I believe that no-stars accurately reflects the disastrous treatment I received from one of this…read morefirm's agents last month. She insisted on a showing of a cottage which required a 30 mile off-road driving experience that my vehicle was not equipped for. Instead of offering me ride in her 1/2 ton truck, she insisted I drive my car on a mud track to and from the cottage I wanted to see. Oh yes, I live in Toronto and made the 3-hour trip out that morning for our 11 am appointment. Facts: the agent had been persuasive on the phone the night before, told me to come the next day-- and really hyped the property. After all she had been there that afternoon. And knew the road was unmanageable but didn't mention it in on the phone. Once outside town and on the impossible muddy lake road I stopped. Eventually she stopped, backed up. I told her I feared for the car and my safety. She said "things would improve" (they did not). At the property, she flailed and had nothing to pitch at me and I was in partial shock --my city-driven crossover "baby" SUV is not a rally car. I told her that at the beginning. The property was unsuitable and a disappointment. The agent should have apologized and cancelled the showing after our call or before I arrived that morning. My return drive to Toronto was extremely hazardous. The steering wheel shuddered crazily the minute I accelerated over 95 km. Try going 85 km on the 401 west. I found a car wash but took the car to the dealership where they eventually had to manually scrape mud from the steering wheel shaft it was caked on so thick and so high, to restore the integrity and safety of the vehicle. The price tag was just under $500. There was no response to a lengthy email I sent to Century 21 sales manager Ray Krupa outlining this debacle. There was no response when I asked for some compensation for the car repair. Weeks later I re-sent the email plus the invoice for the hefty repair to Century 21 Emma Kearns, senior to Ray. Her response was defensive, "your problem", hence both unprofessional and narcissistic, as well as highly irresponsible. Not unacceptable. Ontario's Century 21 Franchise Development Director, Gary Zelepa, was most sympathetic and attentive when I contacted him. He did not agree with how the Bancroft franchise avoided my complaints, dodged appropriate and timely communications, and did not restore either my confidence in them or the company by choosing a means to address the losses, such as contributing to my bill for the damages. But hey, a franchise is free to manage how it sees fit, is the bottom line, he explained.
My experience is now in the public domain. I originally suggested to Century 21 that I awaited a reasonable, courteous response rather than being forced to fence with them in small claims court. They were mute then, mute now AS IF IT NEVER HAPPENED. I feel that their lack of integrity, poor judgement, covert bullying and insensitivity to me reflects an ageist and sexist bias at this Century 21 franchise ( I hope not anywhere else). So. Don't Go. Near. Them. And if you are single, female and over 50 years old you can expect that this franchise will NOT respond to a crisis, criticism, a worry or a problem with skill or care. They're stuck in a junior -high time warp. By putting me in peril they ignored their own company's code of ethics, not to mention basic common sense. And they're demoralizing. All three Century 21 Bancroft employees failed to treat me as a valued customer. All three failed to restore some balance to my increasingly dreadful experience dealing with them. The demonstration of gross incompetence, colossal egos and small-town denials, over-zealousness (greed) and pettiness are just a few obvious design flaws I observed in the personnel of this "office". They make Dunder -Mifflin look competent.
