Comet Warranty - Advise please

dee123

Hi guys thanks for the reply,

I had a Samsung LCD 40Inch Full HD tv, I know what you mean with the technology being outdated and therefore hard to find a similar version but i think i've been cheated if they can not offer a same/higher spec replacement and they offer me £530 based on a replacement value which is not the same spec, it says in there terms that they should offer the full purchase price.

i am not trying to be awkward but I've paid quite a lot for this cover and I really do feel cheated. I've emailed Comet to make a complaint, just going to wait and see what happens. I'll take the £530 as a last resort to be honest, has anyone else had a similar problem with comet?

wealdroam

dee123 wrote: »

Is there anyway to take this further or has anyone got an email address to complain to, I have tried complaining but they said just write in to comet.

Then why haven't you written?

If you don't know an address, how about asking whoever told you to write.

Personally, I think those three features you mention, number of scart sockets, vga input and s-video, are now what could be considered 'old technology'.

You have not yet mentioned all the new technology that is included in the proposed replacement tv.
Television technology has advanced greaty in the last three years, and it is almost certain that their £530 replacement is a significant improvement on your old one.

I am sure if you told us the make and model of the suggested replacement, it would be quite easy to give ideas about how you might connect your other stuff.
One of those ideas might be to get a two way scart adapter from the pound shop.

Fosterdog

I've just looked on Comets website, there may not be any with enough scart connections but there are plenty well under the price of the voucher offered, enough to also get a blu ray player which means you no longer need the one scart socket.

I can't find any with s video but you can pick up a converter cable for that or maybe look for a bluray player with S video instead.

Also most don'e specifically say they have VGA but the do say they can be used as a PC monitor so it's worth checking on the display models, they may actually have it. Or depending on how old your laptop is it may have a HDMI port on it so you wont need the VGA.

prowla

Looking at the quoted terms, they say:

a. "If you choose not to accept this replacement, we may offer an alternative of the same current value, or Comet vouchers to the value of the advised replacement."

Well, they aren't offering you an equivalent model; the one offered doesn't have the same features (which you need and chose the one you bought on). I don't see how they can offer you one that is significantly different in features.

and

b. "Should a replacement model not be available you will be given Comet vouchers up to the purchase price of the insured product. This is at our sole discretion.The value will always be limited to the original purchase price."

It doesn't say up to the value of the inferior replacement set offered - it says up to the purchase price of the insured item. They seem to have added the "their discretion" get out of jail free rider to that, but it is not really a fair card for them to play in this case.

That said, HDMI has really come into play in the past couple of years, and even PC monitors can be including it now. This does mean that some of the "legacy" connectors may be on the way out, and so may be more difficult to find. For instance, SCART (and S-Video) doesn't carry a HD signal, so it will not be included on many HD sets.

Fosterdog

prowla wrote: »

Well, they aren't offering you an equivalent model; the one offered doesn't have the same features (which you need and chose the one you bought on). I don't see how they can offer you one that is significantly different in features.

But there is no new TV with the exact features OP wants the technology is old, even if comet offered £2000 as a replacement there wouldn't be a TV with the connections OP wants. That's why I suggested a TV and a Bluray player which is still within the budget of the voucher, OP can the replace the existing DVD player with that and use the one scart connection for the video player or as has been suggested earlier a scart splitter.

To be fair to comet there's not much they can do if the TVs are not made with the same features as three years ago they are offering a fair price for a replacement.

If OP hadn't taken out the extra insurance the TV may still have been damaged and OP would now be left trying to find a TV that no longer exists but would have to pay for it all instead of having vouchers. It still wouldn't magically have extra scart, VGA and S Video ports.

JimmyTheWig

Incidentally, OP, what would you honestly rather have?
Your old TV, as it was before you dropped it, or the £530 in vouchers?

prowla

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

Incidentally, OP, what would you honestly rather have?
Your old TV, as it was before you dropped it, or the £530 in vouchers?

It's more about the contract though - we know that these extended warranty things are stupidly expensive, and now it seems that the OP is claiming and they're playing a bit of a game.

prowla

Fosterdog wrote: »

But there is no new TV with the exact features OP wants the technology is old, even if comet offered £2000 as a replacement there wouldn't be a TV with the connections OP wants. That's why I suggested a TV and a Bluray player which is still within the budget of the voucher, OP can the replace the existing DVD player with that and use the one scart connection for the video player or as has been suggested earlier a scart splitter.

To be fair to comet there's not much they can do if the TVs are not made with the same features as three years ago they are offering a fair price for a replacement.

If OP hadn't taken out the extra insurance the TV may still have been damaged and OP would now be left trying to find a TV that no longer exists but would have to pay for it all instead of having vouchers. It still wouldn't magically have extra scart, VGA and S Video ports.

Sure, you can get external boxes to do conversion as well, or even AV processors which bundle things into a single (usually huge) box.

But the OP did take out the insurance in good faith when they bought their TV, and they shouldn't be needing to jump through hoops to suit the shop (eg. getting a USB-HDMI converter to use a HDMI model with a laptop).

And we don't actually know that they don't make TVs with the requisite facilities; we just know what the shop offered the OP.

In general terms, from what I've seen there is convergence between TVs and computer monitors now - 1080p (ie. 1920x1080 resolution) is better than most computer monitors have been to date, and it seems that some of the TVs are just monitors with a tuner added, and some monitors now have HDMI inputs too. That convergence has brought prices down too - I've just bought a 24" monitor for £139, which is ridiculously cheap!

dee123

Hi guys,

Thanks for the replies and advise, to be honest I just feel let down by the warranty, i understand that theirs conversion boxes etc that can be brought for cheap but I don't think that's the point, I paid for a warranty which was explained to me that if they couldn't give me a replacement with the same/higher specification then they will give me gift vouchers for the amount I paid. They are now doing everything they can to give me this £530 replacement. I would have accepted the money but it's just how they are acting that is peeing me off.

They've told me a number of times on the phone that I am "wrong" and that they don't see Scart and the other inputs as spec no more! and they even said I should get rid of my scart equipment as it's too old. The way they were talking to me was peeing me off. I'm going to try and get the full £700 from them that I paid as stated in their terms.

I've sent a email to their managing director and also to financial ombudsman to get advise, it's really not about the extra money to me anymore it's just how their acting now that has made me more determined. I know people will say I should take the £530 in vouchers and to be honest I really would have before they started acting like idiots. I'll see how my complaints are handled and I'll take it from there. I will keep this thread updated.

Leo2020

dee123 wrote: »

Should a replacement model not be available you will be given Comet vouchers up to the purchase price of the insured product. This is at our sole discretion.The value will always be limited to the original purchase price."[/I]

Am I the only one who reads this different from the OP? I read up to the value of the original purchase. It doesn't say they will refund the original purchase price but they will refund up to it, which to me means that they wont offer more than £700 but they might offer £500 or even a £5.