Online discount e-mail battle
Online shopping portal WantItAll has regular special offers and discount promotions which they send to their users via promotional e-mails.
One consumer was not happy with WantItAll’s claims, arguing that the advertisement is misleading as the discount is capped at a certain amount.
Mr. Geldenhuys lodged a consumer complaint about WantItAll’s e-mail advertisement with the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA), highlighting that the ‘10% Off’ claim is capped at a certain amount and hence “invalidates the claim ‘10% OFF’”.
WantItAll responded by saying that the terms and conditions of the offer are clearly stated in the footer of the e-mail. “The heading is not misleading as users do get the prescribed discount,” said WantItAll.
At the bottom of the promotional e-mail, in a smaller font, it states “Coupon valid from … Maximum coupon discount R200 …”
WantItAll Discount Email
WantItAll added that their e-mail advertisement is similar to a variety of other online retailers who use the same standards, but also committed to prescribe to guidelines which will reduce confusion, if such guidelines exist.
The ASA ruled that a reasonable person would expect to receive a 10% discount on any purchase when looking at the e-mail, and that it is therefore misleading.
The ASA ordered WantItAll to withdraw the advertisement with immediate effect and not use it in the same format in future.
WantItAll e-mail promotion
WantItAll founder Justin Drennan said that they have pro-actively changed their advertisements to include clear information about the discounts, as soon as the complaint was received. WantItAll was unaware that there was a concern from a customer regarding the promotional e-mail.
Drennan added that they did not get much help from the ASA when they asked what guidelines they should follow with their advertising.
“We asked to ASA whether they can provide us with guidelines to assist us to make our promotional material compliant with their code of conduct, but they did not want to assist in this regard,” said Drennan.
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