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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to ask you all what your experiences of Comet are

40 replies

GreatBallsOfFluff · 30/04/2011 05:17

I bought a camera in Comet yesterday and, whilst admittedly it was during the wedding at 11, it took about 20 minutes for anyone to offer help. The shop was empty - maybe myself and 4 others in the shop which is a massive out of town branch - and there were about 6 members of staff stood chatting by the TVs. I tried all the usual tricks to get someone over, eye contact, wandering back and forth etc.

I wouldn't usually care about this but I have bought two more expensive-ish items from there in the last year, and it's always ended up me having to go to a member of staff to ask for help having stood around for 20 minutes in plain view of members of staff (which I absolutely hate as I always feel vulnerable going up to someone saying "can you help me/I need help"). I'm sure when I was younger and visiting these types of shops with my mum that they were like vultures and you couldn't move without someone asking if you needed help.

I do wonder if my age is also a factor and they don't take me seriously enough to buy items over £100/£200/£300 etc. I've seen staff go up to and approach others who have arrived long after me in the shop before me IYSWIM.

So is it just me, or have comet calmed down their vulture behaviour? or if it is just me, should I boycott this particular store in favour of one that is going to have helpful members of staff?

OP posts:

shinydiscoball · 30/04/2011 05:52

Can't fault them myself - most recently I went in to purchase a new vacuum cleaner, was offered assistance within 5 minutes or so and was hugely impressed when the young lady helping me muttered "Don't buy anything today, nearly all of these will be discounted in the Bank Holiday sale."
I was looking at Dysons and sure enough, got it for £80 less by waiting! :o
Sorry to hear you haven't had good experiences with them - tbh in your situation I wouldn't be going back but would be letting them know exactly why! I can't bear having to coerce someone into doing their job, wedding or no wedding, they were being paid to be there.

Groovee · 30/04/2011 08:43

I'm another one who gets ignored. I walked up to amember of staff and asked for help and she muttered about getting the right person and I replied "Don't bother, I'll go elsewhere!" One of the dad's at school is the manager and I told him what I thought of his staff and he wasn't impressed.

bruffin · 30/04/2011 08:57

Comet have always been like this. I remember walking out nearly 30 years ago when I was trying to buy a fridge

Original poster

GreatBallsOfFluff · 30/04/2011 09:01

Groovee and bruffin I'm glad it's not just me. If I get a spare 5 mins I might just send an email to let them know I'm pissed off about it.

Shiny which branch is that as it sounds like it's a one off special branch - lucky you

OP posts:

TeamLemon · 30/04/2011 09:09

We went into two different comet stores recently to buy a laptop.
You'd think that someone looking throughly at the £600+ machines might get some attention? No.
The stereos on display were so loud I couldn't hear myself think, so I walked over and turned them down before returning to the laptops. Another customer thanked me (!) but the staff ignored me.
We left both stores after trying to get attention for over 10 minutes. We ttok our business elsewhere.

IME, the sales people are generally ill-informed and not knowledgeable about the products they are selling. DH likes to research all purchases throughly and he calls them "shop monkeys" because when you pay peanuts, you get monkeys...

coastgirl · 30/04/2011 09:14

They're terrible. We've made two big purchases recently - a DSLR and a stereo - and in both cases we checked out the range at Comet. For the stereo they couldn't even work out how to plug them in and basically ended up shrugging and walking away! We went to Richer Sounds in the end and got a better product, with a discount, a three-year warranty for £16 and excellent service. For the camera it was pretty much the same, except we went to Jessops and got fully half an hour of a very patient assistant's time.

RunAwayWife · 30/04/2011 09:18

They employ morons

Bogeyface · 30/04/2011 09:19

They are rubbish at my local store too. We were ignored when we were looking for a new washing machine even after asking for help. The final straw was when I was trying buy a laptop and the guy was trying to get me to buy a more expensive model than I could afford, pushing finance etc and I said no, I want this one and I will pay cash thanks! Off he goes to get it, I am standing there like a wally for 10 minutes and then saw him flogging a telly to someone else!

So i went to the desk, told the manager what had happened and that I was leaving. She was falling over herself to apologise etc and I said it was too late, I was going to Currys!

Bogeyface · 30/04/2011 09:20

The trouble is I think that if you pay minimum wage then you get minimum effort.

CestTout · 30/04/2011 09:21

Horrific, unfortunately I only found out after my laptop broke. I had purchased an extended warranty so was covered. From taking laptop to store to getting a replacement took 6 weeks. Lots (20+) phonecalls, three in store visits and 4 letters later it was sorted. Would never ever buy from them again. The majority of staff told us.different.to last person and when challenged said "well they were wrong then" BTW these were managers not just call centre.staff!!

GwendolineMaryLacey · 30/04/2011 09:26

I get this all the time. I refuse to go up to them as they can see me waiting but choose not to come over. 9 times out of 10 when they do turn up I tell them it's too late, I'll buy my tv elsewhere. I really hate Comet/Currys/PC World, they're all staffed by ignoramuses (ignorami?)

Luckily there is a big Argos next door and while they might not be everyone's favourite place, I have always found them pretty good.

PigletJohn · 30/04/2011 09:34

Amazingly, the prices at these s**y shops are no cheaper than you get in a proper shop like John Lewis, full of attentive and well-informed shop assistants, and offering a better warranty service.

My little town doesn't have one, but it's worth a trip for a major purchase.

Sadly you get better service in a more upmarket area.

GwendolineMaryLacey · 30/04/2011 09:41

I don't think it's area. I live in Surrey and it's my local ones I'm talking about. The one I describe above is in a very posh town. It's the type of shop, they all trot out the same products, the same spiel and the same service and are interchangeable.

PigletJohn · 30/04/2011 09:49

If ypu're in a posh topwn, go to a posh shop. You won't get a better price just by going to a cheaply-run shed. The minimum wage and poor staff training just fattens the company profits and the CEO's bonus.

Megatron · 30/04/2011 09:53

I have not bought a thing from Comet for over 5 years now and I wouldn't even go in there again. Their after sales service is beyond appalling.

ilovepancakes · 30/04/2011 11:30

I went to my local comet once when i was younger to buy a freeview box (when they first came out) and this snotty assistant old enough to be my grandma said they were not available until a certain date.
But her expression on her face was the "even if we did you couldn't afford it" look.
still! she was wrong coz i got one from argos instead and she lost a future customer lol!

ilovepancakes · 30/04/2011 11:32

Oh and currys are crap too lol!

HalfPastWine · 30/04/2011 11:33

I've shopped at two different Comet stores this week. Great customer service both times and I would definitely return.

I think if you receive poor customer service anywhere the best thing to do is complain. How can they improve if you dont.

HarrietJones · 30/04/2011 11:39

Comet is good & currys bad IME. Couldn't buy anything in currys as no one would serve me.

heliumballoons · 30/04/2011 11:40

Crap - thats all that need to be said. Well that and I've not used them ever again.

ilovepancakes · 30/04/2011 11:46

From currys we wanted a new telly and they had a good selection on display but none in stock.
They said i could have one on display (all dusty) and would not knock anything off the price.
Then next time my parents went to get a new video player (also ended up being one off display) it was faulty, so they took it back but was refused a replacement only for it to be fixed? surly this is not on?
We not been back since
IMO comet? Currys? all the bloody same.

lazylula · 30/04/2011 11:47

We had appaling service from Comet in Sept last year, when the local store was closing down. We purchased a new oven and hob, reduced due to closing down. It was purchased on a Saturday, sorted into place on the Monday and the oven was used for the first time Tuesday. It tripped the house electrics as soon as the fan kicked in. My brother is an electrician so he came and checked it and found 2 things wrong with the wiring of the oven. We took it back to a different store as we thought the local store had shut on the Sunday. They told us they couldn't check it in store so would have to send an engineer out to test it and that someone would come out the following Tuesday. We protested, stating it was unused ect but they quoted 'company policy' ect.

We took it home and a family member in retail phoned and spoke to the manager (we thought we had spoken to the manager turns out he wasn't!) and he said we could take it back to the local store as it hadn't shut and they would refund us. Local store then tried quoting the company policy at us again, but slipped up in the fact that company policy was that someone would come out the next working day to test a product in this situation (or the day after that if after 3pm), so basically we should have been having a visit by the Friday, not the following Tuesday. In the end after lots of phone calls ect we got our money back and purchased an oven elsewhere! I would most definitely think twice about buying anything from there again!

DitaVonCheese · 30/04/2011 11:54

Last time I shopped with them I ended up suing them (and winning)

I wouldn't recommend.

Bogeyface · 30/04/2011 12:00

Wow Dita, I think you win!

What happened? You cant just hit and run, we need details :o

ilovepancakes · 30/04/2011 12:41

yes dita do tell!

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