Misleading advertisements by service providers withdrawn

‘Virgin Media’ and ‘Plusnet’ have been taken to task by ‘Advertising Standards Authority’ (ASA) for publishing wrong information in their advertisements.

The regulator asked Plusnet to withdraw the phrase ‘conditions apply’ used by them in a radio advertisement.

The service provider had claimed that the broadband was available for GBP 6.49 a month. But the regulator said that the provider failed to disclose to customers the restrictions.

The phrases such as ‘conditions apply’ ‘from only GBP 6.49’ etc give an impression that the provider is not bound to meet the need of the customers at the above price. The provider always has a chance for excuse. Further it should have been stated in the advertisement that the broadband was available at the specified rate at certain places only.

Plusnet has been forced to withdraw the advertisement. All other providers have been instructed to make everything clear in their advertisements or they will be seriously dealt with.

In the case of Virgin Media, the customers of the 50 Mb package had to bear with the heavy jitter. Virgin Media accepted the flaw, and said that the jitter was a irritating for the customers especially those interested in online gaming.

That confirms that ASA is right in saying that the label signifying ‘Faster, Stronger etc’ is misleading.

ASA also criticized Virgin Media for their ‘Stop Broadband Con’ advertising campaign over the download speeds the users could get, which was not true. Obviously, the advertisement was discontinued.