Virgin Media DM advert banned by ASA.

[joglynne]

The watchdog was concerned that the unlimited claim would influence consumers’ purchasing behaviour without making clear the peak traffic management policy.

http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/89...ia-banned-ASA/

I hope this is a small move to force ISPs to be more transparent in their adverts.


I'm not sure if this post is in the right section so could a Mod move it to a more appropriate area if necessary.

Ho hum, another day, another ASA ruling against Virgin Media ... who exactly is running their marketing department? He/she is a disgrace.

[huyi]

good, serves them right for advertising falsely

Virgin Media explained that only a small percentage of customers whose usage was exceptionally large would be affected by the policy.

yeah right a "small percent", more like 90% lol

[broadbandking]

I am not sure it would be 90% remember Virgin have a few million customer and I bet not even half of them actually use there connection for downloading, or to its fullest.

[Welshchris]

Originally Posted by Chris

Ho hum, another day, another ASA ruling against Virgin Media ... who exactly is running their marketing department? He/she is a disgrace.

i pulled Virgin Media up on an advert before christmas and was told by a woman that all their adverts are passed by the ASA before they r run.... A few weeks later i read that the ASA had ruled against the same advert i had questioned lol.

[BenMcr]

What you mean is you phoned up Customer Services - who are not involved in the Marketing, clearance or anything else and asked them about something they don't deal with?

[broadbandking]

Now now Ben that would be smart thing to do ring a companies department and ask them questions about thing they don't deal with lol

[beeman]

Originally Posted by broadbandking

I am not sure it would be 90% remember Virgin have a few million customer and I bet not even half of them actually use there connection for downloading, or to its fullest.

he wasnt saying 90% of people would attempt to use the "unlimited" connecton. He was saying 90% of people would wrongly beleave that the service was truly unlimited from seeing the advert...

[Gary L]

Upheld
The ASA understood that VM's traffic management policy would affect only the heaviest users at peak hours and that only then after an abnormal amount of material had been downloaded such that other users' performance was affected. We noted at no point would the amount of content they could download be restricted, only that after a maximum threshold value had been reached, those users' speeds would be affected. We, therefore, considered that the "unlimited" claim was acceptable, provided it was appropriately qualified.

We recognised that the small print text stated "Acceptable Use Policy applies" and that VM were willing to add to the small print to clarify that a traffic management policy was in place. We noted, however, the small print attached to the mailing was fairly lengthy, for very valid reasons, and the existing disclaimer was not, therefore, immediately noticeable.

http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/adjudicati..._ADJ_46135.htm

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by broadbandking

Now now Ben that would be smart thing to do ring a companies department and ask them questions about thing they don't deal with lol

I know! Perish the thought that the general first point of customer contact could have said that they don't know and supplied alternative contact details or offered to put the query to someone who could answer.

Much more sensible to make things up and get the customer off the line.

[BenMcr]

@Gary L

So that says is if Virgin make the Traffic Managment policy cleared (And bigger) on adverts they can carry on using the term 'unlimited'

[Gary L]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

@Gary L

So that says is if Virgin make the Traffic Managment policy cleared (And bigger) on adverts they can carry on using the term 'unlimited'

Yep. looks like they can't keep it as much of a secret as they were before


We welcomed VM's willingness to add to the small print to clarify that a traffic management policy was in place and asked them to make clear the peak hours when it applied.

The part that annoys me is
In addition, they understood from a previous ASA adjudication that, if a data limit was imposed by a provider, but only a small number of customers exceeded the data limit, it remained acceptable to use an "unlimited" claim. They explained that only a small proportion of VM customers, whose usage was unusually large, were affected by the traffic management policy

That 5% they claim is stopping any action from being taken against them in regards to them using the term Unlimited.

[100meg]

this would be a air tight get out of your contract before the 12 mouths are up

ie took contract out after seeing banned add

[kkevin666]

What the hell is an abnormal amount.

The service was set up to provide 2M/10M/20M/50M which is then PAID for.

If virgins infrastructure cannot handle this or they are profit grabing by artificially reducing services then this should be pointed out .

A tv show - 5 apple HD movie trailers and you're already over the STM limit
on a 10M connection.

Its pitiful and i cant understand why its not illegal Virgin can get away with this.

And then advertise an unlimited service in any form.

[Gary L]

Originally Posted by 100meg

this would be a air tight get out of your contract before the 12 mouths are up

ie took contract out after seeing banned add

It could be.
I think what they're saying is that the 'Acceptable Use Policy applies' is a standard phrase used by many companies, and as such the consumer doesn't see it as a big deal, and probably wouldn't think that Traffic management was involved and was a part of this 'clause'

another thing is that the ASA think that only the heaviest of users get hit, and after downloading an 'abnormal' amount of data. but in actual fact we could all get hit one after the other. it's a never ending cycle.