Garunteed lowest prices and garunteed cr*p service!! (Comet.co.uk)

Member Name: kingkano

Product:	Comet.co.uk
Date:	01/08/01 (140 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cheap prices for offline, large range

Disadvantages: cr*p service, stupid staff, never reply to complaints, cr*p service, cr*p service, get the picture?

First of all, I must apologise this opinion is a little long winded. But PLEASE persevere and you will be rewarded!!

It’s hard to believe that such a large and respected retailer can get things so horribly wrong. Their prices are good, and they ‘guarantee’ the best price – even going so far as to putting a board up the front of the shop with other local retailers numbers and encouraging you to call and check the prices.

But how can they afford such low, low prices??? I think it must be the quality of personnel they employ. I base this in fact and will now present you our story, and let you judge for yourself if I am right.

In December our faithful old television gave up. It was expected, as it was nearly 20 years old and had been passed down by my girlfriend’s parents. We proceeded to the local retail park where there was a Comets and a Currys. We had already checked around the Allders etc of the world and decided it was just too expensive!

We looked around a while in both stores, and after being approached by sales people in both, looked at a few sets. We decided on a Panasonic 28” widescreen Dolby surround model and decided to get the matching video, as there was an offer of £100 off when getting the 2 together. This was great as the video only ended up costing about 50 quid then!!! This is the first part of my opinion factified – they are well priced.

Curry’s didn’t have the offer and the TV was about 50 quid more there to. So we stuck with Comet’s, what a regretful decision that was! We had decided to get it on interest free as you can imagine it’s a huge cost to pay at once….. This is where our problems start!

I won’t be too long winded, but lets just say, the first time they stuck the order through (including the interest free application) they neglected to take off the £100 for the offer (after selling it to us specifically
). I think they were more interested in forcing some £350 worth of extended warranties on us than getting the order right!!! I had even pointed out to the guy to be sure he took that off and he said he had.

So, about 30 minutes after that, we finally completed the sale (what with cancelling the incorrect one and re-doing the finance agreements and invoices). We had also purchased some cables, and a wireless keyboard for my NTL box. When they first brought out the stuff, the guy gave it to us, said everything was there and checked and asked for my signature. Being quite naïve I signed and we wheeled back to the car.

Then we realised the keyboard was missing, luckily we were still there, so we went back and collected it.

Get home, unpack it all and start the very entertaining task of assembling the stand that comes with the TV. This can take hours (don’t laugh till you’ve tried it!!) and did. When we finished we tried to put the TV on, guess what, wrong stand. No surround speakers!! Unbelievable!!

Back the next day, 30 minute argument that it IS the wrong stand, that we shouldn’t have assembled it (god!) and stuff, then they say they have not got the right stand. I ask to see the manager and after about ten minutes low and behold, the right stand was there all along. Off we trundle to assemble the correct stand and never do we enter Comet’s again.

If only that could be the case, because like most of us, we are just on a very tight budget. Whereever I can avoid going to comet’s I do now. I go there to get their price and go to all the other retailers I can asking them to match it, knowing that the service somewhere else has got to be better then this!!!

To end the story – we have written to Comet four times asking for some kind of compensation or recognition of fault for the misery we suffered. First time the head office replied saying the letter had been forwarded to a Dist
rict Manager, no reply. After 2 months we write to the person mentioned, 2 more months no reply.

We write again to the head office, they reply apologising for the delay and said they again forwarded the letter to the same district manager. This was end of March. We are now drafting a 4th and final letter to Comet, and if this receives no reply, we are going to start writing to national newspapers and anyone else who’ll listen!!!!

So, in conclusion, my opinion is don’t buy stuff from Comet’s if you can possibly avoid it. The prices are GREAT but the customer service and staffing is absolutely appalling.

Thanks for reading

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