I attempted to buy a house through Purplebricks and after shaking hands with the vendor on an agreed price, the property was displayed on line as 'sold subject to contract' and I duly made arrangements for a survey to take place. However, I received a text two days later from someone purporting to be a Purplebricks agent relaying a message at 10.30 pm saying the vendors had changed their minds and were withdrawing from the agreed sale because they had been offered 'much more money'. This came as a surprise since the vendor had agreed not show the house to any other potential buyers. I suspect that if the sale had been through a regular high street estate agent, I would not have been led up with the garden path paying out for a survey upfront - I am still waiting for these fees to be refunded. As for texts arriving late at night, I consider this also to be completely unprofessional. Couldn't this news have waited until normal business hours? Was it delivered in this way to put pressure on me to increase my offer - I didn't. The whole package of online property sales is fraught with difficulties, namely dehumanised contact through texts and emails (from different PB employees and the vendor) and additional risk misunderstanding as you can't speak to anyone who knows what is actually going on. Very angry about the aborted purchase and mishandling of the survey arrangements. I will steer clear of Purplebricks in future.