Two carpet and flooring companies who were investigated by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) have changed their pricing structure following an investigation into their advertising.
United Carpets and Floors2go have re-structured their price plans as the OFT continue to investigate misleading advertising by furniture and carpet retailers all over the UK.
The OFT said that the Floors2go website was found to be advertising misleading initial square metre pricing which excluded VAT and that some offers of savings were wrong.
The second company who have 67 franchised stores has stated that it will not advertise time-sensitive promotions without giving an explanation of the promotion.
Director of the OFT, Gaucho Rasmussen, said: “‘Shoppers rely upon clear, honest and upfront advertising of prices.
“When retailers advertise misleading prices or promotions, consumers often make different purchases – or spend more money – than they otherwise might have done.
“When buying big ticket items, consumers should always shop around and check that the price they are paying represents value for money.”
United’s chief executive Paul Eyre said: ”The OFT voiced a concern over the use of recommended retail prices and whilst these have been provided to us by independent third parties we decided to phase out their use over a period of time and that exercise was completed by the end of 2013.
“The OFT also suggested that should it be necessary to hold a store closing sale then a small amount of additional information could be displayed. On the odd occasion where this might arise in the future we are more than happy to do that.”