ASA Adjudication on British Gas Services Ltd

Ad

A TV ad promoted boiler maintenance insurance. The voice-over stated “No one likes having to fork out for unexpected boiler repairs, especially my brother John”. A man held up a boiler repair bill which stated “AVERAGE boiler repair BILL” and the total "£1067” then fainted. The voice-over continued “You don’t pay any call-out charges or parts and labour costs. I only pay £13 a month and that includes an annual service … Bet he wishes he’d listened to his brother now”.

Issue

One viewer challenged whether the advertisers could show that the average boiler repair bill was £1067.

BCAP TV Code

Response

British Gas Services Ltd said they undertook a rigorous data collection process in September 2008 to calculate the average boiler repair bill in the UK and to ensure the data collection process and methodology was sufficiently rigorous, they first consulted with the CAP Copy Advice team as to how they should calculate the average repair bill and what information was necessary to calculate an average price. They stated that it was agreed that this research would need to be refreshed every 12-18 months and that the current figures were still applicable when the complaint was received. They explained that they had contacted 20 gas engineers/companies, 20 plumbing/drains tradesman and 20 electricians in 14 regions across the UK, to ascertain their charges for the first and second hours of work, their call-out fees, the parts costs and VAT. They said they obtained average part prices from plumbing centres nationwide and consulted their Internal Operations team to allocate reasonable timings to each job. They said that, using average figures from those that they collated nationwide, they established the average cost of a boiler repair by calculating: Hourly rates x length of time to complete work + parts + call out = Cost of average boiler repair. They said the average costs included prices from their main competitors, as well as smaller (CORGI registered) traders, and each component price used in the comparison came from approximately 18 to 20 different prices. They said they had used actual quotations rather than estimates and also provided a more detailed breakdown of those figures to the ASA. They believed that was adequate substantiation to support the claim that the average boiler repair bill was £1067.

Clearcast stated that they had seen the methodology used to arrive at the average repair cost, which they understood was approved by CAP. They believed that the methodology seemed robust and they were accordingly happy to accept whatever figure it produced as representing an accurate and reliable average.

Assessment

Not upheld

The ASA noted that data was collected in September 2008 and the ad was broadcast within 18 months of that date. We noted the evidence provided and considered that the advertiser had used relevant variables to establish the average cost of a UK boiler repair bill and that the methodology and calculations were sound. We therefore concluded that the claim "AVERAGE boiler repair BILL ... £1067" was not misleading.

We investigated the ad under CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rules 5.1.1, 5.1.2, 5.1.3 (Misleading advertising) and 5.2.1 (Evidence), but did not find it in breach.

Action

No further action necessary.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)