Posted: 19th Jul, 2006 By: MarkJ
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has finally ruled on the complaints against Carphone Warehouse's "
free broadband forever" promotion, which has seen three out of four complaints upheld:
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145 people, including competitors British Telecom, Tiscali and ntl:Telewest, complained about the advertising. They said it was:
1. misleading to suggest that the broadband was free when it involved an 18-month contractual commitment to the Talk3 International (T3I) calls package; a connection charge of £29.99; ongoing costs of £9.99 per month plus line rental (£20.99 in total) and a disconnection fee of £70;
2. also misleading to claim broadband was "free forever" and
3. not sufficiently clear from the advertising that the availability of broadband was dependent on being connected to a qualifying telephone exchange and that people not connected to such an exchange would have to pay a further £10 per month for the broadband service.
4. The ASA also challenged whether it should have been made clear in the ads that a delay of around 10 weeks would apply before people would receive broadband.---
Numbers 1, 2 and 3 were all UPHELD, while 4 escaped and was NOT UPHELD by the ASA. Specific details of the findings can be read here:
http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/adjudications/Public/TF_ADJ_41530.htm