Comet: The Worst Customer Service In The World

A business can create the impression of competence and decency if all they are required to do is to sell boxes of kit with a suitable mark-up for themselves. The measure of a company however, is how they respond when things go wrong, when equipment fails or you have to bring service deficiencies to their attention.

Comet electricals are experts at creating the impression of professional and polite service. If you enter their store with money to spend, you are met with smiling helpful staff and useful advice. Sadly however, when something goes wrong electronically, something also goes radically wrong with the customer service too. The attentive service vanishes, the helpful offering of advice turns to groans and scowls, the open, pleasant staff become resentful, angry and seek not to help, but to deflect.

The problem at Comet is that the customer service system through their entire operation is either deliberately designed to obstruct customer satisfaction or is simply a shambolic quagmire through which it is impossible to wade. The store advises customers to phone the repair centre, who tells to you to phone another repair centre, who tells you to phone the manufacturer who in turn deny all knowledge of the issue and refer you back to the Comet head office, who then say that only the store can settle the issue. Comet's head office insist that only a local store manager can issue refunds, the store insist that only head office can do so. And so it goes on.. and on. There seems to be no-one in the organisation who has the authority to actually deal with issues and get them resolved. There are plenty of people available to read company policies out to customers (especially the bit about 28 days no longer being a legally defined 'reasonable' time to fix a faulty item), and endless call centre charm-school rejects to defend the bureaucratic time -wasting that goes on. There is though no-one but no-one who can give helpful accurate information, let alone issue the refund that trading standards say that we should have. Each person working within this wretched organisation is desperate to deflect the call and get you off the line, because they know that although they are the public face of this company - there is no-one within it who can sort issues out for customers and no incentive for the call centre operative to even try. I asked to be put on hold until someone with the authority to deal with the problem was available. They hung up.

Comet's only response is to say that we should sue them or shop elsewhere. Sadly I can't afford the time or money to do the first, I shall absolutely and certainly be doing the second. If Comet were to have a theme tune, playing on repeat in all their stores, I would suggest that they use, Gerry Rafferty's "take the money and run" - it would seem to rather nicely capture their customer service ethos.

If you shop at Comet you take a huge risk. If you are *lucky* and the product works, no problem. But be warned, once your Visa card has been charged, and the money has left your account and flowed into theirs they have absolutely no interest in providing you with decent, or polite service. They are not bothered if your equipment is lost somewhere in their hopeless system and they will rudely not help you get the issues resolved, and will refuse your legal right to a refund unless you have the wherewithal to sue.

It seems extraordinary that at a time when retailers should be fighting to maintain the loyalty of long-term customers, Comet are actively seeking to drive them away. From now on, I am going to use smaller, local firms whose may not offer such big discounts - but whose pride in their company and basic decency, integrity and competence is worth so very much more.

Comet: don't say I didn't warn you.