Heavy-handed
UPDATE:
Since writing my original review, Stamp Expert has contacted me directly and has offered to discuss our experience and try to understand what went wrong. I am not currently well enough to have that conversation, but I have agreed to speak with them when I am able to, and I think it is only fair to acknowledge publicly that they have now made an effort to engage with us.
I have therefore tempered my original review to reflect this development. I have not, however, removed the substance of my concerns below, as I have not yet had the opportunity to discuss what happened with them or establish whether those concerns can be satisfactorily addressed. I will update this review again once that conversation has taken place.
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
A deeply concerning and, in our experience, unnecessarily fear-inducing approach. We were directed to their website by our solicitor, not seeking them out, and were then bombarded with variously alarming and contradictory tactics to persuade us to pay for SDLT advice we absolutely did not need for a straightforward purchase of our primary residence.
ADDITIONAL to your response:
The email address used for the “assessment” on your website was my husband’s, which is probably why you have been unable to match my review to your records. We were directed to your website by our solicitor and were required to complete the assessment as part of the process.
At the end of the assessment, we were effectively presented with two choices: pay you for advice, or pay double the SDLT to protect ourselves against the possibility that we might “inadvertently pay too little”. There was no straightforward third option along the lines of, “Thank you, we are satisfied that this is a straightforward purchase of our primary residence and that the normal SDLT rules apply.”
We therefore chose neither option and immediately contacted our solicitor to complain about a service which, in our experience, appeared to be primarily designed to upsell paid advice. We then removed ourselves from your website.
That could have been the end of it. It wasn't.
We subsequently received further messages which, from our perspective, appeared to use increasingly alarming language to make us question whether we had got the SDLT position wrong and were at risk of paying too little or being penalised. When those tactics didn't work and we ignored them, we then started receiving messaging suggesting that you could potentially save us money or obtain a refund for us.
That sequence is precisely why I described the experience as fear-inducing and an upsell. I am not objecting to a company offering paid professional advice. I am objecting to the way that offer was presented to us when we had been directed to the service by our solicitor for what is, in our case, a very straightforward transaction.
There is also a question you haven't addressed: where did we opt in to being contacted repeatedly? We certainly did not knowingly request ongoing contact from you. We filled in an assessment because our solicitor directed us to do so, and when we decided we did not want your services, we chose not to proceed and didn't even complete the assessment process because we didn't want either of the two options you presented us with.
So while you may not have initially recognised my review from your records, I am quite confident that the experience I have described is an accurate account of what happened to us.
I am now willing to give Stamp Expert the opportunity to address those concerns directly. If our subsequent experience changes my view, I will be equally happy to say so.
