Comet ruined my Christmas (Comet.co.uk)

Member Name: shadyem

Product:	Comet.co.uk
Date:	30/03/03 (335 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: good layout of store, good range of products

Disadvantages: Very bad customer service , bad after sale service

First off I am one unhappy customer (it looks like all their customers are) but before I start to moan and groan I?ll say a bit about the store.
Comet is an electrical retailer, which sells everything, well, everything electrical.
Here is a list of the departments in the store:

·Kitchen and home: Dishwashers, cookers, vacuum?s etc.
·Entertainment: TV?s, DVD players, hi-fi?s etc.
·Phone?s and faxes: mobiles, fax machines, phone?s etc.
·PC Zone: everything computer based.

I have been in many Comet stores and they are nicely laid out with a range of goods on show. There are also certain sections of the store for customer services and repairs.
The prices are fair but you could find cheaper.

The year before last, just after Christmas, I had asked for money from my family so I could by a DVD player. When I was visiting my grandparents they offered to take my to look around for a DVD player in my price range which was around £150 as I wanted to buy some dvd?s to play on it.
First stop was good old Argos but there were only a few on show and I wanted to be able to ask someone about features etc so I decided Comet or Curry?s. I liked models in both stores but decided to go with a ?proline? DVD player in Comet for £139.

The sales assistant seemed to know what he was talking about but as always, tried to persuade me to buy a host of extras, which I didn?t as I was to eager to buy some dvd?s.
I was taken near the back of the store to fill out a form, I?m not sure why, warranty or something (I was only 14!).

Everything was well for about two days. I had brought some Friends dvd?s at the same time and noticed that on one of the disks on a certain episode the mouth movement was out of sync with the speech. I was annoyed and thought it was the disc although it looked clean.
I ignored this as I live quite a while away from the store. I then brought the big brother DVD and sure enough the same p
roblem.
After two weeks my mum contacted the store to ask about repairs etc. They advised us to come down to the store with the player.
My Granddad took me down and we were told they would contact us within a week or so. I was annoyed as this was my Christmas present and I had DVD?s I couldn?t watch.

We now move on, two months or so to be exact. The player has been returned to me but the problem is the same. It looks as if they did nothing accept change the load up screen, which they warned us of.
Again we returned it and this time it took two weeks for a call to come and collect it.
The man in customer services was very rude to my Nan and Granddad and I could see them getting angry. He said it had been two months and the problem was likely to be my own fault. We returned with the machine and still as shabby as it always was. I would get angry with my mum when it wasn?t here fault.
My mum decided to do something and phoned them up saying she wasn?t happy and would not bring the machine down again as it was a waste of time.
About two weeks later they sent a man out to see the player so I could show him the problems myself. He was very nice but told us he wasn?t allowed to take it away. He could see the problem and wrote it all down.
Another two weeks and we received a letter informing us to take it down to the sore AGAIN.
By this time I decided nothing would be done and my mum said she would buy me a new one for my birthday. I wasn?t impressed because my birthday was in December.

After many letters, phone calls and visits time had passed slowly. It was now early November, almost a year since my purchase and I hadn?t watched a single DVD as I should have. As well as the syncing problem it had also gained a crash and load problem.
We went down to the store and as usual I expected nothing to come of it. My mum went in the store with me and informed this ?new? man of the problem and how close it was to my birthday,
the pity vote. This man was a lot nicer and helpful than the last and said he might be able to help.

As we waited I could see a nice line of unhappy customers. As my mum was chatting to a lady who had also had a bad time with Comet concerning a Dyson I noticed the man coming back from the back of the store. He said I was allowed an exchange, I was so happy. Being almost a year I wanted a new model and decided upon a Goodman?s system with speakers as my mum paid the extra as a treat.
I left and vowed never to return; hopefully this machine wouldn?t have problems.
Luckily it didn?t and I haven?t been to the store since.

The staff were rude and in other stores I have noticed the lack of experience staff have, most of them moping around. Of coarse there are those certain people who do want to help but I doubt Comet train their staff in customer service.

I did visit a different store a few months back with my brother as he was looking for X box games. They do have a nice range of games and accessories and my brother brought a sale game. I definitely wouldn?t purchase another electrical good from there though as they are totally unreliable. Argos has let me return faulty goods with no problem what so ever so my first purchase from Comet was an awful experience.

Judging from other ops, and the line of unhappy customers in the store carrying printers, microwaves etc. I am sure it?s not worth risking your time and money in Comet.

Do I hold a grudge? Yes. But they not only ruined my Christmas but nearly a whole year. I advise you good people to go elsewhere, good old Argos for me any day.

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