Store Cards

teeldee

I had a very upsetting experience in Comet recently which resulted in me signing up for a Store Card without actually knowing about it until after I had signed.

Here is how it happened.....I don't regard myself as naive or gullible in these matters and I am specifically trying to reduce storecard debt at the moment.

However, I went into Comet recently to buy a Tumble Dryer, I had the money in my account to pay for it and I was not considering credit of any kind. The salesman actually said to me "Would you like us to invoice you for this item in 6 weeks interest free?" I replied " I can see the benefit to me, but what do you gain from this?" Comet Man replied "Some of our customers like to take things home and check them before they pay" cleverly skirting round my question and emphasising a benefit to me.

I agreed and I was led to the till to arrange. I was then asked lots of questions regarding my personal circumstances, but still did not twig as I accepted that interest free or not, I must be taking out some credit deal, but I believed it to be a one-off agreement.

The forms were printed and I signed them. Then just as I was leaving the cashier said "Oh and your storecard will be with you in a couple of weeks"

I was gobsmacked, How could they do this? I expressed my disgust with the cashier (calmly) she appeared to take it all in, but could offer no explanation. I decided that what was done, was done. and resolved to pay off the full amount when the invoice came through and rip up the card as soon as it has arrived.

I rang up the customer services number when the card came through to complain at the underhand method used. I was put through to GE Capital Bank, not Comet. The very nice lady said that this is not the first complaint they have received about Comet and offerred to register a complaint for me.

I also posted a complaint on the Comet Web Site and I paste the reply below

Response (Lee Harrison) - 17/11/2004 02:42 PM
Dear Mr ........

I was very concerned to learn of the problems that you have experienced in our Milton Keynes store regarding the sale of a store card. Please let me say how sorry I am and thank you for taking the time to get in touch.

Comet strongly believes that so called “pressure selling” of any product or service is disadvantageous and as such, these practices are against company policy. We aim to ensure that our customers are aware that a credit agreement is an optional service we sell. An individual salesperson may overstep a customer’s view of reasonable selling practice, if this happened in your case I am sorry.

In the meantime, please accept my apologies for any inconvenience you may have been caused and hope that this incident will not deter you from shopping with us again in the future.



Note the apology but no offer to investigate the incident, which, if you believe GE Capital helpdesk, is not a one off.
I think that I will be shopping elsewhere in future.

All companies push their storecards, but none of them have used this tactic before, I wonder if it is against the consumer credit act?

Comments or similar experiences welcome

Regards

teeldee

Robert_Sterling_3

Did they do a credit check on you?
Did you authorise a credit check?

teeldee

Yes they did and NO I wasn't asked first!!

Angela

My father in law had exactly the same experience in comet.
He had no idea he was signing up for this card untill the card arrived in the post!!!!!!!!!!!!!
All he was asked was do you want to pay for these items in six weeks.

I advise you all to be very careful if purchasing in comet and they ask if you want to pay in six weeks.

This is very underhand way of getting people to sign up.

King_David_2

One thing I never do is go into high street shops such as Comet, Currys, Dixons (the ones that do electrical household goods).

I call these shops 'pounce-on shops'. Basically, as soon as you are through the door someone will ask you whether you are ok etc. It gets even worse if you actually want to buy something from them.

But do remind me to sign something I haven't read properly when I know how I'm going to pay before I get there. Then I too will come on here and complain.

Yes, they might well have been wrong.

But who used the pen to sign on the dotted line? I'd have told them where to go and would have shopped elsewhere.

juno

My daddy nearly got an Outfit store card as he was asked if he wanted to save 10% (of course!) and if he wanted some free vouchers. The woman never mentioned it was a store card!

Angela

All very well if you are young/ish and have all your wits about you.
But my father in law is in his seventies and perhaps not as quick off the mark as he used to be.
Still very underhand dealings so the sales people can earn extra cash.

Lopo

Nothing underhand or dubious about this at all I would say. Its a typical sales technique deployed in many stores of offering you the benefits. A lot of people will stop you dead when you say would you like a store card? 10% off + vouchers or delayed (upto 6 week) payment is a better way about overcoming the obvious obstacle. Chain of thought in any selling technique is to demonstrate the benefit first, the drawback (if your that negative) of owning a storecard is next.

Surely if any of you were in the salespersons shoes you would use any method possible without overstepping the mark to your personal benefit. Its a job. Better have sales staff working than robbing someone in the street....Annoys me when I see people criticise another like this where they are simply making a living.

Next time you see a credit card being pitched in the street or shopping mall…..you don’t hear them say “ would you like a credit card? “ you hear them offer you the benefits of having that product!

Besides….what kind of one-off agreement' did you think you were taking without reading the terms and conditions of the printed off forms that were supplied to you not to mention asking beforehand!? Very odd behaviour. You may not think your naive or gullible, but I would question that as other words spring to mind since you never did really fundamental basic checks which would have stopped you from being in this situation. You signed an agreement without reading it! Hellooooo…!?!

And....prior to all that,.....when you were supplying additional ID to the salesperson...did no alarm bells ring then !?

And....after all of that,..…when you did finally 'twig' and realise.... why did you not choose to cancel the agreement there and then and pay for it straight away outright since you indicated you had the money in your account ready anyway...

Your rationale is odd as you indicated initially that you were not looking for credit, but then accepted it was credit of some kind (which you never checked!!!). It was something that you have acknowledged would be a benefit to you that you happily chose to accept.

Besides.....A store card is better than a (6-week!?!??!) loan which is what I suspect you thought you were taking out.

Pay later – then cancel the card…..so what?….you benefited from it !?!?!?!

[glow=red,2,300]Its flame time..![/glow]

Angela

Nothing underhand or dubious about this at all I would say.  Its a typical sales technique deployed in many stores of offering you the benefits.  A lot of people will stop you dead when you say would you like a store card?  10% off + vouchers or delayed (upto 6 week) payment is a better way about overcoming the obvious obstacle.  Chain of thought in any selling technique is to demonstrate the benefit first, the drawback (if your that negative) of owning a storecard is next.

Surely if any of you were in the salespersons shoes you would use any method possible without overstepping the mark to your personal benefit.  Its a job.  Better have sales staff working than robbing someone in the street....Annoys me when I see people criticise another like this where they are simply making a living.  

Next time you see a credit card being pitched in the street or shopping mall…..you don’t hear them say “ would you like a credit card? “  you hear them offer you the benefits of having that product!

Besides….what kind of one-off agreement' did you think you were taking without reading the terms and conditions of the printed off forms that were supplied to you not to mention asking beforehand!?  Very odd behaviour.  You may not think your naive or gullible, but I would question that as other words spring to mind since you never did really fundamental basic checks which would have stopped you from being in this situation.  You signed an agreement without reading it! Hellooooo…!?!

And....prior to all that,.....when you were supplying additional ID to the salesperson...did no alarm bells ring then !?

And....after all of that,..…when you did finally 'twig' and realise.... why did you not choose to cancel the agreement there and then and pay for it straight away outright since you indicated you had the money in your account ready anyway...

Your rationale is odd as you indicated initially that you were not looking for credit, but then accepted it was credit of some kind (which you never checked!!!). It was something that you have acknowledged would be a benefit to you that you happily chose to accept.

Besides.....A store card is better than a (6-week!?!??!) loan which is what I suspect you thought you were taking out.  

Pay later – then cancel the card…..so what?….you benefited from it !?!?!?!

[glow=red,2,300]Its flame time..![/glow]

Cant be bothered to waste my time.

lemongirl

Hey Ang,

I thought we women are the more communicative (better! ) gender of the human species! Ironic you wasted time posting that.

Its rude of you since this is a discussion forum, and in my opinion, Lopo had some valid points which was shorter than the original poster. So whats the problem?

I work in fashion retail for a very large chain in a senior position. This post interested me as fashion retail has trouble trying to successfully offer credit to customers since the market is very tough and margins minimal that obtaining credit products is needed to remain in business. I really cannot explain to you how hard it is.

Wish only you could try offering what are often (I admit) not (out of limited choice) the best credit products to a prospective customer. Dont knock it until you try it yourself and then expect to make a boost in living from it.

By the way an interesting fact, the fashion company I work for has close to a third of its credit customers being men which is odd since we are practically almost for women only.

For Lopo, I am a bit confused that you put a store card is better than a (6-week) loan ? Would you mind explaining a little more please?

Lemongirl

Edinburghlass_2

Its interesting to read that Comet are still employing this tatic one year on from when I posted a similar story to the OP in the Vent Board.

I was buying an oven and hob which were being delivered separately and installed later and was "sold" the six week delay in paying as a means of checking that both appliances were working before paying. At no time was I informed this was a Store card or that credit checks would/were being done. Yes I signed the form and no I didn't read it until the card info came through my door assuming incorrectly that it was delivery and payment in six times information.

I phoned my local Comet to complain and did get an apology from the Manager who said the sales assistant was an experienced person and should have told me it would be a Store card, however, I heard from someone else who shopped there some weeks later that the same sales pitch was used on them.

Until this experience I had always thought myself fairly savvy about reading what I sign and listening to what I am being told but I needed an oven and I needed it then and this was topmost on my mind. From memory too it took at least two calls to get the card cancelled.