[Craig_Mawlam]

Honest advertising is paramount in business, if an advertiser makes false claims before they even meet you what's the likelihood of any of the claims they make being true at all?

Recently it became necessary for me to raise eight individual complaints with the Advertising Standards Authority about an advert placed by Brodex Ltd.

The adjudication has now been published on the ASA's website http://www.asa.org.uk seven of the eight complaints were upheld. This complaint follows an earlier one made against Brodex in 2002, details of that adjudication can also be found on the ASA website.

http://www.asa.org.uk/adjudications/show_adjudication.asp?adjudication_id=38086&from_index=show_advertisers&dates_of_adjudications_id=568

False, and misleading claims can be damaging to reputable suppliers and consumers alike. The ASA exists to ensure that advertisers meet certain minimum standards, because people often believe what they see in print.

Kind Regards
Craig Mawlam

[elfords]

Craig,

Good for you its a shame that you have had to go to the trouble, but at least it appears to have been worth it.

While I am all for competition it has to be on a fair and honest basis. Keep up the good work.

Gary

[choice.clean]

as you complained about the use of the reacha and wash logo on a non reach and wash system does this eman that we should remove the logo from all of our vehicles if we have a brodex pole on board

[Craig_Mawlam]

The Reach & Wash logo is a registered trademark of Ionic Systems Ltd, we authorise its use for customers who have R&W systems installed in their vans and trailers. The term "Reach & Wash" has become synonymous with the use of WFP's in the window cleaning industry. This is mainly due to it being the first of its kind in the UK and secondly because of the consistent high quality marketing of the brand. So much so infact that owners of equipment other than Reach & Wash systems like to use our logo and trade marks even when they are not authorised to do so. So you see it was wrong for Brodex to use our company name and trademarks in order to promote their products.

In answer to Choice Clean's question, because you operate a Reach & Wash System you are authorised to use the logo. We do not authorise the use of our logo in connection with other equipment for the simple reason that our brand could be damaged if the cleaning results fail to meet the standards set by our equipment.

Kind regards

Craig Mawlam

[Old_Master]

Craig
As we are both aware customers switch from one supplier to another supplier.
What would you suggest happens regarding the logo when an old Reach and Wash system is removed from a vehicle and another manufacturers system is installed.
regards
Glyn

[Craig_Mawlam]

Glyn,

If the shoe where on the other foot I would recommend that the customer removed their Tucker or Omnipole logo from the outside of their van if there was a Reach & Wash System fitted inside the van.

There have been instances when Window Cleaners chose to fit equipment from another supplier and then used our Reach & Wash logo on their van, their literature and/or Yellow Pages advertising. These people then had to go to the cost of removing it after they received letters from our Trade Mark lawyers.

Its called passing off, its just like a Window Cleaner using the Fed logo and claiming to have insurance when they nick your work and then finding out that they are not Fed members and do not have insurance.

Best regards
Craig

[Old_Master]

Thanks Craig
I understand trading off laws one of my first jobs being an Articled Clerk (apprentice solicitor) prior to giving that up to earn ten x more as a window cleaner   now my son is studying to be a Barrister - cant see him giving that up to join my window cleaning firm.

The above being beside the point, I think it would be difficult for us to insist that a customer removes a logo that they must have paid for albeit within a package.  Given that removing the logo would also upset the signwritting balance.
I feel x company would infact benifit from their logo remaining and the trading off action could be reversed as the manufacturer whos equipment is now installed within the vehicle has not benifitted from advertising the fact.
An interesting argument I think you will agree.

However I will in future inform customers that have a competitors logo in place that they should consider the removal of it..
regards
Glyn

[choice.clean]

phew glad i didn,t put the logo on my new van p.s. have you seen the new brodex brush heads really good i,ve replaced all my ionics heads that fell apart with the brodex cheaper poles with them too. try bmsbrodex for details. keep up the good work.

[Old_Master]

Are they our red and green bristle with black plastic ?

[choice.clean]

yes really good just bought the 38 foot with you looks great the good thing about them is that they don,t splay out like eyelashes like ionics do

[poleman]

Hi choice.clean

the poles that you are on about are they the TRIDENT or it mite the new Residential Pole.

andy

[choice.clean]

the trident thats the one with a lifetime guarantee the investment is well worth while for such a quality head they look really professional on the van too.

[highwash]

Are they our red and green bristle with black plastic ?

hi glynn - when you say"our"are the brushes exclusive to you? i spent some time in the motor industry and they look like the modified VIKAN transport system brushes that other suppliers do. I think they are the best brushes available. Regards Terry

[Old_Master]

They certainly are Terry.  A great longlasting product.

We were using them exclusively for several years, other manufacturers originally slagged them due to the curved edges and now like  trolleys and baffled tanks they have copied our lead.
Still its nice to be first.
Glyn
Omnipole

[poleman]

Craig

I see a lot of your photos from old and new brochures and web site are being used by wfp operators to sell there services is this ok, i no the reach and wash is a trade mark but where do they stand on this one, as it would seem a good marketing tool and help the industry

Andy

[Antony_tomkins]

If you copy any written material or pictures of any discription without the concent of the copyright owner (not the person who is using the material as pictures may belong to a company but the photographer may retain the copyright)  you are in breach of copyright. So before you use anything just obtain written permission. I had a case where some one copied a picture from our web then used the picture to give a competing company a hyper link to there website. Well I saw red as these pictures cost us over £1200.00 to produce.
So you now know the law

[Craig_Mawlam]

Andy, I have no problem with customers who own Reach & Wash Systems purchased from us using our images or Reach & Wash logo. They usually ask for consent and in these cases I send them the images they need on CD. As was the case when you attended a BWCA course and asked if you could use the logo.

I do however object when window cleaners use our marketing material to promote their services when they chose to buy a different brand of equipment. No other system performs like a Reach & Wash system and it is neither fair to our equipment or to those who purchased genuine Reach & Wash systems when others pass-off the service as being a true Reach & Wash cleaning service.

I do frequently take legal action on occasion when I discover inappropriate use of our trade-marks and copywright material. this is how we protect our brand.

kind regards
Craig Mawlam

[poleman]

Hi Craig

Thanks for your reply, did you see the Reach Wash window cleaning company, made me laugh, he has had to put a disclaimer saying… we do not sell or trade in reach wash equipment, think he mite have had 1 or 2 calls saying can I buy one of your Systems
http://www.reach-wash.co.uk/index2.html

Thanks for the Certificates, came in the post today, see you on Wednesday.

Andy