Comet- Poor customer service with faulty cooker- HELP!

annoyed_owen

Hi All,
I wonder if anyone can help me regarding a cooker purchased from comet in dec 2011, it's a dual fuel prestige model.


It's a loooooooong one!........


The main oven wasn't heating up on the 28th February.
I called comet that day and waitied for an engineer to come out 3 days later! the engineer diagnosed the problem was the motor and fan had broken in the main oven but told us there were no parts available for the obven and would order an alternative part. 2 weeks later on 17th march the engineer came and the parts didn't fit!
The cooker couldn't be written off as there were another pair of alternative parts that could fit, so they were ordered and we had to wait a further 2 weeks, but the engineer had informed us it was unlikely they would fit!
In the meanwhile whilst living off take aways and using the hob, I tried to contact comet to inform them of the issues and if the engineer felt the second repair would not work, why could they not save us some time and expense and write the cooker off. When i eventually got through to a case manager, I was told this was not an option at this stage and that they had to go along with the repair, and we were to wait a further 2 weeks (4 so far in total with no cooker) If however the parts came in before the 2 weeks we could bring the appointment forward.
I recieved notification a few days later that the parts were in stock, so I called comet to rearrange the engineers visit to be told there were no appoinments before ours in about 10 days time!
I explained the situation again, we were without an oven, and was told that unfortunatley there was nothing that could be done.

I wrote a letter to the head office after looking on other forums, to see if I could escalate this further, and heard nothing!

Then 3 days before the engineers visit was due I was sent a text by comet telling me the appointment had been moved BACK a further 4 days to the 4th April!
I called comet again and explained that this was unacceptable we had already waited over 1 month already and now we have to wait a further 4 days as they decided that their engineers weren't working saturdays any longer! I was told by comet again that there was nothing that could be done.
All i wanted was a working oven and to be able to cook food again!

I called consumer rights who told me that under the sales of goods act i was to allow a reasonable time for the them to repair the cooker as long as the repair was not causing significant inconvenience to the customer, and to call them back and state this to them, and then to follow up with another letter.

I called comet back to basically be told that was incorrect and they were acting totally legally by repairing the cooker and they are unable to over rule the engineers manager who wants to try and repair it as that is not the way the procedure works!
I also tried to contact the manufacturer as a different avenue (Prestige) only to be referred back to comets customer services as comet manufacture the large kitchen appliances!

I felt at this point I was banging my head against a brick wall!
After 3 letters of complaint to head office, I recieved a call from comet stating that until the 4th april and dependent on the outcome of the parts fitting they couldn't make a decision, so we just had to wait until then!
The 4th April came and low and behold the cooker was written off as the second parts didn't fit!!
I called my contact at comet that day to find out what happens now, and was told I had to return to the store to choose an exchange, and that it would be passed to the area manager to see if we were to be compensated for the inconvenience.
We returned to the store the following evening (It's 20 miles away from where we live) to be told that the manager had been called away and the supervisor basically couldn't do anything!
So we returned back home- picking up another take away on the way, and wasted 1/4 of a tank of fuel, and called head office the next day to be apologised to and she would call the store to find out what had happened.
2 days later i recieve a call to say that I need to return back to the store and choose an exchange product, but the area manager has decided we will not be being compensated for the inconvenience, but they would deliver it for free (Which they offer anyway) and they would waiver the £74.99 for installation (We'd already paid for an install previously, just not through comet!) But if there is a difference in price of the products, we will have to pay the difference. She did say that the store manager may be able to waiver any additional cost, but that would be at his discretion.
So I went back to the store on saturday(as the store manager wasn't working friday) and there was nothing the same in our price range (The cooker was £699.00, but we bought it on offer at £399.00) so we chose another make and £449.00 thinking that as we weren't taking the mick, the store may waiver the extra £50 as a gesture of goodwill. When I mentioned this to the store manager who happened to be in that day, he laughed and said no sorry there's nothing else that can be done, i've waivered the install charge, but apart from that I can't really do anything else!!
I was shocked with his reaction and after a bit of twoing and frowing, he generously took £10- yes £10 off the price of the cooker(Which I felt was an insult) and we paid £39.00 more, and have to wait until friday (Another week for install and delivery as we got standard delivery for free!)

I want to know where i stand with comet now, as they have clearly not bent over backwards, we have been majorly inconvenienced, by friday we will have gone 53 days with no oven!They've breached our rights as consumers, their customer service has been appalling and they don't feel that we deserve any form of compensation and couldn't even waiver the additional cost of the new oven which was the closest spec to the one which had broken.

Can I claim for the 2 week days off work that had to be taken for the engineers visits, the petrol to go to store and back twice to arrange the exchange (80miles approx in total) because they clearly aren't going to cover the cost of a take- away/meal out every night for the past 50odd days (approx £20 a time x 53 days in total=£1060!!!)

Advice greatly recieved as I'm normally pretty good at fighting for my rights but in this case i'm completely stuck!!

thanks in advance!

Fosterdog

Sorry I did have a nice long reply written up but it got swallowed by the forum gremlins.

The jist of it was. You have a replacement cooker within a reasonable time (according to consumer direct), you have accepted £84.99 off (free fitting plus £10) which is leaving you better off than if they just covered your fuel which is all you had a right to ask for.

You chose to spend over £1000 on takeaways you could have cooked at home as cheaply as you usually do by using the hob, a microwave, a steamer, a slow cooker etc. you chose to not cook for yourself by another method that is not comets fault.

annoyed_owen

Sorry, I'm not sure you understand, we've already paid for an installation cost for the first cooker- why should we pay again when it's not our fault the cooker broke down and now needs to be replaced?

Is 54 days a reasonable time- i think not, and regarding the take aways, apart from the odd microwave meal and jacket potatoe in the microwave how else were we meant to eat
It's comets fault that it took so long to be written off?!

Fosterdog

I understand perfectly, I'm not sure that you do.

You paid an independent person/company to do your original install not comet so Comet could have just left you to pay for the same person/company to install the new one for you but instead they offered to do it for you free to save you paying again. They didn't have to do this and you didn't have to accept. You could have asked instead for fuel costs to be covered and then still have to fork out to have the cooker installed. I know it's not your fault the cooker broke but it's also not the fault of whoever first installed it for you, they did the job you paid them to do and you would have to pay to get them to do it again.

As for meal choices as I said in my first post you did have other options. Stir frys, soups, curries, veg etc. can all be cooked on the hob. A slow cooker can be used to cook some wonderful meals (casseroles etc.). You could have eaten beans on toast every day but you chose to eat takeaways. Most take away meals are fried not cooked in an oven so really everything you ate from takeaways you could have cooked at home yourself using a deep frier or frying pan/wok.

annoyed_owen

We did cook some nights using the hob, things like you suggest, stir frys' curry and pasta, but there's only so much pasta and stir fry you can take, most nights we had to get something additional to add to the meal as we were so limited, or eat out for some variety, and unfortunately we don't own a slow cooker, nor cook casseroles?!!

CoolHotCold

The point is, and legally too, the resolution must not cause significant inconvenience to the consumer and be done within a reasonable time. It ALSO goes on to say that it is the consumers responsibility to limit the inconvenience or cash spent.

As others have said, you chose to have a take away, while the hobs worked perfectly fine, and if all you could think of was stir frys and pastas I think it's time to brush up those culinary skills as well. As far as the days off work, I assume you get days off during the week, you should of asked for them to attend during those days off, if you asked and they said no then thats a different matter, but I'm guessing you didn't and just went with what they said the earliest one was. If so, again, this refers to your responsibility of limiting the inconvenience.


TL;DR You have to take responsibility on the amount of inconvenience it causes.