An entertaining trip to Comet to return my friend John’s faulty Xbox:
John: “Hi, I bought this XBOX last week, and as soon as I plugged it in it came up with a message on the screen saying it’s faulty”
Staff1: (to staff member 2) “What’s the procedure for XBOX?”
Staff2: “Eh, you don’t know what an XBOX is? Ha Ha”
Staff1: “Ha Ha… I didn’t say that etc etc.”Discussion continues for 2/3 minutes as they laugh at how Staff2 misheard Staff1; not a good start. Eventually Staff1 reads through some instructions and a flow chart in a black book (referred to as ‘their bible’) before explaining that we had to call Microsoft and arrange for it to be picked up and repaired.

John: “I have phoned them they have confirmed it is faulty and requires replacing, can’t you just exchange it?”
Staff1: “No, we need to prove it’s faulty and we have no way of testing it”
John: “err… You just plug it into a TV and it tells you on the screen.”
Staff1: “Well we don’t know about video games, and it could have been you that has broken it”
John: “It hasn’t worked once since I bought it last Saturday.”
Staff1: “tsk… well you should have brought it back sooner, why didn’t you bring it back the next day?”
John: “I was working all week and this my first opportunity. Can I have my money back”
Staff1: “It’s nothing to do with us, it’s between you and Microsoft, you need to speak to them.”

I interrupt as it’s obviously bollocks:

Me: “No, the sale contract was with you, and our statutory rights allow us to demand a refund from you as the goods are faulty”

The very unattractive staff member from earlier, known as Staff2 leaves the customer she is currently dealing with, and in a very aggressive tone grunts:

Staff2: “Hey… who are we speaking to here? It’s his Xbox let her speak to him, she wasn’t speaking to you”
Me: “Well I wasn’t speaking to you, I was talking to her” (I point to staff1)
Staff1: “There’s no need to be cheeky”

I bite my tongue. After several more minutes of arguing, we are getting nowhere so ask to speak to the manager. Once he arrives we repeat the above discussion, but the manager is no more knowledgeable or courteous than his staff, just a hell of a lot more patronising. After we demand a refund he still will not listen claiming he can only refund the money if we first send the Xbox back to Microsoft first for them to ‘confirm’ it is broken, get a â??fault rectification numberâ??, and then come back to the store with the Xbox and the â??FRNâ??.

John: â??Okay, whatever. Can you handle this as I am always working and never at home?â?
Manager: â??Sorry Sir, we can only follwhat it says in this book, and it says that it should be collected from the customerâ??s homeâ?

At this point, although we knew that we were in the right, we still decided to leave the shop despite not getting a refund, as the urge to use physical violence was too strong. Comet head office will be getting a phone call very soon.

Chump rating: 10/10