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“Sales Team Good but aftersales appalling.”

written by Lakeside1964 on 31/05/2012

Bought a Panasonic washing machine from Comet in April so that it could be fitted as part of a new kitchen install. Advice and help from the sales team when choosing the product was good, and it was put into service when water was reconnected to our new kitchem on 3rd May. On 28th May it suffered a major failure. It could not turn the drum and instead made a horrible mechanical noise like a gear or ratchet slipping. Phoned Comet customer service and had to wait 15 minutes at 10p per minute to even talk to someone and report the fault. After all that they simply told me to contact the manufacturer whose offices were closed until the following morning. Finally got hold of them who said they would contact an outsourced repair service who in turn would contact me to make an appointment. They finally called on the 30th and said earliest they could come out was 6th June (9 days after the failure). So - went back into the Comet store and spoke to the sales manager and said that as the machine had only been used for 3 weeks and as it could not be inspected let alone repaired within a reasonable time I would like it replaced as is my right to request either repair or replacement under the sale of goods act. He just simply told me that was not possible under their policy and I would have to wait for an engineer to prove the applicance was faulty. I pointed out to him that under consumer legislation any problem occuring within the first 6 months automatically deemed the product to be faulty and it was their responsibility to prove otherwise in his time not mine. This was met with a point blank refusal to do anything until an engineer had confirmed the fault. I then asked him it it was therefore Comet's view that it was entirely reasonable that we (as a family of 5) should have to wait 9 days without a washing machine just for an engineers visit, let along any aditional time it would take to repair it, and he said YES COMET FEEL THIS IS REASONABLE. I queried again, even on a machine with just 3 weeks use, his response - YES. Absolutely unbelievable that a company in trouble in a recession can copntinue to treat its customers with contempt. I told him I was not happy with the response and wanted to take it further, he said - with a wry smile - you had better write to head office then - knowing full well that would only extend the period without a machine, not speed up a resolution. Like many other people on this site, I had purchased many items from the same store in the past - the Panasonic washine machine will most definately be the last! (but I don't suppose they really care).