Virgin rapped on broadband claims

Vanquish-Storm

Vanquish-Storm

Vanquish-Storm

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No not that kind of virgin.... :p

(this may be more apropriate for the internet section?)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13963473

It seems that Virgin Media have been reprimanded by ASA for their campaign that acuses rival broadband companies of misselling (conning customers) their network speeds.

What do you think of this? How can ASA have a go at Virgin for telling it as it is and no stop the other providers for their advertising of "up to" broadbands. We all know (i should hope so?) that you will never get the full speed that you are advertised to get; ie up to 20mbps your more likely to get around and average speed of 6mbps if your lucky.

Why cant ASA stop these providers advertising this way?
 
I think the ASA has approved the other adverts effective in the past, and even VM's is "up to" as they can't guarantee the effective speed you'll get (although iirc in independent tests VM's speed is usually much closer the headline than most of the ADSL providers).

Personally I think ISP's should be made to show their "up to" and "average" speeds in adverts, and make the limitations much clearer (at the moment many people just go by the headline up to speed, and price).
 
Werewolf said:
Personally I think ISP's should be made to show their "up to" and "average" speeds in adverts, and make the limitations much clearer (at the moment many people just go by the headline up to speed, and price).
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To be fair, Virgin actually do show their average speeds in most (if not all) of their current adverts. I'd definitely agree that this should be compulsory, this whole "up to" in a font barely visible to the human eye is ludicrous.
 
VirginMedia should be reprimanded for there stupid Traffic Shaping rules, Fair enough Thottling the connection on the fair usage policy but this traffic shaping is really getting on my nerves, I have the 20mb and due to traffic shaping i often have trouble streaming iplayer (including radio). I should not have to worry about buffering on a 20mb line!
 
Seems darft to me. Virgin you actually get what you pay for, or at least most do. Some people have problems.

Where adsl they say unto 20mb, then you do a line check and it's up to 12, then you get it fitted and it's only 6mb.
Cable all the way and they need to sort out the advertising it's a steaming pile of ......
 
Maybe everyone should just have the view that any advert is a potential lie.

I put the word potential in there as there has to be some honest adverts, right?.

The whole up to fiasco is so wrong. It's tantamount to false advertising. **** it, it IS false advertising.

The advert I currently hate for not being honest is that one for the milk, and other stuff, home delivery where the bloke on it days something like

"if you order by a certain time I'll deliver your order the next morning"

Well he never arrived, they sent someone else. Liar.
 
TBH there is a lot of false avertisement out there.

I agree with werewolf that both the "up to" and the average speeds should be shown in the advert, but then when signing up or enquiring surely they could give you a good idea of what speed you would get in your area?
 
Virgin, the provider that actually has a higher average than all other companies, gets wrong for pointing out that all the other companies have a lower average speed than virgin do . . . .

Hmm.
 
Virgin do have problems though, I get through a good 1tb from my tv shows and movies, it's supposed to be unlimited ( from ads) but they have no clear definitions in their t&s saying how much I can get away with. Just gotta pray that I don't get lettered and live in a area with a low amount of subscriptions.
Personally I would not mind paying a higher price for a truly unlimited 50mb and their superhub is god awful.
 
I always find the up to argument stupid, in 9 out of 10 cases, it's due to line length that the speed advertised cannot be supplied rather than the provider not having capacity to deal with it.

How else are they supposed to market it? Up to 8mbit encompasses everyone.
 
The BT adverts rile me somewhat.

"UK's most complete broadband" - what does that even mean?

"BT's signal is better than other broadband providers" - with the advert showing the signal going round bends and into the far corners of the room. It even serves around doors!
 
AcidHell2 said:
they do, but I've always found it to be miles out. 2-3 times what you actually get.
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So they give you a number that doesnt actually corolate to the speed you will get.

I think i worded what i meant wrong, basically i think they should give you in writing what speed they believe you will get.

ie they say you will get 4mb, i sign the contract saying fine, if it then goes down to 1mb i have right to complain. At the moment many people are finding that if they complain the "technician" or "customer support" agent just fob them off with the "well it is UP TO 8mbps" line.

Does anyone know the crack with BTs new homehub? Apparantly its inteligent and deals with walls and interference??
 
redeye_uk said:
The BT adverts rile me somewhat.

"BT's signal is better than other broadband providers" - with the advert showing the signal going round bends and into the far corners of the room. It even serves around doors!
Click to expand...

Hehe, exactly.. ARGHH!H!H!H! :o:(:)
 
Vanquish-Storm said:
So they give you a number that doesnt actually corolate to the speed you will get.

I think i worded what i meant wrong, basically i think they should give you in writing what speed they believe you will get.

ie they say you will get 4mb, i sign the contract saying fine, if it then goes down to 1mb i have right to complain. At the moment many people are finding that if they complain the "technician" or "customer support" agent just fob them off with the "well it is UP TO 8mbps" line.

Does anyone know the crack with BTs new homehub? Apparantly its inteligent and deals with walls and interference??
Click to expand...

I have a guess it's hard for them to tell what kind of noise levels you have on your line.
I would also hazard a guess that it scans for the channels being used by other routers then changes channel accordingly, but I am not sure if other routers do that as well.
 
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