I was recently shocked and appalled by an instance of blatant, cheeky and hopefully illegal false advertising at Burton Menswear. I walked in their shop and, from a distance, I saw this below. What does that say to you? I know what it says to me!
I thought it said “Jeans £10”. Which indicates to my luddite brain that I could exchange ten of Her Majesty’s finest bronze Pog slammers for a pair of Jeans.
I had been into Burton just the week before and these jeans were £36, so I was thrilled that I was going to be able to get a whopping £26 discount!
Surely there must be a catch? I looked closer:
Ah-ha! So the catch is that you have to buy two pairs to get the whopping discount.
But let’s face it – £20 for two pairs of jeans is still a good deal!
Happy that I had read the small print about the deal, I picked up two pairs and was just about to head to the checkout when…
Wait a moment.
What does that say?……
It says:
*Off lowest priced item
In the world’s most smallest writing even smaller print, completely altering the entire meaning of the rest of the sign.
If This Isn’t False Advertising, I’d Love To See What Is…
We should recap:
- You can’t get Jeans for £10. Which is what the massive text says.
- Even if you buy a second pair. Which is what the slightly smaller, but still rather massive, text says.
Those parts of the sign are completely and utterly FALSE.
All you get is £10 off the lowest priced item.
So those two pairs of jeans for £20 are, in fact, two pairs of £36 jeans (£72) minus £10.
There’s quite a difference between £20 and £62…
I’m shocked, appalled. I’m never shopping at Burton again if this is how they see their customers; as fleshy money transporters ripe to be conned. I’m looking forward to see what the Advertising Standards Agency and Office of Fair Trading have to say… (I’ll keep you posted) although I did get a vague reply from Burton themselves:.
@burton_menswear You cheeky bastards! Beware the small print!! This can’t be legal?? @oftgov #fb twitter.com/richardstokoe/…
— Richard Stokoe (@richardstokoe) January 31, 2013
@metrocentreshop Wasn’t impressed with this obvious false advertising. Strangely, @burton_menswear haven’t replied yet. twitter.com/richardstokoe/…
— Richard Stokoe (@richardstokoe) February 3, 2013
@richardstokoe @metrocentreshop Sorry 2 hear that – we will pass on ur feedback 2 our teams. Can we help with anything else in the meantime? — burton.co.uk (@Burton_Menswear) February 5, 2013
@burton_menswear @metrocentreshop I’d quite like two pairs of jeans for twenty quid please :).
— Richard Stokoe (@richardstokoe) February 5, 2013
@richardstokoe @metrocentreshop We’ll see what we can do! ; )
— burton.co.uk (@Burton_Menswear) February 6, 2013
For shame, Burton. FOR SHAME!