Many of us know that for the best bargains, online sales and promotions is where the savings are at.
But what happens when a certain product is advertised at reduced price, and when you get to the check-out cart, that’s not the case?
Faced with the same conundrum, a KFC customer took their complaint to the Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB).
The consumer complaint against KFC was for advertising a 9-piece bucket with free chips for R149.90 on its website.
When clicking ‘add to cart’, you would be given some dubious text saying ‘GPS error’ but the browser was not blocked, read the complaint.
“This then forced customers to use the login button which would take you back to the online exclusive deals page.
“The complainant then stated that when he logged in, the price changed to R174, which was actually the price of the bucket and the chips.”
The complainant also found that there appeared be a variation in pricing and availability of products when a customer was logged in and logged out.
When the customer complained to the restaurant, they were told to submit their details privately.
KFC responded to ARB’s investigation and denied that the ad was misleading, further adding that “in general, the price that a customer sees on the website before a particular store is selected will be what they refer to as ‘click and collect prices’”.
Basically, what this means is that an order is placed to be physically collected from the restaurant at a later stage and not delivered.
Based on its findings, ARB ruled that the KFC ad was misleading, and in contravention of Clause 4.2.1 of Section II of the Code.
KFC was sanctioned to amend the ad in question with immediate effect.
IOL
