Comet - Be Very Careful

[jjandbump]

We brought an oven from comet about 20 months ago we were sold a extended warrenty.

 

The oven was a electric double free standing oven in stanless steel, In Novemeber we notcied the side pannels were bowing, we had an engineer out and his idea of fixing it was to hit it with a hammer and peice of wood...... Yes you read this right, since then we had 7 visits everyone said that it was cosmetic and they wouldnt do a thing.

 

Heat loss after this bashing became so extreme that i burnt my hand, I was advised by the manufacturers that they needed to do a accurate Suface heat temperature check. When i requested this they said that "i was not an engineer and didnt know what i was on about". They refused to do it.

 

I then had no choice to get Trading Standards involved, as soon as they made contact with comet,,,, like magic they agreed a replacement. (although this was a week ago now and i am still waiting for the letter to take in to store to pick a new oven).

 

Just be very careful with Comet, copy everything nad send every letter by recorded delivery. And keep notes of every person you speak to, visits your home and what they do.

 

The joke is they will only give us the current selling price as an exchange cost too, where we paid £699 for it and its now £459,, but i suppose that the difference to pay is better than a whole new oven,

[lulusmf]

Comet and hammers...the installers who came to replace my 10 month old washing machine which had broken down for the second time took a hammer to my cupboard breaking the door and carcass, then the guy sheared off the pipes to my waste disposal unit. Water from my sink has to be collected in a bowl and carried outside to be dosposed of. I am disabled with a spinal impairment. Comet say it is my fault because my kitchen is 20 years old. Their claims handler tell me I have to get all the quotes for the repairs and if |I don't I am obstructing the claim and they won't pursue it. This is in addition to the mad engineer who left me with damaged clothing.

[diane evans]

In response to Comet capers, I bought a tumbler dryer from them 13 months ago, after three months it broke down I was told it would be two weeks before an engineer would be able to look at the machine, which I disputed, to which I was told by the call centre girl that was the choice.... so after two more phone calls to the supervisor and an hour later I had had enough, I phoned the manager of the store it was bought from and told her Comet had supplied me with faulty goods, not fit for purpose and I had every right to return or replace the item as it was well within the six months...after her hearing that we were already in the car with the dryer in tow she relented and swapped it immediately..problem solved...nope just 13 months after the first one this one broke down with the same fault...again some stroppy call centre girl said I had to pay to get an engineer out as it was out of warranty..then she put the phone down on me.. nice customer service..again i called and got another stroppy call centre girl who assured me I WOULD be paying for a call out so I used a different tac... I emailed the customer service dept and also filed in their survey online which gave them a terrible slating for their shoddy aftersales skills.. emails flew back and forth and after threatening them with the small claims court and a personal letter to Hugh Harvey (he is the MD of Comet) I was "granted" a free call out but if it was deemed to be wear and tear I would be expected to pay for this...The engineer came out a week later and said the motor was done and was not the falult of mine just a manufacturer fault... but because I had waited so long I had gone and bought another more expensive one ... After some wrangling I was told I would get a cheque in the post for £130.00 the full amount I paid 13 months ago... well pleased peservere always and dont be beaten by their flannel consumer 1 Comet nil points...hurrah for me and boo to Comet

[jjandbump]

call consumer direct and get them to pass it to trading standards, it was only when this happened they became very nice, i am awaiting a new oven now.... the laugh is they delivered one last week but it had clearly been dropped.

[lulusmf]

Thanks everyone. I`ve now had a letter from the claims handing company saying I must get a quote for the replacement of my cupboard and that they will consider a `contribution` to the repair to the pipeworks that they damaged - very big of them! This is because the unit is rusty. well, there may be rust on the bottom of the unit but the photos clearly show the pipes are plastic and have been broken away from plastic mountings not the bottom of the unit.

 

They will not compensate for the bath sheet and clothes that their muppet engineer ruined, the costs of using the launderette and leave I have had to take from work, the costs of developing the photos I was forced to take and all the stress caused. The reason I found the whole experience so difficult and stressful was that at the time I was recovering from abdominal surgery and had lost 3 stone in weight in 10 weeks so had a very few clothes that actually fitted me. I was also having to do the horribly soiled washing of the elderly relative I care for who was in hospital at that time with a broken hip.

 

I am determined not to let them get away with this - I would welcome any ideas on how to progress this.

[jodybuk]

I wish I had found this website a couple of years ago. We bought a dishwasher from comet & after about 7 months it caught fire.

When I phoned comet I was aked if I was sure I hadn't mistaken the steam for smoke!!!

I assured the woman it was definately smoke & I also had a few other clues to confirm it was a fire such as flames coming from the top & a kitchen full of firemen!!!

We got passed from pillar to post between comet & whirlpool neither of whom accepted responsibilty ( both of whom thought if they sent someone with a screwdriver they could repair dishwasher which was at the time melted to my kitchen floor!!).

I think comet assume that if they ignore us for long enough we'll go away, unfortunately I did but I wouldn't if had known about this website & realised I wasn't on my own in taking them on.

I urge anyone with a similar complaint to keep on pushing & don't end up like me - out of pocket & with a very strange pattern on my kitchen floor!!

[syphon288]

I can sympathise with a lot of the comments being closely associated with the situation in general. I would like to say that the sort of service, although not always accurately reported by the consumer, is, in many cases caused by many factors, including I am afraid to say the lack of true concern generated by management. They are driven by their immediate superiors to produce results based on spreadsheets created by the unseen motivators to achieve "profit". Service will never be a direct contributer to profit in my view but should be provided to encourage customers to return to , in this case Comet for further purchases. I know...... that it is the short term appearance of profit encouraged, often untrue figures which contributes to this quality of service. I would apologise to anyone who is subjected to inferior provision of service as management seem to be unable to respond likewise. Anon.

[Conniff]

Service will never be a direct contributer to profit in my view

 

Can't agree with that. I made service my number one, it was to be above all else. Within 18 months of starting my business I had to employ as the workload from 'recommendation' was too much for one.

[syphon288]

Thank you for your comment Connif. The point I was trying to make does in no way contradict your statement. I am sure that your success in providing service had more to do with the quality of service you provided rather than the profit you made from it. If all took this approach, success would follow success leading to satisfaction all round. Short term profit, I stress should not be achieved by poor methods. This in the long run only leads to failure. Sorry if I did not make this more clear.