Background
Summary of Council decision:
Three issues were investigated, all of which were Upheld.
Ad description
Claims on the website www.dialarod.tv related to a maintenance plan for landlords. Text included "As a landlord you could spend £1000's [sic] a year on heating and boiler emergencies. With our landlord cover that will not be the case. From £99.98 a year you could save on all those unnecessary call outs and have piece [sic] of mind for your tenants. We will be at your premises within one hour of your call to out [sic] 24 hour helpline". Text under the heading "STANDARD HEATING COVER" included "Gas Boiler … Gas Safety Check Unlimited Call Out Unlimited Cover …".
Issue
The complainant, a landlord, challenged whether the following claims were misleading and could be substantiated:
1. Dial a Rod Homecover Ltd (Dial a Rod) would "… be at your premises within one hour of your call", because her tenant had not been contacted in relation to a gas safety check;
2. they had a "24 hour helpline", because her tenant had called several times and there had been no response; and
3. the advertised cover included a gas safety check.
Response
Dial a Rod did not respond to the ASA's enquiries.
Assessment
1., 2. & 3. Upheld
The ASA was concerned by Dial a Rod's lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 1.7 1.7 Any unreasonable delay in responding to the ASA's enquiries will normally be considered a breach of the Code. (Unreasonable delay). We reminded them of their responsibility to respond promptly to our enquiries and told them to do so in future.
In the absence of evidence to demonstrate that Dial a Rod would "… be at your premises within one hour of your call", that they had a "24 hour helpline" and that the advertised cover included a gas safety check, we concluded that the claims had not been substantiated and that they therefore breached the Code.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so. (Misleading advertising) and 3.7 3.7 Before distributing or submitting a marketing communication for publication, marketers must hold documentary evidence to prove claims that consumers are likely to regard as objective and that are capable of objective substantiation. The ASA may regard claims as misleading in the absence of adequate substantiation. (Substantiation).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Dial a Rod to ensure they were in a position to substantiate their objective claims in future. We referred the matter to CAP's Compliance team.
