Staples slammed over £44 USB cable

 

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Posted on 22 Aug 2007 at 09:32

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld a bizarre complaint from a member of the public who claims a USB printer cable costs a staggering £44.

The customer, who purchased a HP Photosmart 2575 printer from a Staples store, complained to the ASA after the USB cable wasn't included in the box.

The printer buyer claimed Staples' advertising was misleading because "it did not state that a further purchase was required and he needed to buy a USB cable to connect the printer to his computer, at an additional cost of £44." The buyer complained that "the additional USB cable cost increased the sale price to more than half of the original price" of £64.99.

Whether this customer has a penchant for gold-plated USB cables or not is unclear, but in its defence Staples quite reasonably pointed out that "the cheapest cable they sold was priced at £11.99". The retail store claimed that it "did not sell a cable for £44 and were unsure what the customer could have been offered for that price but they did not believe it was a USB cable."

That wasn't good enough for the ASA, who upheld the complaint, stating that: "We considered that customers were likely to expect a cable would be included in the advertised price unless the ad specifically stated otherwise. We told Staples to make clear in the ad that a USB cable was required." However, the ASA did acknowledge that, as the printer hadn't been sold with a USB cable previously, Staples' £64.99 sale price wasn't misleading.