So after all the problems with Comet I decide to pop down to our local store during the 'massive stock liquidation'.

I found a fridge freezer I liked a couple of weeks ago for £649 so I was wondering what price I could get it for today due to the 'massive stock liquidation'?

Fridge now has a price of £799 on it with a 10% discount - what a complete joke? So it's now £719.10 a price INCREASE of £70.10.

Good luck to anyone else that can find a bargain but I'm staying well away.

They should rename it the 'comet liquidation con'.

p.s. Sorry to anyone losing their jobs due to it going bust!

Yeah, most I could see was about 20% off things but most just about 10% off!

Well it's a shame it's going bust, it used to offer better value than PC World/Dixons/Currys, and just recently I was making good use of the 10% discount via my employer and ordering "SMS vouchers" online and then just taking my phone along to pay, no faffing around waiting for paper vouchers in the post.

So, if Under the Sale of Goods Act, if I want to get a refund or replacment within the "reasonable period" of up to 6 years after purchase, who do I go to now? It's the retailers responsibility to cough up (although you may have to threaten to take them to court), but if the retailer has gone bust, and if I didn't pay by credit card (since if I did, I could go after the credit cards company) then I guess I am stuffed?

Personally I'm not sorry to see them go. Last year I was shopping around for a new tv, so in an effort to support the local economy, I went to the local Comet.
The conversation went something like this;

Me: Is that your best price on the Panasonic?
Him: yes
Me: it's £200 cheaper online, is there nothing you can do?
Him: no, i'm afraid not sir
Me: OK, thanks. Bye

i know it's hard for retailers to compete in todays market place, but at least *try*
On the way out I heard him say to his colleague 'another one who says he can get it cheaper online'
I do have sympathy for any staff who have lost their jobs but not for failing management. Good riddance I say.

Prices are set by head office there is very little movement
I don't see why he should give you 200 off because you found it cheaper elsewhere. Personally I would have just brought it online or gone to a smaller retailer where there is negotiation possibilities.

^ Thats exactly what I did!, if you want to survive in business you have to compete. A lot of retailers offer a price match guarantee, If you don't compete, this is what happens.

Hehe bye bye comet then

It's a shame but no big surprise. Comet has been on the slippery slope for years. Last time we tried to buy something from our local comet it went like this...

Us "One of these please"
Them "Errrr" looks about shelves "We don't have any in at the moment, we usually get fresh deliveries on a Wednesday"
Us "Today is wednesday"
Them "Errrrr, maybe next wednesday"
Us "Couldn't you pop over the road to the multi million pound distibution centre you've just built, you know that big building over there we're currently looking at, the one that holds all the comet stock for the region and get one"
Them "errrr, no."

Hello Currys.

A poor store with, frankly, largely unknowledgable staff.

I found Comet to be inflexible too

Recently bought a matching washing machine and dishwasher to replace our ancient Hotpoint items

Price for each was in the region of £300 - asked the Comet chappy for a "bulk discount", but he simply said that "Comet's prices are already cheap, so they don't do discounts for multiple items"

Walked next door to Apollo 2000, to find exactly the same items at a combined price of under £550. Asked for a discount for buying two items and got below £500 within thirty seconds. Bought them on the spot and had them delivered four hours later (this was on a Sunday) - they also took the old items away - great service

Retailers can't afford to be ordinary in these harsh economic times - they have to be extraordinary, or people will simply walk, especially when there's an alternative right next door.

Well there's a surprise.....

Last time I used Comet was when we bought a Dyson from them (actually my wife did, I wasn't there - I just didn't want to sound sexist).

She got it home to find they'd given her a more expensive model, but charged her for the one she wanted.

She phoned up the store, explain their mistake and they asked her to bring the cleaner back (bear in mind this is about a 40 mile round trip).

She said that she wasn't going to make that journey at her own expense, with a small child in tow, just to correct their mistake and could they arrange for one of their delivery drivers to drop off the correct vacuum cleaner and pick up the more expensive one.

They said their delivery drivers weren't insured to make collections and if she didn't return the Dyson they'd charge her for the difference between what she'd paid and the model she'd got.

I phoned the store manager, said it was a mistake by his staff and there was no reason my wife should be inconvenienced by it. After some stalling he agreed that if she brought back the cleaner then Comet would pay £5 towards her petrol (whoopee-do-dah!)

My wife took the cleaner back to the store and the manager there told her I must have misunderstood - the £5 would be in the form of a discount if she purchased the more expensive Dyson, the one she didn't want and had just driven 20 miles to get rid of.

She told them to take the cleaner, refund what she'd paid and whistle out of their bum-holes if they thought she was buying a vacuum, or anything else, there ever again.

So, not too sorry to see them fold, really.

Why didn't you keep the more expensive version? out of interest

Because it wasn't suitable for wooden floors.

I once went to a Comet store and a salesman was repeatedly slamming the head of a small child in a tumble dryer, saying "Not so funny now, is it, Sonny?"

When I remonstrated with him, he stabbed me in the stomach with a "Come to Comet" pen and said "Do you want some too?"

At this point the manager - a towering giant of a man - came over and threatened to call the police saying he had witnessed me assaulting his colleague. He then picked up a Toshiba Satellite laptop and hurled it onto the floor, shouting "And now we can add criminal damage to the charges, you short-arsed bastard. Now F**k off, if you know what's good for you"

I've never been treated like that in my life. I certainly won't be going back to that or any other Comet store.

... and that was the last time marco20valvet was able to get a xmass job

Was the salesman called Jimmy Savile?

Jimmy Savile the homosexual?

No, I think it was Philip Schofield.

Well I'm glad this is a joke to the lot of you, my brother works for comet and be doesn't know if he is coming or going if he's going to have a job to tomorrow, the company I worked for went into administration 18 months ago as well so I know the feeling....

Here to hoping all your jobs are safe

Adam
I read that Dixons/Currys group will be taking on all Comet staff over xMass and then making them offers for fulltime employment. Not sure if that includes head office mind.

Now that's funny

My bad, in a bit of a mood due to my hangover.....

Anyways, I work in an electrical retailer similar to comet, the theory is Currys will buy comet, close the loss making stores and pile all the stock that's left into the profit making stores and trade until they have nothing left then wind up the company, hence why the fire sale isn't as good as hoped as they want to hold on to what stock they can.....

This could all be rubbish and comet might close and Currys gives some of the guys Christmas jobs

I can't see Currys buying Comet - Currys have 363 branches and Comet have 238 - you'd therefore assume that any town big enough to have a Comet store will probably already have a Currys

In any event, its probably in Currys' best interests for Comet to close, as their market share will increase in any location where both stores exist

Why not...

Buy them, rinse them for all you can, close them........and Currys are the only really big name electrical retailer you go to.......

Seems a little unlikely that they will want to expand given that the whole sector is struggling.
http://www.whathifi.com/news/comet-owner...ports-huge-loss

I went in to Comet this lunchtime and the shelves seemed to be emptying and the place was full of people looking for a bargain. Maybe the stingy price reductions recognise the fact that a real "clearance sale" brings the punters in.

That's a bit misleading, total loss of the Spanish businesses and write downs on the worth of southern european business as well as pixmania. UK & Ireland arms of Dixons inproved 7% last year alone http://www.dixonsretail.com/dixons/uploads/finresrepo/DixonsRetailQ1TradingStatement.pdf

My wife once had a run-in with the manager of my local Comet. After various issues with the store delivering but not fitting despite arranging it, then making us wait two weeks to take it back then deliver it again without asking, finally fitting it and then trying to charge us about 14 times, the manager asked my wife to come down to the store and then proceeded to verbally assault her.

I went down the store and rammed 14 usb sticks up his posterior.

Well all of that's true apart from the last bit. The dirty little wouldn't come out of the storeroom when I visited.

I certainly won't be going back the that or any other Comet store.

Another dinosaur unable to compete in the real word fades into the background.