“Awful service by their Pinner branch. Messed up the whole purchase process with their 'expert' advice. Send some strange invoice even after the deal collapsed.”
“Awful service from robert dawson at the cheshunt office. He was never on the end of the phone despite the numerous phone calls. Emails where ignored, and he was never in the office when I went in to meet with him. Made buying and moving so very stressful. Avoid”
“I recently called in to the Stoke Newington branch and requested that a solicitor contact in order for me to make a will. My details were written on a scruffy bit of paper by the receptionist. I was not surprised when no one got back to me. After waiting a week I contacted another local solicitor who got back to me immediately and has been very helpful.”
“Worst solicitors I've ever dealt with. Went with the Enfield branch for buying and selling property. Wendy, hardly ever available to contact. Was basically told i was a liar because her assistant gave me the wrong information and she didn't believe me. Was fobbed off throughout the whole process. When i rang the office once, whoever answered my call thought she'd put me on hold and I heard the assistant saying "is that woman on the bloody phone again?". Lovely!! And finally, my exchange of contracts was held up because my file was put to one side whilst the volume of 'end of tax year' cases were dealt with. I was told that my case was non priority therefore missed the exchange date by two days costing me a further £150 for exchanging and completing within the usual time frame. She made out she was doing me a favour by not charging £300 for this. A joke! Absolutely livid I was. And all this stress began with them losing my paperwork and holding it all up even more. I can't honestly say how stressed the whole process was. My parents are moving with another solicitor and everything is so smooth running. Wish I'd gone with someone else more professional.”
“Conveyancing service was very poorly executed in Pinner Branch by James Anderson. Services charges and major works amounting to almost £4k on the flat prior to purchase were not paid by the seller and the £750 holding deposit was returned to the seller knowing there was service bill due, as I had told him on the phone. Despite all this I have to pay almost £4k worth of service charge and major works that was due from before purchase. Made a complaint and was not taken seriously by Mr Winterflood and only received a very disappointing response two and half months later after chasing him by phone, Saying I was told of this verbally in a meeting that was only attended by my wife ??????
I Have used Mr Alfreds in the past and very happy with him, hence returning back, next purchase (to be going through very soon) will definitely not be with Barnes and Partners.”
Hi sir,
Thank you for bringing your concerns to our attention. Our aim is to provide superior service to all of our customers, and usually we do so without exception, so we’re really disappointed that you feel let down by us. With regards to the issue raised, I am of the opinion that I did provide a beyond satisfactory service to Mr Balendra and he was fully aware of the situation as to the lift repairs and the refusal of the seller to contribute towards the same.
Before exchange of contracts I did write to him advising him of this and of the £750 Retention that was always going to be held by the sellers solicitors and not us. Mr Balendra continually pressed me to exchange contracts as soon as possible and at the time he did not think through the consequences of his actions. I did all I could to protect my client during and after the transaction and I do not think I could have done more.
“These are solicitors from hell. If you want your blood pressure to be raised,they are perfect. They have my instructions from Oct 15. It was meant to be very straightforward but we are now in March 2016 and nothing has been done yet. The exchange deadline is on 31 st March , but nothing!
They do not under any circumstances answer the phone or reply to emails.
Even their phone lines are very conveniently down since the past two weeks.
I would never, never recommend them. . They are enough to give you a nervous breakdown!”
“Using Barnes and Partners for our conveyancing has been the most stressful experience I have have been through. We have used the chingford branch and originally had Michele Hosey who maybe has a clone as our experience was completely the opposite of the professional person described in a previous review.
The communication is incredibly poor, only once has somebody phoned back after me leaving several messages, emails remain unreturned. When I've phoned people have picked up the phone and put it down again numerous times. Today when I've phoned I was left on hold for 7 minutes before I was cut off.
I have followed the complaints procedure and I'm still waiting for the 'complaints person' to actually acknowledge my complaint 19 days after I emailed it to him!
Our flat was sold in December 2015 and still hasn't completed....
Just counting down the weeks until I can ask the legal ombudsman to investigate.”
Good afternoon,
Thank you for bringing your concerns to our attention. We take our commitment to our customers very seriously, and as such, we are very disappointed to hear that we fell short of your expectations. We are aware of the the problem and we can assure you that it is being dealt with internally. We’d really like the opportunity to make this right for you - please get in touch so we can find out what went wrong.
“Dealing with Barnes & Partners has been the most horrendous experience - the level of unnecessary stress has been through the roof. Completely inadequate with absolutely no understanding of customer service. No communication process which makes you feel completely in the lurch. Multiple reminders and requests to get anything done - you feel like you're doing their job for them. No sense of urgency. Rude.
I will be complaining to the Law Society.”
Thank you for bringing your concerns to our attention. We take our commitment to our customers very seriously, and as such, we are very disappointed to hear that we fell short of your expectations. We are aware of the the problem and we can assure you that it is being dealt with internally. We’d really like the opportunity to make this right for you - please get in touch so we can find out what went wrong.
“Absolutely terrible communication from Barnes and Partners. I've not once spoken directly to the solicitor handling our case (Michele) and am constantly fobbed off by her assistant. They're handling the conveyancing for our property purchase and the first contact we had from them told us not to contact them unless it was urgent. B&P aren't responding to our seller's solicitor at all, even though the seller's lawyer sent over the sales pack over a month ago. They're causing delays to the purchase of the property which is having a negative impact on our seller's next move. We're very unhappy and I absolutely would not recommend them.”
Good morning,
Thank you for bringing your concerns to our attention. We take our commitment to our customers
very seriously, and as such, we are very disappointed to hear that we fell short of your expectations
We are aware of the the problem and we can assure you that it is being dealt with internally.
“Very poor service, communication inexistent so had to look elsewhere for answers, passed the deadline for exchange that had been set 6 weeks before, spent more time asking what went wrong then actually dealing with my job, made excuses that I was calling the wrong telephone number (well, I didn't make it up: they gave it to me, and when answered, the receptionist did say their name), that my emails had been sent to junk mail (I doubt that very much as emails from the same address were received just fine the previous week when I confirmed their down payment!)
Am sorry I'm stuck with them now until the end of the job, and definitely don't think I should be charged the full cost for such a bad service. If I provided a similar service in my line of work, I would be fired on the spot!
I'll be putting in a formal complaint to the Law Society.”
“The solicitor paid no attention whatsoever to my case and actually acted on behalf of the respondent-talk about conflict of interest. Do not use this solicitor. Its impossible to reach the appointed solicitor once the fees have been paid. They never call to keep you updated and when you do try to reach them, they fob you off. You need to call about 10 times before someone takes pity and speaks to you and even so, they make off they're so busy for your non-important matter. I read reviews about their bad service but didn't take them seriously. Well here's a review which might save someone their hard earned money from these money grabbers.”
We’re very sorry to hear that we didn't meet your expectations for dealing with your case. Due to our strict standards on privacy and confidentiality we won’t discuss anything publicly, but please contact us if you wish to discuss your concerns any further.
