Bait advertising

Definition

An offer made to draw a customer in with no intention of selling it.

Why It Matters

Federal guides define it as an alluring but insincere offer to sell a product or service which the advertiser in truth does not intend or want to sell, and the same part reaches the conduct that follows: discouraging the purchase of the advertised item, and switching the customer after the sale. For a buyer the exposure is rarely the headline offer. It is the standing lead-generation practice underneath it, the coupon no crew is scheduled to honor, the price that exists only to book the visit. Several trades write their own version of the rule into licensing law, so a seller's advertising history can be a license problem and not only a marketing one. Read a year of offers against what the schedule actually delivered.

In numbers: A $99 advertised job that converts at $650 on the doorstep is the pattern the rule names.