“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.”
“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!”
“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.
“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.
“After 3 houses fell through the fourth was completed in 8 weeks. They were there for me every step of the way personally. When I phoned or called into office there was always someone available to speak to me and explain all the paperwork.
I'm very happy with everything they did and I'd like to thank them all very much for making my sale and final purchase go so smoothly.”
“This is the second time I have used the services of Barnes and Partners, Robert Dawson at Edmonton and once again his advice and professionalism was second to none. I would not hesitate to recommend Robert who has provided support throughout our legal process, even at weekends - how many solicitors would do that!”
“We had a great experience with Robert Dawson at Barnes and Partners, they made the whole process of selling and buying a property stress free. Any query or problem we might have had was dealt with straight away. If we couldn't speak to Robert, Esmeralda would phone us back and help deal with it. Totallyle excellent service and we would highly recommend. Thank you again.”
“Robert Dawson was recommended through our Estate agent when buying our first property.
As a first time buyer the process was not so worrying as Robert assisted with professionalism the whole way through. Will defiantly recommend to my friends x”
“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.
“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.
“Actually don’t know where to start with this lot. Topping the list of incompetence is Wendy Gudgeon, followed by the permanently bewildered Kevin Winterflood, and last but not least the feckless ‘how very dare you’ Barnes himself: Nigel.
Wendy Gudgeon did our conveyance for a property but neglected to tell us about an overarching planning condition that affected the property. Fact is, she took her eye off the ball and allowed us to purchase the property without any knowledge of the restrictions. When we found out (it was awful!) we contacted Wendy Gudgeon about this massive oversight and well, that’s when the Barnes & Partners charades began. Cue the Benny Hill music. You simply won’t believe what this firm of solicitors concocted - what an absolute embarrassment! Suffice to say it didn’t take long for the Legal Ombudsman to catch the stench of utter BS in this case and declared their service to be of a POOR STANDARD.
If they did it to us they can do it to you!
Don’t risk anything with this lot; not even the time of day. You have been warned.”
“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 have already recommended others to Barnes and Partners. The service was second to none. I received regular phone calls and guidance through a difficult move and was given clarity with every step.”
“I have been dealing with Barnes & Partners since February of this year regarding the now successful sale of my property. However, once I had found a property I wished to buy, I decided to use an alternative firm of solicitors to act for me regarding my purchase. I nevertheless reluctantly acted on advice and continued with Barnes & Partners for the sale of my property to avoid any complications that may have arisen had I not done so.
I am glad to report that my experience with Barnes & Partners altered towards the end of the transaction, when I was put in touch with Rizwan Ahmed. The service I received from him was exemplary from the outset. He has been continually helpful, efficient and polite, always replying to correspondence both promptly and articulately which unfortunately had not been my experience up to that point.
Had I had the advantage of dealing with Mr. Ahmed from the beginning of the transaction I would not have used a different solicitor for my purchase. You should feel very privileged to have Mr. Ahmed as a member of your team.
Regards Barbara”
“Robert Dawson was great from the very first point of contact, he kept me up to date from start to end and there was not a single point of panic as he kept me up to date every step of the way. Robert was recommended by my estate agent and I am glad I listened as my purchase could not have gone any smoother. I would recommend Robert to anyone looking for a friendly, effective and very professional conveyance to act on their behalf for either purchase or sale. thanks again Robert.”
“Robert Dawson was instructed by us on recommendation from our Estate Agent.
Very efficient and prompt service received. Nothing was ever a problem and he kept is fully informed without myself or my husband needing to call me. Will definitely recommend to friends and family xx”
“Robert Dawson has been fantastic. I first used Robert Dawson 5 years ago and he made my experiance of buying a house stress free. I will always use and recommend Robert Dawson to friends and family. Thanks again Mr Dawson for all your help.”
“We've received an absolutely brilliant service from Robert Dawson. All our queries have been answered promptly, clearly and the whole process has been completely hassle free - which has been a huge weight off our shoulders considering this is our first house purchase.
Robert is very friendly, approachable and professional and has kept us informed throughout, we've never had to chase him for updates. In addition, he's been very helpful in clearly explaining each step and points that we were unsure about.
We couldn't be happier with having Robert as our solicitor and I'd most definitely recommend him to my friends and family.
We would like to offer our thanks for all his hard work and time.”
