HIGH street retailers have issued new guidelines to staff
over late-availability cards in shop windows after a BBC consumer show accused
them of misleading the public.
Undercover reporters from BBC 1’s Hard Cash programme
found that 25% of all holiday deals advertised in windows were not available.
Of those that were, over half were more expensive than the price advertised in
the window.
Hard Cash programme producer Sharon Keatley
said: “We picked five holidays. If it was not available, we were generally
offered an alternative. But we felt the adverts in the window were very
misleading.”
Holiday Hypermarkets and Go Direct, both of which featured
in the programme, said additional checks would be made to ensure the advertised
offers are available in light of the Hard Cash investigation. A
spokeswoman for Lunn Poly, also mentioned in the programme, said it would
follow any additional guidelines issued by ABTA.