Is reedsrains.co.uk Safe?

First posted Sep 2013. Edited May 2015 to add a further poor experience. Avoid! September 2013: My friend attempted to rent a property through the Reeds Rains office in Widnes. The one person in the office who dealt with lettings was adamant that he would not need a credit or debit card, so after finding a property he wanted to rent, he duly paid the £125 application fee. A couple of days later, he received a telephone call asking for his credit card details. He repeated back to the person what he had been told, to be asked if any of his friends have a credit or debit card - on the response no, he was told "Well, we can't help you then" very abruptly. He asked for the fee to be refunded to be informed it was non-refundable as the tenant application service had already been provided. May 2015: I travelled clear across the city for more than an hour today to go to a house viewing booked with Reeds Rains. When I got there, nobody was home. Five minutes after the appointment time, I called the office, and was told there was "no record of my appointment on the system". House hunting is far too time-consuming to deal with such complete and utter incompetence. The funny thing? These are two different branches, two years apart, in two completely different parts of the country. They have totally lost my confidence and after giving them a second chance, I don't believe they will ever get any better now.