Thumbs Up / Thumbs Down

Campbell invites you to submit your experiences, be they good or bad, of customer service, recent news events or simply opinion on topical issues for inclusion in Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down!

Hypocrites have a new flag-bearer: Neil Jenman. A long time opponent of auction marketing given his misguided belief they produce a lower price for vendors, Jenman is also a vocal critic of pictorial advertising. Yet a Gold Coast Jenman accredited office this month ran a large scale mortgagee auction campaign. 

When challenged on the hypocrisy Jenman stated “banks and mortgagees often don’t care about the price - they just want it sold and out of the way”.  He is wrong, as the Australian Bankers’ Association were quick to assert.  When is the price achieved for the vendor more important than under mortgagee circumstances?!  Insensitive, Jenman. 

 A self appointed champion of real estate reform based on ethics, Jenman justified the campaign by stating that saying “no to handling the sale … meant one of those auction-believing agents would get the commission”. He claims on his website, “it takes courage to follow high ethical standards, to place the interests of consumers first”. Yet Jenman can be toppled from the ethical pedestal upon which he places himself for a price – the commission from one deal, later donated to his preferred charity.  Given Jenman’s strong opposition to auctions, the only way to have ’placed the consumer’s interests first’ and preserved his high ethical standards would have been his refusal to act on the bank’s instructions to auction. 

The good news is the property sold under the hammer, proving that auctions work well even for the most staunch of doubters.

This has been the most controversial post to date on Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down.  Got an opinion? ...

Have your say!