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Thinking of buying a tv for Xmas from Comets , im their closing down sale, by Xmas they will probably have shut down, so if there is anything wrong with it. what would I be able to do ?
Last edited by: VxFan on Mon 12 Nov 12 at 10:19
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>> Thinking of buying a tv for Xmas from Comets , im their closing down sale,
I wouldn't, its old stock, and probably wont be "that" cheap
>> by Xmas they will probably have shut down,
I would guess they will be shut long before then.
so if there is anything wrong with
>> it. what would I be able to do ?
you would have to rely on the manufcaturer guarantee process, and that will vary on the make of set you buy.
All in all, - I wouldn't.
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Unless it is really very cheap, don't buy from Comet at this stage.
In some cases, the retailer themselves responsible for guarantee and not the manufacturer (based on agreement with manufacturers). So you end up with no after sales care at all.
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I would - pay by credit card.
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Story in the DM moaning that discounts were 'only' 10% - if so might be safer as well as possibly cheaper looking elsewhere eg. Amazon.
tinyurl.com/a5awepd
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>> I would - pay by credit card.
>>
Not risk free.
I bought furniture from Habitat a week before they went bust, but before delivery had been made.
It took nearly six months before I got a refund from my CC company for goods never delivered. In the meantime I had to pay the CC bill to avoid building up interest charges, although that too would have been repaid eventually.
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Read their website if you want confirmation they're worth avoiding...
storage.comet.co.uk/www/splash/html/questions.htm#8
They want your cash for their remaining dregs but your rights seem to have been removed.
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Thanks, Fenlander. I'm on the lookout for a new freezer and thought I'd pick one up in the Comet firesale. I shan't now.
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>> Thanks, Fenlander. I'm on the lookout for a new freezer .......
>>
If you are not already aware, the capacity of "modern " fridges is much less for a given case size due to the much thicker insulation.
I bought an old type and am happy to pay higher running costs.
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>>I shan't now.
I would. The things rarely go wrong anyway, if it does you can contact the manufactuer, and if that doesn't work you contact your credit card provider. That might be a bit of extra leg work, but you get a discount.
If you're that stressed, use some of your savings to buy a warranty.
Personally if I was in the UK I'd be straight down the nearest Comet. They were already pretty cheap on laptops anyway, for example, an item that needed sending back the manufacturer for repair most of the time anyway.
Just how often does an electronic or electric item break these days? And of course it will have happened to everybody here, but in the real world it doesn't.
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As long as its over a £100.00 - I would as well any day of the week.
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>>>The things rarely go wrong anyway
Fair point however...
The Comet so called sale prices in many cases can be beaten from a fully functioning retailer.
Also on their FAQs there is one killer clause... if something is DOA they will not issue a refund. Add that to the fact that there may well be some faulty previous returns mixed in with the stuff their selling and the risk needs to be matched with a stonking discount.
And why push money the way of a company that is so far refusing to refund those that ordered out of stock items and paid in full just before the crash.
Last edited by: Fenlander on Mon 12 Nov 12 at 11:34
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Computer equipment do go wrong a lot, anything with a hard drive does! My dads laptop was just two months old when the hard drive failed, I repaired it myself and sent of the drive Western Digital rather than bother sending the laptop back to Ebuyer but most people would have had to send it back.
It would need to be a good 30% cheaper than Richer Sounds or the internet for me to even consider buying anything from Comet.
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>>Computer equipment do go wrong a lot, anything with a hard drive does!
Not my experience.
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When you see as many different laptops a week as I do, you get to realise just how unreliable and crap hard drives are and I have had a few faulty ones straight out of the packet.
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You'll probably find people have not treated the laptop properly, like dropping or knocking it. Hard drives are reliable but I would wager some people do not know they have delicate moving parts.
Most electrical stuff that's going to fail will do so early on and be due to manufacturing defects. And the ones that do not have initial problems should last. Of course we all remember the fiasco of leaking capacitors on motherboards. And the failure of laptops from overheating due to the graphics card - poor designs. Well designed consumer devices will last.
Back to the original question, unless the Comet prices are particularly good I'd not buy from there. And I hear they are not particularly cheap with the best discounts of about 15% on mice. Maybe the prices will come down a bit more.
I've just got myself a new tumble dryer and an under counter freezer for £78.... plus £150 of Tesco clubcard vouchers (doubled up to £300). So the real total was £378 if I'd not used Clubcard vouchers.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Mon 12 Nov 12 at 17:34
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>>When you see as many different laptops a week as I do
Find a better supplier.
I used to buy literally thousands a year with no important failure rate.
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At one time I was responsible for thousands of the things (at one time I think over 8 thousand) in commercial use. Mix of lenovo/IBM Dell and HP.
You soon a get a feel for the weak spots, the potential failures and the sheer stupidity (and down right criminal incompetence) of the users! Not to mention the idiots who send them back faulty loaded with porn of all types. (very senior directors some of them - you could always tell, - a phone call to me "Vital I get it back", "highly confidential data" - "dah de dah" "yes Mr XXXX no problem, its in the data directory isnt it, so no problem we have it backed up on the central server" "Ah - well" "bluster bluster"
Anyway i digress
Broken screens
Damaged or not working keyboards (usually liquid caused)
Hard drives.
In that order.
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>> a company that is so far refusing to
>> refund those that ordered out of stock items and paid in full just before the
>> crash.
>>
Could that be . . . . because the old company is no more, it is dead, it died in the crash? Join the queue of people with claims on the old company. I think HMRC and the Administrator accountants get first bite at any cash raised.
Last edited by: John H on Mon 12 Nov 12 at 12:06
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To me the issue is (if I've got it right)....
OpCapita bought Comet not too long ago for a nominal £2... but they were given a Dowry worth £50 million by the old owners. OpCapita then routed the dowry through one or more secondary companies in such a way it was ring fenced in the even of a crash. Now the crash has happened I understand (perhaps part of the dowry arrangement) OpCapita's owners are at the top of the pile to receive funds from the administration sale... perhaps some £50 million of the estimated £120 million of current stock.
So for me I'd rather not help put any further funds the way of OpCapita when some poor customer that has just lost their savings paid in cash to order a new cooker 24hrs before the collapse... they'll never see their money.
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>>a company that is so far refusing to refund
I think you mean "a company that is currently legally prevented from offering a refund to"
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>>>think you mean "a company that is currently legally prevented from offering a refund to"
Problem is to the man in the street who's been caught it amounts to the same. He goes in to see the same shop with the same name above the door, the same manager and staff still punting the sale gear out but he's told to whistle for his refund or ordered goods.
Yep it's legal, yep it's business but I just wouldn't be knowingly pushing my cash the way of an outfit in its death throes.
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>>but I just wouldn't be knowingly pushing my cash the way of an outfit in its death throes
Clearly there is a line, but for the most part I don't really care about the profitability or longevity of a company, the quality or the health of a company, or pretty much abnything else about a company, beyond how it impacts a deal I wish to do with that comapny.
So I'd give Comet £1,000 if they had something I wanted for £1,000 - why should I take into account the financial status of that company, other than in how it impacts my deal?
I don't really think that walking away from a deal which is attractive to me either makes much sense to me, or delivers much of a message to anyone. All a bit nose/face.
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>>>All a bit nose/face.
Hardly... from the perspective of a buyer with funds and poised to engage with a retailer you have all the choice/power right up to the moment you hand over the card/cash.
The nose/face aspect would only exist if the Comet sale had a USP and it doesn't... it is a triumph of marketing that they've managed to get anyone to buy anything since the news was announced.
Last edited by: Fenlander on Mon 12 Nov 12 at 14:38
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>>a triumph of marketing that they've managed to get anyone to buy anything since the news was announced.
Hmm, maybe that's a reasonable and logical conclusion but I've seen a number of retailers achieve record sales during their death throes. Vultures gather at the stench of rotting flesh.
Would I buy anything from them? Sure if the deal was right. ( Squawk / flap / soar... ! )
:-)
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>>The nose/face aspect would only exist if the Comet sale had a USP and it doesn't
I'm not there, I don't know. I've bought a laptop, a desktop and a couple of other things there in the last year and I thought they were good deals at the time. So further discount would seem to make them even better. If I bought something with the idea that it woudl break, I wouldn't buy it. If you see what I mean.
I simply said that if they had a deal that was right for me, I wouldn't walk away from it because of something unrelated to the deal.
>>I just wouldn't be knowingly pushing my cash the way of an outfit in its death throes
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>> Just how often does an electronic or electric item break these days? And of course
>> it will have happened to everybody here
Things always break in our house, and the (cheap) temporary fridge we bought from Argos while our kitchen was been rebuilt was no exception. However, we had already sold it on by then - its new owner contacted me to ask if I could find the receipt. I couldn't, but I did let him drive me back to the shop with broken unit and a printout of the part of my bank statement showing the purchase, and I pretended to be the owner.
I suspect it would have been a lot more difficult to sort out any other way (unless I'd kept the receipt!).
(I'm happy to accept this is probably an exception to the rule BTW.)
Last edited by: Focusless on Mon 12 Nov 12 at 11:49
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I couldn't, but I did let him drive me back to the shop
>> with broken unit and a printout of the part of my bank statement showing the
>> purchase, and I pretended to be the owner.
What a thoroughly decent thing to do, well done that man.
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>> What a thoroughly decent thing to do, well done that man.
"Do as you would be done by" as my Nan would say :)
(and I did keep the £5 voucher which came with the replacement fridge)
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Most goods have what is known as the bathtub curve of reliability. Practical result is any fault will most often show up in the first few days, and as time goes on, less likely. After a bit, you are looking at components failing with age, so generalising a heck of a lot, if it makes it through the first month, it may well last for years.
TV's John Lewis give a five year guarantee and laptops, two years. Not usually the cheapest - despite what they say, but pretty good for the conditions given etc.
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>> I couldn't, but I did let him drive me back to the shop
>> >> with broken unit and a printout of the part of my bank statement showing
>> the
>> >> purchase, and I pretended to be the owner.
>>
>> What a thoroughly decent thing to do, well done that man.
>>
Maybe the decent thing to do, but guilty of
Fraud by false representation
(1)A person is in breach of this section if he—
(a)dishonestly makes a false representation, and
(b)intends, by making the representation—
(i)to make a gain for himself or another, or
(ii)to cause loss to another or to expose another to a risk of loss.
(2)A representation is false if—
(a)it is untrue or misleading, and
(b)the person making it knows that it is, or might be, untrue or misleading.
(3)“Representation” means any representation as to fact or law, including a representation as to the state of mind of—
(a)the person making the representation, or
(b)any other person.
(4)A representation may be express or implied.
(5)For the purposes of this section a representation may be regarded as made if it (or anything implying it) is submitted in any form to any system or device designed to receive, convey or respond to communications (with or without human intervention).
However if the owner sold it back to you first............................. :)
RP your interpretation ?
Last edited by: pmh on Mon 12 Nov 12 at 12:31
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>> Maybe the decent thing to do, but guilty of
>>
>> Fraud by false representation
Guilty as charged, but I had no problem morally - the thing was less than 6 months old.
If I'd found the receipt and passed it on to the new owner, would he (legally) have been able to get the replacement himself?
Last edited by: Focusless on Mon 12 Nov 12 at 12:38
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So the answer to the OP is "do you need this much hassle by saving not much (if anything)"
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I was in there on Sunday looking for 1) a small fridge freezer for our utility, 2) a telly and 3) waher for the M-i-L. Conclusion: on these items, the discounts are not big and even after those, you won't save much (if anything) on buying online. I also observed that for he tellys at least (looking at Samsung 40" 3d LED jobs) they tended to be older models.
HTH,
Alex.
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Legally, I guess that depends on whether the warranty is transferable or not. This will be stated in the terms and conditions of the warranty document.
For a motoring link, you cannot transfer the Vauxhaul "warranty that could last a lifetime" to the second owner of the vehicle.
You could transfer the outstanding part of the warranty on the last Subaru I bought provided you notified Subaru of the change of ownership and transferred the service record with the car to prove the car had been maintained in accordance with the conditions of the warranty.
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We popped into our local Comet, just after buying some paint in the adjacent B & Q and found nothing there worth the money. 10% off was the norm, with a very, very few items at 20% off.
If they really want to shift the stuff it needs to be around 50% discount, particularly to make the warranty risk worth taking.
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I popped into the Weston Branch over the weekend. Happened to be near by so curiosity got the better of me.
Observations:-
Store was very busy, but few were actually buying - only product I saw come out of the door was an ex display tv unit
Store was remarkably well stocked - new white goods stacked up everywhere, but some parts of the store were empty like the apple section.
Majority of items only down by 10%. Was going to get some ink cartridges for my printer as they were 20% off, but even discounted, they were still more than I last paid for them. Did make me wonder if some prices had been inflated
A lot of stock being offered was ex display / unpackaged. There was no further discount to reflect this.
Discount would need to be much higher for me to consider buying anything in there. I bought a TV/DVD combo from best buy in their fire sale which is now playing up. I am guessing warranty will be non existent or difficult , and it was under a ton so no credit card comeback
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>>but some parts of the store were empty like the apple section
Apple T&Cs probably meant stock was Apple owned until it is paid for.....so they re-possessed Apple Kit
>>I bought a TV/DVD combo from best buy in their fire sale which is now playing up. I am >>guessing warranty will be non existent or difficult , and it was under a ton so no credit card >>comeback
Always worth a punt and phone the maker/importer.........you never know they might turn up trumps, if not, you are no worse off than you are now!
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>>I popped into the Weston Branch over the weekend.
I was there visiting friends. Went to the float carnival, or whatever they call it. What a spectacle!
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If the discounts get proportionate I might look for the laptop I need to replace this 2006/XP slug. But they'll have to do a lot better than 10-15% to get me to punt on a DOA machine.
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>> >>I popped into the Weston Branch over the weekend.
>>
>> I was there visiting friends. Went to the float carnival, or whatever they call it.
>> What a spectacle!
>>
We didnt stay for the carnival - had a walk along the sea front and let the kids throw a few 2p's in the slots on the pier. Weston has improved a lot over the last couple of years, helped by the pier burning down, and the council spending a few quid doing up the front
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>>We didnt stay for the carnival
I'd say it's one of the spectacles well worth seeing in this country. A forty foot trailer towed by a forward control tractor with a second trailer being mostly generator. You can feel the heat from all those bulbs as it passes and the volume!
There were over one hundred entrants, twenty of them were in this category - well worth standing around in the rain: www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUmCjKKp9j8
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buying something from Comet's - Zero
