Comet leave family without heat or hot water for 10 days.

disgustedwithcomet

Do you work for Comet DMG?

Getting my own engineer out first to isolate the hob & reinstall the supply, later to reinstall the hob if its that that's defective - and providing comet will replace it once he's uninstalled it will cost in excess of the amount offered. The local engineers (I have called 2) will do an emergency call today (note the word emergency - which is why the cost rockets) but will take 5/6 days to call back when/if it is the hob that is defective & if a new one is delivered.

There is an element of expediency here, but I'm really not convinced that top companies should be able to shift their mistakes onto clients, particulalrly if it puts the client further out of pocket.

Freddie_Snowbits

OP Rather than come on here and complaining, I suggest you ring the local Gas Fitter and get them out instead. Failure to do so may bring about the Wrath of Freddie.

bosseyed

Well fingers crossed that something gets sorted ASAP then - but if it doesn't then clearly you'll have to call your own Gas engineer in and get them to disconnect the hob (or make the connection safe and get it working) and then reopen the supply of gas to the house.

At least then you can have showers and heating etc and the engineer may be able to shed some light on the nature of the problem in the first place, which will be ammo to go back to comet with when you send them a nasty letter demanding to be reimbursed for the engineer call out, installation cost, and frankly, delivery charge and some goodwill vouchers or something.

Whatever you do don't sit there for the next week freezing and smelly and eating boiled rice just to make a point. No point being a martyr about it - sort the problem first then chase Comet for everything you can grab off them. Fair enough this leaves you out of pocket initially, but you can no doubt get that back off comet after some token resistance from them.

EDIT - see above, you don't want to incur the wrath of Freddie, god knows what he'll do. Stab you up behnd the dog and duck and eat the corpse, who knows!

Freddie_Snowbits

bosseyed wrote: »

EDIT - see above, you don't want to incur the wrath of Freddie, god knows what he'll do. Stab you up behnd the dog and duck and eat the corpse, who knows!

Easy, I am on Jankers, so am a little quieter than usual. They even revoked my signature.

disgustedwithcomet

Cheers gents, I'll see what happens later today but your advice sounds good Bosseyed.

shegirl

For gods sake,just get a gas engineer out!!!!!!!




PS Of course 'transco' attended to you quicker than comet,they're the ones you call when you have a gas leak (one you happily left for a few days I'll add!!!)

aheaton46

To all those people suggesting you get a gas engineer out - would you be happy to leave yourself out of pocket trying to rectify a fault caused by someone else, with no guarantee you'd get your money back?

Jeff_Bridges_hair

aheaton46 wrote: »

To all those people suggesting you get a gas engineer out - would you be happy to leave yourself out of pocket trying to rectify a fault caused by someone else, with no guarantee you'd get your money back?

But the point is , is that they didnt need to have their whole gas supply shut off. It could have been capped at the hob. Then they would already be having gas central heating and water for the last 10 days.

Then they could deal with comet on the faulty(if it is) appliance.

aheaton46

Jeff_Bridges_hair wrote: »

But the point is , is that they didnt need to have their whole gas supply shut off. It could have been capped at the hob. Then they would already be having gas central heating and water for the last 10 days.

Then they could deal with comet on the faulty(if it is) appliance.

They didn't exactly have a lot of choice. If National Grid come out and tell you they are going to cut your gas off, what do you do? Force them out of your house?

National Grid took action to make things safe. It might have been over the top, but there's not many people going to argue with them. Besides, at that point the OP didn't know it was then going to take Comet ages to get someone out.

Comet_company_representative

disgustedwithcomet wrote: »

Hi, I'm new on here but just wanted to post a warning about the after care service offered by Comet.

Rather than start anew, I copy & paste an email I've remitted to them which pretty much explains what's happened - the only thing I've omitted from this copy & paste are job numbers & address etc.

All I can say is if you're thinking of buying from Comet then be very very careful.

On 27th December we bought a variety of goods from your store.

These included a gas hob which was installed & fitted by yourselves in the New Year.

Over the next few days we occasionally smelt gas around the hob & attempted to report it to Comet on Monday 10th January. However 'excessively high volume of telephone enquiries' at Comets end meant we didnt get through until this morning, Tuesday 11th.

We advised the situation, Comet advised that we must ring Transco & not them. If Transco reported the hob/connection faulty then we should phone Comet back.

Transco had an engineer to us within 35 minutes of speaking with them. He confirmed a gas leak to be emanating from the hob but couldn't clarify whether or not it was the hob itself or if it was the connection that had not been fitted correctly. He advised there was no accesible isolation switch on the hob & that he would therefore need to cap the meter outside - this he did.

Capping the meter means we now have no gas - which means we have no hot water (for showers etc), no heating & no hob facilities.

We rang Comet back to advise.

I have spoken with several people now at Comet, the most recent being Patrick & later his manager Sherie Allard. Both say that the very earliest they can get an engineer to either uninstall or reinstall the unit - and therefore allow us to have heating, hot water etc is in 10 days time, Thursday 20th January - somewhere between 8.00 in the morning & 6.00 pm at night.

I have explained & reiterated that this means we will have no hot water for personal hygiene, no heating (temperatures during the day currentl circa 6C & on a night in the minuses) & limited cooking facilities. they remain adamant that the best they can do is get someone to us in 10 days time.

They have said they can deliver a replacement hob to us on Thursday of this week - but that they have no one to install or uninstall it at that time. They have also suggested we could arrange our own engineer - but this seems very much like trying to wash their hands of responsibility.

This is a hob provided by & installed by comet. The work done is described by Transco as being 'Immediately Dangerous'. Comet though say 'we are very busy at the moment. 10 days time is the best we can do. I appreciate it may be inconvenient not to be able to have a shower for 10 days or to have heat for 10 days but thats the way it is.'

Just as an aside, the receipt from Comet was stapled by them to a leaflet which includes the following statement:-

'Extra Help
If you're having trouble getting your new product set up or it isn't working properly, don't worry, Call us on 0844 800 95 95 for help. We're great at repairing things.....'

Frankly this is a disgraceful example of customer service

:mad:

Hi disgustedwithcomet,

In instances such as this due to the seriousness of a reported Gas Leak it is imperative that we advise our customers to contact Transco immediately to ensure they are safe and if there is a leak this will then be sorted straight away. However, we would then expect our engineers to call out same day/next day to the appliance in question which is why I am concerned to read that you have been given a call out time for 10 days time.

I note from your comments that you have already sent this information into Comet and are therefore, not sure at this stage if you have already been contacted. However, if you have not had any contact regarding this complaint could you please email me direct on the link below so that I can look into this as quickly as possible for you.

http://comet.custhelp.com/app/ask

Thanks

Matt from Comet