Please help! Regarding Camcorder bought from Comet!

djfiasco

Hi, I’m sorry to write an essay and I hope I've posted this in the right section but I'm just looking for a bit of advice (if anyone can be bothered to read my essay!). My boyfriend bought me a HDD camcorder as a present last Xmas from comet (purchased 17/12/06), obviously I was over the moon with it but after using it a few times I wasn’t very impressed with its recording quality, especially in dull light conditions but being a present I didn’t want to seem ungrateful and at the end of the day it did the job. Upon comparing it to my friends Sony camcorder (which is older than mine) at a later date, I realised that there was quite a big difference in recording quality and that mine was nowhere near as good. I will mention that the man who sold it to my boyfriend told him that it had 'nightshot' which is a very good feature that my friends Sony has but mine in fact only has 'night mode' which is very poor & certainly no comparison to 'night shot'. The next thing was one day I turned my camcorder on and all my recordings had gone, I know I hadn’t deleted them as this is not easily done and can certainly not be done by accident so I was not very happy but just persevered on until a few weeks ago I turned my camcorder on and it powered up but wouldn’t play or record, my friend had a look at it for me and discovered a slightly bent connection pin on the camcorder itself, where the battery connects. I can only put this down to it being very weak and not very well made as I look after my things and take very good care of them, also, the battery can only go on one way, it pushes on then slides up into place so can not be directly forced on the wrong way. Plus, I know how to put the battery on and take it off correctly & never force it carelessly. This was the last straw for me so I took it back to comet today (within its 12 month warranty) & asked if they could change it for a different one as I have not been happy with it for some time, I offered to pay extra if need be, they said all they could do is send it off for repair, is this true? I just feel like we’ve got very poor value for money considering the camcorder cost £400. I still have the receipt, all original packaging, manuals, leads & everything that came with it, everything is like new, I haven’t actually used it that much as the recording quality is so poor in dim conditions, even in dull daylight, and as you'll appreciate that’s pretty much all year round living in England! Even recording indoors with the lights on is poor so I don’t even use it indoors much. I hope you can help. Regards, Fiona. (ps i may appear to be a newbie but I'm a regular money saver! lol! I lost my old email address and have forgotten my password so have had to re register!)