Misleading advert re free gift?

notanewuser

Their response:

For your records, your original query was:

I wish to complain about the free gift received with my recent orders. Your web banner offered a "free gift worth £10" when you spend £30 in the summer sale. I did this twice. The order confirmation e-mail details the gift as £7.50 (on each order). I've received a nail file that is sold on your site for £3. To say I'm unhappy is an understatement.

Your customer service rep was unable to do much, but offered me £2.50 per order account credit, recognising that the offered £10 gift was reduced to £7.50 on my order confirmation. The fact that the retail value of the gift actually sent is less than half of the lower amount is not on at all. I notice that purchasing 2 butter London nail varnishes gets you a free nail file. Have I been sent the wrong free gifts?

I calculate I am out by about £9 still due to your misleading advertising. I have screenshots of all relevant pages and am happy to take this further if necessary.

I look forward to your response.


One of our customer services advisors has reviewed your query and we are able to confirm the following:

Hello Xxxxx,

Thank you for getting in touch about your free gift.

I am sorry but the free gift was a nail file, we have offered to add £2.50 per order to your account in credit for the inconvenience this has caused you.

If you are unhappy and the items have not been used you can return both orders for a full refund but we are unable to offer anything further.

I am really sorry for the inconvenience caused.

If there is anything else that we can do, then please do not hesitate to get in touch and a member of our team will be happy to help.

Kind regards,

Amy

Beautyexpert.co.uk Customer Service Team

ASA and Trading Standards complaints submitted.

notanewuser

So CAB rang me today. They've passed my complaint on to Trading Standards but said (amazingly) that there is no consumer protection in relation to free gifts. They could be considered an incentive to purchase, but there's nothing I can do about them not delivering what they advertised. Legally they need only offer me the option of returning the items (can't - I've used 1) for a full refund.

They are STILL advertising the £10 gift. Hopefully the ASA will deal with that, but it looks like I'm stuck with the crappy nail files and £5 credit.