Furniture retailer and manufacturer HSL has been told to ensure future marketing communications are clear after a number of adverts were deemed as misleading.
A website, two emails and a leaflet, all seem during October and November 2024, advertised a guarantee on delivery if an order was placed before 13 November under the tag ‘Comfort in Time for Christmas’.
However, a single complainant, who placed an order on 2 November 2024 and was told their item would not be delivered until February or March 2025, challenged whether the claims of guaranteed delivery by Christmas were misleading.
In response, HSL said that their T&Cs were consistent and present in all ads, across all media. The T&Cs stated that the cut-off dates for delivery before Christmas varied by product and were subject to change.
Customers were invited to ask in store for details, thereby establishing if the product they wanted was available in time for Christmas. Stores were regularly updated on products and fabrics no longer available for Christmas delivery, including via a weekly bulletin to all retail staff, as customers could only purchase items via a store. HSL said that was largely because fabric availability changed in light of demand.
HSL said that the ad campaign had finished on 13 November 2024 but that they would ensure that their marketing team was made aware of the complaint and would continue to make T&Cs clear in their advertising.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld the complaint stating that the fact that certain products were excluded from the guaranteed delivery by Christmas offer was significant information which would affect consumers’ understanding of the claims.
The ASA said: “We considered that the qualifying information was not sufficiently prominent in the ads for consumers to be able to understand that not all items qualified for guaranteed delivery before Christmas. We therefore concluded that the claims of guaranteed delivery before Christmas in the ads were misleading.
“We told HSL to ensure that their future marketing communications included all significant limitations and qualifications clearly and in a prominent place.”
