Comet's Hull call centre faces closure: 316 jobs could go
HUNDREDS of staff at Comet face losing their jobs as the company's Hull call centre is threatened with closure.
Comet told staff it had launched a consultation on closing its call centre on George Street and making 316 staff redundant.
The company has confirmed it is proposing to merge its two call centres in Hull and Clevedon, near Bristol, into one.
Comet will today launched a 90-day consultation into the plans. It has not yet decided which centre is to stay open.
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Bob Darke, Comet chief executive said: "In a phenomenally tough climate, significant savings are required to secure the long-term survival of our business.
"In no way should this be seen as a reflection of the commitment and efforts of our employees and we'll make every effort to help those ultimately affected to find alternative employment.
"These proposals are still subject to a three month consultation process and we'll continue to look at a range of options across our sites.
"Going forward we need to continue to review all business areas and working practices without losing focus on delivering great products and great customer service each and every day."
The changes will not affect the 161 people who work in the Comet business centre, also in George Street.
Hull North MP Diana Johnson has expressed her concern over the potential job losses.
Ms Johnson said on Twitter this lunchtime: "We can't afford to keep losing local private sector jobs."
Comet, founded in Hull in 1933, was bought by retail turnaround firm Opcapita last year.
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Comments
by David_Nivea
Monday, February 27 2012, 4:35PM
“Diana, Karl, Alan! Where are you?”
by warpig576
Monday, February 27 2012, 4:07PM
“its been heading towards this for a long time, from the day the idots that said we need to pull away from been sales to more customer service what a joke i remember the sales floor been full of staff to the point that you was late due to not having a seat to start your shift. it was a good place to work all down to staff though nothing else. made a lot of commision out of the company over the years i was there, but so glad i dont work there now. i think i would have been sacked for kicking the managment around the sales floor due to them been so stupid as to let a sales floor change to customers service before you could even look at selling something. i was one of the best sales person there withabout 5 others and none of them work there any more what does that say about the company.”
by spongebrick
Monday, February 27 2012, 3:23PM
“for the people saying that comet was sold for £2 yes you are right, but did you know the new owners put 50 million in the business straight away???? didnt think so
of course buying stuff online is cheaper, do they have over 200 shops, no, all them staff to pay, no, there own engineers, no so the overheads are going to be bigger
the amount of people that ring up once there washer has broken and kick off because they have no cover on there machines, or they dropped there laptop after 3 months and then want to take out the cover.
a lot of customer just think the sales of good act just covers them and that is it, it covers businesses as well and just because you know part of the law doesnt mean you know all of it!
customers are always right - this makes me laugh as customers are hardly ever right”
by beetwaste
Monday, February 27 2012, 1:59PM
“Bad news for the people out of a job. If Comet have any scruples, they'll be doing all they can to ensure the people involved aren't just lobbed onto the scrap heap.
If not, I will quite happily scrub them from my list of companies not to do business with. Surely losing 300 service jobs will ensure that their customer service goes down the toilet?”
by Coder72
Monday, February 27 2012, 1:47PM
“tigerkev ive also heard as well it is in fact the george st CIC closing, sad day for many.”
by tigerkev
Monday, February 27 2012, 12:33PM
“hair of the dog, earlier today found out that it will be the hull CIC that does in fact close down, heard that the building lease is due to expire in 3 months and there unwilling to renew, after all the clevedon centre has still got a 7year lease, all this news about which centre is closed is rubbish all for the news/publictly, redunced package all awful too, doesny count on years severed like normal companys, felling sorry for all my mates who still work there, treated badly here. hull doesnt desevre all the unemployment here, i love this city but find myself wanting to leave for my prospects in working life shame really.”
by Mooseman13
Saturday, February 25 2012, 5:55PM
“Its a very brave decision of the new owners to close the Hull Call Centre... the upheaval of moving a successful telephone sales function, back office for web/B2B teams and a customer service function to a 'delivery centre' in Bristol at a time when sales are dropping sounds suicidal for any business.”
by KOKOBWARE
Saturday, February 25 2012, 12:17PM
“I knew once Gazza left Comet would go down the pan lol.... All that money on the re branding to green and pink pastel colours what was that about - money well spent? who made that decision to pish that money away.... ??? When Mr Parkinson took over that place went down the swanny, grumpy so and so who was only in it for himself. Some Great people there who were seriously underpaid for the jobs they were doing, lost some great people over the years due to poor management...”
by McLafferty
Saturday, February 25 2012, 8:08AM
“@suitedandbooted its blatently obvious who halfirish is, you must have been walking around high the whole time you worked there...oh.”
by Coder72
Saturday, February 25 2012, 12:59AM
“ive been talking about this to some friends of mine, they was reading these comments and told me that one of them knows the person who is steve burton they said he was a very disliked idiot now i have nothing to do with this all i know is they said he had an attitude and was an over confident ugly person. sorry if steve is reading these comments i dont know you im just passing this message on.”