Peter

Jul 25, 2020

Worst experience with an agent

It is the worst service I have ever experienced! I warn anyone against using Acorn. I moved out 7 weeks ago from my apartment and I am still waiting for my deposit to be returned to me. Halfway through my lease, the pipes started rattling with a loud banging sound. It was so loud that all my neighbours complained and I was unable to get any sleep. My downstairs neighbour moved out until I could get it fixed - that's how bad it was. After over a week of emails without any response I was finally told someone would come to check the pipes out. After the plumber saw the pipes they came back to say that they were looking for someone cheaper as this 'had happened before' so they knew how bad it was and took no action to fix it with urgency or even respond appropriately. After another two weeks of pleading with them, it was finally fixed. So that was the first horrible experience where I couldn't sleep in my own apartment for almost three weeks even though they knew this was an issue as it had happened before. Now that I have moved out and will never do business with Acorn again I face my current problem with this useless agency. It's going on 7 weeks (lease ended 13/06/2020) and I still have not received an updated response after two weeks of emails after agreeing on all deductions as to when my deposit will be returned to me. I agreed to their exorbitant cleaning fee of 211 pounds even after they said the apartment was in great condition just so that I could get most of my money back. Then I had to follow up multiple times over three weeks just to get a confirmation that the apartment had been inspected and I could receive my money back. Then surprise surprise that another "issue" came up only after I emailed them for a response. They wanted to charge me 142 pounds to fix blinds that work perfectly but the mechanism to turn the shutters open was "not working". Again I knew they just wanted to steal more of my deposit so I told them that the mechanism was never used by me so how could have broken it but that they could take the money just so I could be done with them as I knew they just wanted to pocket more of my deposit. After I have been very accomodating to all their unreasonable and exorbitant deductions I still have received no response as to where my deposit is after 6 weeks (going on the 7th week) of moving out. I again warn you against using them as you will definitely lose money (I'm down 353 pounds), time (6 weeks and counting not including the pipes incident) and sometimes even sleep (like me). I and anyone at my company will not use Acorn ever again and I am planning on writing to our relocation team in our company - as we have many colleagues relocating to London - to blacklist Acorn as a vendor after this experience.