Hello,
Posted a property for let using open rent. However enquiries not being received. I tested by getting friends to make enquiries on Rightmove and Zoopla. No messages were then received via Openrent. Lost all enquiries from possible tenants. Very frustrating and Openrent seem unable to fix. Anyone else had this?
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Canât receive messages regarding queries
Urgent for me to book an rental stay near south Tyneside college.
We hear this often. Surely they arnt all wrong? This person had used friends to test but still not received. I have had the same issue myself multiple times on different properties and different times.
Please can you clarify how the process works when somebody 1) Makes an enquiry via the Rightmove or Zoopla property form and 2) When somebody calls via Rightmove or Zoopla and leaves a voicemail? (Do they ever speak to a person at Openrent if they call via RM/Zoopla or is it voicemail only)?
How long should it take to receive the enquiry? Are they screened by people and some rejected? If and why would a delay or failure to receive happen?
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We advertise tens of thousands of properties a month, and I see this comment once every few months. So the actual % misunderstanding is obviously quite low, but I agree we could probably do even more here to remove any confusion concern.
In this case @Graeme1 was sent the email entitled:
Subject: Testing out OpenRent enquiries for your 2 Bed Flat, Glasgow, G31
That goes into more detail about sending test enquiries through to your own properties and what the consequences of doing so are (you wonât see these enquiries in your list of enquiries or get the normal notification about them).
We could just let test enquiries through, but it means we donât know how many legitimate enquiries youâve received, which makes it harder for us to offer guidance if you arenât receiving as many enquiries as expected or hit our fair usage limits, for example. We also prevent duplicate enquiries because that would create so much noise for landlords trying to manage their enquiry lists, if we let them all through as duplicates it would make every landlordâs job much harder.
Often when landlords enquire about their own properties they send through 10+ test enquiries, with 9 of those being flagged as duplicates and 1 as âtesting the systemâ. Legitimate tenants also often send through multiple enquiries (especially if a landlord doesnât respond promptly), and I suspect weâd get many more complaints if we let those through!
In terms of phone calls, yes tenants have the option to speak to a member of the dedicated enquiry handling team or to process via a phone menu system (which is where you see voicemails). All enquiries from third party portals are screened (as per the requirements of Rightmove/Zoopla/etc) - we canât just pass on these enquiries automatically / instantly and neither can any agency on Rightmove/Zoopla. The downside is potential delays (normally ~15 minutes 24/7), but the upside is you shouldnât receive any spam (which you would fill up your inbox otherwise!) or duplicate enquiries (again would fill up your inbox) and all enquiries should have enough details to be able to follow up with the tenant at the very least (eg. verified contact details), as a huge % of enquiries come through with invalid emails / phone numbers / etc.
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Thank you. I think there is an expectancy of immediate receipt of messages which can make landlords a little concerned when it drags on, but this explains it - better to have the full picture. It is reassuring that messages are actually processed 24/7.
@Daz. Im aware that you system âsomehowâ identifies test enquiries made by Landlords, and assume that this might be them using the same email address, and/or enquiring from the same IP address maybe⌠but how would your system detect test enquiries made by friends from other computers, as suggested by @Graeme1 ?
Where we donât detect it being the landlord, they would be processed like any other tenant enquiry. The email that covers test enquiries specifically outlines the contact details used to make the test so this is clear / transparent.
Graeme did get that email, so I suspect they did a combination of self tests and maybe tests from friends, but without them telling us which is which exactly I canât tell you exactly out of their legitimate enquiries which are âfrom friendsâ and which are genuine.
If Graeme would like to provide us with the contact details of their test enquiries we can tell him exactly what happened to each and every one.
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Seems to me test enquiries are done by impatient people, Not allowing for the system to be slower than what they want
When a potential enquiry comes through Rightmove email the person sending the message receives confirmation that their enquiry has been successfully sent. However it is not sent to the landlord at this time but a follow up email is sent to them from OpenRent asking for e mail verification and personal information. The prospective tenant does not know to expect this.
In every occasion we have seen, this has gone to the enquirers junk box. They are not expecting to have to follow up so are therefor not looking for this mail. It is likely that they just assume that the landlord has not replied to their enquiry. The enquiry is then lost.
The obvious fix is for the initial mail from Rightmove to have a verification link in it or at least advise that the enquiry will only be sent once they complete the verification mail that will be sent to their mail account from Openrent and to check the junk folder.
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Note:
I have already sent the Openrent support team the email addresses concerned (twice!). Your support centre confirms that all the enquiries were not finalised. I checked and all the people who sent the enquiries and on checking they did receive a verification mail but it was in junk.
They did not expect a further mail from Openrent as they were told their enquiry was successfully sent in a message from Rightmove. The enquiry was then effectively lost. This is my point. At present the Openrent system may be âtechnicallyâ working but its so poorly designed its not fit for purpose.
We now live in a world of immediacy so when things take longer than usual we assume the worst
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Excellent points made here. Getting emails such as Openrents through spam filters is an eternal problem. It is typically the fault of the recipients email service provider as they are over zealous and inaccurate with many false positives, but can often be failures at the senders end due to poorly configured mail servers. Legitimate emails will often end up in spam and you have highlighted a significant problem. The OR follow up email requirement method could be improved with your suggestion.
Many bulk email senders, of which openrent may well qualify, have agreements with the main email providers including gmail, yahoo, Bt internet etc to allow their emails through their spam filters.
Worth pointing out emails are only one avenue for communication with prospective tenants. We do follow up with prospective tenants with incomplete enquiries, not only via email, but by SMS/Phone.
There are a number of defence mechanisms and systems we have here. We process hundreds of thousands of completed and delivered (to landlords) enquiries every month, and we take this part of our service extremely seriously.
In terms of the comms from the portal once a portal enquiry is completed, which I believe is what you are referring to Graeme, that is not in our control. The wording Rightmove / Zoopla use is the same for all agents. If Iâve misunderstood do let me know.
I am.advertising two properties. Sent a few enquiries to both over last couple of days and not a single one has come through. I even created a new account on rightmove when prompted and it said i hadnât sent an emquiry. So i sent it again and now it is showing as sent on the rightmove portal but i still havent received it on Openrent hours later.
Not sure what algorithm is being used but if it is stopping renters with information that is not linked to my openrent account from contacting me, seems like a big issue. Especially if it is showing them on the advertising portal that the message has been sent.
Hi
Had exactly the same issue. The problem seems to be that people were not responding to the email sent to them from Openrent that requires certain information before enquiries are forwarded. Most of the time these emails were in their spam folder. They were not expecting an email as the message they got from Rightmove advised their message was successfully sent. Hence they never even thought to look at their spam folder.
Openrent simply advise they are not responsible for what filters are set up in the persons email.
The weakness is that the mail from Rightmove should advise them to look out for a confirmation mail.
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