Friday, July 11, 2008

False advertising

I passed by a shop in Toa Payoh. They were playing a recorded advertisement, announcing that the shop is closing down and they have to sell the products at a low price. I looked at the price labels and found that they were actually charging more than other shops. This is false advertising and amounts to cheating.

There is a similar situation with financial products sold by agents. The agents are able to make mis-representation on the products that are not backed by the printed materials. The printed materials are quite confusing, so the buyer needs an agent to explain the product. The agent has the opportunity to make a mis-representation and get away with it.

Many types of high cost, poor value financial products are sold in this way. You should avoid these products.