I complained to the ASA!

[mojo]

Seeing the news item on the front page reminded me, I was one of the ones who complained to the ASA about Virgin's advertising. They sent the documentation a couple of weeks ago, but put an embargo on making it public until today.

One of the claims they didn't uphold was regarding the "unlimited" claim. However, I think they were mislead. They asked an ISP group if the Fair Use Policy affected the "unlimited" nature of the product, and they concluded that because it only stops "abuse" it did not. However, I don't consider watching IPTV for an hour "abuse". I intend to follow up with the ASA about this.

[Chrysalis]

the ASA tend to look at things from an isps point of view so if ISP says oh we do for this reason then the ASA tends to say yes ok.

Things the ASA take into account which I think should be irrelevant.

1 - If upholding the complaint would cause hardship on the company to the extenct of severe damage to sales etc.
2 - If most companies are doing the same thing so if everyone is doing it then it must be ok.

[Toto]

They (ASA) would also likely enlist the views of the ISPA when dealing with the unlimited issue.

[MovedGoalPosts]

Regretably the "unlimited" use misdescription thing has been around for years, and has been upheld for far too long by the likes of the ASA based on ill defined concepts from years back. Indeed I can recall it falling on deaf ears when capping (as opposed to traffic shaping) policies were all the rage. It seems that because the connection is "always on", somehow the ISPs can define that as "unlimited". A load of tosh if you ask me, but then the likes of the ASA (a non elected quango answerable to nobody as far as I can see), and ISPA (a trade association paid for by the ISPs), don't have to consider the customer's viewpoint.

[Magilla]

Seeing the news item on the front page reminded me, I was one of the ones who complained to the ASA about Virgin's advertising.

As did I, I wasn't too happy about the "unlimited" claim being upheld but thems the breaks.

Incidentally, since the complaints went in I haven't seen any VM adverts claiming "unlimited" on terrestrial channels since the start of the complaint, though a few people have told me they've seen 'em on satellite.

Saw my 1st VM advert the other night.... Ruby Wax, no mention of unlimited.... so maybe it's had an effect anyway. It's clear people are waking up to the false claims in the ads, so maybe they're just not making the claims in public adverts anymore.

Anyway, I'll be complaining again if I see the "unlimited" claims again.

[anduin]

Yeh, i too was one of the people who complained, the super special 'confidential' letter i got back gave me a smile and made it all worth while.

Just a pity that they didnt slam VM properly for their constant overhype and blatant exaggerations of what you can 'do'.