British Gas HomeCare Ads Banned

Jan 07, 2009 4 Replies
R

British Gas adverts for what it claims is a 365-days-a-year home maintenance service have been banned by a watchdog.



The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said customers might not get a visit from an engineer on weekends or public holidays because of staff cuts.



The TV and radio commercials said the HomeCare service was "there for you 365 days a year" but the ASA ruled that the ads were "misleading".



British Gas said it was disappointed by the decision and it planned an appeal.



In its verdict, the ASA said: "We concluded that, without qualification to make clear that a skeleton service operated at weekends and on public holidays, the claim 'HomeCare is there for you 365 days a year' could mislead."



Rest of story at


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A

Rod gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

I must have imagined getting a visit from them, three hours after the initial phone call, on a Saturday, a month or so back.

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M

When I used them many years ago their initial call out time was great. It's a shame it always took many visits before they actually fixed the problem. Once it took 13!

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D

That was my brother's experience too. Fitters who hadn't a clue about fixing the actual fault so used the shotgun approach when it came to the electronics in the boiler. None of which they actually carried with them.

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A

"Dave Plowman (News)" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

The fitter diagnosed the fault in about ten minutes, didn't have the part, but arranged it and a return visit for the Tuesday - and temporarily got the boiler back into service there and then. He was only here about 30min total.

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