ASA Adjudication on Worldwide Services Group Ltd

Ad

A national press ad for World Wide Stationery stated " … Dyson DC14 Vacuum £99.99 OFFER ENDS BOXING DAY Free Delivery No minimum order …".

Issue

The complainant, who sent payment for a Dyson but did not receive the product or a refund, challenged World Wide Stationery's failure to provide either.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

World Wide Stationery did not respond to the ASAs enquiries.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA was concerned by World Wide Stationerys lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code clause 2.6 (Non-response). We reminded them of their responsibility to respond promptly to our enquiries and told them to do so in future.

We noted the complainant had not received the Dyson or a refund. We considered that, because we had seen no evidence to substantiate that World Wide Stationery had provided customers with the Dyson, or a refund if the product was out of stock, the ad breached the Code.

The ad breached CAP Code clauses 7.1 (Truthfulness), 16.1 (Availability of products), 42.4 and 42.5 (Direct marketing rules - Distance selling).

Action

We told World Wide Stationery to ensure they provided products and refunds to customers in the future and to ensure the availability of advertised products was adequate. We reminded them of their responsibility to respond to ASA enquiries promptly in future. We asked CAP to inform its media members of the problem with World Wide Stationery.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)