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Arrow Data Services
Trusar
Martley Road
Lower Broadheath
Worcester
WR2 6QG Complaint:
Objections to a regional press advertisement and follow-up literature for a home-working scheme. The regional press advertisement stated "DATA COMPILERS & ENVELOPE FILLERS WANTED Typed or hand written, top rates paid, for free information package SAE to Arrow Data Services".
The complainants objected that the advertisement and follow-up literature were misleading, because they did not make clear that home workers earned money by placing advertisements at their expense, before asking consumers to send £9.99.
Codes Section: 3.1, 6.1, 7.1, 52.2, 52.4 (Ed 11)
Adjudication:
Complaints upheld
The advertisers asserted that the advertisement was not misleading, because they provided work for home workers, which included market research, envelope filling and envelope writing. They claimed that the complainant had been sent the wrong follow-up literature, that was for a start your own business programme, which involved placing advertisements. The advertisers believed the complainant should have received a questionnaire, which asked questions related to the skills needed for home working and a cover letter explaining the work. To support that, they sent a copy of the questionnaire. The advertisers asserted that the complainant might have received the wrong follow-up literature because she was on a different mailing list after replying to an advertisement for a business scheme. The advertisers said they did not crosscheck their mailing lists. They said if the complainants had received the correct follow-up literature and sent the fee required they would have received a home mailing programme within 14 days.
The Authority understood that the complainants had not applied to another advertisement for data compilers or envelope fillers. The Authority noted that, although it had asked the advertisers to send in details of their contracts with companies that used their data compilers, database information of their data compilers or details of their employees and any payments made to home workers, the advertisers had not provided that evidence. The Authority considered that the headline in the follow-up literature, " EARN ££££''S STUFFING ENVELOPES FROM HOME ... 50p FOR EACH ENVELOPE YOU STUFF ...", implied that respondents were offered paid work by the advertisers. The Authority concluded that the advertisement and the follow-up literature did not make clear that home workers earned money by placing advertisements in newspapers before asking them to send £9.99 and told the advertisers not to use the advertisement or the follow-up literature again.
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