Estate agent reviews website allAgents.com has said it is to make a ‘major announcement’ next week about its battle with Purplebricks and has confirmed that talks with the online agent have broken down.
Martin McKenzie (pictured, below), Director of Business Development at Glasgow-based allAgents.com, says the talks fell apart because “our negotiations with Purplebricks broke down as we feel their business ethics are not in line with our own”.
“However, there’s been a lot going on behind the scenes and we plan to make a major announcement early next week. We will not be bullied into submission by them, or anyone else.”
The row between the two sides kicked off in September when allAgents.com refused to take down reviews that Purplebricks considered to be ‘fake’ or ‘could not be justified’, according to Purplebricks founder Michael Bruce (pictured, right).
But allAgents.com refused to back down despite repeated threats from the online agent if the reviews were not removed and, after replacing the Purplebricks account page on its site with a message decrying the company’s actions, began a crowdfunding campaign to raise £50,000 legal fighting fund. It reached £45,380 before its closing date.
Peace talks
allAgents said at the time that it would reinstate Purplebricks account on its site once the full sum had been raised. But despite peace talks between the two sides, it is clear that allAgents has had enough and is now considering its options.
Late last week Purplebricks signed a deal with rival review site Feefo, although it has form with review sites. It also lists with TrustPilot, where it has received over 32,000 reviews so far, but earlier this year was also criticised for its similarly aggressive attempts to get unflattering reviews of its service taken off the site.
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