The Oak Furniture Land chain has been taken to task by the Advertising Standards Authority for misleading customers over delivery times on its website.
However, the retailer successfully defended a second challenge to its delivery claims in a television ad - the two cases revolving around the use of the words "despatched" and "delivered".

A page on Oak Furniture Land's website stated that its Alto nest of tables would be despatched within seven days. However, someone complained to the ad watchdog that when they had tried to order the product they were given an anticipated delivery time of three weeks.

Information on a separate page of the website stated that the usual method of delivery was to first despatch the product to a carrier, which would then contact the customer with a specific delivery date. Actual delivery, it said, took up to 21 days from the despatch date.

However, the ASA considered that the claim implied the product would be despatched to the customer within seven days, and because Oak Furniture Land had not provided evidence of the actual time within which the product was delivered, the claim was deemed misleading.

Meanwhile, the retailer's television ad promised that an extendable dining set "could be delivered free in just seven days", which the complainant believed related to the time within which the product was despatched to the carrier rather than to the customer.

However, the ASA understood that it was in fact intended to refer to the time within which it was delivered to the customer, and did not think the claim implied that all the company's products could be delivered within seven days.

Oak Furniture Land also had sufficient stock to meet demand and over 50% of orders were delivered within seven days over the relevant period, and all within 13 days at the most. The ad was therefore not misleading.

Explaining its position, Oak Furniture Land said all its products carried different lead times in terms of despatch and delivery and that these were clearly stated in its advertising and were specific to the products advertised. It said it was the case that the dining set could be delivered in seven days, while the Alto nest of tables had a different lead time and was therefore advertised as "despatched" within seven days rather than "delivered".

However, it agreed that the different delivery timescales for its products might be misleading and therefore no longer referred to delivery times in its television ads.