Getir rapped by ASA for promotion it couldn’t deliver on

Getir has been rapped by the Advertising Standards Agency for pushing a deal so good it couldn’t deliver on the demand generated.

The rapid grocer emailed all customers a £20 off promotion, even though only users in limited locations at certain times could redeem it.

Getir said “there had been a miscommunication about the mechanics” of the promotion, which was only realised late last year when “they were unable to meet the demand for the promotion at peak rush hour”.

The business had told customers if they spent £21 on the app they could get £20 off their order. “Yup, you read that right! Shop right now to get all your essentials for a quid!” it added.

But after Getir failed to honour the discount to all claimants, customers complained to the regulator.

The ASA ruled: “Because the ad implied the promotion was available to all, no matter the circumstances, we considered that the promotion had not been administered fairly.”

In its statement to the ASA, Getir said the promotion was created by its team in Turkey, but the email had been prepared in-house by their UK marketing team.

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The promotion, the festive season and the World Cup resulted in an overwhelming increase in orders and “unexpected demand that exceeded their operational limits”.

Rather than honour the discount when they were able to, Getir’s customer service team told unsuccessful claimants it was within its rights to cancel any promotion. The company did, however, adjust the wording of the promotion within the app, and ran clarifying banner ads on it website.

The ASA pointed out that the CAP Code states promoters “must avoid causing unnecessary disappointment and phrases such as ‘subject to availability’ did not relieve promoters of their obligation to do everything reasonable to avoid disappointing participants”.

“We considered it was reasonable to expect Getir to have extended the promotion to those who had received the email, as the marketing team had originally intended, to avoid disappointing participants,” the ASA said. Ultimately it ruled “the promotion had not been administered fairly”.

The company said it had implemented several processes to ensure it wouldn’t let customers down again.

Among the rapid grocers – which all offer heavy discounts in an effort to retain customers – Getir is known for running attention-grabbing promotions.

Last summer it said it was “rolling back prices to the 1990s” in response to the cost of living crisis, with discounts of around 45%. In September it gave customers a free bottle of milk with all orders of £20 or more, and during the World Cup added a free multipack of beer to orders.