As @EverydaySexism celebrate their third birthday (many happy returns folks) I just wonder how many of our readers have experienced the following…
You're in the process of buying a house / renewing your rent contract, you email your estate agent on behalf of you and your partner, and he alone receives a reply, or worse, you receive the reply but it's addressed to your other half.
Last year I bought my first house with my now-husband and while I did most of the email communication with our estate agent, every reply was met with 'Dear Adam' or 'Mr Crossley, thanks for your enquiry' etc etc.
I won't name and shame the estate agent in question (although he worked at a firm named after an Italian empirical race that liked straight roads and had a name that rhymed with 'neater') but speaking to friends and flicking through my Facebook feed I've discovered I'm not alone in my experiences.
I tried all manner of tactics to illicit a more polite response from the agency, starting my emails with 'Hi XXX, Rebecca here, XXX', signing off with 'Thanks, REBECCA', but never received a direct reply addressed to me. Worse still, I'd call and leave messages leaving my name and number, but it would be Adam that received the call-back.
The only pay-back I had was on the day of exchange, I went personally to pick up the keys and shook hands with every member of the office apart from the person in question. And needless to say they've lost a return customer.
Has anything similar happened to you? Tell us in our comments section below.
Follow Rebecca on Twitter: @rebecca_cox
