Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2014/07/09/talktalk_misled_customers_over_budget_broadband_package_says_the_asa/
TalkTalk talks itself into trouble with budget broadband package fibs
ASA places cheap-as-chips telco on the naughty step
Posted in Networks, 9th July 2014 10:01 GMT
TalkTalk has been admonished for misleading customers with claims that it offered "Britain's lowest priced totally unlimited broadband".
BT and another complainant challenged three separate issues with a series of adverts in the press and online that wrongly suggested that the budget telco had cheaper deals than its competitors.
The Advertising Standards Authority ruled against the Dido Harding-run ISP because it failed to substantiate the claims, was wrong on price comparisons and misled customers.
The telco was warned that the ads mustn't appear again in their current form.
"We told TalkTalk to make clear the basis of their comparisons in future, and to ensure that significant information relating to those comparisons was given sufficient prominence," the ad watchdog said.
TalkTalk had tried to defend its actions by saying that "competitor promotions changed so rapidly that any comparison against a promotion would soon be out of date and then potentially misleading."
It lost out on that point and equally screwed up when trying to explain that, unlike BT and other ISP rivals, TalkTalk didn't throttle traffic on the broadband network offers it was punting.
Besides that, TalkTalk added, it had been using the claim "Britain's lowest price" since November 2013 without anyone moaning about that particular tagline until now.
A spokesbod for TalkTalk contacted the Reg to say:
We're committed to making Britain better off and consistently offer our customers Britain’s best prices for TV, broadband, mobile and home phone. As such TalkTalk homes make significant savings in comparison to our competitors. We note the ASA's comments about ensuring comparison text is prominent and look forward to continuing to provide Britain’s lowest prices. ®