Misleading or incomplete specs on shopping websites

semo

Forwandert wrote: »

If you were already aware certain things wouldn't work simultaniously why didn't you contact the company you purchased from before purchase for clarification? Doesn't sound like it was misadvertised just a lack of knowledge on your part as to the item purchased, if you needed it to do certain things always worth a little research rather then buying and hoping it will do what you require.

Like I said, all of the products I've used in the past that have more than out output can support dual monitors regardless of the ports you select. You just have to assume certain things when you shop and this is definetely a gotcha I did not anticipate. This product does support dual output but not if you want to use both digital outputs. Limitations like these need to be more explicit.

neilmcl wrote: »

A lot of people, me included, do this if its readily available online, especially if looking for some specific functionality.

And what if you had no internet to find the manual beforehand? If you were looking to buy a TV and you saw an HDMI output, you would assume that it also supports sound as well. The average user would not start looking for the manual to see if HDCP is supported. In fact, most people wouldn't know what HDCP is. It's human nature to have assumptions. I didn't assume that all motherboards have HDMI, DVI, SATA 3 and USB 3... I looked at the specs to make sure. I looked at dozens of products. Do you think it is practical to look at the spec sheet and the manual for each one in order to make a comparison?

bris

semo wrote: »

And what if you had no internet to find the manual beforehand?

Then you wouldn't be having this problem in the first place, as you wouldn't have been able to buy it over the net.

mo786uk

this sort of thing is best dealt with by your local Trading Standards as a product misdescription. I think the ASA are more interestied in dealing with more general misleading advertising.

the shop have probably just copied what the manufacturer gave them

pendulum

semo wrote: »

Who can you contact if you find that a product on a shopping website does not have complete spec or is misleading?

Just send it back under Distance Selling Regulations and forget about it, you obviously can't expect a product description on a website to include every detail of the product that every person might want to know - product descriptions need to be concise!

Forget about the rubbish suggestion to go to Trading Standards, unless they refuse your right to return the goods - then you can think about that!

Money_User

mo786uk wrote: »

this sort of thing is best dealt with by your local Trading Standards as a product misdescription.

It's not a misdescription!

How many people do you think work for Trading Standards? They'd hardly want to know about this!

semo

I can't believe there are so many naysayers in this thread. So far it seems I'm

• Unknowledgeable
• lazy and don't do enough research
• Wrong to criticize product labelling

MSE is a place that promotes little known facts, pro-consumer and generally helps you get the best deal around. I doubt that anyone here won't agree that I just discovered a little gotcha that most people probably didn't know about!

Anyway, I didn't just get miffed about this slight technicality. Insuficient labeling is rife on and off the internet. For example, why is it so hard to find a SATA 3 and USB 3 and AM3 and integrated GPU motherboard. Drilling down should be much easier IMO.

bris wrote: »

Then you wouldn't be having this problem in the first place, as you wouldn't have been able to buy it over the net.

Brick and mortar shops have significantly less product information on display so I doubt that I would have realised this in shop if I went to buy from Maplin or yoyo.

mo786uk

Money_User wrote: »

It's not a misdescription!

How many people do you think work for Trading Standards? They'd hardly want to know about this!

an incorrect descrption or whatever you want to call it. its within the remot of TS not the ASA IMO.

whether they do anything about it or not is upto them but its always worth reporting, especially if its a common issue, at least they will then have the info to decide whether to do something about it or not.

High__Flyer_2

semo wrote: »

Brick and mortar shops have significantly less product information on display so I doubt that I would have realised this in shop if I went to buy from Maplin or yoyo.

But if you were in Maplin or Yoyo, you could have asked the advisor for an answer, and if they didn't know, they would be able to show you the manual!

pendulum

semo wrote: »

Anyway, I didn't just get miffed about this slight technicality. Insuficient labeling is rife on and off the internet.

And if each product sold on a website had a fifty page description of all its features and limitations, you'd complain about there being too much information. A product description is about striking a balance between information and length, some of the detail has to be lost! What is important information to you may not be important at all to most people! Can't you see this?

In my opinion you should take some of the responsibility for not reading the manual (online version) or doing some research first, instead you just assumed you knew how it would work.

neilmcl

semo wrote: »

If you were looking to buy a TV and you saw an HDMI output, you would assume that it also supports sound as well.

Of course but if I wanted to make sure it supported HDMI 1.4 standard then I'd do some digging first.