Background
Summary of Council decision:
Two issues were investigated, both of which were Upheld.
Ad description
Two TV ads, a website and tweet by British Gas for their HomeCare Cover service:
a. The first TV ad, seen in February 2021, showed the inside of a dark house, including unwashed dishes, and a dark fridge filled with food as someone picked up a carton of milk while a voiceover stated, “We can’t solve that”. The voiceover stated, “But no heating or hot water? We can solve that and help you avoid any nasty repair bills.” Small-print text at the bottom stated “Available for 98% of UK mainland households. Exclusions and conditions apply.” Scenes showed someone using the British Gas mobile app and a British Gas engineer wearing a mask and inspecting a boiler, then stating “All done”. The voiceover continued, “Because with British Gas HomeCare cover, all parts and labour are included. Problem solved.” Superimposed on-screen text stated “British Gas HomeCare cover. Problem solved”. The voiceover stated, “British Gas, here to solve” while on-screen text stated the same claim, with further text which stated “Search British Gas HomeCare”.
b. The second TV ad, seen in February 2021, showed various scenes in a house, including a man inspecting a boiler, filling a hot water bottle with water from a kettle, and covering children asleep with extra blankets. A voiceover stated, “Boiler playing up? Dreading waking up to a freezing home and an unexpected repair bill? Not when you’re covered by British Gas HomeCare. You’ll get boiler maintenance and repair with all parts and labour included.” Small-print text at the bottom stated “Available for 98% of UK mainland households. One month free for new customers on certain HomeCare products when you buy via our call centres or online. Cost of HomeCare will be spread over 12 monthly payments. Limitations and exclusions apply”. Scenes showed someone using the British Gas mobile app and a British Gas engineer wearing a mask and inspecting a boiler, then stating, “All done”. The voiceover continued, “So no more nasty bills. Sign up by the 29th March and get one month free on selected HomeCare products.” On-screen text stated “Get One Month Free” and “Offer ends 29th March”. The voiceover stated, “British Gas, here to solve” while on-screen text stated the same claim, with further text which stated “Search British Gas HomeCare”.
c. The website www.britishgas.co.uk, seen in February 2021, featured a link to “Get HomeCare cover”. A subheading beneath stated “Need ongoing cover? Worried about the boiler, heating, plumbing, or electrics playing up? Our HomeCare cover lets you avoid the cost of those unexpected breakdowns”. Further text included options for different types of cover. The first option was entitled “HomeCare boiler & heating cover” and text beneath it stated “Avoid the cost and hassle of finding a last-minute engineer with our HomeCare boiler and heating cover” alongside a link to “Get boiler cover”. The second option was entitled “Plumbing & drains cover” and text beneath it stated “Tired of splashing out on plumbers every time you have a plumbing problem? Let us take care of it for you”, alongside a link to “Get plumbing cover”. The third option was entitled “Home electrical cover” and text beneath it stated “Not a fan of electrical DIY? Cover your electrics and we’ll come to the rescue the next time you have a problem” alongside a link to “Get electrical cover”. A further subheading stated “Need a one-off repair? Need something fixed? Book a fixed price repair and we’ll give you a 12-month guarantee on our work. Further text included links to book “Boiling and heating repair”, “Plumbing and drains repair” and “Electrics and appliances repair”. A further subheading below stated “We can also help you …” followed by the text “Book a boiler service” and “Your boiler is at the heart of your home. We can help keep it in tip top shape with a service” alongside a link to “Book a boiler service”.
d. The tweet, posted on 4 January 2021, featured the text “No heating or hot water? Nightmare! [SOS emoji] With HomeCare we can solve it” and included a video which was the same as ad (a).
Issue
The ASA received 24 complaints from British Gas HomeCare Service customers:
1. Twenty-one complainants, who either had been waiting for up to two to three weeks for an emergency call out or were informed that one could not be provided, due to severe limitations on services because of the COVID-19 pandemic and strike action, challenged whether ads (a), (b), (c) and (d) were misleading; and
2. Thirteen complainants, who either had been waiting several months for an annual boiler service or were informed that one could not be provided for the same reasons listed in point one, challenged whether ads (b) and (c) were misleading.
Response
1 & 2. British Gas said that they had followed the Government’s Covid-19 lockdown and safety guidance over the previous year. They had maintained essential services, such as emergency visits, and temporarily suspended non-essential services, namely annual service visits, during lockdown periods to protect their customers and staff and prevent the spread of the virus. They said that this also ensured that they could focus on the most vulnerable customers. They provided data of the average wait times for providing emergency visits to their customers between January and March 2021.
They said that they were subject to extensive industrial action from January to March 2021, and coupled with the pandemic, that meant that some customers had to wait longer than they would have liked for a visit from an engineer. They said that the TV ads had been commissioned and recorded before the third period of lockdown began and the full impact of industrial action became clear. They had taken the decision to temporarily suspend their TV, radio and paid-for digital banner advertising for products which provided insurance cover for heating and/or hot water problems. TV advertising was suspended on 26 January, with the exception of ads that had already been booked and could not be rescheduled (including ads (a), (b) and (c)).
They had taken a range of actions to mitigate customer detriment, for example by paying for customers to purchase their own heaters up to a value of £50 or to cover the cost of transport to a friend’s or relative’s house. Heaters had been distributed by 1,000 British Gas employees to customers on days of industrial action. Customers without hot water or heating for four days had the choice to either wait for an appointment or to arrange for a Gas Safe engineer to carry out the repair at British Gas’s cost and British Gas also paid for customers to stay in a hotel temporarily until one of their engineers attended their property.
Customers who purchased HomeCare online or over the telephone during this period were made aware that non-essential services might be suspended and that essential services could take longer to fulfil, and they wrote to all of their existing insurance customers to advise on the changes to essential services and to the potential impact on service levels during the period.
In relation to annual service visits, they said that as per their terms and conditions, HomeCare customers received a service visit during each policy period. The visits were not made in a set month or on a set date each year which meant that there could be more than 12 months between service visits even without Covid-19 or industrial action issues. They said that by way of example, if a new customer had a service within the first month of taking out HomeCare and their next service was not completed until six months into the second year of their agreement, there would be around 18 months between the services. They said that when a customer signed up to HomeCare, they normally carried out a first visit which included an annual service, unless they had carried out an annual service in the 12 months before the customer took out their Homecare product. If that was the case they wouldn’t carry out an additional first service as they would be aware of the condition of the boiler. As of 31 May 2021, they had no annual service visit backlogs for HomeCare contracts where the renewal date of the contract was on or before 31 May 2021.They also provided confidential data of the average times for providing first annual service visits to new customers between January and March 2021.
Clearcast said that ad (a) was a generic product promotion, aimed at informing viewers that British Gas could offer them consolidated HomeCare cover with “boiler maintenance and parts and labour included” so that there were no unexpected expenses should their boiler break down. It did not make any reference or claims to specific call out response times, but invited viewers to seek further information about the service online. With a view to ensuring material information was qualified, Clearcast said they sought support from British Gas to determine how many consumers would be eligible for the service and had received confirmation that the service was available to 98% of the UK households and this limitation was included in the supers which passed on legibility, size and had a slightly longer duration of hold than the minimum required duration. Clearcast said that ad (b) featured an offer of one month free for new British Gas customers and they ensured that it highlighted that consumers would still need to make 12 payments and that the offer was only available on certain HomeCare products. The supers ran for over half of the duration of the ad and had a size of 32 TV lines versus the required size 30. They understood that complainants had experienced service level issues due to the limited availability of engineers at the time, however, they were unprecedented and beyond reasonable control of British Gas and unforeseen at the time the ads were cleared. For those reasons Clearcast felt that the key claims in the ads had been substantiated and that they were therefore not misleading.
Assessment
1. Upheld
The ads all presented or referred to scenarios where customers might require emergency repairs in their home and we considered that consumers would understand from them that HomeCare customers would be able to call out engineers at short notice to deal with urgent issues. The ads did not exclusively depict people who would be considered vulnerable in a way that was immediately evident, for example the elderly or those with visible disabilities. In that context we considered that viewers would understand that emergency call outs were available to all customers.
The ASA received complaints from existing customers who had experienced difficulties making use of the emergency cover as part of the HomeCare service in the first three months of 2021.
We understood that British Gas was subject to industrial action from its engineers from January to March 2021, and coupled with the Covid-19 lockdown that began on 6 January, that meant that non-essential visits had been temporarily suspended and HomeCare customers had to wait for longer than usual for emergency visits. The UK had already experienced a number of national-level and more localised lockdowns since March 2020. We considered that consumers might have expected some level of disruption or delay to normal services as a result of those circumstances. However, we noted that ads (a), (b) and (c) were run in February, some time after those events were already under way and affecting services.
Ad (d) was seen a few days before the lockdown began and before strike action took place. However, we understood that discussions around potential industrial action were already underway at that time. We therefore considered that British Gas could have anticipated that there was a reasonable chance service provision would be significantly limited in the near future.
British Gas continued to run their emergency visits between January and March. Where emergency visits related to boiler or heating control issues, and customers were either vulnerable and whose health could be at risk without heating and hot water, or who had an uncontrollable leak, they attended 97.53% of jobs within one day in January 2021; 96.46% of such jobs within one day in February 2021; and 97.04% of such jobs within one day in March. For the same period in 2020, the figure was 99.2% to 99.47%, and in 2019 it was 99% to 99.31%. This indicated that they had performed roughly two percentage points worse than the previous two years. Of the emergency visits which fell into this category and were not completed in one day, the average time taken to visit was 2.4 days. However, those figures did not account for customers (including many of the complainants) who were not classified as being vulnerable, but who had experienced issues such as complete loss of heating or hot water that could reasonably be regarded as emergencies, particularly in the winter months. We were provided with figures on the proportion of emergency callouts that fell into the aforementioned category and considered that it was unlikely to be in accordance with consumer expectations created by the ad.
We acknowledged that British Gas had taken a range of actions to mitigate consumer detriment - for example, by covering costs for alternative arrangements and providing heaters. We also acknowledged that potential customers had been informed about disruptions at the point of purchase and through a statement on the website. However, we did not consider those actions were sufficient to counteract he misleading impression conveyed by the ads.
The ads implied that all British Gas HomeCare customers would be able to call out engineers to attend urgent issues at short notice. However, we understood that the company’s ability to maintain service levels for all but the most vulnerable customers had been significantly disrupted by a combination of Covid-19 lockdown and industrial action by their employees. Given the timing of the ads relative to those events, we considered that they were misleading and breached the Codes.
On that point, ads (a) and (b) breached BCAP Code rules
3.1
3.1
Advertisements must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.
and
3.2
3.2
Advertisements must not mislead consumers by omitting material information. They must not mislead by hiding material information or presenting it in an unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely manner.
Material information is information that consumers need in context to make informed decisions about whether or how to buy a product or service. Whether the omission or presentation of material information is likely to mislead consumers depends on the context, the medium and, if the medium of the advertisement is constrained by time or space, the measures that the advertiser takes to make that information available to consumers by other means.
(Misleading Advertising). Ads (c) and (d) breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules
3.1
3.1
Advertisements must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.
and
3.3
3.3
Ofcom must ensure that the standards from time to time in force under this section include:
a) minimum standards applicable to all programmes included in television and radio services; and
b) such other standards applicable to particular descriptions of programmes, or of television and radio services, as appeared to them appropriate for securing the standards objectives."
Section 319(5).
(Misleading Advertising).
2. Upheld
We considered that consumers would understand the claim “You’ll get boiler maintenance and repair with all parts and labour included”, together with the scene showing a British Gas engineer inspecting a boiler in ad (b) to mean that a regular service was included with the HomeCare service, which many consumers would assume would take place annually. We considered that the claims “Get HomeCare cover”, “Book a boiler service” and “Your boiler is at the heart of your home. We can help keep it in tip top shape with a service” in ad (c) to be understood to mean the same. The ads did not state that a service would take place immediately after signing up or specify a particular timeframe, although we considered that new customers would have an expectation that one would be scheduled reasonably soon after joining.
British Gas provided statistical data on the average wait times for providing first annual service visits to new customers between January and March 2021, which showed the impact of delays to customers’ first services or regular annual services. The delays to services were due to short-term disruption and as of 31 May 2021, they had no annual service visit backlogs for HomeCare contracts where the renewal date of the contract was on or before that date. That notwithstanding, we considered that the delays were not within the bounds of the expectations created by the ads. As discussed in point 1, British Gas would have already been aware of, or would have reasonably been able to anticipate, delays to these services at the times that the ads were seen. We concluded that the ads were misleading and breached the Codes.
On that point, ad (b) breached BCAP Code rules
3.1
3.1
Advertisements must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.
and
3.2
3.2
Advertisements must not mislead consumers by omitting material information. They must not mislead by hiding material information or presenting it in an unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely manner.
Material information is information that consumers need in context to make informed decisions about whether or how to buy a product or service. Whether the omission or presentation of material information is likely to mislead consumers depends on the context, the medium and, if the medium of the advertisement is constrained by time or space, the measures that the advertiser takes to make that information available to consumers by other means.
(Misleading Advertising), and ad (c) breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules
3.1
3.1
Advertisements must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.
and
3.3
3.3
Ofcom must ensure that the standards from time to time in force under this section include:
a) minimum standards applicable to all programmes included in television and radio services; and
b) such other standards applicable to particular descriptions of programmes, or of television and radio services, as appeared to them appropriate for securing the standards objectives."
Section 319(5).
(Misleading Advertising).
Action
The ads must not appear again in the forms complained about. We told British Gas Services Ltd not to misleadingly imply that emergency call outs were available to all customers at short notice unless they held evidence that was the case. We also told them not to imply that customers could obtain a boiler service reasonably soon after joining the scheme, if that was not the case.
