01616090630

The ultimate solution here would be to make business rates "self assessment" much like Income Tax etc with the same penalties for under assessing yourself.  VO's would then have a similar role as they do with IHT and CGT valuations as policeman challenging clearly erroneous valuations. Would be very easy for businesses to do as most will have an idea of their current rental value and many will have bank valuations carried out regularly anyway. Cowboy agents would find themselves out of business overnight and everyone would be better off.
In terms of the current system, the RICS could make it a breach of their rules for members to be directly or indirectly involved in telemarketing or door step selling. That would enable Councils to mention that on rates bills and so make it crystal clear to ratepayers that those making those approaches should be avoided.

Dear "Surveyor",

You state "Considering the majority of people that have posted on here are business owners/ directors I am shocked that each and everyone of you is listening to one person "justice for victims" clearly a competitor! CVS survey over 46,000 properties through out the UK and there are merely 8 pages of complaints."

I have just carried out a quick search for "Who calls me CVS" along with searches for Jones Lang Lasalle, Colliers, LSH, Knight Frank, Savills, DTZ and several others.  The only one with ANY complaints is CVS, who, as you have said, have 8 pages full of them.  Speaks for itself I think especially bearing in mind the combined number of property surveys/appeals those firms carry out, it will be significantly more than the 46,000 CVS have.  Why do CVS have so many complaints but none of the others have?

"Sometimes companies do get it wrong but complaining about a contract you signed and a percentage you agreed to is laughable" - I think this demonstrates perfectly the attitude CVS staff have with regards to their clients.  If you can't see why, that's your problem.

"As for the pushy sales people equally any large company "Hays(a PLC), Virgin,EDF,BT" all deploy similar sales techniques" I welcome your feed back, I think you will find you have no argument other than the fact you may be slightly deluded wasting life continuously posting on a chat room. Enjoy life and find something positive to do." - You seem quite happy to accept that you employ "pushy sales people", which is a start I suppose, but just because other firms allegedly use "similar sales techniques", does that make it right?  If other people do it then it's fine? Again, it demonstrates the kind of attitude this firm's employees seem to have.

The views of the ex-employee are very interesting, and I have personally heard other ex-employees say very similar things.  There's no smoke without fire at the end of the day, but thanks for adding your comments.

More I look in to this, the worse it gets.

CVS Business model laid bare at this link

http://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Reviews/Commercial ... ews-E763329.htm

How on earth can the RICS see this as appropriate or at all in the interests of the profession

C.R.E.D.IT....R.E.F.O.R.M

HOW DO I WORK OUT A SUCCESS RATE IN REDUCTIONS?
THE VALUATION OFFICE WONT TELL ME!
DO I HAVE TO GUESS?
OR DO U THINK ITS A FRUITLESS EXERCISE?

And you have a company with very bad press don't you. Justice for victims their is no we have its the rating industry now have.
As you are not part of the rating industry you wouldn't say we have, its they have.

Why don't people see what you are ..... in your little office in Birmingham.... Just Google your company reviews before commenting on others.

C.V.S (Commercial Valuers and Surveyors) Ltd jobs are recruiting all the time...these bullys keep on getting good results from staff and avoid paying their commissions by giving them the sack for even a bad week. I should know, i had one bad week, lack of appointments but signed 400K rv which will make the company around 20K minimum net.

You are a Telesales who will cold call and tout for business, screwing people with the water tight contract that binds them into agreement for years...Do not be enticed by the 20K basic and 65K ote as a Business Development Executive, you will make a very bad mistake working for these unscrupulous people with criminal pasts.

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2835999

I think RICS should update the complaince code to forbid cold calling from telesales, so that firms like CVS (Commercial Surveyors and Valuers) can no longer dupe people into signing a contract that they are tied to indefinately.

DO NOT SIGN A CONTRACT WITH CVS FOR YOUR BUSINESS RATES, go to a reputable firm like, Altus Edwin Hill, Bissat Moffat, JLL, Colliers, Tuckermans!

I hate the way CVS practises and i have read many reviews all over the web. I would personally never do business with such a firm but i think the problem is people not doing the due diligence.

Directors of companies agree to having an appointment with a cold caller

They do not do any research on CVS or Commercial Valuers and Surveyors on google prior to the meeting.

They also sign on the day which to the best of my knowledge is the CVS business model.

CVS cold called my company, i told them i will not sign on the day and they have promised an email that never comes and just cold call me again after a few weeks to close me for a meeting. we have been doing this for a few years now, the only thing that changes is the telesales agent. I understand they have a job to do but the volume of calls is just annoying.

I would never do business with a company like this.

no sign on day,

its the small guys in business who get caught by CVS i feel sorry for, the single mother hair salon, the father and son car mechanics, the family restaurant or hotel. These guys are trusting and already feeling the squeeze by the changes in the economy. The hard selling CVS sales agents have no scrupulous and when these guys run into financial difficulty and cease trading, they also have CVS cancellation fees and threatening letters to worry about. It is their fault i know for not doing their homework but it just shows you what kind of company CVS is and the kind of people they have working for them.

CVS are full of lies, i just did a post code search on the VOA site and looked at all the appeals made from CVS, only 2 agreed reductions, but a staggering 30 withdrawals / dismissed by VT...that makes the success rate of that post code HA0 4** less than 10%! another way of looking at this is that 91 percent of the commercial properties could be hit with a higher rates bill as a result of CVS failures!

After doing that research i found this:

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/artic ... businesses.html

the article is rubbish submitted by CVS, but it is interesting to read the comment here: i will paste it here for those who do not like link out:

McDark, UK, 2 years ago

So CVS say they get a 50% success rate on rates appeals? Well last I heard, the VOA was saying their success rate is more like only 10%. That might be a contributory factor why the system has such a backlog. Reputable agents only submit appeals they know have merit. Agents who bulk submit speculative appeals on a no win no fee basis can often end up landing their 'clients' with a rates increase. That's the risk you take. If you're a business owner, be very careful who you ask to act on your behalf.

At the bristol office where i was based i have seen more than 10 people walk from this job in my short time there! I used to wonder why people did not turn up for interview. To be honest, i did read the stuff on the web and here on this forum, but thought that all companies have customers who are not happy with them. i had a short spell at TalkTalk and boy do they have a bad online reputation. I can say i was charmed by CVS and the whole induction thing with hotel and travel paid for in Manchester. My first impressions of this company were really good! but it is all a complete farce. There are a few people that do well in bristol, one female newcomer who i will not name is doing quite well! I sometimes chuckle when i think how many times this company has to go on the recruiting rampage. True say by an earlier poster, no smoke without fire!

harry, mate i guess that is also part of the problem, due diligence, i guess many of us have the attitude that we must see it to believe it. For me, CVS has too much bad press and history, that i would rather work in costa! Im sure like you if i went to interview for CVS i could be duped into it too. After all the CVS interviewer will be a hardcore salesman at heart, selling you the job and the prospects et al. you are simple prey for them!

Has anyone Won a court case against CVS?

I read on another forum that the minute you tell them you will happily go to court they back down!

Of course if CVS lose the case it will set a precedence and then no one will be afraid of these bully's.

what is really amusing to me is some of the telesales who i let go through the pitch are really disappointed when i tell them that i am not interested. They then ask me why do i like to pay more? How do they know what changes i have made to my property from the other side of a phone? They think i am the stupid one.

I always tell them that i will be away next week and the week after...after pressing me for an appointment for the current week, i just tell them i am really busy and do not want to be pushed. They go away for a few weeks and i avoid the call for a month or so till the next CVS recruit has a go.

I always tell them that i will not deal with a company with directors that have a criminal past!

they tell me that if i want to stop the calls i should let them come and see me and put in an appeal! CVS warped logic! So blackmailing me to appeal or suffer continuous harassment from CVS. When they say other rating companies bombard me with calls, i let them know swiftly that it is JUST CVS.

Tell them to stop calling and then report them to the RICS for harassment. I'd put the request to stop calling in an email too as evidence.

If a crook came into your house you would call the police... do not get upset if you invite a crook in and it goes wrong.
there ar