Comet aftersales service is RUBBISH!!!

MrXYZ

I have posted a letter that I sent to the store manager of Comet last week, I am still awaiting a reply. If you have a read through the letter you will see my predicament. The problem is now that I can't be in the house tomorrow, I have to be at work, so again no TV. That's if they even have the parts yet! Please can anyone give me some advice? I really think I should have been given a refund or a replacement.

Your thoughts please:



*************************************************************

4TH June 2009

Dear Sir or Madam,

On the 26TH December I purchased a Goodmans LCD Television from Comet in Shirley, Solihull and the price of this television £299.
Five months after purchasing this Television it failed to work because of a hardware failure. I reported this to Comet, Shirley on the 19th May.
On the 21st of May an Engineer (**********) attended the house and said that the television required two new parts. When the Engineer was questioned regarding the price of these parts he replied approximately £300.
I received a receipt for the visit and I was given a return visit date of the 30th May 2009. The Job number is *******
That evening (21st May) I returned to the Comet store and said that I thought it was unacceptable that a television purchased only five months ago would undergo a technical failure and that the cost of the repair was the same as the purchase price. I also made the Customer Service representative aware that I was now without a television.
On the 27th May I received a telephone message confirming that an engineer would visit the house on the 30th May to repair the television.
On the 30th of May, I waited in the house all day. I was told that the Engineer would call me one hour before coming to the house but no one turned up. There was no communication from Comet to inform me that the Engineer would not be arriving. This was very inconvenient for me because I had to cancel prearranged plans and I believe this was extremely poor customer service from Comet.
I visited the Comet store on the 31st of May and I informed the Customer Service representatives that the Engineer failed to attend the appointment the previous day. I received no explanation as to why this happened. The Customer Service team contacted the Comet Service team and I was then informed that the Engineer would repair the television on the 5th June.
On the 3rd of June I receive a telephone call stating that the repair may not take place on the 5th of June because the parts are unavailable. I was also informed that I would receive confirmation on the 4th June.
The following day (4th June) I receive a follow up telephone call saying that the Engineer would not be repairing the television on the 5th. I appreciated the call because at least I was informed before taking annual leave at work unlike the previous occasion; however I remain without a Television.
I am now told that the Engineer will be repairing the Television on the 10th June, four weeks after I originally reported the problem.
I am also being penalised financially by having a subscription to Setanta Sports but being unable to view any of the channels due having no Television.
I believe that I have been treated very unfairly by Comet and that a replacement television should have been issued, especially when the cost of repairs was the same as the price of the Television. I only had this television for five months and purchased it in good faith from Comet.
I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible regarding this matter.
*************************************************************

Well that is the letter and I am still waiting to hear, even though I hand delivered this to the store.
I would not buy anything from Comet again.

markybaby

Well it does seem a long time and the lack of communication is awful. The only thing I would say is that comet will not be footing the £300 bill as it will be the manufacturer paying for that under the manufacturers 12 month warranty. If comet gave you a new TV they would be left with a faulty one that had run 5 months of it's manufacturers warranty. It does sound like they have been lacking in good customer service though.

Tozer

Why did you write to the store manager? Send to head office.

Bexm

I completely agree with you.. Comet full stop is rubbish!
I bought a computer off them, it had Windows ME on it so was a good while ago mind.

I set it all up at home and tried to use it and it was crashing constantly and running stupidly slowly.. They told me to bring it back to the store and they'd look at it! After a week with my PC and no communication their diagnosis was there was nothing wrong with it and PC's just did crash and I had to live with it!! :mad:

Luckily for me I had a friend who knew a thing or 2 about computers and had a quick look.. he found over 20 things running in the start up (that were pre-installed by comet) so no wonder it was running slowly.. and the crashing was just caused by the processor max-ing out because it couldn't handle all the stuff running! So we just stopped some of the things running and it all worked fine! At the time I was young and naive and didn't think it was right to complain as it was now sorted.. with no help from them tho..!

I'm sorry I can't help with your problem, but I wanted to share my story.. so you know you are not the only one being mistreated by comet, and if you do a google you will find many more!

I also agree with the post above.. definitly send the letter to head office.. because if the shop is the one at fault they will back up their own staff!

Let us know how it goes!

Bex

robgoingcrazy

I went through all this once, although I think it was after 12 months and was on their 2 year extended cover thing.

Eventually got a new telly (better model), some vouchers, and 5 years extended warranty from the day I got the replacement, it took a while but I thought it was great in the end lol :T

Deal with head office as the others say, you will get assigned an escalation manager and things should move quicker from there on in.

MrXYZ

Scrimping student - You are a star!!! Just to point out to other users, scrimping student replied to my post on another thread on this forum and gave me the name of someone to contact.

This morning, I phoned the Comet Service team at 8:30am. They told me they would not be fixing the television today and that I would have to wait another week, until the 17th June!

I was friendly to the lady that I was talking to on the phone; however it was like talking to a pre programmed robot that was far from helpful. I even felt that I was the one at fault mainly because of her attitude, at fault for purchasing a television only for it to require major repairs after only five months and expecting not to wait 5 weeks, having engineers not turn up to appointments etc.

When I got into work I decided that I would email the person that ‘Scrimping student’ advised me to on this forum, although at the time I was unaware of exactly who I was contacting.

I emailed a copy of the letter that I sent to the store manager who I never received a reply from, I also highlighted that fact and I explained what happened this morning and pointed out that I would have to wait another week, 5 weeks without a television.

Then this afternoon I had a missed call and an answer machine message on my mobile phone from the Directors office of Comet, apparently I had emailed directly the Managing Director of Comet (thanks Scrimping student!!!) and they have asked me to contact them. Unfortunately I was unable to do so today but I will give them a call tomorrow.

Then when I return home from work I had a message on my house phone too, amazingly all of a sudden the Comet Service Team decided to contact me and offer me a replacement on the Television at 2pm.

I will let you know how I get on tomorrow when I speak to the Director.

This has restored some of my faith in Comet, well the senior management, well it will once I have a television that works! It is just a shame it had to take five weeks of banging my head against a brick wall and had to be escalated to such a senior level and that the manager of a store could not or would not solve the problem.

All I ever wanted for a television that worked. I was not out to cause problems etc and never once was rude. I am glad that the senior management of Comet do take action; I only hope that the managers at a ground level receive training so that such matter does not need to be escalated to such a high level by customers in the future.

Thanks to all of you for your input

J

[EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com?subject=Reporting post http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=22343347"][/EMAIL]