Purplebricks pulls post which claimed 95% of vendors ‘heading over’ to online agents

A social media post for Purplebricks has been deleted after an EYE reader spotted it and we in turn brought it to the attention of the agent.

The ‘save yourself from commisery’ post on LinkedIn and Twitter, claimed: “South East homeowners fight back against commission, with 95% heading to online agents over the traditional model.”

Yesterday evening, Purplebricks told us that the item had been posted by a Local Property Expert, and was based on a misunderstanding of data.

The spokesperson said: “It seems that a finding from Purplebricks’ research published last week was wrongly misinterpreted in social media postings from an individual LPE’s own account.

“It was not issued from any Purplebricks’ corporate social media accounts.

“The correct wording from the report said ‘95% [of respondents] first searched the internet when looking for a new home’.

“The correct wording has been circulated to and clarified with all the LPEs in the region.”

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17 Comments

  1. AgentV

    Local Property ‘Egg on face’

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    1. mrharvey

      Looks more like jelly to me.
       
      Must be a trifle sheepish.

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      1. Bless You

        WHY is it PIE policing purplebricks?? (Which i am grateful for)  Who should be doing this to protect the public? 

        I would love to see how many times PB have now been reported to ASA etc…. its terrible that the ‘watchdogs’ are still in so far behind the curve of online advertising ‘techniques’ . 
         

        Do you pass your findings on to them for fture ref. 
         

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        1. Malcolm Barnard

          PurpleBricks have had 2 rulings partly upheld by the ASA and 4 informal resolutions. They are not the worst though eMoov have had 2 rulings upheld (1 of those partly) and 6 informal resolutions.

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  2. Frown Please

    95% of customers suffered Conmissery (thanks to peebee for the word) and decided the high street was better.

    PB grab the 9 and the 5 and try to make their own story.

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  3. kingy487447

    Good because Purplebricks had the cheek to phone me and demand I removed a facebook post last week and threatened legal action if I didnt – basically it was upsetting the 2 brothers that I was using a meme of their advert!! One says “At Purplebricks we dont charge commission just an upfront fee” and the speech bubble for the other says “Isn’t that the same thing” – I thought was fair, they didn’t!! Trying to bully us small agents again.. they’re allowed these misleading TV adverts and we’re not allowed to “educate” the public – doesn’t seem fair.

     

     

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    1. cyberduck46

      Did they say what they thought was wrong with your post?
       
       

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      1. kingy487447

        copyright was their reason – my interpretation of that was one rule for one and one for the rest of us!

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    2. debbiec49

      Send it to me and Ill post it off mine 😉

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  4. Typhoon

    Another example of “The jury will disregard that remark” but they won’t of course

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  5. Property Paddy

    95% of all property experts at PB talk out of their bottom anyway

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  6. Bless You

    I think the public get it anyway….one thing i learned early on was not to slag off your competition. It looks weak, insecure and unethical.

    So while PB try to create a business off killing the hand that actually feeds them, the public can see through it.

    Phew… bring on the trading update. see how they spin the real 1% in each town market share this time.

     

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  7. PeeBee

    I actually have some sympathy for the Brickie Brothers and their blinkered, bamboozled band of followers here – and here’s why.

    They are at the end of their “marketing” tether; scraping the bejesus out of the bottom of what has proved to be an extremely deep barrel for any and every last morsel of brown, nitrogenous substance to sling at the mechanically operated air displacement contraption – and no sooner that its’ slung it is shredded to bits by a hoard of people whose main attribute is a good nose for ******** and destroy it in seconds… which is probably only a tad shorter time than it took to come up with the material in the first instance.

    Maybe we’ve seen the worst (or is it best?) of what they have.

    Maybe… just maybe… they are realising that the only thing that will work for them in the long/medium/short run is to actually get down to the job that apparently a good flock of trusting souls are shelling out good money for – actually selling their homes for around a grand a pop rather than having it listed, and watching the lister moving on to the next income stream for them.

    If that were the case, then maybe… just maybe… when they seem to be getting somewhere near that zone, some of the near as darnit nineteen out of twenty homesellers who clearly still don’t think that’s the case might see it as slightly less of a gamble and risk their grand or so in the slightly better hope of receiving bang for their (twelve hundred or so) bucks.

    BUT… that surely can’t happen.  Those people on the PB coalface must already be running round like flies with blue backsides working what is clearly becoming the biggest, hardest version of “The Numbers Game” ever thrust upon the Estate Agency industry it makes corporate life from where I’m standing look like a sedate stroll in the parkiest of parks.  More pressure to list – less time for their existing customers who have already been fed into the big funnel at the top of the sausage machine.  NUMBERS are King.  INCOME is the main aim – both for them, and for the Big Purple Machine they need to continually stoke the boilers with shovelfuls of money…

    … which only comes from THE NEXT instruction.

    Obviously, my heart bleeds.

     

     

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    1. cyberduck46

      >I actually have some sympathy for the Brickie Brothers 
       
      You mean the ones who have just cashed in £17m worth of shares and still hold over £100 million worth?
       
      I know who I feel sorry for 🙂

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      1. PeeBee

        Erm… nope – I really don’t think you do.

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      2. Chris Wood

        You can fool some of the people some of the time…

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  8. Whaley

    Simple case of ‘Confusery’

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