What are my chances of winning in the small claims court against Comet?

[Bob A Job]

I bought a dishwasher from the Comet Clearance website in Sept, it was delivered faulty and has not worked properly at any point. I have had 5 visits from engineers and they still cannot get the right parts to fix it. I have exchanged e-mails with their head office and the have offered me a refund on a 'gift card' and a £35 cheque. But I have taken 4 days off work and made nearly £20 worth of calls to their service dept.
I have bought another dishwasher from elsewhere and contacted them asking for a full refund and compensation for loss of income whilst taking days off for their useless service dept to fail in fixing the machine. the amount is £500 including original price of washer and delivery. They have stopped replying to my e-mails and the deadline I gave them to settle this dispute has passed.

What chances do you think I have of the claim being successful?

[Bob A Job]

OK, so you are saying I cant claim for loss of income.
Is there anything I can claim for?
Or is the law on the side of the large company that screwed me over?
I went for the argument that their negligence of not testing it caused the financial burden on myself? is that technically any different?

[bushbaby_de]

I don't think there is any question that they are in breach of contract for supplying you with faulty goods and I think you will quite easily win a full cash refund on that basis. If you do end up going to the small claims court you may find they will award something in your favour if you can show that Comet acted unreasonably and caused you out of pocket expense etc. As a lot of people here have said, Comet are likely to settle before it even gets to court so I would suggest adding the calls etc plus a small amount for your inconvenience. I don't suggest you list anything as 'loss of earnings' as it is likely to be rejected for the reasons I highlighted above.