Reviews by katew345
Owner as a tenant perspective: we don’t recommend this company for owners or renters
As interstate property owners renting in Melbourne, we were surprised how this company treated us as tenants and their lack of care and maintenance to the owner's property.
In four years of renting we had seven property managers, been yelled at, had calls/emails ignored, never had "quite enjoyment of the property", was mistakenly sent an email with the private identifiable information (PII) of a property owner, was sent another email with the email addresses of all the other tenants in the building, had maintenance items closed (via PropertyMe) without being rectified, and was even told that we needed to speak directly to the property owner about repairing a running toilet (!). It took a month to get that toilet fixed when under the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 (Vic), urgent repairs must be attended to within 24 hours. It was only when an undeniable screen shot of PropertyMe was sent to the head of property complaining about maintenance requests being closed without being actioned did those items magically reappear for repair. When Buxton heard from another real estate agent that we had purchased a property, their head of sales rang my partner accusatorially asking if that was true (!MYOBB!).
The ONLY reason we decided to purchase a property was because renting with this company had been such a horrendous experience and we were tired of living in a substandard apartment with things falling down, doing our own maintenance due to their ineptitude, while the rent kept increasing.
Based on our first-hand experience, we would not allow this company to represent our investment property as they showed us first-hand that they don’t maintain a property nor care about the tenants.... and good tenants consistently help pay mortgages.
Telstra complaints process
I have made two complaints in 10 days directly to Telstra about a Priority Assistance phone and received two separate complaint numbers. Within 10 days 570,800 other complaints have been made. Telstra are still using a call centre in the Philippines and the person I was speaking to this morning was NOT in the Sydney CBD as he claimed.
Why can't I speak to an Australian?
Poor systems - creates unnecessary problems
They removed payment machines, now all issues must be dealt with at the exit point creating long exit queues when an issue arises. They move permanent parking spots with little notice, and their contact centre is offshore making it hard to resolve issues quickly. Management doesn't seem to listen to their own parking attendants who see what's happening on the ground. Now they're taking over Bunnings car parks so expect long exit queues at Bunnings.
New app roll out (2025)
The new app hasn't gone well. They didn't tell us that you needed to reset your password, as your old membership number is no longer valid, THEN I was told that the new app had deleted all the payment details so I had to add them again. The rollout was tested in Melbourne and they need to improve it for the rest of Australia.
Someone else's mobile number now appears on my telstra app
I was assisting someone with recent health issues with their account. Now I can see their Telstra plan on MY Telstra app.
I can see what plan they are, number of days left etc. I can even cancel their plan.
Telstra - you are terrible ....... which is why I am cancelling my service with you.
Incorrect metadata & they wouldn't assist me
My property was listed as 0 bedrooms and 1 bathroom, which was the data for the next-door shed. I corrected the information in March, but the new real estate agent for the shed next door somehow managed to mark MY property as up for sale and revert my property data to 0 bedrooms and 1 bathroom (they did it via property.com which is owned by realestate.com). The realestate.com person assisting me would only change my property as not up for sale, but wouldn't restore the metadata I had corrected in March. I didn't receive appropriate assistance from their staff and don't believe what is written on realestate.com.
Room for improvement
My mother entrusted them with her investment, but they neglected to record her complete name, date of birth, or bank details. This oversight persisted for 20 years until I discovered it. To their credit, once I contacted the new consultant, the issue was rectified albeit with a considerable amount of paperwork that should have been completed two decades prior. This company should have taken proactive measures, as they would have seen that vital personally identifiable information (PII) was missing from this account.
Update: turns out they didn't close her account as requested!
Approximate cost: $30000
Always there when you need them and up front about costs
My previous vet clinic of 40 years no longer offers after-hours emergency work (!), so I tried Avonsleigh. They are reliable and transparent with the costs and options available for the well-being of my animals. The team are caring and they look after everyone - two legs or four.
They are a rare find these days considering the way that vet practices seem to be going. Thank you Avonsleigh!
Misleading - undervalued and purchased a valuable ring from a "walk-in"
Sadly, a friend down on her luck took her $20k Bulgari ring into this store asking for advice on selling it. They said that there was "no value in second-hand jewellery" and gave her $1k on the spot for it (Christie's and Sotheby's auction houses would disagree with their statement).
If there was no value in second-hand jewellery, then why did they buy it from her immediately?
I was so upset for her - she still has no idea how much her ex-partner spent on her
Approximate cost: $20000
They don't respond to emails or are hard to get through to on the phone. They use an offshore call centre