All Call Repairs / CL Watt / 14941
Ruling of the : ASA Directorate
In the matter between:
Mrs CL Watt	Complainant(s)/Appellant(s)
All Call Repairs (Pty) Ltd	Respondent

02 Mar 2010

Mrs Watt lodged a consumer complaint against an advertisement that was featured in the Yellow Pages for All Call Repairs.
The advertisement states, inter alia, the following:

“24 HOUR
EMERGENCY
SERVICE
Repairs done on your premises…”

COMPLAINT
In essence, the complainant submitted that the advertisement was misleading as she was informed by the respondent that they do attend to emergencies 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, but do not work in the evenings.

RELEVANT CLAUSE OF THE CODE OF ADVERTISING PRACTICE
In light of the complaint Clause 4.2.1 of Section II (Misleading claims) was taken into account.

RESPONSE
The respondent submitted that it does provide a 24 hour service but does not provide that 7 days a week and thus does not state that in its advertising. When a technician is not available it offers a different time for an appointment. It added that it has attended to many calls late at night.

ASA DIRECTORATE RULING
The ASA Directorate considered all the relevant documentation submitted by the respective parties.

While the ASA investigates and deals with matters regarding the actual content of advertising, complaints in respect of services rendered, contractual matters or business practices are excluded from the ASA’s jurisdiction.

The current dispute appears to arise from the fact that the respondent could not provide the complainant with a technician to assist her despite offering a 24 hour service. The respondent submitted that it does provide a 24 hour service but not 7 days a week.

From the material before the Directorate, it appears that the respondent can offer a 24 hour service but this service does not extend to all days in the week. In this particular case, the complainant was unable to obtain the respondent’s services. The fact that the complainant was dissatisfied that the respondent could not assist her at the specific time is not an issue that the ASA can rule on. The respondent clarified that its advertising does not state 7 days a week.

This matter therefore appears to be a service-related issue over which the Directorate has no jurisdiction.