Over the Christmas period our fridge freezer broke down. Against our better judgement, and only because we felt we really needed refrigeration with 2 babies in the house, we ventured out into the post-Christmas sales. We found a great model (which I'll review in a few months time!) in Comet. I will say, it was a great price, at only £499 for an LG all-singing-all-dancing USA-style unit. But, actually buying the thing was not easy as the store was heaving. Eventually my husband and myself managed to tackle a passing assistant and pin him in a corner where he couldn't escape!
The assistant SEEMED very helpful. We pointed out the model we wanted and he looked on the computer system to see when it could be delivered, and most importantly, plumbed in, since it had an ice-maker/dispenser. We pointed out that (a) we had never had a plumbed-in model before so didn't think that we had the necessary connections and (b) did they need to see our kitchen first, because the fridge freezer would be positioned some distance from the sink, so presumably the pipe(s) would need to be routed round the back of the kitchen cupboards. We were assured that
Comet would install and connect the unit, at a cost of £69.99. This seemed reasonable. We were assured that delivery was free, and a delivery date was set for two weeks time.
When we got home, we rang Comet customer services, and explained the situation. We wanted to double-check that Comet really would plumb this thing in! We were once again told that, yes, they had workmen who did this all day, every day and it was no problem.
Delivery could be any time between 8am and 6pm, but our purchase arrived at around 10am. We had removed the old broken fridge freezer, and cleared the cupboards between the vacant space and the sink. The deliverymen had to remove the doors from the fridge freezer to get it in through the front door (oops) but were pleasant enough about it - apparently this is fairly common. They did scuff up the laminate floor getting it into the kitchen however.
Then came the big crunch. They stared blankly at us when we pointed out the water supply to them. We explained that we had paid for connection. Oh no, we don't do that, came the reply. They argued that the £69.99 was a delivery charge. We then all rang customer services, who confirmed that we had been misinformed by both the store assistant and customer services previously! But they did agree to refund the £69.99.
That still left us with one very large silver object sitting in the middle of our kitchen (and looking much larger than it did in the shop!)
It actually turned out to be relatively simple to install, with the aid of a drill, some push-and-fit bendy plumbing and a quick trip to B&Q to purchase an adaptor to screw onto the cold water feed. HOWEVER - to add insult to injury, when we pulled the unit forward to connect up the pipe, we discovered that the back panel had two large dents in it. "On Sale" or not, I wanted a perfect one for £499! So, yet more phone calls, this time to the complaints department, to demand a replacement. Comet were unable to supply another one for - you guessed it - another 2 weeks, so in the meantime we are using the dented one. However, we did get them to email us to confirm that this would not affect our rights to a replacement (and you wouldn't believe the difficulty THAT caused as Comet are apparently not in the computer age yet). I will confirm whether the replacement actually arrives when it happens!
Overall, I have not been very happy with Comet. It's a good job that we were able to manage a little DIY or they would have been taking the fridge freezer away again with a few choice words thrown in for free.
UPDATE
The dented fridge freezer WAS replaced 2 weeks later. Unfortunately the deliverymen who brought it seemed unable to work out how the wheels worked, and scraped it sideways across the laminate floor in the hall. Talk about adding insult to injury. We knew without looking what we would find. So did the chief deliveryman. He immediately called customer services to confirm that Comet would pay to replace the floor. Overall, this turned out to be an expensive "sale" for them!
We had to get two quotes for replacing the floor (which was not an easy job, as it needed to exactly match the rest of the downstairs flooring) and then Comet sent ANOTHER man to come and take pictures of the damage but eventually Comet did send us a cheque to cover the cost of the work. This was some four months after the original purchase and strangely enough, I haven't been tempted by any of their summer sales!
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Kool review, i must admit, Ive had a few probs of my own in the past with Comet......Sorted in the end though - good stuff!!
Mayclair 30.10.2005 11:18
Good review...I had a similar experience and without going into details had to hire a man with a van to take the offending appliance back to the store....never again!!!!.
Deru 08.10.2005 23:58
Wow! They don't seem to know what they're doing. ....but at least they paid for the floor repairs!
Advantages: Better warranty deal than Dixons Stores Group Disadvantages: Same calibre of staff. Getting them to pay up when the warranty ends is akin to getting blood out of a stone.
BNibbles 05.11.2000 (05.10.2004)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Comet (Shop)
Advantages: They have a good collection of products with staff that are ready to attend immediately. Disadvantages: Do not trust the price promise and some staff lack information on the product specification
poovakode 06.12.2009 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful
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