlike you, actually has some decent people skills, and worked hard to help us.
As a consequence of your dishonesty, take note now that, first, that we will never again buy anything that has your name attached to it.
Second, neither you nor the company that has the misfortune of employing the liability you have become for it, has the remotest possibility of ever selling a property we own, which, as we are keen investors, we will certainly be selling within a short number of years.
Third, as I am now on the committee at our development and will come to know all of the other owners in these adjoining blocks, I will strongly commend each of my fellow members not to engage you or your company to sell on their behalf.
Fourth, because I have made it my business to know something about real estate project marketing over the last year or so, on the journey to which I have had over 2,000 separate conversations with agents across Sydney, I will now make it my business to urge the developers I come across to have nothing to do, either with your employer and certainly not with you individually, because of our rotten customer experience with you.
Fifth, because I now know many agents in the Eastern Suburbs, I may share the information above with them to give them a competitive leg-up against your business when pitching for project marketing work.
After we moved into our unit, I discovered that the electrical work had been done and that Aaron must also have shared the view that it wouldn’t be worth losing a $1.675 million sale for a thousand-dollar electrical intervention. Thus, it appears that your invoicing trick was a pure scam.
Having had to deal with far too many of them, it now never surprises me just how little it takes, and how little integrity it requires, to become a real estate agent. Yet, you, you gutless creep, have done nothing to change, but much to reinforce this perception.
Because your pathetic stunt has now brought your company into such disrepute, you may now also realise that you need to be more careful in selecting your enemies.
You are clearly too lazy and under-educated to do a decent job, and I suggest that unless you wish only to provoke my anger and will to vengeance further, you remove me from your mailing list and never contact me, in any way, ever again.
Graham Lauren
My wife has frequently remarked that you can tell from someone’s eyes how dim they are, and the first time we met, as you let us down and were late to our appointment, she told me she could tell just from yours that you weren’t exactly the sharpest tool in the shed.
Yet, that aside, you now compound this impression.
Only someone as dim as you would include on a list someone you have knowingly recently pissed off and sold to in the hope of selling them something further, when they have just bought their new home. Duh, really. You have simply no idea of how close you came to losing this sale to us. So unpleasant was our customer experience (CX) in dealing with you that we strove, with urgency, visiting many other places, to find something else we wanted to buy to replace it.
And, now, after you deliberately and purposefully attempted to stiff us, I will deny you the possibility of ever making even a single cent out of me, or from anyone I know or can influence.
So, let me now spell out for other present and future readers of this letter just why I write this.
First, when, after we had put down our good-faith deposit on our unit, I made clear to you that unless the desk space was hard wired to the internet, so as not to have to depend on wi-fi, this could be a deal-breaker.
You then sent me an invoice, dated August 29, from an electrical business, Energex Group, for “Run 1 x Data point in Unit 301(303) as requested by Aaron Milligan.”
I immediately replied, “I am not sure on what basis you have sent us this invoice, as it’s not something we’ve agreed or approved at any point, nor did we see any competing quotes for this work.”
At this point, we were not the owners of the place, and I considered this to be a developer cost and had no intention of paying anything for work I had not commissioned. It seems only someone as dishonest and dim as you would try such a stunt to rip off a buyer like this.
Interestingly, thereafter, after I admonished you for your shameless act, throughout the completion of our purchase, simply, it appeared out of shame and weakness, because you no longer had the courage to deal with us, you disappeared from any contact with us.
Instead, our subsequent dealings through to completion were with Nick Ujvary, who, unlike you, actually has some decent people skills, and worked hard to help us.
As a consequence of your dishonesty, take note now that, first, that we will never again buy anything that has your name attached to it.
Second, neither you nor the company that has the misfortune of employing the liability you have become for it, has the remotest possibility of ever selling a property we own, which, as we are keen investors, we will certainly be selling within a short number of years.
Third, as I am now on the committee at our development and will come to know all of the other owners in these adjoining blocks, I will strongly commend each of my fellow members not to engage you or your company to sell on their behalf.
Fourth, because I have made it my business to know something about real estate project marketing over the last year or so, on the journey to which I have had over 2,000 separate conversations with agents across Sydney, I will now make it my business to urge the developers I come across to have nothing to do, either with your employer and certainly not with you individually, because of our rotten customer experience with you.
Fifth, because I now know many agents in the Eastern Suburbs, I may share the information above with them to give them a competitive leg-up against your business when pitching for project marketing work.
After we moved into our unit, I discovered that the electrical work had been done and that Aaron must also have shared the view that it wouldn’t be worth losing a $1.675 million sale for a thousand-dollar electrical intervention. Thus, it appears that your invoicing trick was a pure scam.
Having had to deal with far too many of them, it now never surprises me just how little it takes, and how little integrity it requires, to become a real estate agent. Yet, you, you gutless creep, have done nothing to change, but much to reinforce this perception.
Because your pathetic stunt has now brought your company into such disrepute, you may now also realise that you need to be more careful in selecting your enemies.
You are clearly too lazy and under-educated to do a decent job, and I suggest that unless you wish only to provoke my anger and will to vengeance further, you remove me from your mailing list and never contact me, in any way, ever again.
Graham Lauren