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When did Comet first roll out their £99 fixed-price repair plan then?
Re: Fixed price repairs at Comet
Fairly recently, don’t know the exact date.
Clevedon is being extended and recruitment is active in all depts, White, Brown goods and IT.
More pressure for certain. 😥
Soon us small independants will be even more extinct.
Re: Fixed price repairs at Comet
Pay £ 99 .00 fixed price repair * up to £150 ! three month warranty
Sounds alright on the face of it but is it hundred quid pay upfront ? and if the repair exceeds 150 and you don’t want the repair done do you get your hundred quid back or are they deducting a call out ?
Most people will want peace of mind and a twelve week warranty is a joke by any standard. I think I am right in thinking that Comet cannot buy spares any cheaper than us and if that is the case I don’t see how this will work.
Its a bit different for manufactures to offer fixed price repairs as they have spares at cost but that cannot be the case with a retailer, also comet are threatening the manufacturers own service aims which will go down like a lead balloon.Personally I don;t think we have anything to worry about people will soon wise up to the fact that the retailers are trying to find more ways of hanging on to customers in this hard pressed trading environment.
Re: Fixed price repairs at Comet
squadman wrote:Sounds alright on the face of it but is it hundred quid pay upfront ? and if the repair exceeds 150 and you don’t want the repair done do you get your hundred quid back or are they deducting a call out ?
Oh please squadman, have you not noticed that Repaircare have been doing this type of service for years? The fact is, and the reason I brought the subject up today, is that I’ve just realised Comet are ‘at it’ too! So much so they are undercutting Repaircare by some big margin in fact! 😯
Anyway, just to answer your question about refunding, do please read their ‘terms & conditions’ on their web site and you see they give a full refund LESS the £49 call-out charge!
Re: Fixed price repairs at Comet
Fun, fun, fun…
If people read it though….
Comet wrote:1. Our Fixed Price Repair covers the following:
Labour costs for the inspection and repair of your faulty product &
Cost of parts up to the value of £150 &
Testing & safety check of your repaired product.
2. Our Fixed Price Repair does not cover the following:
Accidental damage;
Cosmetic parts;
Products where the required mains services are not easily available
Products used for commercial purposes;
Products on boats or mobile caravans;
Re-gassing of R134/R12 refrigeration products and rear projection TVs;
Where we are unable to gain entry to your home for any of our agreed appointments;
Where the product is inaccessible;
If we are unable to obtain spare parts from our suppliers within a reasonable timescale (Normally 14 days).
Where any of the exclusions above are found to apply, or if you choose not to proceed with the repair we will refund the fixed price paid less a call out charge of £49.
So pretty much the same deal as all the rest offering this type of service and it will cost you £49 to find out it’s a scrapper.
Parts can easily be made to exceed £150 as a get out.
But “yes madam, we can provide a new one no problem…” 😉
K.
Re: Fixed price repairs at Comet
In all seriousness now, this type of fixed rate scheme could in fact be rolled out by anyone, by any independent repairer even. Please bear with me one moment…….
In my case as a one man outfit I charge (locally) £45. That covers: same day repair, 6 days a week, call-out and 30mins work on site. Parts extra, no reduced rate for BER…that’s my T&C’s. Now if I were to charge (say?) £75 up front to include all time on site and any parts I would be well in front financially. Using this last weeks calls as an example: I had just 22 calls and 22 completed but only 6 had parts fitted. 22 times 45 = £990 but 22 times 75 = £1650….oooooh!!:P
Factoring in a more realistic take-up of such a scheme would possibly yield levels of customers willing to invest @ about 10{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d}? maybe more? So that’s 20 @ £45 and 2 @ £75 = £1050
Any BER jobs would get a £30 refund on their credit card there and then…..Oh yes I’m warming to the idea. 😀
Re: Fixed price repairs at Comet
Great! :rolls:
Another big company setting out to reduce our ‘drying up’ pool of chargeable customers!
Adrian.
Re: Fixed price repairs at Comet
washdoctor wrote:Another big company setting out to reduce our ‘drying up’ pool of chargeable customers!
Whilst it’s true that big companies have the logistics in place to accomodate such a viable system. That, in the case of the likes of Comet anyway, they have most manufacturers by the proverbial and thus have greater access to tech help, spares discounts and so on. There’s no reason whatsover for thinking that the chargeable trade pool is “drying up!”
Where’s the spirit of optimism that you projected even more recently Adrian? That the WTA was going onwards and upwards for the trade to benefit and that you were personally looking forward to another 33 years ‘in the trade?’
Don’t be too worried either that this same pool of chargable work is going to dry up any time soon or for that matter EVER! But rather may I at least suggest to you it far better to (WARNING : much quoted phrase coming) look outside the box? Fixed pricing just may be the way forward for you and for us all?
I can see many exciting benefits overall, for example……you instantly do away with the Cancellation of Contracts Made in Consumers Home or Place of Work Regulation: 01/10/2008. Every call is paid for up front, out calls are paid for up front, BER calls are paid for up front and many more including that more often than not by speaking on a one to one with your customer you can figure out what’s wrong before you even go there…….BRILLIANT..why didn’t I figure this out years ago eh? :rolls:
Re: Fixed price repairs at Comet
Martin wrote:Where’s the spirit of optimism that you projected even more recently Adrian? That the WTA was going onwards and upwards for the trade to benefit and that you were personally looking forward to another 33 years ‘in the trade?
I don’t exactly know how to reply to that Martin! My comment previous has no bearing on my optimism regarding my future in this trade, or my WTA enthusiasm! But, moving on…
We’re all doing the same job Martin, but in many different ways a! What might suit you, wont suit the next man and so on. But, for people / companies that do contract work as a ‘Majority’ of their business (Be it split into whatever proportions between WP’s), the chargeable work ‘MIGHT’ turn losses and break evens into profit! Take away that chargeable work, imagine the effect on businesses that focus on contract work AND sole traders? It would be huge!
Example, if half out of your 22 customers went to Comet or any other fixed price outfits last week, you’d be affected I think, and not for the better!
Chargeable work is a small pond IMO, it’s a pond that many Independent repairers rely on! And the smaller it gets, the more people will fall away!
Re: Fixed price repairs at Comet
washdoctor wrote:Chargeable work is a small pond IMO
Fair comment as ever from you and it may be a small pond to you or a hard to define the size of pool to others, either way it is drying up in more ways that one ’tis true. Comet will not be dependent on that aspect of the trade either but rather for them just another way they can fish from that same pond. I’m suggesting to you and other indies that we can beat them at their own game by each running a similar option scheme for our own customers.
After all indies gain over manufacturers own charges by undercutting them by some margin. That fact brings in loads of chargeable work. Then so too can we undercut the fixed price networks playing them at their own game.
Anyroad, I’ll leave it for others to comment, the phones ringing, another fish in deep waters no doubt……………… 😛
Re: Fixed price repairs at Comet
Fixed price repairs through the WTA’s website, now is that the future?
Re: Fixed price repairs at Comet
timdowning wrote:, now is that the future?
I thought “garlic bread” was the future. 😆
Re: Fixed price repairs at Comet
OFF TOPIC I know….
Nearly put that line in myself but thought I would leave it for somebody else to use.
Just got back from my Hols & bought Peter Kays ‘ Saturday Night Peter’ at the airport. Bad move reading it on the plane as I shamed my wife & children by laughing out loud whilst reading it. 😳Re: Fixed price repairs at Comet
I beg to differ with the OT comment. 😉
From the forum synopsis,
This forum is for any general queries, questions, humour, chat, anything really 😛
Jim.
Re: Fixed price repairs at Comet
Which is fine if you get the joke. 😉
TBH I don’t really see what the fuss is all about with Comet. The fact is that I should think that a lot of people will instinctively not trust them as they will think that they want to sell a new machine to them, regardless, TV, washer… whatever. Comet are in the business of flogging stuff, not fixing it really unless they have to under warranty or extended.
Then people are hardly likely to think, “oh I’ll go to Comet, they know all about these..” unless it’s a Haier, in which case they were stupid enough to buy one in the first place and I don’t want to know about it anyway. And, who’s (sane person) gonna pay £99 to fix a £179.99 Haier anyway?
On top of which, there’s other services all competing in the same market space, DAG, Repaircare, 0800… and there will likely be more. Until the market becomes saturated and people suss that it’s not really such a good deal.
It’s just like free callouts, some people will go for it and a whole bunch won’t thinking it’s a con and, to an extent perhaps these services are although I suspect more a bending of the truth. The bending being that, in all the offers made for a fixed total cost, there’s almost always a catch somewhere.
Lots of people aren’t stupid and will suss that if it’s too good to be true, it usually is.
K.
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