How clear do adverts have to be?

Reg'stoy

I recently bought a garden hose from groupon which purported to be 15m and expandable to three times its original length.

Now I assumed that the advertised hose as in being 15m was therefore expandable to 45m.

The hose duly arrived in a rather large box which was very light. I opened the large box to find a much smaller box which contained the hose. The hose was in reality 5m in length which under water pressure can increase in length up to!! 15m.

Should the advert have stated that this was a 5m hose which can expand to up to 15m even the box it came in said may not reach full length which depends on the water pressure. Was I wrong to assume that I would be buying a 15m length hose which could expand to three times it length. I checked out similar products and it they do state that say a 75 foot hose is a 25 foot that expands to 75 feet.

If I had known that this was the case and that I that I would be buying a 5m hose, I would not have considered it good value and not purchased it.

I have contacted groupon and will be returning the product for a refund.

So was I wrong, €70 for a 5m hose (sale price €35, 50% off) is a bit of a rip off, I was prepared to spend this amount on a 15m hose. Was this false advertising?

witnessmenow

Reg'stoy wrote: »

I recently bought a garden hose from groupon which purported to be 15m and expandable to three times its original length.

Now I assumed that the advertised hose as in being 15m was therefore expandable to 45m.

The hose duly arrived in a rather large box which was very light. I opened the large box to find a much smaller box which contained the hose. The hose was in reality 5m in length which under water pressure can increase in length up to!! 15m.

Should the advert have stated that this was a 5m hose which can expand to up to 15m even the box it came in said may not reach full length which depends on the water pressure. Was I wrong to assume that I would be buying a 15m length hose which could expand to three times it length. I checked out similar products and it they do state that say a 75 foot hose is a 25 foot that expands to 75 feet.

If I had known that this was the case and that I that I would be buying a 5m hose, I would not have considered it good value and not purchased it.

I have contacted groupon and will be returning the product for a refund.

So was I wrong, €70 for a 5m hose (sale price €35, 50% off) is a bit of a rip off, I was prepared to spend this amount on a 15m hose. Was this false advertising?

Return it under Distance Selling Regulations

Cooling-off period
You are entitled to a cooling-off period of 14 days, which begins on the day that you receive the goods. In the case of a service, the cooling-off period begins on the day the contract for distance selling was concluded.

In the case of digital content, the cooling-off period expires when the downloading or streaming starts.

During the cooling-off period, you can cancel a distance contract without giving a reason and without incurring charges or penalties, other than possible charges incurred in returning the goods.

If a trader fails to provide you with information on the right to cancel, the cooling-off period is extended to 12 months from the date it would have expired if the information had been provided. If the trader provides the information within this 12-month period, the cooling-off period expires within 14 days of the consumer receiving it.

Source: http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/consumer_affairs/consumer_protection/consumer_rights/distance_selling.html

Just on a side note, I'm not sure I have ever seen a proper bargain for an item on groupon type dealy

goz83

There are a few bargains to be had, but not usually in the products. Services can be great value and this can extend to restaurant deals. I rarely see a product deal of good value on groupon and other deal sites.

slimjimmc

Reg'stoy wrote: »

I recently bought a garden hose from groupon which purported to be 15m and expandable to three times its original length.
:
Now I assumed that the advertised hose as in being 15m was therefore expandable to 45m.
:
So was I wrong, €70 for a 5m hose (sale price €35, 50% off) is a bit of a rip off, I was prepared to spend this amount on a 15m hose. Was this false advertising?

The advert doesn't claim the 15m is the original length so no it's not false, the hose is 15m long (albeit when under pressure) and is expandable to three times its original length. As the phrase goes 'it does what it says on the tin'.

The attraction of the expandable hose is it's ease of storage when coiled, so you paid €35 for a fancy 15m hose which takes up the same storage as a 5m coil, not €35 for a simple 5m hose. It still expensive if you consider you could buy longer lengths of standard hose online for less money but then it wouldn't be so easy to coil up.

As witnessmenow said, the cooling-off period is the way to go but note that the seller is not obliged to organise or pay for return shipping, that could be your responsibility.

Mountjoy Mugger

slimjimmc wrote: »

The advert doesn't claim the 15m is the original length so no it's not false,

It's misleading, for God's sake.

foggy_lad

witnessmenow wrote: »

Return it under Distance Selling Regulations



Source: http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/consumer_affairs/consumer_protection/consumer_rights/distance_selling.html

Just on a side note, I'm not sure I have ever seen a proper bargain for an item on groupon type dealy

Do this and it will cost you money to post it back!


Best to contact groupon and tell then it is not as described and is not 45 metres and never will be. Let them arrange to collect it and refund you in full

zagmund

They never said it would be 45m. They said it would be 15m.

Why would they specify the unextended length since that length is of no use to anyone? It's only unextended when it has no water in it, and a hose with no water isn't any use. When it's full of water it's 15m . . . and they advertised a 15m hose . . . which is what you got.

z

slimjimmc

Mountjoy Mugger wrote: »

It's misleading, for God's sake.

It possibly is since they didn't specify the length as being the expanded length making it open to interpretation. However they did not make any claim that was false, which was my point.

pug_

zagmund wrote: »

Why would they specify the unextended length since that length is of no use to anyone?

The point of an auto-expanding hose is when it's not in use it can be more easily stored, so imo both lengths are useful to know. The extented length to know if it's long enough to use, and the unextended length to know how much space it's likely to take up when not in use.

brian_t

XHOSE 50ft Expanding Hose
Turn on the water and the hose automatically expands up to 3 times its length!

http://www.littlewoodsireland.ie/xhose-50ft-expanding-hose/1271002395.prd


I would agree with the OP that the product description is a bit ambiguous.

witnessmenow

Mountjoy Mugger wrote: »

It's misleading, for God's sake.

foggy_lad wrote: »

Do this and it will cost you money to post it back!


Best to contact groupon and tell then it is not as described and is not 45 metres and never will be. Let them arrange to collect it and refund you in full

As been said, they never said 45M, there was a "15M" and a "3 times its size" and op assumed it was 3 times 15.

When has any advertiser ever advertised the smaller number of the benefit to the user? "Speeds up to X ...", "5 times faster than ...", "Save X by switching"

You could try claim it was misleading, but it is not as clear cut as you are describing. There was ambiguity and the customer should have clarified before purchase.

Cool off period is the best way to proceed in my opinion

Mountjoy Mugger

witnessmenow wrote: »

As been said, they never said 45M, there was a "15M" and a "3 times its size" and op assumed it was 3 times 15.

When has any advertiser ever advertised the smaller number of the benefit to the user? "Speeds up to X ...", "5 times faster than ...", "Save X by switching"

Cool off period is the best way to proceed in my opinion

You're not buying a service; you're buying a product.

Choose from the following options for auto-expanding lightweight hose:

€26.99 for 7.5m hose (55% off) Available in green

€34.99 for 15m hose (50% off) Available in orange and green

€39.99 for 22.5m hose (56% off) Available in orange and green

€45.99 for 30m hose (54% off) Available in green

The Specifics

Lightweight, self-propelling, expandable hose
Grows up three times original length when turned on and retracts when turned off

The advertiser has the responsibility to describe the product as it is.

If you want to get pedantic, you could always report it to the ASAI.

Reg'stoy

zagmund wrote: »

They never said it would be 45m. They said it would be 15m.

Why would they specify the unextended length since that length is of no use to anyone? It's only unextended when it has no water in it, and a hose with no water isn't any use. When it's full of water it's 15m . . . and they advertised a 15m hose . . . which is what you got.

z

The box it arrived in described it as a 5m hose which depending on the water pressure it is connected to MAY extend to 15m. So if you are in a low pressure area it may never reach 15m. I tried myself and yes it expands but not to 15m.

Even if I was only buying a 15m hose, it wasn't a 15m hose; it has the potential to be 15m but only under high water pressure.

In my opinion they should have described it as is, a 5m hose which is expandable up to 3 times its original size. Coal may under extremely high pressure become diamonds but they sell it as coal, ok so that's rather a large leap.

Groupon described it as a 15m hose but the actual seller boxes it as a 5m hose. From my reading of their advert I thought it was expandable up to 45m which would have suited my purposes.

To me the advert wasn't clear enough, so maybe they should be worded that the lowest common denominator (which appears to be me here) would not be mistaken.

As for groupon deals I've used them before for food deals and a museum visit but this was my first 'product' and probably my last. Incidentally I was offered €10 in credit if I wanted to keep the item rather than return it but as I explained it wasn't long enough for me to use.

Reg'stoy

Just an update folks, after numerous e-mails and forwarding of proof of postage, I finally managed to get the refund and acknowledgement that the original advert could have been "worded better".

The customer service number is a bit of a pain to actually get speaking to someone who can deal with your complaint and the e-mail is pure lottery. I genuinely got a reply to some one else's e-mail query, my e-mail but obviously another person even used their name.

They then sent me another e-mail asking me to give feedback on their customer service, that was fun.

Anyway, main thing I learned was always, always get proof of postage and hang on to it. When speaking to someone always be polite as invariably they are not trying to be annoying, they tend to be following a script and ask the same questions to many people over their working day. Put yourself in their shoes, take a deep breath and persist with your grievance.