Ad description
A national press ad, for Stannah stair lifts, included the text "… in the unlikely event that you should need a call out, locally-based Stannah engineers are on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week".
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the claim "locally-based Stannah engineers are on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week" was misleading and could be substantiated, because engineers could respond to a call made at 7.30 pm no earlier than the next day.
Response
Stannah Lift Services Ltd (Stannah) said they did operate a genuine 24 hours call-out service that was available to all customers 365 days a year. They had an in-house 'out of hours' department and engineers on standby at all 11 of their branches. They said they retained records of all 'out of hours' calls for 90 days, but they could not confirm exactly what had happened in the complainant's case, because he wished to remain anonymous. However, they provided details of the 'out of hours' calls received in 2013 as well as of the number of engineers on standby at each branch. They explained that where the figures related to calls 'received' and 'attended' varied, it could be because the engineer had been able to talk the caller through steps to rectify the problem or the consumer had decided that they wished to wait until the next day for the engineer to visit, for example based on their estimated arrival time.
Stannah said their 'out of hours' service operated from 5 pm to 7 am Monday to Thursday and 4.30 pm to 7 am Friday to Monday. At all other times, the calls went directly to their branches. They said the 'out of hours' service was not used only to make appointments for the next day but to send engineers outside of normal working hours. They provided a copy of their internal procedures for such calls. Stannah said it was possible the complainant had called the number in the ad, which was for their sales team and, if so, there might have been a misunderstanding on the company's part about the service that was required. They explained that although their sales lines were open 24 hours, sales appointments were available only during working hours. They also provided data related to the 'out of hours' calls received for engineers for three of their branch areas during February 2013. The calls for one of the branches also related to March 2013.
Assessment
Not upheld
The ASA considered the claim was likely to be interpreted as suggesting engineers would be available to respond to calls 24 hours a day, seven days a week and consumers would therefore expect an engineer to generally be able to attend before the next day if they wished. We considered consumers would not however interpret the claim to mean that immediate or same day attendance was guaranteed in every instance. We noted the complainant was informed they would receive a visit no earlier than the next day. While we acknowledged that Stannah had not been able to explain why that was, we were satisfied that the evidence they submitted (which included details of the date and time the calls were received, the customer's postcode, the job number and the date and time each call was attended) demonstrated that engineers on standby at a selection of their branches had received and attended calls at a range of locations at a range of times, including those that were outside of usual working hours. We noted that the evidence showed that some consumers had requested that the engineer visit the next day, or on a specific later date, and that in a small number of instances calls that were not marked as being 'next day', for example, were not attended the same day. We considered, however, the evidence nevertheless supported the claim that engineers were available, and attended calls, on a 24 hours a day, seven days a week basis. We therefore concluded that the ad did not breach the Code.
We investigated the ad under CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so. (Misleading advertising), 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) and 3.11 3.11 Marketing communications must not mislead consumers by exaggerating the capability or performance of a product. (Exaggeration) but did not find it in breach.
Action
No further action necessary.
