MSE News: OFT warns over misleading ads that cost consumers cash

liam8282

With the newspaper offers, if you are only going to purchase that paper for the free item, why not go and see if the product is available before you buy the paper?

You will be buying the paper from the same place if it is a supermarket.

I can't wait to hear the stories about the free scarf offer this weekend.

StuieUK34

How about:
What do you do when you are that consumer/customer, who has been caught in this misleading area. IE: Drip Pricing, where a hidden fees mean you cant receive the full item unless you pay that hidden fee which wasnt advertised or shown when completing a booking..

Who do you call ? (dont say Ghostbusters! ) Is it somthing Trading Standards would deal with ? and how do you raise a case with them ?

sideburn77

In reply to Liam8282 above, I got the Telegraph coupon and was at Austin Reed by 9.10am on Sat (happened to be in town anyway) and there were at least 10 other people in the shop with the coupon!

Scarf I have is fab, but I bet they ran out really quickly.

liam8282

I also wonder how many of the "free £30 austin reed" scarves are on ebay now?

Newspapers / shops etc. that do these "free" item offers can never win, there will always be people that abuse the offers, and there will always be people that miss out.

fenris2017

liam8282 wrote: »

I also wonder how many of the "free £30 austin reed" scarves are on ebay now?

Newspapers / shops etc. that do these "free" item offers can never win, there will always be people that abuse the offers, and there will always be people that miss out.

I turned up to a mouthful of abuse from the 2 elderly ladies staffing the Leicester Austin Reed!

They did offer me the standard sale '20% off other things' though, classic bait and switch!

liam8282

^ They probably bought a load of papers and exchanged them for the scarves before you got there.

elektra

krisskross wrote: »

A non offer which irritated me recently was an Asda nationwide offer in the Daily Mirror. It was a coupon for a free box of breakfast cereal. I visited 3 Asda stores none of which had any stock and although the offer had 4 days to go they all said after checking that they were not expecting any to be delivered. And neither had they had extra stock preparatory to the offer.

Seemed like a real con to get people to buy the paper and go to an Asda store. When I complained I was referred to the words always in the T&Cs 'subject to availability'. Availabilty for me was nil. I have no idea what the Saturday circulation of the Daily Mirror is but I bet there weren't even a tiny fraction of the boxes of cereal available.

It would be very interesting if Asda published figures of how many customers availed themselves of such nationwide offers.

why not try writing to the manufacturer of the cereal.

I once wrote to a manufacturer pointing out that Tesco's were selling a 'try me free' offer at a higher price than the refund price. I was very polite saying I understood they had no control over Tesco's pricing. They replied and sent me a huge box of their products.

oakhouse13

"I also wonder how many of the "free £30 austin reed" scarves are on ebay now?"

Several that have gone straight onto eBay and sellers have repeated the RRP of £30 which let us be frank is untrue. Austin Reed sells pure wool sleeves for £30. This sleeve was 100% acrylic. It was never on sale at Austin Reed since it was bought in for the promotion so is not even really an Austin Reed scarf.

Does any of this matter? If the traders reselling on eBay are registered as businesses and paying HMRC and VAT it seems to be enterprise but based on untruths. Having said that, there are a few reports of people who loved their scarves and of course they are entitled to their view.

However, if you apply it to electrical goods or food, we do need an honest account of what we are buying. A scarf might be given to an older person in belief it will keep them warm when the truth is acrylic will not and for £1.00 there are wool scarves on sale at the likes of Poundland and Primark.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MENS-STRIPED-SCARF-AUSTIN-REED-rrp-30-BRAND-NEW-/320627362052?pt=Men_s_Accessories_UK&hash=item4aa6e14904

TehJumpingJawa

I'm ashamed to say I fell for the Austin Reed scarf scam (and for that matter, the Waitrose chocolates in the same issue).
First & last newspaper that I will ever buy. I really hope the OFT fine the Telegraph big-time for this particular incident, as their newspaper sales exceeded the available stock for the promotion nearly 100 to 1.
The icing on the cake was the disgraceful "but you can have 20% off anything in the store" line that was fed to disappointed customers.


In my opinion this kind of deception is far worse than the price doubling/bogof strategies that supermarkets employ, as the supermarket is still presenting you with all the information necessary to make an informed decision.

oakhouse13

TehJumpingJawa, make a complaint to the ASA. The Telegraph does some great reporting but it is ridiculous that it can get away with selling its own product with a completely misleading advertisement.

It was misleading on the RRP and also running the promotion until 6pm Monday as all the trips made to Austin Reed on Monday virtually would be a waste of time. The scarves were bought in for the promotion so were never on sale for £30.00 in Austin Reed. The Telegraph promotion called it a luxury scarf and also said there was one for every reader.

All this could be found out by asking staff in Austin Reed late last week who knew they would not be able to fulfil the promotion, and know it is unfair if not illegal according to the OFT to bait and switch customers.