Beware of broker houses

Beware of broker houses

It began when a staff member in our office wanted to lease an
apartment for a year in Sudirman Tower Condominium. The marketing
person there, Mr. P, showed us the units available. After
negotiations, we finally agreed to lease unit 12 H. But we were
told to contact a broker house -- Ms. Gv of GH Realty -- for this
particular unit. The proposal was finally faxed to us a week
after we had called her several times for it. After that, she
asked us to pay a 10 percent down payment. Although we had our
doubts towards her professionalism, still we paid the amount to
her by cheque, and she promised us that everything would be ready
within three weeks.

After her promised time has passed, it turned out that the
unit we required was still unclear as regards to its ownership.
Everything was a whole mess then, as neither Ms. Gv nor Mr. P. --
who had already resigned -- tried to help us at all. When we
tried to call Ms. Gv, she was always out. When we did finally
talk to her, she cut off our conversation. She did not bother at
all to at least show her responsibility toward us.

On the other hand, all the marketing staff in the building
tried to wash their hands of our problem. Even though Ms. R knew
about this, she also did not want to get involved in this matter.

Finally, we met someone in the building's management, Ms. A,
who suggested we contact Mr. AS, the managing director of
Sudirman Tower Condominium. Although it was not easy to talk to
Mr. AS, finally we succeeded. He turned out to be the right
person, as he immediately solved the problem. I hope this will be
our first and last experience.

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