Donald Ashe Notary Public, Dublin

On contacting Donald Ashe, I found him to be courteous and professional. I needed to have a document notarised in a hurry. I contacted him by email and was very happy to receive a prompt reply. He granted me an appointment the very same day and on arrival at his home, he checked the documentation I needed signed and requested me to wait five minutes. I was very pleased with his friendly and professional approach and if needing any such services in the future I would be very happy to contact him again for his professional assistance. I found his fee of €60 to be extremely reasonable for a professional service.

Donald Ashe is by far the most unprofessional and discourteous legal professionals I have ever dealt with in all my life. My wife required me to get a document notarised and recommended Mr. Ashe as his late opening hours wouldn’t interfere with my work schedule. During our phone conversations, he first quoted me a fee of €40 for the signature. When I remarked that the standard rate is only €10 he claimed his fee was due to booking a late appointment and his record keeping and that no one charges €10 any longer. I advised him I’d consider it and get back to him to be polite. He then called my wife and said he’d reduce the fee to €20 instead. So, for the convenience of not having to rearrange my work schedule I acquiesced. The next day I had to ring Donald three times leaving messages asking to call or text to confirm our appointment that evening, the final message advising if I did not hear from him by half six then I would consider the appointment cancelled. At 5pm he finally sent a text confirming our appointment at 7:45 advising me to park at a school two doors down, which was odd considering his driveway was more than ample enough to accommodate a client. The final insult came when I arrived and rang the doorbell at 7:43pm. Donald answered the door and advised he was in the middle of eating dinner and would be with me in ten minutes. I asked why he would be having dinner at the same time he’d scheduled an appointment with a client and was told that he did not want to row about it and he’d see me in ten minutes, shutting the door and leaving me standing in his driveway. Ultimately his response was that he’d be in trouble with his wife if he’d let his dinner go cold and she’d have to heat it up again. Hands down the weakest excuse for unabashedly shameful client service I’ve ever encountered. Shocked, I couldn’t decide whether to wait since I was already there or just walk away and take my business elsewhere. I set a ten minute timer on my phone and nine and a half minutes later of standing around in the driveway fuming he reappeared. He asked if I had a mask as someone in the household was positive for COVID which I did not as I am fully vaccinated so the entire transaction took place on his front porch. I wasn’t invited in for so much as a cup of tea. Once he returned with the notarised form I paid him his €20 and made it clear under no uncertain terms I would be posting negative reviews of his service before walking away back to my car. In the interest of transparency, within five minutes of leaving he rang and left a voicemail nervously asking not post any post any reviews and offering to refund the fee. So I turned around, went back to Mr. Ashe’s home where he again very nervously asked me not to post any reviews and gave me back the €20 I’d paid, again trying to sell me saying that “you can’t walk across the street for €10 these days”. Well Donald, you may have tried to fleece me for €40 but as I have further documents to have notarised I will be taking my business to a proper law firm near my office who in fact charges €10 per signature. Despite your refund, client service of this shameful level deserves to be named and shamed and, as an IT professional with a global entity, if I had the absolute gall to tell a client to wait outside while I finished my lunch I’d be sacked and looking for a new job by dinner time. Please don’t get burned by this chancer of a conman.