Comet & What are our legal customer rights?

[Munchkin 1]

Hi there ... we purchased a Hewlett Packard desk top pc from Comet yesterday. Brought it home, had our tea etc...then got it all out of the boxes to set it up and use straight away. Well that was the plan. Went fantastically until we needed to load some discs on and to our horror found the cd drive faulty, the drawer just would not open. The drive wasnt listed or recognised either. Well that really annoyed us after 5 hours of driving around place to to place finding the right one we wanted. Paid for it in full aswell. No worries, (so we thought) we'll box it back up and take it back to comet first thing this morning and ask them to give us another base unit. Plan was if they didnt have one in store we would go to another comet to pick one up if available, failing that we would have a full refund if they could not give us the specific computer we wanted and paid for, in full. Oh no.....not that simple. Comet would not exchange the base unit and they have kept the base unit and monitor and our money. They would not refund our money either. They said we would have to wait until monday so they could ask Hewlett Packard if we could have another one. What is going on here? We bought from Comet...are we entitled to a refund if comet refuse to give us another base unit? and, by the way, they went on about what its going to cost them in repackaging. We will not accept a repair..being that we have paid £500 for perfect goods, we wouldnt trust the base unit again if they have to repair it before its been used. Where do we stand here? Can anyone help please?

Thanks

[Munchkin 1]

By the way..they did give us a receipt for the goods they took back from us....

[stonedecroze]

Hi there ... we purchased a Hewlett Packard desk top pc from Comet yesterday. Brought it home, had our tea etc...then got it all out of the boxes to set it up and use straight away. Well that was the plan. Went fantastically until we needed to load some discs on and to our horror found the cd drive faulty, the drawer just would not open. The drive wasnt listed or recognised either. Well that really annoyed us after 5 hours of driving around place to to place finding the right one we wanted. Paid for it in full aswell. No worries, (so we thought) we'll box it back up and take it back to comet first thing this morning and ask them to give us another base unit. Plan was if they didnt have one in store we would go to another comet to pick one up if available, failing that we would have a full refund if they could not give us the specific computer we wanted and paid for, in full. Oh no.....not that simple. Comet would not exchange the base unit and they have kept the base unit and monitor and our money. They would not refund our money either. They said we would have to wait until monday so they could ask Hewlett Packard if we could have another one. What is going on here? We bought from Comet...are we entitled to a refund if comet refuse to give us another base unit? and, by the way, they went on about what its going to cost them in repackaging. We will not accept a repair..being that we have paid £500 for perfect goods, we wouldnt trust the base unit again if they have to repair it before its been used. Where do we stand here? Can anyone help please?

Thanks

 

Had same thing with ACER unit from them which was a customer return so was sold cheaper. Had a problem with motherboard, made a high pitched whine and started to smell like burning. We took it back and techie checked it and said it was likely to burst into flames. Very helpful lady there tried to contact ACER but their computers were down, (that inspires confidence in their products) as she could not cotact them she phoned area manager who gave her permission to change it. As it was a n older model they gave us a brand new one which was priced £150 more than we paid, but they used the original price for credit and we had to pay an extra £30 over original price we paid. The manager also thew in 100 blank cd`s in compensation for trouble.

But it does seem that they are "box shifters" and do not own the stock and just sell it and therefore have to refer to owners to authorise replacement.

 

I think that legaly they cannot keep your money as "goods were not of merchantable quality" under Consumer regulations. No doubt some-one with more knowledge than me in this area will put you right. Just stick to it, and good luck

[Munchkin 1]

Thank you Stonedecroze....you have reminded me of the phrase I'd been trying to think of all afetrnoon.."Goods being of merchantable quality". They weren't, so I'm sure we are entitled to a full refund if they were unable to give us another one today. I'm getting prepared for tomorrow in case they take the mick again. I think the other one is something like "Goods have to be fit for the purpose of....whatever..(it's late). I can see they dont want to refund our money because they want the sale but..... oh well, maybe our Gravesend Comet store will come up trumps tomorrow like yours did and do the right thing without being shirty. One things for sure...we won't be buying from there ever again.

[stonedecroze]

try looking here, you might find something more useful than me.

Retail Stores Forums

 

[Munchkin 1]

It's Good news this morning. The Tech guy at Comet says the lead came out, probably in transit and he has put it back in. Assures me PC is absolutely fine. Will pick it up today. Yeay! Maybe Comet aren't all that bad afterall.

[gyzmo]

I wouldn't bet my granny's old slippers on that!

[Munchkin 1]

I wouldn't bet my granny's old slippers on that!

Oh Gyzmo no..don't say that..lol!My other half is collecting it on his way home from work in a bit..have to say he's not sharing my hope either. Fingers crossed.

[blitz]

By the way as a note, if a product is faulty until you have "accepted" the goods by keeping them for a reasonable amount of time, you are entitled to reject the goods and recieve a full refund.

 

Comet however can examine the goods (and send off to be examined as long as its within a reasonable time frame), (and without giving you your money during this)

 

By the way whats with the really large orange font, it makes it really hard to read through.

[Munchkin 1]

Thanks for confirming that info Blitz. It turns out pc is ok and we now have accepted it, their in store technician refitted the lead and contacted us about that within 24 hours. I think if Comet are going to practice this way they should inform customers before they buy. We were really annoyed by their attitude and flippancy that it was more their right than ours. They really didn't have to spoil our weekend..did they?

[stonedecroze]

By the way whats with the really large orange font, it makes it really hard to read through.

 

 

I`m dyslexsic and it`s easy for ME to read

 

 

 

[stonedecroze]

Thanks for confirming that info Blitz. It turns out pc is ok and we now have accepted it, their in store technician refitted the lead and contacted us about that within 24 hours. I think if Comet are going to practice this way they should inform customers before they buy. We were really annoyed by their attitude and flippancy that it was more their right than ours. They really didn't have to spoil our weekend..did they?

 

 

No they didn`t but that realy is down to staff and not Comet. You could always right to COE to let him know, some branches are better than others. And at least you did get what you wanted, despite attitude of staff.

[dismayed]

By the way whats with the really large orange font, it makes it really hard to read through.

 

 

I`m dyslexsic and it`s easy for ME to read

 

 

 

What do font size and colour have to do with an inability to spell ... or did you mean 'myopic' rather than 'dyslexic' ?

[ozzywizard]

Dyslexsia is more than inability to spell, it can come in various ranges and certain severities. Looking at a string of words formatted in certain sizes and legnths can have issues.

[dismayed]

Dyslexsia is more than inability to spell, it can come in various ranges and certain severities. Looking at a string of words formatted in certain sizes and legnths can have issues.

 

I am right well corrected. I wonder why dyslexia is such a difficult word to spell ...

[fred_2009]

retailers do have rights by the way.

 

consumers do have rights.. but they also have responsibilities.

 

gyzmo dont even attempt to pretend you know differently. you have no idea of retailers rules and regulations, legislations or anything. your advice is one sided and opinionated so dont try it.

 

the retailer has the right to inspect and test the pc to ensure it not caused by consumer.

 

there is a known xp/vista issue caused by a windows update and even a update from napster/itunes that filters out the CD drive.

 

this is simply software related. which would not be under warrenty. so for cd/dvd faults they do have to be tested. all retailers know to especially look into and check cd issues because manufacturers will charge retailer large amounts if it gets returned with the filter issue.

 

yes your issue ended up as a loose cable but even so retailers have the right to inspect the product before honouring replacement or refund.

 

reasonable time can be many weeks and comet did not make your pc they just supplied you with it.

 

imagine it you bought it direct from the manufacturer. got it home had the issue.. and then have to post it back to them to investigate, connect it up and send back to you. being without pc for 2 days is great

 

dont complain about retailers that do the job. sorry they are not supermen and wizards to sort it out in miliseconds. and sorry consumers cannot afford to buy high profit products for retailers to pay for highly qualified instore technicians 24/7.

 

it got sorted and it only took a couple days. also stateing your annoyance about 5 hours of going place to place. shows you have som anger managment issues.

 

i would suggest reasising in todays UK econimic environment there is no chance of you having a personal engineer onsite, or a personal shopper to save you 5 hours of shopping. for the price of a hp pc that you may only replace every 3-5 years.

 

i have a little shop of my own and i hate consumers that dont realise what they get for free.. the benefits and be greatful for it. the consumers that beleive its their right to demand everything because they gave a company £10 profit for a product that lasts 3 years.

 

do the maths retail chains cannot afford to be instant replacement companies because there is no profit in the pc's to do so.