That may seem a tad cruel, but I heard on the radio today that electrical retail giant Comet have gone into administration. GOOD! Let's hope Currys and PC World follow very quickly. These companies deserve to go under, in my humble opinion.
I have been in the unfortunate situation of purchasing a laptop from all three aforementioned companies and in each case, they were faulty and had to be returned (I know, I should have known better than to shop at these places but there were no local alternatives at the time). These companies have their own sets of rules when it comes to refunds, the main rule being "They don't give refunds"! To be fair, PC World were probably the lesser of the three evils as I obtained a refund after the shop told me to take the laptop to their repair centre in Leeds, where they admitted that their machine was faulty. In the case of Currys, I only had to raise my voice in the shop, causing a minor scene such that they would wish to get me out of the shop as quickly as possible. They were walking all over me until the moment I started kicking off. Comet presented me with more of a challenge ...
Comet have no regard for their customers whatsoever. All the staff I had dealings with had clearly been brainwashed into promoting their brand as the be all and end all. They were, of course, faultless and their equipment could not possible be faulty. Yet the £850 Sony Vaio laptop I purchased from them clearly was. Removing their 'bloat' from the machine and installing my own purchased Windows 7 Professional was impossible. A "hardware Error" message would appear at Startup. The sales staff assured me that Sony Vaios NEVER WENT WRONG. They wanted to know why I had uninstalled the pre-installed software bundle which came with the new laptop as it was absolutely necessary for the thing to work properly. I explained that this extra "bloat" was completely unnecessary and would only serve to slow down the machine. Why on earth would I want Adobe Acrobat and the entire Norton Suite to control my laptop? "you shouldn't have uninstalled that" said the sales girl, "You have invalidated the guarantee".
I could not have a refund, nor could I have a replacement model. The best bit was when the sales girl told me that the laptop could possibly be faulty as they NEVER GO WRONG!. I insisted that the machine was faulty after running a few tests, which I explained in some detail. I politely told them that the machine was unfit for purpose and that they should either replace it or give me a full refund. They would not budge. I had broken all the rules and NOTHING could be done. They wouldn't even test it. After a good deal of arguing the sales girl said she would see the manager the following day and find out if it could be sent away to their test centre for analysis, BUT I would have to pay £40 for the privilege. I told them I would see them in court.
After several weeks waiting for a Small Claims Court hearing, I finally arrived at the court building in Mansfield, where Comet were supposed to have sent an Area Manager to state his side of the case, yet nobody turned up. It would be unfair for me to say that monkeys would have represented Comet better as that would be deeply insulting to monkeys. The judge listened to my account and concluded the session, ordering that Comet should fully test the laptop and report back with their findings. He also casually dropped in the fact that Comet were regular visitors to the Small Claims Court, but cheekily mentioned that they were a large company and so probably should have a higher number of visits because of that fact. ;O) A second hearing date was set, by which time Comet should produce their test results.
The second hearing date arrived but it took such a long time that I had moved out of the area by then, almost 100 miles away to the east coast. Yet I still managed to make the journey to the court in Mansfield. The representatives from Comet, however, did not. Again, it was a no-show on their part. The judge was clearly disgusted by this and he commented that I had had the decency to make the more lengthy journey while the local Comet manager couldn't even be bothered to walk from their store, literally just across the road. The judge had some news, however: Comet had written a letter to the judge, enclosing some test results they maintained were the very ones they carried out on my laptop immediately after I first returned it, one day after the purchase almost a year earlier. One small problem for Comet, however and this is where they really shot themselves in the foot. They had eroneously dated the letter just two days before the date of the second hearing. The judge deemed this to be a fake and said he would now write to Comet and order them to give me a full refund, plus cover all my travel expenses.
What a sorry state of affairs we have from some of our high street giants. Sadly, this example from Comet is far from being an isolated incident. It's good to be able to report that the little guy won in the end. I also feel some sympathy for the staff who lose their jobs when companies like these close down. these companies force their emplyees to tow the company line and that selling is king while reducing the customer to something far less significant.
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