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Comet - pointless waste of time, wwyd?

The washing machine I bought for £40 ten years ago finally gave up so as a treat to myself I went to Comet and bought myself a brand new one (on sale!). I have never done this before and though that after 20 or so years of making do with second hand or Freecycle stuff, trying to fit things myself, relying on the good nature of the plumbing shop staff and my dad to tell me how to do things this would be easy.

In the Comet shop they assured me that they would disconnect the old one, take it away, cap off the hot pipe that was no longer needed and install the new one. They warned me that they would not be able to fit a plug (it needed to come off so it could fit behind the work surface) but I was happy to do that.

The delivery people were friendly, polite and apologetic but could not disconnect the old washer as there were no taps on the ends of the pipes. If someone had mentioned this to me I could have got taps sorted out with hardly any hassle.

I disconnected the pipes myself so they could take the old washing machine away, but they could not fit the new one because there was no tap on the end of the hot pipe (which is no longer needed). They did helpfully give me an end for the pipe to fit myself and tell me how to connect it all up, which was not difficult at all.

The delivery people were obviously frustrated, they said they deliver 20 machines a day and if they are lucky can fit one of them. Old ladies cry at them frequently but they are so limited in what they are able to do that they cannot help.

My issue is with not being told any of this at the start - if they had said that I needed to disconnect it and fit taps to the ends of the other pipes it would have been fine.

So, what I want from them is an apology and some assurance that the shop floor staff will be trained properly.

What would be best to do? I have emailed customer service and got a very bored apology, Head offices's address is on the receipt, shall I complain to the manager of the shop where I bought the thing?

I know it is probably pointless but I feel someone has to say something.

Sorry this was long!

Lisa

Comments

  • Hello, and I completely agree and sympathise with what happened to you. Very similar happened to me when Comet delivered our new washer in Aug last year. They couldn't electrically disconnect the old one or connect the new one because rather than having an ordinary plug and socket the power cable is connected directly into a spur in the wall behind the machine.

    I am able bodied and could do the connection myself but I did point out that it was a disappointing situation and what would happen if I was a less capable person. The delivery men apologised and said that they would feed my comments back and amend the info on their website. Obviously that has not been done!
  • Same here, I am able bodied luckily and could sort it out myself but what about those who are not. Who do you think is best to complain to? I was thinking of the manager of the store I bought it from and customer services and someone high up, it is an extraordinary waste of money, those men are trained to install but they are just delivering over 90% of the time
  • I'd probably give Trading Standards a ring at your local Council to see whether they were obliged to supply what they'd promised when you purchased the machine. Unless there's anything in the 'small print' which clarifies there may be certain circumstances when they would NOT be able to fit it (ie the plug bit which you had already agreed you'd deal with).

    Frankly, if they promise to fit, take your money, then leave you stranded with a non-plumbed in machine WITHOUT having any 'get out of fitting' clauses somewhere I'd be surprised. Check your paperwork.
  • We live in a rented house and have a broken dishwasher, bought from Comet within the last 12 months. I luckily got the receipt from our landlord, phoned Comet to arrange a visit and was told it would be between 8-1 this morning. At 9.30, having arranged time off work, the engineer phoned to say he'd be here this afternoon. The reason? He's been given 6 morning jobs when they should only have 4 and I'm the last one on his list. In the meantime, I'm 5 miles from his initial callout - his 2nd call is 30 miles away. I couldn't even drive round his route in 5 hours, never mind drive, repair, eat lunch and turn up on time.

    I phoned Comet's "helpline" only to be apologised to by someone with no authority to help me, no advice on what I could do and no authority to put me through to the service centre. He could pass on a message which would be acted on within 4 hours (after the time of the proposed visit). I asked him politely to do that and amazingly I received a call an hour later from another employee, apologising, again with no authority to help. She had no idea why his schedule was arranged that way, what a surprise but couldn't put me through to someone who could tell me. She finally phoned the engineering manager and after hanging on the phone for 10 minutes I was advised that another engineer was on his way after his immediate call.

    I've just had a call from the original engineer saying he's on his way as they've told him to come to me first.

    That's fine.... but...

    Why can't they arrange their visits properly so customers don't have to spend time and money on calling Comet to arrange something which should have been done in the first place?

    Why do customers not count for anything these days? I am appalled at the way I've been treated, it's a case of "well, you can just wait in for us and we'll turn up when we like, even though we've given you a time and date and you're inconveniencing yourself for us". Is that a verbal contract?

    If only an employee would own up and tell me that it's company policy, or they made a mistake or actually owned up to being wrong it would go some way towards placating me.

    So I wait with baited breath the arrival of an engineer...

    I've never bought anything from Comet and I never will.
  • bosseyed
    bosseyed Posts: 475 Forumite
    When Comet delivered our new washing machine, the guys hooked it all up and left. For the first couple of washes we couldn't work out why the washing was coming out steaming hot, until I discovered they had connected it to the hot feed rather than the cold :rotfl:
  • *zippy*
    *zippy* Posts: 2,979 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    edited 16 April 2010 at 2:25AM
    We had the same, OH disconnected our old dishwasher, put it in the garden for them and he put the new connectors on so they only had to fit the new one. They turned up and made an excuse why they couldn't fit it, even offered to take it away as it was going to be so difficult to fit. When my my Husband came home he said it was a load of rubbish and he fitted it straight away, I think they were just running late. The delivery man said he would sort a refund, but I had to ring to chase it up so do check that.
  • custardy
    custardy Posts: 38,365 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    TBH it probably the case now where the bulk of their installations are to houses with automatics already plumbed in
    hence mentioning capping off the hot feed tap
    we got a new machine installed under the same sort of set up and they did the same with fitting and capping the hot feed (not comet)
    perhaps the comet rep will be along soon and can advise on the standard procedure
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