Orange have had their wrists slapped by the Advertising Standards Authority after T-Mobile complained their "Unlimited" talk and downloads service were in fact limited.
Orange's magazine ad, stated "It's easy to stay close to friends and family all year round with wireless home broadband from Orange. You also get unlimited UK and international calls to 100 countries and unlimited downloads. All from home".
Sounds great, an 'all you can eat' communication buffet. However, T-Mobile weren't too happy and complained that the service was in fact limited by its fair use policy.
Orange said both their Talk service and their downloads service were subject to a fair usage policy and the omission of a reference to that in the small print of the ad was a result of an error in the production of the ad. They said their normal practice was to draw attention to their fair usage policy with the wording "calls subject to Fair Use Policy for Talk service" and "unlimited downloading is subject to Fair Use Policy" and then refer customers to their website for the terms of that policy.
However, the ASA noted that Orange had used this excuse at least twice previously, and have yet again failed to draw attention to the limits on its "Unlimited" packages.
Orange also claimed that only 1.96% of their talk subscribers and 1.09% of broadband users ever fell foul of the fair usage terms.
However the ASA deemed that the ad breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation) and 7.1 (Truthfulness), and have told Orange to ensure that the details of their fair usage policy are included in all future advertising.
Sounds great, an 'all you can eat' communication buffet. However, T-Mobile weren't too happy and complained that the service was in fact limited by its fair use policy.
Orange said both their Talk service and their downloads service were subject to a fair usage policy and the omission of a reference to that in the small print of the ad was a result of an error in the production of the ad. They said their normal practice was to draw attention to their fair usage policy with the wording "calls subject to Fair Use Policy for Talk service" and "unlimited downloading is subject to Fair Use Policy" and then refer customers to their website for the terms of that policy.
However, the ASA noted that Orange had used this excuse at least twice previously, and have yet again failed to draw attention to the limits on its "Unlimited" packages.
Orange also claimed that only 1.96% of their talk subscribers and 1.09% of broadband users ever fell foul of the fair usage terms.
However the ASA deemed that the ad breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation) and 7.1 (Truthfulness), and have told Orange to ensure that the details of their fair usage policy are included in all future advertising.