used to go like a bomb

Hello,

These are the lines from a student's story he made up as part of the module test he was taking:

- Hi John, I haven`t been at the last Board meeting as I have been to our subsidiary for two months. Could you, please, put me in the picture. What`s going on in the HQ?
- Oh, it was something! I have never seen our MD so furious with Sales and Marketing .
- What`s up? We aren`t making profits any more? According to all reports our goods used to go like a bomb
- They did. But the marketing people decided we could milk much more out of it through brandstretching.

First, grammar. I disagreed with him on using Present Perfect in the first sentence-I haven't been at the last Board meeting. If it is the previous meeting, Past Simple is the tense that should be used here.
Second, I pointed out that if we leave the part "used to go like a bomb" as it is, it means the company's products are no longer popular with customers. I think it would be better to change it into-our goods go like a bomb or our goods have been going like a bomb.
Then the idioms. Our book of idioms gives the following definitions:
brand-stretching-extension of a popular brand recognition and reputation on a new type of product
to milk-to gain profit
to go like a bomb-to sell very well

I can't say why, but something tells me not all of the sentences sound natural. Am I right?

Thank you for the time and help.

I agree that your suggested changes would improve those sentences, vectra.

Apart from the unnecessary commas around please, the rest of them sound natural enough to me.

Rover

According to all reports our goods used to go like a bomb.

In NZ "to go like a bomb" used to mean "to go very well", "to be a great success" and this seems to be the meaning in the example quoted. However, I think this usage has fallen away somewhat, possibly due to the "bomb" phrases to do with failure becoming prevalent: "that show really bombed", "that old car's a bit of a bomb" etc.

not a teacher