News

adamtg · 07-03-2008, 11:14 AM

On 5th March I undertook a Google search on 'Panasonic TZ5 jessops' the advert at the top of Google was telling me "Buy the Panasonic DMC-TZ5 Camera from Jessops Online Only £229.99!" However when clicking through from the Google advert the website is expecting me to pay £299.
The Google advert clearly told me that I could buy the product for £229 and obviously I want to purchase/pre-order this product at this price.
The correspondence with Jessops has resulted in them refusing to offer me the product at this price and as such I have made a complaint to the ASA. The full chain of emails can be seen below.
Does anyone know if Jessops.com do have to offer me that camera at that price, after all it is an adword (advert) in Google and is not part of the natural search results?
My email
Hello
I have just done a Google search on 'Panasonic TZ5 jessops' the advert at the top of Google is telling me "Buy the Panasonic DMC-TZ5 Camera from Jessops Online Only £229.99!" However when clicking through from the Google advert the website is expecting me to pay £299.
The Google advert clearly tells me I can buy the product for £229 and I would like to purchase/pre-order this product at this price. Please can you let me know how I can do this? I have screen grabs of said web pages as evidence of this, please see attached.
Jessops Response Dear Adam
Thank you for your enquiry.
Unfortunately search engine websites and other price comparison sites are often not updated as regularly as Jessops.com.
We would therefore not be able to offer you this camera at this price, and you would need to pay the full price of £299.99.
I apologise for any inconvenience caused.
Regards
Customer Support
My response
Hello
The advert at the top of Google is advertising a said product at a said price, much the same as an advert in a newspaper or magazine. I know from the field of work I am employed in that Google adwords can be updated instantly.
If this was in Google's natural search index I would take your point, however it is not, it is an advert setup by Jessops and you are in full control of what it says at any given time. By advertising this product at this price you are misleading customers and in essence false advertising.
I can and will pursue this with the Advertising Standards Authority as I believe I have a clear case of false advertising due to the nature of the advert.
The way I see it there are two options available to jessops.com
1). Continue to say your standard response, "Unfortunately search engine websites and other price comparison sites are often not updated as regularly as Jessops.com." This will result in me pursuing this further, both inconveniencing myself and yourselves. I will also let people know about my experience, I am sure you will agree that word of mouth can be very powerful both from a positive and negative point of view?
2). Allow me to purchase said product at said price £229, this stops any inconvenience for both Jessops.com and myself. This makes me a satisfied customer and I tell people what a wonderful experience I have had.
I would be interested in your Online Marketing department's view on this, as they will be fully aware that this simple error can be changed within minutes, and for the sake of £70 it would make me happy.
Also I think you should bear in mind that with the 10% voucher code you offer on your site the difference is only £40.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Kind Regards
Adam
My response again 2 days after not hearing anything.
Hello
I am just seeing if you are going to respond back to me regarding this matter? Should I expect a response?
I see you have now changed the advert on Google!
Kind Regards
Adam
Jessops Response
Dear Adam
Thank you for your email.
As previously advised, search engine websites and various other price comparison sites are not updated as regularly as Jessops. We are not in control of any updates to adverts that are on Google.
I'm very sorry for any confusion that has been caused to you.
Regards
Customer Support

dmg24 · 07-03-2008, 11:17 AM

No, they do not need to accept your offer to buy at this price. The advertisement is an invitation to treat.

adamtg · 07-03-2008, 11:21 AM

thanks for the quick response, I just think that to put an advert out there with the wrong price on it is pretty unfair. In the "not fair" culture we have nowadays I am suprised that they can get away with doing this.

braken2000 · 07-03-2008, 11:29 AM

I am so glad I dont work for Jessops any more. They made tonnes of mistakes regarding pricing!

Poppycat · 07-03-2008, 12:00 PM

As said DMG is right.I just done a search it now comes up with £299 if you search for "Panasonic TZ5" 2nd page in google

Panasonic DMC-TZ5
Buy the Panasonic DMC-TZ5 Camera
from Jessops Online Only £299.99!
www.Jessops.com/TZ5

saintscouple · 07-03-2008, 5:38 PM

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere (please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email abuse@moneysavingexpert.com.

Brooker Dave · 07-03-2008, 9:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by adamtg

thanks for the quick response, I just think that to put an advert out there with the wrong price on it is pretty unfair. In the "not fair" culture we have nowadays I am suprised that they can get away with doing this.

Perhaps someone just made a mistake?

Do you feel that you are intitled to large amounts of compenstation?

adamtg · 08-03-2008, 12:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brooker Dave

Perhaps someone just made a mistake?

Do you feel that you are intitled to large amounts of compenstation?

Maybe they did make a mistake, at the end of the day they are advertising a product at the wrong price. I do not see why i would not be allowed to buy that product at that price.

If you walked past a retailer in the street and they had 'buy this camera for £225' in the window, would you not go in and try to buy the camera for that price?

"Do you feel that you are intitled to large amounts of compensation?"

No not at all, why would I want compensation? I just want to buy the camera for the price advertised.

I will be interested to see what the ASA say, maybe I am in the wrong and I am being the unreasonable one, if so then fair enough.

uktim29 · 08-03-2008, 1:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by adamtg

I know from the field of work I am employed in that Google adwords can be updated instantly.
If this was in Google's natural search index I would take your point, however it is not, it is an advert setup by Jessops and you are in full control of what it says at any given time.

Thats quiet bizarre. You say from the field of work you do you know about Google Adwords, you also then say Jessops are in full control of the ad.

I've just had a look at their site and they have an affiliate program. I'm an Affiliate Marketer myself and spend aroud £5000 a month with Google Adwords. If you know about this etc etc how come you haven't figured an affiliate could have made the ad therefore meaning Jessops would not have any control over it? let alone made it!

Poppycat · 08-03-2008, 1:10 PM

Because retailers cant be forced to sell you a product if they dont want too, that is the law. Invitation to treat it is called. this has been mentioned many times on this site

It could be argued that the advertising is deceitful but proving that they deliberately did it is very slim, they could easily argue that it was a genuine mistake and it was easily rectified as I spotted the deal at new price as I mentioned above.

If you want a bargain you rarely get it form Jessops anyhow, they aint cheap most of the time, and using voucher or via cashback or both would reduce the price a bit

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/...omy/441740.stm

The shopkeeper is making what lawyers call an 'invitation to treat', an invitation to the customer to make him an offer.

So the customer cannot insist on buying the television at the advertised price. If the shopkeeper has put an unusually low price on it - deliberately or by mistake - he can refuse to do a deal with the customer.

dinglebert · 08-03-2008, 1:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by adamtg

Maybe they did make a mistake, at the end of the day they are advertising a product at the wrong price. I do not see why i would not be allowed to buy that product at that price.

If you walked past a retailer in the street and they had 'buy this camera for £225' in the window, would you not go in and try to buy the camera for that price?

"Do you feel that you are intitled to large amounts of compensation?"

No not at all, why would I want compensation? I just want to buy the camera for the price advertised.

I will be interested to see what the ASA say, maybe I am in the wrong and I am being the unreasonable one, if so then fair enough.

You probably won't like this but you are wrong. If an offer is priced wrongly they do not have to sell it to you. As previously stated it is an invitation to treat and not a contract. Same goes for a misprice in a shop. They do not have to sell it at that price if it is a mistake. The ASA will not be interested as they do not cover internet advertising.

adamtg · 08-03-2008, 6:26 PM

It was a Jessops adword not an affiliate partner.

Overall looks like I am wrong, oh well, better luck next time, thought it was worth having a go.

The_Affs · 08-03-2008, 8:40 PM

This 'invitation to treat' has indeed been mentioned many times but any half decent retailer would admit their mistake and help out the customer. I currently have a sony 28 inch tv, dvd player and video for which i paid 100 quid due to a Debenhams mis-price which was honoured. I just find it unbelievable that Jessop's blatant lies can be justified by people on here as a mistake. Surely they have done this either through lazy ad quality control or a deceitful attempt to get some clicks through false advertising?

uktim29 · 08-03-2008, 10:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by adamtg

It was a Jessops adword not an affiliate partner.

You'd never know unless you right clicked on the link, looked at properties, then looked at the destination url before clicking the link. The ad there now is done through a keyword tracking script/company so you still can't see if an affiliates using it or Jessops themselves.

dmg24 · 08-03-2008, 10:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The_Affs

This 'invitation to treat' has indeed been mentioned many times but any half decent retailer would admit their mistake and help out the customer. I currently have a sony 28 inch tv, dvd player and video for which i paid 100 quid due to a Debenhams mis-price which was honoured. I just find it unbelievable that Jessop's blatant lies can be justified by people on here as a mistake. Surely they have done this either through lazy ad quality control or a deceitful attempt to get some clicks through false advertising?

How do we know that they are 'blatant lies'?

Jessops are a business, they are out to make a profit. If they do not want to offer the camera at the lower price, they don't have to.

What a retailer should morally do really doesn't come into it.

adamtg · 08-03-2008, 10:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by uktim29

You'd never know unless you right clicked on the link, looked at properties, then looked at the destination url before clicking the link. The ad there now is done through a keyword tracking script/company so you still can't see if an affiliates using it or Jessops themselves.

I take your point, but there is a high chance this is them bidding on this phrase, also looking at the URL it has reference to http://www.affilibid.com/ which in turn brings up an online marketing agency with Jessops.com as a client
http://www.ck-net.com/ppc/. The way it was changed so quickly also makes me think it is them directly and not an affiliate.

As I have said before, seeing the reaction I have had to this on here and from Jessops. I am not holding much hope I will get anything, but thought it was worth trying.

Thanks for all your comments, at least I know not to bother wasting my time again on something like this.

The_Affs · 08-03-2008, 11:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dmg24

How do we know that they are 'blatant lies'?

Jessops are a business, they are out to make a profit. If they do not want to offer the camera at the lower price, they don't have to.

What a retailer should morally do really doesn't come into it.

Have Jessops actually sold the camera at the advertised price? No. Therefore they are lying about the price the camera is for sale at. Pretty clear cut to me.

The_Affs · 08-03-2008, 11:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dmg24

How do we know that they are 'blatant lies'?

Jessops are a business, they are out to make a profit. If they do not want to offer the camera at the lower price, they don't have to.

What a retailer should morally do really doesn't come into it.

Have Jessops actually sold the camera at the advertised price? No. Therefore they are lying about the price the camera is for sale at. Pretty clear cut to me.

uktim29 · 08-03-2008, 11:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The_Affs

Have Jessops actually sold the camera at the advertised price? No. Therefore they are lying about the price the camera is for sale at. Pretty clear cut to me.

Can't you tell the difference between the words mistake & lies?

The_Affs · 09-03-2008, 7:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by uktim29

Can't you tell the difference between the words mistake & lies?

Of course i can, but you seem very sure that it was an honest mistake on the part of a business out to make money. If it was a mistake, they have still, inadvertently, falsely advertised the price of a product and, in my opinion, should hold their hands up and honour it like many retailers before, Boots and Debenhams to name but two. The advert was a 'lie' as it told a falsehood.