My experience with Comet group plc. and a broken monitor. - Hardware & Software

On December 26th 2008, I bought a new 22" LG Flatron monitor for £107.64. I was in dire need of something bigger than what I had before. The monitor worked fine up until two weeks ago. I literally had no problems with it. I really liked it and I was happy to have the monitor. So two weeks ago, the buttons on the monitor malfunctioned and begun pressing themselves. When I was using it, I didn't even have to touch it and the colour modes would change themselves. This was very annoying. I put up with it for about a day, then I got sick of it. I went to the branch of Comet I bought it from in Hemel Hempstead. I stood waiting for 10 minutes for someone to come and serve me. Eventually a man came over and asked what the problem was. I explained. He asked me when I bought it, so I told him. Why is it that when you go to a shop to get a replacement, they always have some shitty policy? Well. He explained to me that I could only get a repair or replacement within 28 days of buying the product. Wait, what? So I argued a bit and told him that under some law they are obliged to replace or repair it for up to six years after the product is sold. He was being a stubborn git, so I just asked what I had to do. He told me I would have to contact LG and that they would repair it. I did that and yesterday I got my monitor back after about 6 days of waiting. I plugged it in, turned on the power. Nothing. My heart sank. I really didn't want to have to use this shitty CRT for another 6 days. I tried another power lead incase it was the fuse. Nothing again. At this point I was feeling VERY angry. I just waited six days for my monitor to come back even worse off than it was when I sent it. I phoned LG who were very apologetic and said that they would have to book it in for repair again. I told them that I wasn't willing to wait another week for their mistake to be rectified. She told me that there was nothing that she could do. I agreed, and they said they would send a courier to pick it up on Thursday (tomorrow). I was really pissed off at this point, so I wondered what my rights were and who was responsible. I went upstairs to my lovely 1024x168 CRT and googled for my local trading standards office. I explained the situation. The guy asked a few questions about the product and told me the following: - It is the store which sold the product's obligation to organise the repair, replacement or refund of the monitor for [B]UP TO SIX YEARS[/B] after it is sold under the [B]Sale of goods act 1979[/B]. This is what I thought. - Because it had already been repaired once and come back broken, the store, NOT the manufacturer has an obligation to replace, NOT repair the monitor, simply for the inconvenience. I thanked the trading standards guy and he gave me a reference number incase I wanted to follow it up. I then continued on my automated phone line adventure to solve this bollocks once and for all. After speaking to a couple of people from Comet (the retailer who originally refused to replace or repair it) and telling them about the sale of goods act, I finally asked for them to put me through to the store I bought it from in Hemel Hempstead. I spoke to a manager at the store and he said all the same shit about their policies. I knew that conversation was going nowhere, so I just said, 'Ok, I'll get it repaired again'. That was the end of that. I went to work this morning as usual when I got a phone call from my mother telling me that LG had phoned and said that they are going to replace the monitor when they pick the broken one up tomorrow. Basically, some sly bugger from comet contacted LG and probably asked them to replace it for me, so that they didn't get sued (I was on the verge of getting legal aid and suing comet). At least this is what I think probably happened, I can't see why else LG would offer to replace it when I said nothing to them about the sale of goods act (and it's not their responsibility to replace it either, unless their techies decide it's broken beyoned repair). So, the moral of the story is, if you have a stubborn store who won't replace a blatantly broken product, keep going on at them and threaten them with legal action and eventually they might do something. I'm looking forward to getting my brand new unbroken monitor tomorrow.

ouch that sucks

That sucks, but I'm glad you're getting a replacement monitor out of the deal.

I hate when shops try to fob you off to the manufacturer. I took my mums laptop to comet after the battery died, they put in a replacement one from the same make of laptop and it worked fine but they had to send it off to make sure it was broken rather than give me a new battery. Told me it would take 3 weeks. Came back 4 weeks later, they lost all the paperwork related to the laptop and the repair receipt was the only thing they had. They were really apologetic and gave me this years model of the same laptop (Bigger HDD, More Ram and better CPU) for free.

[QUOTE=BAZ;18991764]I hate when shops try to fob you off to the manufacturer. I took my mums laptop to comet after the battery died, they put in a replacement one from the same make of laptop and it worked fine but they had to send it off to make sure it was broken rather than give me a new battery. Told me it would take 3 weeks. Came back 4 weeks later, they lost all the paperwork related to the laptop and the repair receipt was the only thing they had. They were really apologetic and gave me this years model of the same laptop (Bigger HDD, More Ram and better CPU) for free.[/QUOTE] That's pretty cool. I'm hoping that they send me a newer model of the monitor, since it's quite old it's possible they don't have any.

[QUOTE=Bengley;18992038]That's pretty cool. I'm hoping that they send me a newer model of the monitor, since it's quite old it's possible they don't have any.[/QUOTE] You're well within your rights to demand a same model or equivalent replacement.

Why my laptop was sent back to comet it came back with no bluetooth

Just remember that if you get sold a faulty product, it is the RETAILER that has to do something about it, NOT the manufacturer. If you tell them this, and cite the sales of goods act 1979 and they'll usually back down. If you do this right from the offset of the problem you can avoid a lot of hassle and automated call centres.

[QUOTE=Bengley;18991039] I went to the branch of Comet I bought it from in Hemel Hempstead. [/QUOTE] Where you live breh? I'm in harpenden!

Had a laptop sent into comet with a dodgy hard-drive came back with a new hard-drive in it that had clearly come from another laptop as it had the wrong drivers on and registered to W.

[QUOTE=catch33;18992678]Where you live breh? I'm in harpenden![/QUOTE] Chesham. I have cycled through Harpenden a few times on my way to Welwyn G.C.

I've worked in retail before (in the US) selling technology, and just wanted to state that it isn't always fair to rage at the clerk (or whichever employee you happen to speak to). The replacement policies really do come from high up in the corporate structure and all of the people "on the floor" have little power to change that. In the end, the same thing happens, the equipment gets sent back to the manufacturer and a replacement is sent out. The quality of the equipment and its continued performance is the responsibility of the manufacturer, not the retailer. An 30-year-old trade law gives you the legal right to restitution, but don't assume everyone is out to get you and the world owes you a big favor.

Okay, time to go kick PC Worlds arse. They sold my parents a monitor in a bundle with my PC. It was working well and fine for just under two years. Suddenly if freaks out and shit goes wrong as it starts believing it is a 17" 4:3 monitor, and not the 19" 16:10 one it was. I've sent it to their pathetic excuse for a repair line around 3 times now. First time they said there was nothing wrong with it (there clearly was, as diagnostic software on my PC was telling me this, and when I tried it on a laptop and a friends PC the same thing came out). I sent it in with the reports printed, they said nothing was wrong [I]again[/I], but this time they had also broken the casing of the monitor. Third times the charm right? Wrong. They still refused to even plug the fucking thing in and boot any OS or tools they have. Retards.

[QUOTE=ChristopherB;18994057]I've worked in retail before (in the US) selling technology, and just wanted to state that it isn't always fair to rage at the clerk (or whichever employee you happen to speak to). The replacement policies really do come from high up in the corporate structure and all of the people "on the floor" have little power to change that. In the end, the same thing happens, the equipment gets sent back to the manufacturer and a replacement is sent out. The quality of the equipment and its continued performance is the responsibility of the manufacturer, not the retailer. An 30-year-old trade law gives you the legal right to restitution, but don't assume everyone is out to get you and the world owes you a big favor.[/QUOTE] The law is different in the UK. firstly it doesn't matter how old the law is, it's still a law. It was last updated in 2003, so it's pretty modern. It is the responsibility of the RETAILER if something goes wrong. I didn't shout at anyone. I was pissed off, but I kept calm.

Got any tips for confronting them about this kind of thing by the way? I'm thinking about getting this broken thing replaced seeing as they refuse to fix it properly.

I won't even start listing how many issues I've had with Dixons Group (DSG Retail) - graphics cards which needed a new fan and heatsink every 2 months or they'd overheat (which WE HAD TO PAY FOR, got refunded after Trading Standards poked them), laptop bags which were "mac incompatible", and other such bullshit

[QUOTE=Bengley;18994629]The law is different in the UK. firstly it doesn't matter how old the law is, it's still a law. It was last updated in 2003, so it's pretty modern. It is the responsibility of the RETAILER if something goes wrong. I didn't shout at anyone. I was pissed off, but I kept calm.[/QUOTE] I wasn't stating that the law was any less valid due to it's age, just that people might not be entirely familiar with it. Of course, they are likely aware of more recent updates. Yes, according to the law the retailer must repair or replace the item for the convenience of the customer, in the end, however, the responsibility lies with the manufacturer to get the product right. My point is that it is hardly fair to get mad at retailer, they aren't trying to cause trouble.

[QUOTE=ChristopherB;19003309]I wasn't stating that the law was any less valid due to it's age, just that people might not be entirely familiar with it. Of course, they are likely aware of more recent updates. Yes, according to the law the retailer must repair or replace the item for the convenience of the customer, in the end, however, the responsibility lies with the manufacturer to get the product right. My point is that it is hardly fair to get mad at retailer, they aren't trying to cause trouble.[/QUOTE] It is fair to get mad at them if they refuse to abide by the law!

Got the new monitor about 10 minutes ago. It's all working well apart from a small crack on the frame. I'm not gonna bother about it though.