Don't be fooled by the RRP! (Clearance-comet.co.uk)

Member Name: jasminesarah

Product:	Clearance-comet.co.uk
Date:	16/08/08 (939 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Bargains to be had, probably

Disadvantages: Not necessarily cheapest

The first thing I should mention is that I have not actually made a purchase from this website, so at the moment I am not able to comment on after care and delivery etc. Instead I would like to make some observations based on my experience of 'watching' items and having made (unsuccessful) bids.

clearance-comet.co.uk works as an auction site, in a similar way to something like eBay, but without competition, as all the items are on sale from Comet. It is their way of shifting all their returned items and those that may have been damaged in transit, at a reduced price. In my experience the described damage is usually small, sometimes just a scratch, or a missing box, but you should be careful to read the 'item condition' in case anything major is noted.

You may enter a proxy bid, like on eBay, but unlike eBay you must enter a credit or debit card before you bid and payment will be taken immediately at the end of the auction if you are the winner. (At first I felt slightly irritated by this, but it does occur to me that if eBay did something similar it would discourage a lot of time wasters and as a seller it would have saved me loads of time and money!)

I consider myself to be a savvy consumer and I like to think that I make large-ish purchases at the lowest possible price. My current search for a new freezer has led me to this site, amongst others. First I spent time trawling price comparison and review sites and I have chosen the freezer that I want to buy. It is tall and frost free, in a graphite finish. Online prices vary between £315 and £569 (including delivery) - quite a range! At the lower end of this price range I think it represents excellent value for money.

I was really pleased to find my chosen freezer on Comet Clearance, with a scratch that would be easily hidden by the kitchen cabinet to the right of it. I made a bid that would give me a bit of a discount to take account of the scratch, also taking into account the delivery charge of £29.99. (This is, by the way, just about the highest delivery charge I have come across on electrical sites!)

I was outbid. I did this several more times, each time I was outbid. I am bemused by this, as it means that someone (several someones, at that) is paying typically £30 - £50 more than they have to for a freezer, and the one they are buying is damaged or imperfect in some way. They probably bragged about what a bargain they got. This is simply the result of lazy shopping - and falling for the whole 'discount' idea. Just because the full price in Comet is (for example) £499, doesn't mean it is everywhere. A quick price comparison can save you money and all the palaver of bidding too.

This is not to say I won't check the site again, I am sure that there are bargains to be had and I will compare with it in the future. For now though, I will buy my (perfect) freezer at a cheaper non-discounted price.

Summary: Make a bid based on the cheapest price, not on the Comet price