Watchdog bans British Gas adverts

The ASA said British Gas could not promise a same-day service

British Gas adverts for what it claims is a 365-days-a-year home maintenance service have been banned by a watchdog.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said customers might not get a visit from an engineer on weekends or public holidays because of staff cuts.

The TV and radio commercials said the HomeCare service was "there for you 365 days a year" but the ASA ruled that the ads were "misleading".

British Gas said it was disappointed by the decision and it planned an appeal.

In its verdict, the ASA said: "We concluded that, without qualification to make clear that a skeleton service operated at weekends and on public holidays, the claim 'HomeCare is there for you 365 days a year' could mislead."

Call-out guarantee

British Gas said that its telephone service was always operational.

However, the ASA stated: "Neither ad mentioned the HomeCare helpline and [the ASA] considered that viewers and listeners were therefore unlikely to attribute the claim 'HomeCare is there for you 365 days a year' to the helpline service."

A radio advert said British Gas would be there "on your birthday, Christmas Day, the coldest day", adding "there's no telling when... you might need an engineer".

The ASA said it "understood that British Gas could not guarantee that their engineers would attend a call out on the same day. Because the ads implied that they would, we considered that they were misleading".

The watchdog rejected a complaint that a TV advert did not make clear the geographical restrictions of the service, saying this would have been impractical.

The ASA said it had received eight complaints.

In response, Scott Boose, managing director of central heating care at British Gas, said the HomeCare service provided "peace of mind" to nearly five million customers.

And he stressed how many times engineers had been dispatched during weekends or public holidays, saying: "Last year British Gas engineers made half a million visits to central heating breakdowns on Saturdays and Sundays alone. On Christmas Day and Boxing Day we attended nearly 6,000 heating breakdowns."