Virgin Media ad slammed over broadband speed claims

by Staff, Campaign 02-Jul-08, 07:00

LONDON - Virgin Media misled customers about its broadband download speeds in a poster ad, the ad watchdog today found.

A poster for its services contained claims on download times, which heavy users could not achieve at peak times.

The company failed to mention that it capped download speeds during peak hours.

The Advertising Standards Authority ruling said: "We considered that one of the main objectives of the ad was to highlight the speed with which customers could download a TV show on all three of Virgin Media's packages and, in the absence of any clarifying text, readers were likely to understand that those speeds applied at all times."

Virgin had argued that its capping system only focused on the heaviest users, and was only in operation between 4pm and 9pm.

The original complaint to the ASA was made by Virgin Media's rival, BT.

Comments

Tommy Mancktelow - 02/07/2008

good on ASA for cuffing them. im with virgin and only found out about the capping policy after my internet ground to a virtual halt and had to call customer services, where they informed me that i had downloaded too much even though i had 'unlimited downloads'. clearly not unlimited. it amazes me how companies actually get away with blatantly lying to consumers like Virgin have done. if i had known this i definitely wouldnt have signed with them in the first place. whats worse for them is that they have clearly lost credibility and justly so. misleading consumers? SCHOOLBOY ERROR. be safe to say i definitely would not be renewing my contract.