Re:
COMET
Submitted by: Dave Smith On:
29 July 2003
We Purchased the Phillips TV, Video and DVD with surround sound
in August 2001. Everything was fine, up until around January of
this year, when the TV started to intermittently give off a loud
cracking noise about every hour or so.
I contacted the service department, and they sent out an engineer,
who did a bit of soldering and left. The next day, I noticed the
problem was still there, so I contacted them again. Another engineer
came out and tightened the outer casing of the TV and left. This
still didn’t resolve the matter. The TV was then taken into
the workshop for a week and came back with the fault still remaining.
Another engineer visited and suggested that I put felt under each
leg of the TV stand! I didn’t think that this would work,
but he explained that we had to eliminate every possibility.
I called the service department again and they decided to take the
TV back into the workshop, this time, they had it for two weeks.
The engineer at the workshop explained that he had fitted felt gasket
all the way around the edge where the rear outer casing connects
to the TV. When we got it back, the fault was still there. Again,
I contacted the service department and another engineer came and
said that the reason for the cracking noise was heat expansion;
he then loosened the casing at the rear of the TV!
I then contacted Barry, one of the Managers at the Crown Point Leeds
outlet where we first bought the TV and informed him of the matter.
He couldn’t believe the amount of hassle what we had and assured
us that he would resolve it.
He told me that an engineer would come out to inspect the TV, and
if he couldn’t fix it, they would replace it. Sure enough,
the engineer turned up, scratched his head and disappeared. Barry
did not call me as promised, so I called the store, only to be told
that his colleague Hilary was now dealing with it. She told me that
she would arrange for another engineer to call the following morning
to resolve the matter.
I waited until 1.30 pm and no engineer turned up, so I called the
service department and spoke to the Manager. When I asked why an
engineer had not called, he told me that he had spoken to the engineers
who had inspected this unit in the past and told me that it was
heat expansion and there was nothing more they could do, so there
was no point in sending out an engineer! I explained that it would
have been nice of him to let me know, as I had taken the day off
work. When I asked what would happen now, he explained that all
TV’s expanded and made this noise. I then told him that if
that was the case, why had it only started doing it in the last
6 months, he then replied ”Perhaps it has been doing it longer,
but you haven’t noticed it”
At the time of purchasing this package, I took the liberty of taking
out the extended five year warranty, which now seems not worth the
paper it is written on. I have taken numerous days off work, to
allow engineers to inspect and to collect/deliver the TV. I have
also spent a considerable length of time on the telephone, trying
to sort out this matter and also been without a TV for a total of
three weeks.
I will never shop at Comet again and advise anybody who reads this
to do the same !!
Dave Smith
