ASA Adjudication on Arnold Clark Automobiles Ltd

Ad

An internet sales promotion for Machargs.com stated "GET AN ADDITIONAL £300 DISCOUNT/CASHBACK - NEGOTIATE YOUR DEAL FIRST THEN PRESENT YOUR VOUCHER". Footnote text stated "1 VOUCHER PER CAR. EXCLUDES FLEET SALES. NOT IN CONJUNCTION WITH ANY OTHER OFFER. VOUCHER MUST BE PRESENTED WHILST STILL ON THE PREMISES ON THE INITIAL DAY OF ORDER".

Issue

A consumer challenged whether the promotion was genuine. He had negotiated a price on a vehicle but Machargs.com had then refused to honour the voucher.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

Machargs.com (Machargs) said that, before asking for the additional £300 discount/cashback advertised, the customer had already negotiated the price of the vehicle down from £5,788 (the price shown on the car windscreen and which it had been advertised at) to £5,288. Machargs said they classed that as a "special one off offer". They considered the branch had acted correctly in saying the £300 discount was not available in addition to it. Machargs said they had sold 10,000 cars during the time the offer was running and had received only three queries, in addition to this complaint, about it.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted that footnote text stated "NOT IN CONJUNCTION WITH ANY OTHER OFFER". Because body copy stated "NEGOTIATE YOUR DEAL FIRST THEN PRESENT YOUR VOUCHER", however, we considered customers would expect to be able to negotiate their price and still obtain the £300 offer. Because that was not always the case, we concluded that the claim was misleading and that the footnote text contradicted rather than qualified it.

The ad breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 (Truthfulness) and 27.4 (Sales promotion rules).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Machargs to amend their ad so that it did not suggest that customers could negotiate their price and always receive the £300 discount/cashback.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)