The ad was for Plumbers Direct. The firm behind the service, 1st
Action, has been ordered to remove the claim from its advertising
because it breaches the ASA's rules on truthfulness and
substantiation of its claims.
The advert appeared in directory listings and said: "1 hr
Service – No Call Out Charge to your door – 24 hr Service – Free
Estimates".
A complaint was made about the claims, and 1st Action told the
ASA that "they did not charge a call out charge to the door of the
property but that they began charging when they entered the
property".
"They believed this was in line with how other companies
operated and with earlier advice from CAP [Code of Advertising,
Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing]," said the ruling.
In fact the phrase had previously been cleared by the CAP Code
copy advice service which advises on what adverts can and cannot
claim. It said five years ago that the phrase 'no call out charge
to your door' is acceptable, but the ASA said that it could not
mean what Plumbers Direct used it to mean.
"A number of published ASA adjudications since then, however,
had clarified the interpretation of the claim to mean that
customers who had called an engineer could decline the work after
the engineer had arrived at their property without incurring a
charge," said the ASA. "Because 1st Action customers were always
charged for a minimum of one hours work once the engineer arrived
at their property, even if they declined the work, we considered
1st Action had not substantiated the claim."
The company was told to remove the claim from any further
adverts.
A second complaint that the company did not provide free
quotations for work, as they claimed, was not upheld by the ASA. It
said that 1st Action had provided adequate evidence that it did
provide free quotes.
