Legality, decency, truthfulness and honesty. These are the hour pillars of the Advertising Standards Authority and they are supposed to protect you from misleading or simply false advertisements.

The idea is that when you hand over money in response to an ad, two things happen - the goods will arrive and they'll perform as they are supposed to. Pie in the sky? You could be forgiven for thinking so in this business.

The weakness of the ASA as a watchdog is that it has no teeth. Even its most ferocious display of bared gumes is ineffective if the worst it can do is to uphold a complaint.

An ASA report earlier this year concentrated on complaints against computer equipment advertisers. "The problem," it said, "is that inevitable outcome of the fast and furious growth of the market and the chaos that attended it."

There should be nothing inevitable about blatant dishonesty and it should be a simple matter to slap a salutary fine on any advertiser trying to take advantage of 'chaos'. Nothing of the sort happens. Micreants may attract some undesirable publicity but by then the chances are that they've banked your money anyway.

In this issue we kick off another toothless watchdog - Why are we Waiting will be a regular feature to embarrass manufacturers who've announced products they aren't ready to deliver. Embarrassment is the most we can hope for, but eventually it might help remind them of their responsibility to you.

It tackles a particular kind of advertisement or launch. Most ads try to get you to part with your money, but some try to make sure it stays in your pocket - until they're ready to take it. An ad that promises something "coming soon" is telling you not to buy and alternative in the meanwhile. It's called pre-announcing.

It happens all the time, sometimes by accident or through incompetence but too often with malice aforethought. Hold on to your cash, the manufacturers say, and we'll get this marvellous new device to you in (a) the twinkling of an eye or (b) 28 days or (c) three months or (d) next Preston Guild.

It's as much part of the computer industry as fir trees are of Christmas - the "fast and furious growth" again. When a mini or mainframe's price runs to six figures or more, no maker is going to want buyers to shop elsewhere while it puts the finishing touches to the system. But that's no reason why we should tolerate it from home equipment makers.

Companies like Amstrad and Tatung deserve a pat on the back for getting new systems into the shops exactly when they said they would. those that deserve a knife in the back would keep what's left of the Sheffield steel industry busy for months.

The usual reason is the sheer pressure of competition. There are so many competing suppliers that a lost month here or there between finished a product and getting it into the shops can mean the different between making a killing or making a dud. So, ever optimistic, they take a chance and announce the product before it's ready. Sometiems, if luck is on their side, they'll get the product out before anybody complains - but if product development runs its normal course there will be delays. Then the worst that can happen is that the self-regulating advertising industry will rap their knuckles, usually several months later.

It isn't nearly good enough.