Background
Three issues were investigated, one of which was Upheld. The other two were informally resolved after the advertiser agreed to amend or withdraw their advertising.
Ad description
A website for the parcel delivery comparison website, www.parcel2go.com, seen on 28 November 2018. The front page of the website included a link to “Quote & Book” which led to a list of companies that provided delivery services. Under the column “Next day delivery” the “DPD Drop Off” was listed. Text next to the DPD Drop Off service stated “Drop off your parcel anytime today”.
Issue
The complainant, who understood DPD Drop Off delivery could take 1–2 working days, challenged whether the “Next day delivery” claim was misleading and could be substantiated.
Response
Parcel2Go.com Ltd t/a Parcel2Go said the vast majority of deliveries made via the DPD Drop Off service would arrive in one day unless the parcel was dropped off at a DPD shop after daily delivery collection times, in which case it would take two days. They said that 83.3% of DPD Drop Off parcels were delivered within one day and more than 99% within two days.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA considered that consumers would understand “Next day delivery” to mean that if they selected the DPD Drop Off delivery service their parcel would generally be delivered to the recipient the next working day. We considered the claim “Drop off your parcel anytime today”, which appeared alongside the claim “Next day delivery”, strengthened that impression that parcels would generally arrive the working next day, irrespective of time of delivery. We noted that there was additional information that appeared under the section “More Info” next to the DPD Drop Off listing which stated “Delivery within 1-2 working days” but we considered it was insufficient to counteract the overriding impression of the ad that deliveries would generally be received by the next working day. Although we considered that consumers would also appreciate that some orders might be late, they would generally expect orders to arrive on time, barring exceptional or unforeseen circumstances outside of Parcel2Go’s control.
We noted Parcel2Go’s claim that 83.3% of DPD Drop Off parcels were delivered within one day. However, we did not consider that assertion was sufficient to substantiate the claim without supporting evidence. In any case, we did not consider that a successful delivery rate of 83.3% was sufficient to substantiate the claim.
For those reasons we concluded the claim had not been substantiated and therefore breached the Code.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 (Misleading advertising) and 3.7 (Substantiation).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Parcel2Go not to claim that DPD Drop Off was a Next Day Delivery service.
