Comet
 

In article ,
Peter Duncanson wrote:
If there's a choice of self-checkout or a manned checkout I'll tend to
go to the manned one.

I always use the self checkout. Less boring, and easier to check for
mistakes. No chance of 'cash back' being added either. And machines don't
chat to the person in front of me for 5 minutes. ;-)

--
*Two wrongs are only the beginning *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Comet
 

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

Perhaps. I've never seen one. They started out as a 'shed' retailer, so
why would they change?

Comet started off in the High Street, long before there were 'sheds'.
Doncaster Comet was in the middle of town.

Bill

Comet
 

Mark Carver wrote:

So, the only 'USP' they have over internet retailers is the fact you can
see the products in the flesh. I'm as guilty as the next man, I go into
Currys or Comet, have a play, then go home and order from a on-line
retailer, for less money. Who wouldn't eh ?

As a self-employed trader I feel guity about messing other businesses
about.
But it's hard not to. I have a house to sell. Of course I got an estate
agent out to value it,
but there's no certainty I'll use them to sell it, because I have a
possible private sale.
When I wanted a new wetroom I went to several
shops to get ideas knowing full well that I was almost certain to give
the work to my usual
plumber. Some of the shops wanted to produce detailed drawings and
complicated quotes. I let them.
I'm not above sneaking into a pub toilet for a **** and not buying a drink.
I went to several disability shops looking at motorised wheelchairs,
then after a very good demo in one shop bought that model for a thousand
pounds less on the internet.
Every business gets this sort of thing.

Bill

Comet
 

In article , Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
If there's a choice of self-checkout or a manned checkout I'll tend to
go to the manned one.

I always use the self checkout. Less boring, and easier to check for
mistakes. No chance of 'cash back' being added either. And machines don't
chat to the person in front of me for 5 minutes. ;-)

I'll use a self-checkout only if the queues are intolerably long at the
other ones, or if Im accompanied by a grandchild who can help me.
Otherwise, I'm buyng the same goods at the same prices no matter how I pay
for them, so I'd rather deal with a human being than a machine every time.

At least when a human operator has a problem they can call for help,
whereas a machine that can't read a barcode, or gets locked into a loop
repeatedly demanding that I place my goods in the bagging area when I
already have, depends on a human being to recognise that a problem exists.

Rod.
--

Comet
 

In article , Mark Carver wrote:
There's another problem that Comet suffered from (though Currys/DSG are no
different either). They hold little to no stock on site, particularly large
items, so you need to get it delivered, and often with a 20 quid delivery
charge slapped on. In the past, I've stuffed a washing machine in the back of
the car, and driven home there and then.

On the other hand, when I bought my washing machine from Comet, I realised it
would need to be delivered anyway, so decided to order it online. I was
astonished to find that you could specify not only the delivery day at the time
of ordering, but even (for a little extra) whether you wanted a morning or
afternoon delivery, including Sundays.

That must have been at least 10 years ago, but even Amazon don't offer that
service now. Standard procedure is that a courier will attempt to deliver while
you're out and leave one of those little cards and you then go to a website and
specify a day for their second attempt. It must cost them more to visit every
other house twice instead of once, and you have to set aside a whole day, not
half a day, to wait for them. If Comet could get this right, why can't the
others?

Rod.
--

Comet
 

"Jim Lesurf" wrote in message
...
In article ,
wrote:
On Sat, 03 Nov 2012 13:49:18 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:


Going back to the 1970's in the Southampton area Comet occupied a unit
in a smallish shopping center fairly close to what was then a busy
shopping area

My recollections of Comet are from the POV of a manufacturer rather than a
customer, and back in the days when they were simply called a 'discount
warehouse'. Decades ago, so another world in many ways...

The man who ran/owned them used to visit ( was his name Hollingsbury?). He
was accompanied by two 'assistants' who stood behind his chair when he sat
down. Think 'Minder'. :-) At one time he was essentially buying 90
percent of what we made, and selling the amplifiers for 50p *less* each
than our price to him![1]

He put the amps at the far end of the shed so people would have to walk to
the back to get them. The idea was, fairly clearly, that they'd spot some
speakers or a tuner or whatever during the trip, and he'd make his profit
from that with the amp as a 'loss leader'.

He then simply relied on the makers (i.e. us) to sort out any problems or
questions after sale. Whereas our established specialist dealers would
actively help customers sort out things out when they made errors or
didn't
know what to do. The result was bad for customers, makers, and specialist
retailers who charged more but would then help customers.

So although he sold the items as if they were bags of sugar, the reality
was that the customer would sometimes find there was more to it... after
they'd gone for the lowest price ticket.



Maybe just as with governments people get the kind of retailers they
deserve, Heath's abolition of RPM was the beginning of the end for many long
established family run electrical retailers in the high street and seems to
confirm that the majority of consumers prefer low prices to service.

Comet
 

Bill Wright wrote:

I'm not above sneaking into a pub toilet for a **** and not buying a drink.

Actually that's perfectly legal in Spain. You are entitled to enter any
business or institution (as long as it's open or unlocked !) and use their
facilities, they can't refuse entry AIUI.

Whenever I visit the country, I try to add an unusual location to my list,
though nothing more wacky than Oviedo police station so far.


--
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.

www.paras.org.uk

Comet
 

In article en.co.uk,
Roderick Stewart wrote:

That must have been at least 10 years ago, but even Amazon don't offer that
service now.

I suspect that the additional cost of choosing a time of day for
delivery of a washing machine is a much lower proportion of both the
overall price and the delivery cost than for (say) a book, so it would
probably not be so popular for Amazon. Also, they can't really leave
a washing machine with a neighbour if you're out.

But I agree it would be nice if Amazon offered more delivery options -
another one would be choosing a carrier, since many people find that
certain carriers are much more successful at delivering to them than
others.

-- Richard

Comet
 

On 2012-11-04, Roderick Stewart wrote:

On the other hand, when I bought my washing machine from Comet, I realised it
would need to be delivered anyway, so decided to order it online. I was
astonished to find that you could specify not only the delivery day at the time
of ordering, but even (for a little extra) whether you wanted a morning or
afternoon delivery, including Sundays.

That must have been at least 10 years ago, but even Amazon don't offer that
service now. Standard procedure is that a courier will attempt to deliver while
you're out and leave one of those little cards and you then go to a website and
specify a day for their second attempt. It must cost them more to visit every
other house twice instead of once, and you have to set aside a whole day, not
half a day, to wait for them. If Comet could get this right, why can't the
others?

When I ordered a large item (fridge) from amazon, they phoned up and asked
when would be a suitable time to deliver it. Similarly when I ordered
a mattress online from somewhere else.

--
David Taylor

Comet
 

In article , Rick wrote:


"Jim Lesurf" wrote in message
...

So although he sold the items as if they were bags of sugar, the
reality was that the customer would sometimes find there was more to
it... after they'd gone for the lowest price ticket.



Maybe just as with governments people get the kind of retailers they
deserve, Heath's abolition of RPM was the beginning of the end for many
long established family run electrical retailers in the high street and
seems to confirm that the majority of consumers prefer low prices to
service.

Or that they simply don't think ahead to the possibility that they may need
help/advice/service in the future. Combined with not realising any
'contract' they have is with the retailer by default, not the maker.

And even before RPM was abolished it was quite common in trades like audio
for dealers to advertise 'POA' prices. They then offerred a discount
by word of mouth to customers. Depended on what they were selling and
if the buyer wanted help installing it at home, etc.

Slainte,

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
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