Watson Blinds and Awnings - masters of clickbait and misleading advertising

Some months ago I decided I wanted a retractable awning to allow summer shade and winter sunshine into my home. I approached Watson Blinds and Awnings. Bill, who came to do the quote, was excellent. I felt he understood what I wanted and could provide an appropriate product. I was also keen to support a local company. So it was with good will that I decided to proceed. This is where my frustrations began.

Firstly, at no point did I receive any kind of diagram that showed exactly what would be constructed. Their quote was 5 pages long and mostly advertising. Lacking any kind of diagram, it’s not clear exactly what the product is. I was given a glossy brochure of gorgeous homes with gorgeous awnings, and directed to a photograph of what I was being quoted. But I still couldn’t tell from that which bit was the product and which bit was an existing part of that home. This was especially unhelpful in the setting of pandemic travel restrictions, where I was trying to convey this information to my husband, who was on the other side of a state boundary, so he had a clear understanding of what we were signing up for. It’s a bit like “serving suggestion” in food products: a packet of Weetbix might depict Weetbix in a bowl with milk and strawberries, but clearly states that the box only contains Weetbix. What did the quote entail and what was just “serving suggestion”?

Secondly, on 17/11/20 Watsons sent me an email message entitled, “Those products you wanted just got up to 30% cheaper!”. I responded within minutes and was confident that I was among the lucky first 30 customers. However the response I received stated that “unfortunately there is no discount on awnings available with the Black Friday offer”, despite the heading within the email specifically mentioning awnings. On perusing the fine print, I could see that awnings were indeed excluded. I was furious to be spammed with such an offer on the grounds that I had an existing eligible quote, only to be told that my quote wasn’t in fact eligible. Watsons knew precisely what was in my quote! I still wanted the product and so swallowed my anger and ploughed on with arranging for installation.

The third insult came yesterday. I mentioned that I had a $100 “welcome gift” voucher for Watsons by signing up to their online updates. I asked for this to be deducted from my quote. I was told that only one discount could be applied to any quote, and that I already had a $1500 discount. This was the first time I’d noticed this hiding in my quote, and I have no idea what the putative reason for it was. It made me wonder if all their quotes have some kind of discount built in so as to neutralise any other vouchers customers may have obtained. This would surely be on legal thin ice, as if everything is always “discounted” then that becomes the standard price.

I feel this behaviour has been decidedly misleading. But is any of it actually in contravention of Australian Consumer Law?

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Welcome to the community @Simani

Your first comment about the diagram would have been a sufficient red flag for me to suspect their business practices. Having contracted many things in life it is common for stock advertorials to be included with quotes but it is not common for reputable companies not to include explicit drawings or statements of ‘this is what we will deliver to you’ for the customer to understand it.

Regarding all the marketing come-ons you cited, they are unfortunately common, more so in some industries than others, and seem rife in some home renovation sectors such as blinds, awnings, shutters, and one room makeovers by ‘mass merchandisers’.

So long as all the pesky asterisks are prominent and linked to the explicit statements caveats and limitation, they seem to be. For an example of how rife, if you are on Coles/Woolie email offers just look at all the text linked to *, #, ^ and so on at the bottom of each.

Back to your issue with Watsons, it is necessary to read it all rather than relying on the headline come on.

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Some months ago I decided I wanted a retractable awning to allow summer shade and winter sunshine into my home. I approached Watson Blinds and Awnings. Bill, who came to do the quote, was excellent. I felt he understood what I wanted and could provide an appropriate product. I was also keen to support a local company. So it was with good will that I decided to proceed. This is where my frustrations began.

Firstly, at no point did I receive any kind of diagram that showed exactly what would be constructed. Their quote was 5 pages long and mostly advertising. Lacking any kind of diagram, it’s not clear exactly what the product is. I was given a glossy brochure of gorgeous homes with gorgeous awnings, and directed to a photograph of what I was being quoted. But I still couldn’t tell from that which bit was the product and which bit was an existing part of that home. This was especially unhelpful in the setting of pandemic travel restrictions, where I was trying to convey this information to my husband, who was on the other side of a state boundary, so he had a clear understanding of what we were signing up for. It’s a bit like “serving suggestion” in food products: a packet of Weetbix might depict Weetbix in a bowl with milk and strawberries, but clearly states that the box only contains Weetbix. What did the quote entail and what was just “serving suggestion”?

Secondly, on 17/11/20 Watsons sent me an email message entitled, “Those products you wanted just got up to 30% cheaper!”. I’ve attached a pdf of the message. I responded within minutes and was confident that I was among the first 30 customers. However the response I received stated that “unfortunately there is no discount on awnings available with the Black Friday offer”, despite the heading in the email specifically mentioning awnings. On perusing the fine print, I could see that awnings were indeed excluded. I was furious to be spammed with such an offer on the grounds that I had an existing eligible quote, only to be told that my quote wasn’t in fact eligible. You knew precisely what was in my quote! I still wanted the product and so swallowed my anger and ploughed on with arranging for installation.

The third insult came yesterday. My builder, through whom installation is being arranged, had remarked last week that he still hadn’t got a date for installation out of Watson’s. I’d been verbally assured by Watsons some weeks earlier that the wait time to installation was about a fortnight. I decided to visit the showroom and ask what was going on. I also needed to select colours (which was rushed through so quickly it’s all a complete blur. I only hope their representative got it right because there was no time for me to double check). When I asked what the holdup with installation was, I was told Watsons would only do a check measure once I’d paid the 50% deposit. I asked, if I was to pay it immediately, when would installation occur? I was told that, because I’d sat on it a while and Christmas was upon us, it would now not be able to happen until late January/ early February. Again, steam coming from my ears that this hadn’t been made clear to my builder.

And then, to cap it off, I mentioned that I had a $100 “welcome gift” voucher for Watsons by signing up to their online updates. I asked for this to be deducted from my quote. I was told that only one discount could be applied to any quote, and that I already had a $1500 discount. This was the first time I’d noticed this hiding in my quote, and I have no idea what the putative reason for it was. It made me wonder if all your quotes have some kind of discount built in so as to neutralise any other vouchers customers may have obtained. This would surely be on legal thin ice, as if everything is always “discounted” then that becomes the standard price.

I really want this awning - summer is marching on - and I really do like to support local businesses. So I am grudgingly proceeding. However I have a very sour taste in my mouth about the disingenuous nature of Watson’s advertising, and would be very reluctant to recommend Watson Blinds and Awnings to other interested customers.

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Hi @Simani, no need to start a new topic for each related post. Please just add onto your original using the ‘reply’. You can also edit your post using the ‘pen’ tool at the lower right of your post.

Cheers,

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