ASA UK Ban PlusNet Broadband ISP TV Advert for Misleading Half Price Offer

[#1]

Quote from: w23

Quote from: Oldjim and guess who went to unlimited on 19th December  22 Dec for me

Switched on 21st December 2012 for me - although it didn't take effect until 5/01/2013.

[#2]

@christmas
Whilst it will always be debatable about the positioning of links for further information -
Under each of the FAQs there is a "Read all FAQs" and the first broadband FAQ is "Why are your prices shown as 'from'?".
In the main advertising, the products are shown with a price for a period - which would initially give a clue about a contract period.
As you have to scroll down the page to see all the packages being promoted, you really can't miss the "Here's the Legal bit".
In the "Here's the Legal bit"  there is details about the discounts and how they are applied.
Under this section there are frequent links to the plus.net/terms
Under the Broadband section there is mention of Broadband with a 12-month contract and Broadband with no annual contract:
Under the Fibre Broadband section there is mention of the Fibre broadband 18-month contract.
There is also several links to the Price Guide as well as a number of other links.

[#3]

Quote from: Chris

12 months half price. To clarify the advert was changed to remove the reference to 'new customers only' on the 31st Jan. So if you negotiated a deal with us between then and the offer end date of the 7th Feb and weren't offered the correct deal, then please feel free to contact our Customer Options Team.

Chris,
Could you please clarify if the offer of Half Price broadband for everybody that changed product during the period the advert was on, is only available to those with a plusnet phone line, or (given that issue 3 of the ASA ruling was upheld) should also have been available for broadband only customers making a product change during that time?

[#4]

Line rental was required for new or existing customers. That was in the legal information on the advert and wasn't changed.

[#5]

Quote

ASA Assessment (Complaint Ref: A13-218152)     We considered, however, particularly given that the ad emphasised that “All broadband’s [sic] half off” and included claims such as “everyone’s a winner”, “There’s even half off unlimited broadband. You can get it from just four ninety nine a month … you can get it from under a fiver a month” and “don’t miss out, get unlimited broadband half off from just four ninety nine a month …”, the text “with £13.99 monthly line rental” was likely to be interpreted to mean that was the price of line rental for consumers who chose to take it, rather than that the offer was available only to those who paid £13.99 per month for line rental.     We considered that was a significant condition of the promotion that was not made sufficiently clear and that the word “with” was not sufficient to counteract the overall impression of the ad, which was that all broadband was half price. On balance, we therefore concluded that the ad was misleading.

[#6]

And that's exactly why we no longer use the ad.