Comet ignores obligation under Sale of Goods Act

[briloujica]

I should be interested to hear other experiences regarding Comet and faulty goods when outside their 12 months warranty. My experience is that without an extended warranty they attempt to wriggle out of any responsibility, even when there is strong evidence that a manufacturing fault is present. Having been contacted by and agreed with Trading Standards that I should obtain a specialist 3rd party opinion (at my expense) to indicate a manufacturing fault, they have then chosen to dispute the evidence and refuse to discuss the matter further. I should be interested to hear of others who have had similar problems with Comet. It has been strongly recommended by some consumer gurus such as Martin Lewis that extended warranties aren't worth the money, but if multiple retailers like Comet refuse to accept their legal responsibilities outside 12 months, perhaps there's a case for buying these warranties.

[rebel11]

Hi bril

 

Welcome to CAG

The guys will advise as soon as they are available.

[4urbabies]

Hi,

Seems Comet ignore the sale of goods act regardless of the age of the item.

See my post about Comet refusing to exchange machine.

 

I have sent them requests quoting the sale of goods act and item not fit for pupose etc. Just been ignored and fobbed off.

 

I was surprised to hear from their engineer yesterday that it is apparently company policy, when you ring the service center, to get rid of customers asap in order to increase their call volume. Also taking a video of a fault is NOT in their opinion evidence of a fault!

 

Says a lot for Comet!!

 

I have now written to the managing director with my complaint as consumer direct say my next move should be to sue, but that will cost me money.

 

I contacted the company that cover their extended warranties to enquire if a defect which was there from day 1 would be covered under the extended warranty, when the guarantee expired and they would not tell me, just told me to take out an expensive 5 year extended warranty now! machine is only 5 months old. Of course I refused as I still have manufacturers guarantee. Why pay big bucks to increase their profits when you don't need to.

 

I will not be using Comet again, I am totally disgusted with them.

[Guest Comet Response]

I should be interested to hear other experiences regarding Comet and faulty goods when outside their 12 months warranty. My experience is that without an extended warranty they attempt to wriggle out of any responsibility, even when there is strong evidence that a manufacturing fault is present. Having been contacted by and agreed with Trading Standards that I should obtain a specialist 3rd party opinion (at my expense) to indicate a manufacturing fault, they have then chosen to dispute the evidence and refuse to discuss the matter further. I should be interested to hear of others who have had similar problems with Comet. It has been strongly recommended by some consumer gurus such as Martin Lewis that extended warranties aren't worth the money, but if multiple retailers like Comet refuse to accept their legal responsibilities outside 12 months, perhaps there's a case for buying these warranties.

 

Hi briloujica

 

I was sorry to learn of the problems you have experienced.

 

We responded to you on a different forum regarding this matter, requesting that you e-mail into us so that we could look into this issue further for you. Unfortunately, we have not had any further contact from you.

 

If you would like further assistance regarding this matter, please e-mail into us using the link below.

 

http://comet.custhelp.com/app/ask

 

When you e-mail in, please quote the reference 140113 or 131233.

 

Thanks

 

Chris from Comet.

[smart201]

seems to me from wat ive read and the dealings have had with comet is they love taking your money but as soon as they do thats it , customer relations go's to the dogs .... getting your money back becomes a dirty word. And the long and short of it is they dont seen to give a monkeys, maybe this is how big bussiness works these days, bull**** your way to making a sale then if the goods are faulty tell the customer in no uncertain terms to get lossed ..

 

seem to be a real nice company to buy from which me and my friends arent gonna be making the mistake of buying from in the future!!

[briloujica]

I know many people like you who have been sickened by Comet over the years and refuse to buy from them. I just find it amazing they stay in business. I shall certainly never ever buy anything from them again.

[spencer1959]

I know many people like you who have been sickened by Comet over the years and refuse to buy from them. I just find it amazing they stay in business. I shall certainly never ever buy anything from them again.

 

Add me to the list also

[Guest Comet Response]

Hi briloujica

 

It doesn't appear we have received any further feedback from you regarding this matter. If you do need anymore assistance, please feel free to contact us again using the following link.

 

http://comet.custhelp.com/app/ask

 

Please also quote the reference number ‘131233’ or '140113'

 

 

Thanks

 

Chris from Comet

[briloujica]

I have already replied once, only to get yet another flat refusal to do anything to help from Ron Teale in your Managing Director's office.

[Phil the force]

Hi just thought I would add my experience . I bought a Goodmans TV from Comet at the end of December 2008. 9 months ago it developed a fault where the screen slowly became distorted and unable to watch after about an hour. I thought at the time there was nothing I could do except get it repaired at my own cost. Then by chance I read about a similar fault with a Goodmans TV in the same time frame from date of purchase, the owner with the help of a popular magazine managed to finally get the TV replaced under the sale of goods act.

 

I didn't bother to read the sales of goods act at the time and I rang Comet, the representative told me it was nothing to do with them at this stage I must go to the manufacturer. Goodmans, now Part of Havard International PLC are very good at hiding the contact details even if you call the 0871 number 9 months trying to get any sense out of them ... Finally I decided to read the Sale of goods act and was annoyed to see it is the retailers responsibility.. So I called Comet again, this time I was told that before they would even consider my claim I would need to pay them £69 for an inspection, I asked was this money refunded if the problem was covered under the Sale of Goods act and I was told no and what made it worse was I got the impression from tone of the person this was a nice little earner for Comet that would be a waste of my money.

 

So I have my receipt for the TV, I have a photo of the screen, I have a copy of the article from the magazine, I will send this to Comet.

 

I have contacted the magazine mentioned earlier to prime them in case of the expected and they are interest. So I will send this to them and lets see what happens.

 

I will report the results of my experience here as well via the magazine .

 

Phil

[GorgieBoy]

Hi Phil ,

 

The main problem you have here is the time scale that has passed since you purchased the product , it is now nearly 3 years old and as such has not been examined by either COMET the retailer or an independent engineer regarding the nature of the fault.

In either case a fee would be charged for this inspection.

 

This has been ongoing for 1 year since you Tv faulted , even after 2 years COMET would be within their rights to charge for an engineers inspection , however this fee may or may not be greatly reduced had you taken the product to one of their Retail Stores.

 

The onus I am afraid is for you to prove that the product has had an inherent fault since purchase , this is where it gets very muddy as even a court would deem that the Tv has worked okay for 3 years as there is no documented evidence to suggest otherwise.

 

However if it was found there is a major component fault for example the Lcd screen you may have grounds to pursue the retailer for some sort of redress.

 

Much is said on forums regarding warrantys ect being a waste of money but in many cases they have proved their worth regarding getting the product repaired or replaced for the customer.

 

Trying to get some kind of of positive action from a retailer regarding a 3 Year old Tv can be very long and drawn out and will certainly not be solved overnight.

Just look at some of the posts on this forum regarding customers with U/G products and 5 year breakdown cover to see what I mean.

 

COMET were totally wrong in telling you to contact the manufacturer regarding any complaint in the first instance and no doubt would completely deny this as the issue is with the retailer as they well know.

 

However that is a wild goose chase as there is no chance your Tv was made by HARVARD INTERNATIONAL PLC.

 

GOODMANS is a "WHITE LABEL "Badge used by COMET which they put on the front of many of their Tvs which are manufactured in overseas factories , mainly CHINA ect .

 

Unfortunately you do not mention the Model of your faulty Tv or the magazine you have contacted regarding this issue. I am sure you would be allowed to on this forum but I am not a moderator so I cannot say for sure.

 

One thing I do know is COMET like DSG do not like phone calls from News Papers , Magazines , Lawyers. Trading standards , ect , ect ect, and also being mentioned on forums like this regarding unhappy customers and they do tend to respond quickly if this happens.

 

How you get on with this case regarding wour faulty 3 year old Tv could be long and drawn out .

 

I do hope you have purhcased another Tv in the meantime obviously not from COMET .