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With gold prices soaring, television viewers are positively assailed by the number of advertisements encouraging people to sell their unwanted gold.
Many of these advertisements show people popping their unwanted jewellery into envelopes and later holding fistfuls of bank notes they have obtained in exchange. No wonder then that the advertisements have drawn the attention of Which?, the consumer magazine.
Researchers for Which? bought three pieces of new jewellery for £729 and were offered just £38.57 by one company. And the lowest price offered for a £215 gold bangle was a scandalous £14.57.
The Chief Executive of Which? said that the low prices paid for people’s gold was ‘simply shocking’ and correctly pointed out that the magazine’s investigation raised serious concerns about the fair treatment of consumers.
I agree. These advertisements imply that large sums of money are paid for unwanted gold whereas, in fact, the average price paid by television gold buyers was merely six percent of the retail price for gold.
Many people are under pressure in the current economic times and may be enticed into parting with valuable items for a fraction of their real value. Which? have done an excellent job in highlighting this trade which preys on people’s susceptibilities.
The government would do consumers a favour by not only regulating the television gold buyers but the content of the advertisements themselves.
[The Office of Fair Trading announced later today that it is going to carry out its own investigation into this trade to check that customers are being treated fairly. ]
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With gold prices soaring, television viewers are positively assailed by the number of advertisements encouraging people to sell their unwanted gold.
Many of these advertisements show people popping their unwanted jewellery into envelopes and later holding fistfuls of bank notes they have obtained in exchange. No wonder then that the advertisements have drawn the attention of Which?, the consumer magazine.
Researchers for Which? bought three pieces of new jewellery for £729 and were offered just £38.57 by one company. And the lowest price offered for a £215 gold bangle was a scandalous £14.57.
The Chief Executive of Which? said that the low prices paid for people’s gold was ‘simply shocking’ and correctly pointed out that the magazine’s investigation raised serious concerns about the fair treatment of consumers.
I agree. These advertisements imply that large sums of money are paid for unwanted gold whereas, in fact, the average price paid by television gold buyers was merely six percent of the retail price for gold.
Many people are under pressure in the current economic times and may be enticed into parting with valuable items for a fraction of their real value. Which? have done an excellent job in highlighting this trade which preys on people’s susceptibilities.
The government would do consumers a favour by not only regulating the television gold buyers but the content of the advertisements themselves.
[The Office of Fair Trading announced later today that it is going to carry out its own investigation into this trade to check that customers are being treated fairly. ]
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