My wifes cousins husband (as convoluted as it sounds!) is an estate agent, they live down in Cornwall though so he is struggling - a top bloke and totally straight down the line with people - I always say to him move to London and set up your own you would take this lot of jokers to the cleaners they really havent a clue on what is good customer service, really, utterly clueless.
I also came across another bizarre aspect creeping into the rental market, long lets. One estate agent, Snellers, says come view a place in St Margarets but the landlord wants a longer than average contract, I say thats fine as long as we can have a break clause and am told its fine. So we take hours out of our day, go look at it, say we will have it. Landlord wants 5 YEARS contract with no notice period and no break clause. Bear in mind the rent is £1800 per month...what on earth are these people thinking...in a world of their own