What was most certainly a tout too far has ended up on Facebook, with the poster pillorying the agents responsible
We hasten to say it happened in Canada and not the UK, but even at this distance it is truly shocking.
Two agents – both women – were door-knocking in an area and found that one home owner had been newly widowed.
So, less than three weeks after Ted Smith’s bereavement they sent him a sympathy card – which has since been branded as “disgusting” and an attempt at “ambulance chasing”.
Under the card’s text expressing sympathy, their card read: “So sorry to hear of your wife’s passing. Please let us know if we can help in any way with your real estate needs when the time is right. Thankyou.”
Enclosed with the card were the agents’ business cards.
Mr Smith’s furious daughter Launi posted the card on Facebook, saying: “So this is what our real estate market has come to?
“My dad received this ‘sympathy’ card in the mail from these two ambulance chasing vultures less than 3 weeks after my mum’s untimely passing. They did not know my mum at all. It absolutely devastated him. Nicely done ladies.
“I’ll be paying a visit to their managing offices tomorrow. Absolutely disgusting and misguided in the worst way.
“On what planet does someone think this is ethical or even remotely acceptable???”
More here
Comments (3)
You know, that if they’d just sent a card with a simple “our condolences” message, not put in their business cards and left out the message about real estate needs he would have been touched by their thought and care.
He might even have called them later…
Definitely a case of less is more!
In the UK we still have the corporates actually aggressively door knocking. I actually warn my vendors that they are going to be deluged by touting mail (usually 7-10 letters in the first 14 days) followed by a visit from a sequence of people (see what I did there?) and they need to watch out in case they get a nasty stung and charged more feeling (whoops, did I do it again?).
I have to admit that I thought it was specifically illegal to go door knocking, but a quick Google search before I posted to make sure I didn’t make a wally out of myself, says that it isn’t.
I’m surprised.
Shameless. Let the man grieve before you start sniffing around for commissions.
Back in the day when I was but a minute tooth on a tiny cog of the mahoosive corporate machine, one of our Senior Managers said he was handling so many deceased estates he’d instructed the negs to answer the phone ‘Good morning, Black Hearse Agencies’…