Comet

[kezza678]

hi all,

my sister who is a little bit slow,went into comet 2 days ago to purchase a washing machine which she did,

this is were the problem occurred she was told by a member of the sales team that if she did not pay £10 to have the washing machine installed her 12 month warranty would not be valid i know this is total lies she paid the £10 as she did not know any better i only found out all this the next day, i think this is a total disgrace she is a single mother with a young baby every £10 count especially this time of year I'm going to complain on her behalf to comet i would just like to know if anyone has any suggestions for the letter as i don't want to say the wrong thing and end up on a slander charge

thanks

k

[lawbunny]

Did your sister require installation? Or would she have been able to install it herself, or have you or a friend etc do it for her?

[kezza678]

hi she could of easily done it herself but was told by the sales woman that if she did it herself she would invalidate her 12 months warranty which is a load of rubbish and if you ask me is fraud

thanks

k

[gyzmo]

I would go back to the store (with a witness) and ask the salesman about the warranty. when he confirms what he has said, demand the manager. If that fails, write a letter. In any case, report the matter to consumer direct. these guys are supposed to be making an effort to behaving themselves. Theyare evidently failing.

[paulgmb]

Consumer direct??

Are these the people Trading Standards refer you to?

I've passed on several retail complaints to them (mostly about Tesco consistantly overcharging) and never ever hear back from them. You may as well talk to yourself!!

 

In respect of the Comet complaint, if it has not yet been fitted you should be able to get a refund. Sounds like an over zealous sales person, probably under pressure from their manager to push the fitting service. I've always found Comet fair and reasonable and hope when you visit them, you do too.

Polite but firm works best for me.

Its a shame Tesco changed their policy on overcharging though. You used to get a full refund and the item free!

The amount of free stuff I got was unbelievable. I digress.

Regards,

Paul

[gyzmo]

consumer Direct is a first tier advice line that most authorities now use to record complaints, and if required, pass on to Trading Standards (the idea being that TSOs do not have to deal with routine info and so can concentrate on the bigger picture). As your complaint is civil in nature, the most that you can expect is advice on what action to take. Some but not all authorities wil assist in civil cases to one degree or another - you will have to check with your own authority as to whether or not they do.

 

In realtion to not hearing back, the information provided by you is used to build a bigger picture, and it is on that basis that action will be bought. It won't assist in an individual case, but when enough evidence has been gathered that an offence is being committed then they can take action. There should have been a link in my signature which is worth a read and also a sticky "why you should use statutory rights" or something like taht which explains this a bit better.

[blitz]

Isn't a warranty above your statutory rights? Where you can apply any conditions you want and would therefore be allowed to set this type of condition.

Don't get me wrong I don't agree with what comet are doing but technically apart from being money grabbing greedy gits haven't broken any laws or legally done anything wrong.

Obviously this type of services if you refused would not invalidate your statutory rights as these can not be overridden, but certainly they could argue away the warranty.

[lawbunny]

Blitz, yeah you are right. It is not uncommon for warranties to include a clause to the effect that improper installation may invalidate the warranty (as obviously if you damage the item whilst you are installing it incorrectly then you can't really blame the manufacturer/supplier, can you?): in fact, I can't be sure but I guess it is hypothetically possible to include a clause that if you do not allow the manufacturer (or the retailer etc) to install the goods then the warranty would be invalidated, as they would otherwise have no way to verify that the installation was done correctly. However, I guess a clause like that could be challenged as a possible unfair term.

 

It should be noted, however, that this issue only arises re warranties, as these are simply an extention of your statutory rights. Even if you did install it yourself, you would still be covered under your normal statutory rights (ie SOGA) as it is impossible for a retailer to remove these rights.

 

The problem here however is that we are not sure if there was actually a term in the warranty as the customer was told. If not, then the retailer has certainly lied in order to force the customer into paying for an extra product which she otherwise would not have purchased.

[murbay]

First of all, I am a huge fan of Comet. No, I don't work for them But after a 2 year battle with Currys with an appliance that had a manufacturing fault in which they finally conceded defeat days before the court date, Comet couldn't do enough for us.

 

We bought our replacement fridge freezer from them and after explaining the issue we had with Curry's they extended our 1 year warranty to 3 years free of charge so if we did have a problem we were covered.

 

After my TV blew up 2 months out of warranty I paid for an engineer to come out from Comet but he couldn't repair it AND he turned up at the time and date arranged (infact he was a couple of hours early but rang first to see if we were in). Comet send through a cover note to the value I payed for the TV to get a replacement. They could have taken into account it was over a year old and offered less or done a currys usual and refused to have anything to do with it but everything was sorted within 3 days of the engineer coming out.

 

While what happened to your sister is unfortuate, I think the blame lies with the sales rep and perhaps there was a breakdown in communication from the member of staff. I know that for certain appliances it is justified to pay an installation charge. I could see the point of voiding a warranty if not fitted by a professional since you could damage the product and cause further problems for yourself.

 

I know I was told something similar when I bought my PC but as I work in IT I still refused. Even though I am more than qualified to install a PC on my own, I was told that it had to be their own engineers otherwise my warranty was void, however that wasn't Comet. If I was to buy a washing machine then I probably would pay the £10 charge because that means paperwork and if any problems arise from the installation then I have myself covered.

 

As far as your letter, I would start by writing a polite letter to Comet asking them to explain the installation charge, what appliances it applies to and how this affects the warranty. After they respond then take it from there.