Dear Mr Darke… A tale of woe and ineptitude. And truly dreadful customer service from Comet.

Posted on 23 Nov 2011 | 1 comment

Dear Mr Darke
In sheer frustrated desperation I am writing to you, the  Managing Director of Comet, in the hopes that I may circumnavigate the endless depths of your customer service hell and actually talk to someone who can resolve my issue.

As a busy working family with four young children, the TV is fairly central to our cash-strapped house as a source of family entertainment.

18mths ago we purchased  a large Plasma TV from Comet, along with all recommended leads and accessories, and (crucially) the extended warranty. In all we spent in excess of £1600.

Just under four weeks ago, the TV switched itself off – and refused to turn back on.

We were not too concerned, feeling secure that we had purchased the extended warranty, and that the accompanying literature claimed a 48hr fixing time.

No engineer was sent to diagnose the issue, as a flashing light code was diagnosed over the phone, and a part was ordered – were were assured this was by far the quickest method of resolving the problem – and a repair visit was booked for the following week.

That’s a 7 day wait before the fix.
Not perfect, but not bad.
Oh how we laugh in the face of seven days now.

On day 6, we were called to say there was difficulty getting the part, and the repair would not be possible for another 7 days.

That’s 14 days with a large, very expensive, totally useless shiny rectangle of black glass decorating our living room.

Eventually, 18 days after our call, a repair team arrived, took the TV apart, found the part in question didn’t fix the problem after all… and placed the useless rectangle of glass back on the wall.

Another repair visit, with another part, was booked for this Friday coming, the 25th November.

Unhappy that we had received no confirmation of the latest part being in stock, today we have called to check the situation.

Once again, the part is not in stock, but is ‘hoped’ to arrive on Friday.
Friday.
The same Friday we would have used a days holiday to sit at home and wait for a visit that was clearly never to materialise.

No one can tell us when the part will definitely be in.
No one can assure us when the repair will take place.
No one can assure us that this part is definitely the cause of the problem (and in fact we have been told that there is a good chance that the cause of the fault is not this part at all).

If the TV is not repaired next week, we have been told it may be written off, and replaced.
Which is fine, and what we paid our extended warranty for.
But this will take anything up to another three weeks.

Christmas is in four weeks time – and naturally no one will guarantee us perfect timings in the seasonal rush.

So a Christmas Holiday with four children and no television.
How very jolly.

We have already been without our television for almost 4 weeks, and this delay ‘for parts’ is frankly unacceptable.

Every call to customer service ends in a nightmarish circular loop whereby we are passed continually to the next poor sucker department.

Honestly? It’s beyond funny now. I would appreciate it if you could look into this matter, and simply allow us to have a working TV in our house – we care not if our one is fixed, or simply replaced.

 

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