I had exactly the same problem! Went and placed an offer at full asking price (cash buyer) . Was told that I had to go and see their mortgage man prior to any offer being put forward to their client. I informed them my mortgage was already agreed and therefore I did not need to see their man. I was told again that without attending they would not be able to put my offer forward. I then asked my mortgage advisor to call them who was promently told the same - dont attend, don't get the offer put forward! As my wife loved the property, I attended the meeting and was all but held down whilst this guy tried to sell me a mortgage (felt like time share situation). After saying over 5 times I was not interested he finally and very quickly looked at our proof of earning and bank statements and that was that! (at this time i knew no matter what we were never getting this house) The next day abbotts called and told me that due to their being a lot of interest in the property they would need to call all the people who had previously viewed the house prior to the vendor accepting my full asking price offer. The next day I was called to say that the property had achieved an offer higher then mine (and the asking price). I immediately increased my offer and was told they would call me back. A few hours later they called and said I would need to make a "full and final offer" which I did (at over 40k over the asking price). I was called back and told I had been unsuccessful! Not that I smell a rat or anything here but I proceeded to ask for a copy of the offer notification and to my horror today I have received this with the wrong final offer figure quoted and the words "funds being verified" - well as the funds had been verified at their "verification or can i sell you a mortgage" meeting this is simply not true. Perhaps you need to do your mortgage through them to insure you get the house?????????????

Interesting comments above as when we put an offer in on a property they were selling, they immediately came back to us to say that a higher offer had been put in (hmm, that's funny, I rang at 9am on a Monday morning...!). So I then told them that we would offer the asking price and no more. Took about 6 hours to get back to us to confirm our offer had eventually been accepted - but I still suspect to this day that there was no other offer and they just made it up to get the full asking price as the place we're buying has been on the market for months with not much interest and a few reductions in price. Thankfully, we're buying for cash so we didn't have the whole mortgage hassle (luckily). But during the sale they have been completely clueless about what's going on. When we arranged a viewing of the property we have now bought, we explained we had very specific needs but they just ignored that and during the time before our appointment to view, they bombarded me with calls and emails about completely unsuitable properties, like they hadn't listened to a word I had been saying! Hope the sellers of the house we're buying are happy with the service they're paying for...

We had exactly the same thing as a potential buyer regarding seeing their mortgage man. We made an offer and there was another (identical) offer on the table. We were told both prospective buyers had to come and see their mortgage amn to verify our offers were financially sound. The other buyer refused (reasonably enough) and offered to email documents to them to proof his situation. We went, despite having mortgage arranged, and it was a blantent ploy to get a mortgage through them. The Agents then made it very clear they would encourage the seller to accept our offer over the other man's if we had a mortgage through them. Feel very sorry for the sellers using Abbots as don't think they are always getting the truth about some offers/interested parties. Incidently their mortgage man was very good. Despite the hard sell he actually gave us better advice than we'd previously had and I would have no problems using him again ... I just resented the agents bullying us into using him and potentially misleading the seller, even if it was to our advantage.