In March 2012 we revealed how Asda was breaching government guidance with its famous price-cut slogan the 'Rollback.' We showed how some items labelled as rollbacks had previously been on sale at a lower price. At the time, Asda claimed that these examples were due to a processing error - and that with 40,000 products on offer each week, they do occasionally get it wrong. On occasion? Really? Becca Wilcox found out more.
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Asda describe their rollback offers as a 'permanent or temporary price reduction'. Their customers love them and their staff are proud of them, as their TV adverts make clear.
But you also can't beat straightforward honesty - which is why we love checking supermarket deals to make sure they really are what they seem. Over the last few weeks, Watchdog researchers have been checking the price histories of a much larger sample of Asda goods, all labelled as rollbacks, online. And the results?
Out of the 120 products checked, 52 failed to comply with one or more of the government pricing guidelines. That's an astonishing 43%. We've found several ways that these Asda rollbacks contravene the official guidelines, but what's key is whether these offers mislead consumers.
According to the guidelines, if a retailer like Asda is promoting a price cut, the Rollback price should be compared to the immediate previous selling price unless stated otherwise. However, Sheba cat food, which was advertised as on Rollback from £4.94 to £4, was not at this higher advertised price since 25th March 2011. The immediate previous price was, in fact, £4.68 and has had three other prices since the one they've used as a comparison.
Deborah Parry, a consumer law expert, has reviewed the Rollback offer on this product and was not impressed. "This product is not complying with the government pricing guidelines because they state that the comparison should be with the immediate past selling price of the product," said Deborah. "That is not happening in this case."
Under government guidelines, a product on offer should also have been available at the previous higher price for 28 consecutive days or more.
So where does that leave Clairol hair dye? Asda were selling it for £7, and then put it on Rollback at £5. But rather than being sold at the higher price for the recommended minimum of 28 days, it was only sold at that price for nine days.
Deborah highlights the importance of these guidelines in protecting consumers, and to prevent them from being misled. "The pricing guidelines are designed to ensure that traders don't temporarily increase a price to then advertise a price reduction," she said. "Consumers are being misled into thinking that the higher price was the normal proper price of the product when this may not be the case."
And so to a third product - Kitekat pet food. Here, we found Asda breaching yet another guideline - by continuing to label it as a Rollback, even though it's was on sale it at this lower price for twice as long as the previous higher price.
Deborah has told Watchdog that not only is this confusing to customers, it may even be unlawful. "If a product is advertised as being on offer for a long period of time it can become misleading because the consumer believes that this is a recent reduction whereas in fact the new price has actually become the established price," and added, "If consumers are being misled then there is a possibility of a breach of the law."
The law is the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations and it forbids traders from presenting misleading information which may deceive consumers into buying goods they wouldn't have bought otherwise.
So what about these ASDA Rollback deals? Could they deceive people?
"The implication for consumers is that they are being misled as to the value of the price reduction that is being advertised," said Deborah. "They are not being given full clear and accurate information. With the research that I have seen I believe there is more than enough evidence for Trading Standards or the Office of Fair Trading to take an interest in how these prices are being displayed."
An Asda spokesperson said:
Asda Rollbacks
In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions. If you're reading via RSS, you'll need to visit the blog to access this content.
Asda describe their rollback offers as a 'permanent or temporary price reduction'. Their customers love them and their staff are proud of them, as their TV adverts make clear.
But you also can't beat straightforward honesty - which is why we love checking supermarket deals to make sure they really are what they seem. Over the last few weeks, Watchdog researchers have been checking the price histories of a much larger sample of Asda goods, all labelled as rollbacks, online. And the results?
Out of the 120 products checked, 52 failed to comply with one or more of the government pricing guidelines. That's an astonishing 43%. We've found several ways that these Asda rollbacks contravene the official guidelines, but what's key is whether these offers mislead consumers.
According to the guidelines, if a retailer like Asda is promoting a price cut, the Rollback price should be compared to the immediate previous selling price unless stated otherwise. However, Sheba cat food, which was advertised as on Rollback from £4.94 to £4, was not at this higher advertised price since 25th March 2011. The immediate previous price was, in fact, £4.68 and has had three other prices since the one they've used as a comparison.
Deborah Parry, a consumer law expert, has reviewed the Rollback offer on this product and was not impressed. "This product is not complying with the government pricing guidelines because they state that the comparison should be with the immediate past selling price of the product," said Deborah. "That is not happening in this case."
Under government guidelines, a product on offer should also have been available at the previous higher price for 28 consecutive days or more.
So where does that leave Clairol hair dye? Asda were selling it for £7, and then put it on Rollback at £5. But rather than being sold at the higher price for the recommended minimum of 28 days, it was only sold at that price for nine days.
Deborah highlights the importance of these guidelines in protecting consumers, and to prevent them from being misled. "The pricing guidelines are designed to ensure that traders don't temporarily increase a price to then advertise a price reduction," she said. "Consumers are being misled into thinking that the higher price was the normal proper price of the product when this may not be the case."
And so to a third product - Kitekat pet food. Here, we found Asda breaching yet another guideline - by continuing to label it as a Rollback, even though it's was on sale it at this lower price for twice as long as the previous higher price.
Deborah has told Watchdog that not only is this confusing to customers, it may even be unlawful. "If a product is advertised as being on offer for a long period of time it can become misleading because the consumer believes that this is a recent reduction whereas in fact the new price has actually become the established price," and added, "If consumers are being misled then there is a possibility of a breach of the law."
The law is the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations and it forbids traders from presenting misleading information which may deceive consumers into buying goods they wouldn't have bought otherwise.
So what about these ASDA Rollback deals? Could they deceive people?
"The implication for consumers is that they are being misled as to the value of the price reduction that is being advertised," said Deborah. "They are not being given full clear and accurate information. With the research that I have seen I believe there is more than enough evidence for Trading Standards or the Office of Fair Trading to take an interest in how these prices are being displayed."
COMPANY RESPONSE
An Asda spokesperson said:
- We thank your viewers for getting in touch.
- While we don't entirely agree with elements of what your experts say, we do acknowledge we need to do better.
- Our online service operates on a different IT system to our stores - that can to lead to human errors as offers are manually listed. We will move from this manual system to an automated one through a significant IT investment;
- This automation will take some months to complete, so in the meantime we have implemented a new checking procedure - already in place across the entire grocery website. This process ensures all price cuts are triple checked before they appear online;
- To ensure compliance with our own strict procedures, we are also in the process of appointing an independent audit team to monitor the prices displayed on our website, with the authority to remove content if they uncover any pricing errors.
- We believe these comprehensive measures will address the issues you have identified, and ensure our customers can continue shop online confident we are delivering on our promise to be the lowest price supermarket.
Asda Rollbacks