Today's Sunday Express carries a full-page (Dietary Product mail order) advert for this company .....

Goldshield Ltd.
FREEPOST SEA4500
Thornton Heath
CR7 7ZW
08700 77 88 33


One of the "3 easy ways to order" declares .....

by Freephone:
08700 77 88 33



I think this a blatant lie and justifies being reported to the Advertising Standards Authority.  Am I correct?

Thanks

Golf_Paul wrote on Feb 25^th, 2007 at 9:55pm:

I think this a blatant lie and justifies being reported to the Advertising Standards Authority.  Am I correct? Thanks

Yes this is a blatant lie.  File your complaint here on the ASA's website:-

www.asa.org.uk/asa/how_to_complain/complaints_form/

The problem is the ASA is something of a gentleman's club for advertisers and will only tell this company to desist in future and will not fine them.  It may possibly launch an official Investigation.

Meanwhile my building society Nationwide are fined £1 million for a genuinely accidental security breach by the FSA but blatant phone scammers get away with only a polite request not to continue lieing in future by the ASA, Ofcom and the Information Commissioner's Office. >:( >:( >:(

The phone number in the ad may have been a typo.  All their contact numbers seem to be freephone (from landlines) starting with 0800:

http://www.goldshield.co.uk/contact.htm

By the way, I recently complained to the ASA about a property company called Inside Track who regularly have half page advertisements in The Times and used to give an 0870 contact number with small print underneath: calls from BT landlines cost 4p per minute.

It took about 4 weeks for the ASA to act but now the small print says:  calls from BT landlines cost 8p per minute.

The advert is for LIPObind and the website URL is given as http://www.lipobind.com/

As said above, it would seem to be part of Goldshield.

It seems they have a mixed bag of phone numbers depending where they advertise  :-/


Edit: it's only the newspaper advert that states the Freephone 08700 number as far as I can see

Golf_Paul wrote on Feb 26^th, 2007 at 8:29pm:

It seems they have a mixed bag of phone numbers depending where they advertise  :-/ Edit: it's only the newspaper advert that states the Freephone 08700 number as far as I can see

Their website at www.lipobind.com/contact-us.html certainly uses an 0870 number and not an 0800 number as another poster claimed.

On this basis I would say you are more than justified in filing a complaint with the ASA via their online form.  It only takes 5 to 10 minutes on the website and at least it should deter them from making claims it is a Freephone number again.

A complain to the ASA would be justified because the ad was wrong.

On the other hand I would try the Goldshield freephone numbers.  Their logo also appears on the LIPOBIND website.  

See http://www.goldshield.co.uk/contact.htm  for the freephone numbers

lompos wrote on Feb 26^th, 2007 at 9:12pm:

A complain to the ASA would be justified because the ad was wrong. On the other hand I would try the Goldshield freephone numbers.  Their logo also appears on the LIPOBIND website.   See http://www.goldshield.co.uk/contact.htm  for the freephone numbers

I don't think Golf_Paul actually wanted to call this company though.  He was just annoyed they had the nerve to call an 0870 number a Freephone number.

NGMsGhost wrote on Feb 26^th, 2007 at 9:15pm:

I don't think Golf_Paul actually wanted to call this company though.  He was just annoyed they had the nerve to call an 0870 number a Freephone number.

Spot on - although "annoyed" is maybe a bit mild.


I'll try to get a complaint sent to ASA.  Thanks for replies.