Two complaints made over knife promotion

WELLINGTON: New World’s Smeg knife promotion has been one of the company’s most successful giveaways, with only a few days to go.

However, some customers have been left unhappy and the Commerce Commission has received two complaints about the promotion.

Consumer NZ chief executive Jon Duffy said of the complaints, customers appeared annoyed that they were not adequately informed that some of the promotional products were not available before they started to shop.

‘‘Some have told us that [they] would not have chosen to shop at New World if they had known the promotion was effectively exhausted and feel misled by New World,’’ Mr Duffy said.

He said whether there was a case for complaints depended, in particular, on how popular New World’s parent company Foodstuffs thought the promotion would be and whether the supply secured was reasonable to meet the anticipated demand.

‘‘It is one thing for New World to say the offer was available ‘‘while stocks last’’, but if stocks were so limited they could never last a reasonable time, or meet reasonable consumer demand, there could be a bait advertising issue under the Fair Trading Act for the Commerce Commission to look into, he said.

New World could ‘‘do better’’, he said.

It should make it clear what promotional items were still available so people could choose to shop elsewhere if the knife they wanted was no longer available.

The Commerce Commission said the two complaints it received had not been assessed and it had not investigated the promotion.

‘‘In general, it is an offence under the Fair Trading Act to mislead consumers about the availability of products.

‘‘We note that New World has advised consumers that knife blocks are in limited supply, with most stores sold out,’’ a commission spokesman said, referring to a statement posted on New World’s website on January 12.

Foodstuffs New Zealand head of corporate affairs Antoinette Laird said the promotion, which began on November 2 and ends on January 24, has been one of New World’s most successful giveaways.

‘‘New World customers across the country have redeemed 50,000 Smeg knife blocks and over a million Smeg knives since the promotion began,’’ she said.

‘‘New World promotions, such as Spiegelau and Smeg, have offered customers highquality European brands that are not easily available in New Zealand, and customers are simply rewarded for buying their groceries with us, as they normally would.

‘‘We hoped the knife blocks would be popular, and despite the international data suggesting we needed much less, we purchased every knife block the supplier could produce, which fortunately got us through to this week, the final week of the 12week Smeg promotion.’’ — The New Zealand Herald