Pay per second objection

There was, however, no reference to rates on Virgin Mobile’s brochures or on its website, and the company undertook to ensure that all necessary information be added to its website and brochures.
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Well, at least some good out of all of this.

Looks like everyone is referring there issues to ASA, instead of customer care. :rolleyes:
 
This leaves me confused:

http://www.virginmobile.co.za/virgin-portal-customer/theGreatdeal.do

We won't steal your seconds
We offer true per-second billing - from the very first second - because anything else is a non-righteous rip-off. Did you know that most calls are dropped or last less than a minute? Without true per-second billing up to 60 percent of your call charge - could be an overcharge!​

Which advertisement / deal are they talking about?
 
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aaaa always a catch! read the fine print.if you can find it
 
I hate it when people do things like this. They complain for the sake of complaining. The VM deal is a really good one. I know it's not per second billing from the word, go but unlimited SMS's, a phone and free minutes per month is better then anyone else offers.
 
Abe said:
I hate it when people do things like this. They complain for the sake of complaining. The VM deal is a really good one. I know it's not per second billing from the word, go but unlimited SMS's, a phone and free minutes per month is better then anyone else offers.
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The point is to make advertising correct, and help others interpret it correctly. It has nothing to do with how great Virgin's deals are
 
andytl5 said:
The point is to make advertising correct, and help others interpret it correctly. It has nothing to do with how great Virgin's deals are
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VC and MTN have reams of lawyers and people who can spend hours checking out every little detail. I don't see them making an effort to drop prices. A smaller company comes in with a great deal and, yes, they did not fix up all of the fine print and generic ad's on their web site. What I can't see, is sufficient reason to take the smaller company to ASA because the general terms on their web site did not cater for this special deal. We seem to be so hell bent on finding something wrong that we don't look at the bigger picture. The product in question clearly states "Pay per minute for your first minute, then per second thereafter." so, IMO, this whole case was just nit picking.

I am sure one would be able to find something wrong with almost any company if one were to look hard enough.

It was the same with Neotel when they released their deal recently. They offered a great deal that did not cover everyone's needs and instead of saying, "wow, thats a great deal, I can't wait until there is something for me", the posts went mostly along the lines of, "useless, there is a 24 month contract" or "lousy latency", etc.
 
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Abe said:
VC and MTN have reams of lawyers and people who can spend hours checking out every little detail. I don't see them making an effort to drop prices. A smaller company comes in with a great deal and, yes, they did not fix up all of the fine print and generic ad's on their web site. What I can't see, is sufficient reason to take the smaller company to ASA because the general terms on their web site did not cater for this special deal. We seem to be so hell bent on finding something wrong that we don't look at the bigger picture. The product in question clearly states "Pay per minute for your first minute, then per second thereafter." so, IMO, this whole case was just nit picking.

I am sure one would be able to find something wrong with almost any company if one were to look hard enough.

It was the same with Neotel when they released their deal recently. They offered a great deal that did not cover everyone's needs and instead of saying, "wow, thats a great deal, I can't wait until there is something for me", the posts went mostly along the lines of, "useless, there is a 24 month contract" or "lousy latency", etc.
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Ok but it all depends on how it effects the person complaining and for what reasons they are doing so. Hopefully the reasons are wanting to better advertising standards for people in this country, and for a company to improve its brand perception through advertising.

I would use ASA for the purpose of getting clarification over the advertisements and claims made. If a person had any common sense they would contact Virgin before making any complaint, and if they felt they were not getting a knowledable answer from them, then go to ASA.

If I were Virgin I'd learn that perhaps my call rates are not always clear and in plain English. As the ruling states, Virgin want to improve that. So good on them for working with ASA and the complainant.

IMO it does not matter to me how big or how small a company is. If i don't understand your terms and conditions or why an advert is advertised in the manner it is, then I will ask that company some questions about it before signing on. If i can't get that help then the ASA can help me get that answer.
ASA is not to be used as a tool to create your own war, but to help people express their concerns, and for companies to reply and learn from the outcome.
 
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