Complaint against An Post ad upheld after letters undelivered after 20 days

A complaint about letters which remained undelivered by An Post 20 days after posting despite an advertised delivery time frame of up to three days was among a number upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland (ASAI).

One complainant considered An Post’s advertising to be misleading when they posted 100 letters to the Netherlands through a postal option which advertised a delivery time frame of two-three days.

However, despite 20 days passing, the letters had not yet reached their destination, and the complainant was told by An Post that the delivery times were only an indication of the postage time frame, which was noted in the terms and conditions.

The complainant argued that since these terms and conditions were not mentioned on the webpage, it was misleading.

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“In the absence of any readily available declaration that the advertised time frame was included as a guide only, the committee considered the advertisement was likely to mislead and was in breach,” the ASAI said.

The advertising standards watchdog warned An Post that the advertisement must not reappear in its current form, and recommended including a note explaining that the time frame provided is estimated.

Meanwhile, an advert from taxi-booking app FreeNow was the subject of 33 complaints, the majority of which were from taxi drivers.

The ad which appeared on buses and Instagram stated that drivers could earn up to €1,300 a week through the app, with complainants arguing that the earning potential referenced was misleading.

“The complainants said the figure mentioned was not achievable and gave a false impression that those working in the taxi industry were earning more than they were. They said it would not be possible to earn this amount of money per week without working additional hours,” the ASAI said.

The ad was the subject of two separate complaint issues, with other complainants saying it was misleading as it did not specify whether the €1,300 referenced was net or gross pay.

The advertisers responsible told the ASAI the figure was obtained from actual FreeNow driver earnings in 2022; however, just 7 per cent of drivers had earned that amount.

Those who did earn €1,300 spent 31 hours completing trips while FreeNow also confirmed the €1,300 was a gross figure and did not include any deductions.

The ASAI said the fact that only 7 per cent had earned that amount or more should have been referenced in the advertisement in addition to the number of hours required to reach those earnings.

It said the ad should not appear in the same format again.

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