comet- money taken before checking stock

timbstoke

eskimo26 wrote: »

Correct, she was put out by the fact it was a sizable amount and the Manager's strange reluctance to refund it and take payment when the product arrives.

So, assumming she paid by card, rather than collect the item the next day, she'd rather pay £650 (which will come off her available credit instantly), get a refund (which won't appear back as available for about 3 days), then pay £650 again the next day? That would result in £1300 of her credit not being available until the refund clears.

Comet are definitely in the wrong here, but if she's buying it from there anyway, asking for a refund only for the item to be charged again a day later seems pointless, both from a reasonable as well as a "if you don't make a stand they'll never learn" point of view. The better approach would have been to get a refund and take your custom elsewhere.

arcon5

DVardysShadow wrote: »

I reckon the game is this. They didn't have the item in stock. But it is month end and the manager and possibly the staff are on incentive to reach a sales target by end of month. So they sold, knowing full well it was not in stock.

Comet is one of those businesses I have on my personal watch list as being likely to go into administration. Their attitude to simple matters like fulfilling their responsibilities over defective goods stinks. Their official representative has been here in the past defending the indefensible and IIRC suggesting that Comet's responsibilities are fulfilled if the manufacturer will take defective product back and deal direct with the customer. So I would not be the least surprised if they are in financial trouble.

When a company goes bankrupt, if you have paid over £650 without receiving the goods, that money is at risk.

Usually i'd be entertaining the possibility it was a genuine mistake -- but if i'm honest knowing the store in question is Comet I think I have to agree with this point.

Don't forget they was bought out for £2 not too long ago as part of an 18 month rescue package -- so yes they was in severe financial difficulties and if the new owners don't manage to turn it around during this time then we can say bye bye to Comet.

arcon5

eskimo26 wrote: »

Correct, she was put out by the fact it was a sizable amount and the Manager's strange reluctance to refund it and take payment when the product arrives.

She gets 10% off there, and we have been promising to buy the laptop for my foster brother for 3 weeks now but kept having to cancel because of sickness, so we have no desire to cancel or do anything resulting in no stock being delivered.

Mistake? Sure but that is usually solved by a punctual apology and refund not a rude Manager that refuses you a refund tells you to come back tomorrow and throws a £20 voucher in your face for the inconvenience. Dismissive doesn't cover it.

Also its a lot of money that alone is a bit scary.

I can understand why they won't do this. Otherwise they may unnecessarily order in a product that you may change your mind over leaving it in their stock room for unknown time. Don't forget the refund would take a few days to reach your card again.

But saying that I do agree with the points you have made and completely understand why you are peeved off and worried!

Helix

arcon5 wrote: »

Usually i'd be entertaining the possibility it was a genuine mistake -- but if i'm honest knowing the store in question is Comet I think I have to agree with this point.

Don't forget they was bought out for £2 not too long ago as part of an 18 month rescue package -- so yes they was in severe financial difficulties and if the new owners don't manage to turn it around during this time then we can say bye bye to Comet.

They have also recently been sued by Microsoft for selling almost 100,000 counterfeit Windows CDs. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16415452

I'm surprised Microsoft haven't stopped them from selling Windows altogether, then their whole PC business would be finished.

arcon5

Helix wrote: »

They have also recently been sued by Microsoft for selling almost 100,000 counterfeit Windows CDs. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16415452

They didn't actually sell counterfeit CDs, they included the CDs with PCs for which they would have help an OEM license. According to the article the discs was intended to act as "recovery discs".

Whether they win or loose though it will cost them an awful lot of money in what will likely turn out to be a complex legal battle spanning several years!! Not really something a struggling (recovering?) retailer should ever wish to enter into.


As a side note though, it really irritates me that recovery discs are no longer included with computers, making it exceptionally difficult to refresh the install.

Jakg

eskimo26 wrote: »

Correct, she was put out by the fact it was a sizable amount and the Manager's strange reluctance to refund it and take payment when the product arrives.

HERES the issue.

For whatever reason, the store don't have the item, and are ordering it in *on request* for a customer. Unsurprisingly, they want you to pay for the goods before they arrive (and it seems as if it's automated which makes sense) - it also makes sense that if they refund the sale, it cancels the order (as presumably a refund means you don't want the item...)

At work we have the same policy - an employee ignored it, and ordered in a £900 graphics tablet for a customer, who assured the employee they'd pay when it arrived. They never turned up, and we now have a £900 graphics tablet we'll *never* shift.

Having said that, not being told that the items not in stock and must be ordered until *after* you've paid is bad. But something tells me that's not quite how it happened...

(and no, I don't work for Comet)

CoolHotCold

arcon5 wrote: »

They didn't actually sell counterfeit CDs, they included the CDs with PCs for which they would have help an OEM license. According to the article the discs was intended to act as "recovery discs".

Whether they win or loose though it will cost them an awful lot of money in what will likely turn out to be a complex legal battle spanning several years!! Not really something a struggling (recovering?) retailer should ever wish to enter into.


As a side note though, it really irritates me that recovery discs are no longer included with computers, making it exceptionally difficult to refresh the install.

Actually they sold counterfeit Microsoft Discs. The License is only for that computer to create a set of recovery discs (EVERY Manufacter computer sold without a Recovery Disc has the ability to create them)

Comets broken the license agreement, I believe they did one of two things, they either copied a OEM Vista/Xp Disc and sent that out with a copy of drivers for whatever the customer had. Or they created one set of discs per system they ever sold and stored the copy of the discs on a central server and whenever a set was needed for a consumer they just burnt off a set and posted it out.

Either way, it's breaking the rules, the licence and weren't doing it for the customer (They charged), Microsoft said they wouldn't of prosecuted them if they didn't make any money, but the fact they were charging for them infuriated Microsoft.


And yes, the harshest thing Microsoft could do is refuse them Microsoft Products. It's already been a pretty terrible time for Comet being sold for effectively -£49,999,998 (Kesa paid the restructuring firm £50 million and took on the pension deficit, also Kesa said due to a worse then expected Christmas trading they would have to pump a further 15 to 20 million)

Long term it's costing Kesa Electrical's about £120 Million just to dump Comet and be done with the UK market. But I guess we'll see what OpCapita do.

DVardysShadow

Jakg wrote: »

HERES the issue.

For whatever reason, the store don't have the item, and are ordering it in *on request* for a customer. Unsurprisingly, they want you to pay for the goods before they arrive (and it seems as if it's automated which makes sense) - it also makes sense that if they refund the sale, it cancels the order (as presumably a refund means you don't want the item...)

At work we have the same policy - an employee ignored it, and ordered in a £900 graphics tablet for a customer, who assured the employee they'd pay when it arrived. They never turned up, and we now have a £900 graphics tablet we'll *never* shift.

Having said that, not being told that the items not in stock and must be ordered until *after* you've paid is bad. But something tells me that's not quite how it happened...

(and no, I don't work for Comet)

In that scenario, the correct thing to do is to point it out before taking the money as you say. But it is also more reasonable to take a deposit [20% say] than to take the full amount.

Jakg

For a not-insanely-expensive item, with a few days lead time, whats the advantage of a deposit vs the full amount?