Ad description

A website for Rapid Sale, www.rapid-sale.co.uk, stated "Stop Repossession/Eviction - Cash in Bank in 7 Days ‘Guaranteed’".

Issue

KwikChex challenged whether the claim "Stop Repossession/Eviction - Cash in Bank in 7 Days ‘Guaranteed’" was misleading and could be substantiated.

Response

Rapid Sale provided a statement from their solicitor confirming that, subject to obtaining redemption statements and settlement figures, they were able to complete transactions within seven days of agreement with the client and had done so even sooner on some occasions.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA considered that consumers would understand the claim "Cash in Bank in 7 Days ‘Guaranteed’" as a statement that customers of the advertiser would always receive the money for their property in seven days. We also considered that consumers would appreciate that the sale of property could be delayed by sellers not providing vital paperwork or other such requisite information, and would therefore understand that the “guaranteed” claim would not apply to these circumstances. We noted the solicitor's statement provided by the advertiser, but did not consider that this constituted sufficiently robust evidence to demonstrate that clients providing their necessary documentation always received their money within seven days. We therefore concluded that the claim was misleading.

The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules  3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.  and  3.3 3.3 Marketing communications must not mislead the consumer by omitting material information. They must not mislead by hiding material information or presenting it in an unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely manner.
Material information is information that the consumer needs to make informed decisions in relation to a product. Whether the omission or presentation of material information is likely to mislead the consumer depends on the context, the medium and, if the medium of the marketing communication is constrained by time or space, the measures that the marketer takes to make that information available to the consumer by other means.
 (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 Rapid Sale not to use the claim "Cash in Bank in 7 Days ‘Guaranteed’" unless they could demonstrate that customers always received their money in seven days.

CAP Code (Edition 12)

3.1     3.3     3.7    


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