Home cinema - Help returning new DVDR to Comet

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Help returning new DVDR to Comet

Hi,

I have recently bought a Philips DVDR520h recorder which I am unhappy with.
The player seems to perform as it should but I expected more from it.
Unfortnately I accept that if I had researched more I would have realised
but I can't turn the clocks back.

My problem is that Comet don't operate a no quibble returns policy and they
say that if there is no problem they can't help.

Is there anything I can do?

Could do but I'm not sure the manager would approve of a £100 or so loss...

I was thinking about producing a fault somehow?

In article ,
"MS" wrote:

Could do but I'm not sure the manager would approve of a £100 or so loss...

I was thinking about producing a fault somehow?

How old is the unit?

Even if you "produce a fault" if it's over a certain age they might only
offer to repair it.

I can sort of see their point if there's nothing actually wrong with it
and it wasn't mis-sold to you as they will lose money when they resell
it.

I've come to the conclusion with most electrical purchases that the
shops that sell the things are largely **** and don't know anything
about the goods they sell, so your best bet is to go to somewhere
reputable like John Lewis, or order it online and take advantage of the
DSR if it doesn't do what you want.

I recently had a conversation with a Currys sales gimp along the lines
of

me "will this DVD recorder passthrough an RGB signal, I've read the
manual and it doesn't make it clear"
him "I don't know"
me "can you check for me?"
him "there's nobody here that will know"
me "If I buy one and it doesn't, will you take it back and refund me?"
him "no"
me "so you can't tell me if this product does what I want it to do, and
if I buy it and it doesn't I'm stuck with it, what would you suggest I
do?"

He didn't have much of an answer for that other than company policy etc..

Paul
--
paul at spamcop dot net

:-) They drive you nuts don't they ...

The recorder is only 5 days old and I am completely at fault for
1. buying from Comet at all - I should know better by now and
2. not doing my research properly.
I stupidly just assumed that it would be able to play a recording while
recording another (after all isn't that the point?) and that being a
Phillips, it would have Guide Plus.
Having had time to look into things properly I know that I shoud have gone
for the equivalent Panasonic which seems to have ''Best Buy's'' all over the
place - I also now know the Philips isn't reviewed ANYWHERE !!

Thanks for your feedback.

Martyn.

"MS" wrote in message
...
:-) They drive you nuts don't they ...

The recorder is only 5 days old and I am completely at fault for
1. buying from Comet at all - I should know better by now and
2. not doing my research properly.
I stupidly just assumed that it would be able to play a recording while
recording another (after all isn't that the point?) and that being a
Phillips, it would have Guide Plus.
Having had time to look into things properly I know that I shoud have gone
for the equivalent Panasonic which seems to have ''Best Buy's'' all over
the
place - I also now know the Philips isn't reviewed ANYWHERE !!

Thanks for your feedback.

Martyn.

Can't you take it back & ask to upgrade it for extra money ?

On Sun, 2 Jan 2005 09:36:36 -0000, wrote:

Hi,

I have recently bought a Philips DVDR520h recorder which I am unhappy with.
The player seems to perform as it should but I expected more from it.
Unfortnately I accept that if I had researched more I would have realised
but I can't turn the clocks back.

My problem is that Comet don't operate a no quibble returns policy and they
say that if there is no problem they can't help.

For the future remember to buy online or mail order so that you are covered by
the Distance Selling Regulations & can return goods for a full refund.

--
Nigel Barker
Live from the sunny Cote d'Azur

wrote in message ...
Hi,

I have recently bought a Philips DVDR520h recorder which I am unhappy with. The
player seems to perform as it should but I expected more from it. Unfortnately I
accept that if I had researched more I would have realised but I can't turn the
clocks back.

My problem is that Comet don't operate a no quibble returns policy and they say
that if there is no problem they can't help.

Is there anything I can do?

Philips DVD recorders are very very poor. Google is full of complaints going back
at least 3 years.

If it's only been a few weeks I'd get your story straight (ie it's useless and
keeps causing problems -get a taste from Google or search this NG) and tell them
you what a replacement model or a refund.

If the thing ain't doing what it's supposed to it's not much use.

Most of these non-DVD DVD+R ****e DVD recorders I see for £120-£150 are all based
on Philips rubbish AFAIK.

Treat your self to a Panasonic or similar and buy some good media to start you
off. I've had my Panasonic for ages and I've never had one SINGLE problem.

I believe Comet have a 'lemon' policy (they used to anyway -check their site help
section). If they refuse a to refund or replace then go for a repair then take it
back twice. That's when their 'lemon' policy kicks in (or it did with me a few
years back).

Keep it polite in the shop and ask to speak to the 'manager'.

--
DVDs for sale/trade http://tinyurl.com/143w

MS wrote:

:-) They drive you nuts don't they ...

The recorder is only 5 days old and I am completely at fault for
1. buying from Comet at all - I should know better by now and
2. not doing my research properly.
I stupidly just assumed that it would be able to play a recording while
recording another (after all isn't that the point?) and that being a
Phillips, it would have Guide Plus.
Having had time to look into things properly I know that I shoud have gone
for the equivalent Panasonic which seems to have ''Best Buy's'' all over the
place - I also now know the Philips isn't reviewed ANYWHERE !!

Thanks for your feedback.

Martyn.

I set up a Freeview box for my in-laws today and hooked it up the their
Philips DVDR70 unit. They have had it for about 6 months and I'd always
assumed that it would be an equivalent to my first generation Panny E20
but what a shock I got when I had a flick through the manual and fired
it up.

No record and play at the same time. Key feature is missing.

Disk works like a 'virtual tape' meaning that you can mistakenly
overwrite recordings and may not be able to record a program even if
there is enough space on the disk. The DVD-RAM on the Panny just tells
you how much aggregate space there is and gets on with it. Is this a
limitation of RW disks or just this recorder?

Poor menu system with very slow interface (even simple tasks such as
selecting letters in a channel name) . The slow response caused me to
accidentally run the auto-tune function.

I'd have been behind you in the queue behind you returnng this one! I
know the picture quality is better than VHS but other than that what is
the point?

Terry

In article
1gptrht.h8dxyuog8ozkN%terry.e.verycommonnamebegin ,
Terry Jones m wrote:

I set up a Freeview box for my in-laws today and hooked it up the their
Philips DVDR70 unit. They have had it for about 6 months and I'd always
assumed that it would be an equivalent to my first generation Panny E20
but what a shock I got when I had a flick through the manual and fired
it up.

No record and play at the same time. Key feature is missing.

Well, when I bought my DVDR70 I did not assume it could symultaneously
record and play, and none of the information I'd seen on it said that it
could, hence my reaction was that it did what I bought it for at the time.
If your in-laws wanted symultaneous record and play they should have bought
something else, I'm afraid. But if they did not, then I assume they got
what they wanted.

Disk works like a 'virtual tape' meaning that you can mistakenly
overwrite recordings

Yes, if you allow the recorder to record for longer that a 'title' you have
cleared at the rate you have chosen.

and may not be able to record a program even if there is enough space on
the disk.

See below.

The DVD-RAM on the Panny just tells you how much aggregate space there
is and gets on with it. Is this a limitation of RW disks or just this
recorder?

My understanding is that RW allows you to record onto any free titles, but
does not act as RAM or HD. Since it does not have random access the
aggregate space isn't the relevant quantity when you want to make a
recording. The relevant quantity is the contiguous length free for a title.

Given that discs are now quite cheap, I just record films or programmes
onto discs, normally using the free space at the 'end' of the disc. This
seems to work nicely in my experience. I have half a dozen RW's for time
shifting purposes, but mostly use R's.

The Philips recorders do seem to have dubious reliability, etc. However the
one I have basically seems to do what I bought it for, so that seems fair
enough to me. In due course I'll probably replace it with a new unit with
its own DTTV RX, but as a first DVD recorder I've been reasonably happy
with it.

Slainte,

Jim

--
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