“DO NOT SELL YOUR BUSINESS THROUGH THIS COMPANY! READ THE SMALL PRINT
This company are extremely aggressive and unprofessional. We advertised a business with them, paid an huge fee to advertise. Later after terminating, we agreed investment (not even a sale) from an investor we met directly, who was never introduced by Hilton Smythe.
After accepting investment after terminating with Hilton Smythe they demanded their commission!! Totally unreasonable given it was after termination and the person who invested in our business was never known to or introduced by Hilton Smythe!
They are now behaving aggressively and threatening legal action. We in turn have reported them to the ombudsman and trading standards.
They are snake oil salesmen. DO NOT DEAL!”
“Wasn’t happy with Hilton Smythe. They Initially valued my business at £75k we had some viewers but not huge amount, took over a year and half to sell it. What angers me is the number of price drops it took to sell, the time it took and the huge commission for doing not much, on top of an initial fee for advertisement , copy fee etc. (I had to supply my own photos) Had one offer of £15k which I said no to (as was a lot less than advertised) sales rep seemed angry and said ‘what will you take then!’ I pointed out it was valued at £75k and after commission that would leave us about only £5k! Eventually settled on an offer of £25k BUT out of that was their whopping commission of £6k for doing previous little other than answer a few emails and put an ad on 2 websites. My solicitor did the bulk of the legwork. The commission structure needs changed to a percentage of sale especially for smaller business say 5-10% of the final sale which would be much fairer. My advice would be to advertiser your business yourself on the same website they use businessesforsale and hire a good business solicitor as it’s them that do the bulk of the important work anyway. Out of a valuation of £75k we were left with just £18k after fees.”
“On the start they valued my business to go on sale for 85k, during the same year I made changes on the business and contact them to change on their website and wouldn't happens. 12 months and only 2 viewers and on the 2nd viewer we had the price down to 25k. in the end we had to close the business because of illness and still have to pay £1500 from their advertising pack which should be reduced due to such bad service. 2 buyers in one year is ridiculous for a company always blaging how good they are.”
“Disappointed in my service from Hilton Smythe. They sold a huge pitch about their work and having desired customers for my business and experience with it before. They valued it for me and every call after giving them the job was asking me to lower my asking price more and more. In addition I only received 2/3 calls from clients who hadn't even been informed properly about my business and those arrangements ended up being a waste of time. They charge crazy fees just for "advertisement" and even if you don't get a sale they still keep it and charge you for withdrawal. I am certain that they stay afloat from the fees they charge rather than actually selling businesses. I would not recommend.”
“This company is an absolute joke.
I put my business up for sale end of last year and had a sales rep assigned to me. I was in good contact with her up until around January when my emails were no longer being replied to and I didn't hear nothing from them for 6 months. Then another rep contacted me about some interest. I expressed to this person that it had been 6 months since I'd had contact and a lot had changed in that time as I was promised my business would be a quick sale as that's what I needed but unfortunately it wasn't.
I told this new rep I no longer wanted to sell. All of a sudden emails were being ignored and not replied to. I told this person over and over again I was no longer selling and that I was only contactable through email. This ran over the course of about 2 months. So I contacted a different email address and finally got a response!!
Today I have now received a letter stating I have not been contactable for some time. Which is clearly untrue. It's them that have not been contactable not me!
I'd avoid this company at all costs unless you list no communication”
“Be very careful. These people will rip you off to pay their fees. No matter they sell there is a sale or not. They will tell you that they are in rush but will not let you check the contract and ask you to sign it very fast.”
“Avoid them like the plague, con artist which theirs true business is to allure you into a unscrupulous comercial contract which you can’t get away without paying them the full fee no matter what happens, so stay away from them no matter how convincing they sound .”
