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greysts
regular
Reg'd: Thu
Posts: 17961
Loc: Colchester
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Some while ago I wrote to the Advertising Standards Agency to complain about the way OnSpeed were advertising their services. I was particularly concerned about their comparison between OnSpeed and broadband as if the two services were identical when they clearly are not.
My complaint has been upheld and OnSpeed have been told to amend their advertising to make it clear to consumers that their service cannot download many file types as quickly as broadband.
The ASA will initially deal with the complaint on an informal basis and will expect to receive an assurance that the advert will be changed. If the advertisors are reluctant to co-operate the ASA will take further action.
All in all I'm quite pleased with that result.
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Jonny555
Reg'd: Fri
Posts: 5329
Loc: Cheshire, England
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Thats a great result and a fair one for the public.
I was concerned about Onspeed the first time it was mentioned on the boards. It's not broadband and shouldn't be sound like it's an equal alternative.
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Joe_London
HijackThis Helper
Reg'd: Tue
Posts: 10701
Loc: London
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Well done greysts, its good to see someone get a result against these all too common exaggerations and misrepresentations.
Keep up the good work.
That said is "OnSpeed" any good?
Joe.
Joe's Place
"If my career fails there is always alcoholism to fall back on."
Frank Skinner.
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greysts
regular
Reg'd: Thu
Posts: 17961
Loc: Colchester
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We have a few users on the forum and they all seem quite pleased with the service.
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wildthing666
regular
Reg'd: Fri
Posts: 3827
Loc: Micklefield Leeds
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all onspeed seems that it is to me is a compression tool along the lines of say win zip that is why i didn't bother and got BB instead.
D.I.V.O.R.C.E. a womans way of saying she has spent all your money
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broxi_blu
regular
Reg'd: Thu
Posts: 342
Loc: shetland isles,scotland
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i have just got onspeed last night 25/5/04 and it has made a big diffrence to my pc running a lot faster than before pages come up more a less instant, as for downloading files it doesn't seem to speed that up but im very impressed with it so far and will continue to use it until broadband is finally switched on up here wich is soon i think.
gordon.
LPG Gas Conversions
please feel free to sign my guest book on my site
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crisp_biscuit
regular
Reg'd: Fri
Posts: 369
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seeing as companies are allowed to advertise 150kbps as broadband then using onspeed which speeds up your general browsing and aslong as they make customers aware that it will NOT speed up downloads then i do not see a problem myself.
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greysts
regular
Reg'd: Thu
Posts: 17961
Loc: Colchester
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When a company advertises a service and compares itself with a different service then the comparison must be valid. It must compare like-for-like services and Onspeed and Broadband are not the same by any stretch of the imagination. Just because 150kb services call themselves broadband doesn't justify false and misleading adverts by other companies.
The Onspeed advert has been judged as misleading by the industry watchdog and that's good enough for me. I notice the same advert is in the current issue of WU and I will be taking this up with the publishers.
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crisp_biscuit
regular
Reg'd: Fri
Posts: 369
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If a company is allowed to sell broadband at a speed of 150kbps then onspeeds advertsing is not false, you can't have one rule for one and one rule for another
connection of 150kbps and a connection with onspeed would be the same apart from download speeds.
onspeed state on there website download speeds are not any faster so they are not misleading anymore.
it is up to the customer to know what they are purchasing and if you cant see the difference between onspeed and a 512kbps or faster connection then that is down to the customer not doing there own research.
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bricat
HijackThis Helper
Reg'd: Wed
Posts: 28603
Loc: belfast
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i think that is the whole point of having advertising standards. you shouldn't have to do a lot of research to see if an advertisement is leading you up the garden path.
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crisp_biscuit
regular
Reg'd: Fri
Posts: 369
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people who dont do research and just buy on a advertisement do not deserve any help.
a advertisement makes me aware of a product and then i would do some more research, simple.
charging around £2.50 a month and offering a user broadband speeds when browsing is hardly leading you up the garden path. 
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greysts
regular
Reg'd: Thu
Posts: 17961
Loc: Colchester
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The rule about misleading advertising applies to any company. The comparison about 150kbps has nothing whatsoever to do with it. The regulator has defined that 150k IS broadband. If you don't like that decision then complain to the regulator. The ASA has stated that Onspeed have created a misleading advert. If you don't like that decision either then write to the ASA and tell them.
I don't care that Onspeed explain on their website that what they are selling isn't Broadband. It's not up to the customer to find out that the company are misleading people through their advertising.
If an advertisement tells me that I can buy a service for £2 a month that will give me something that I currently pay £30 a month for then that is not only misleading it's a downright lie. All advertisers and magazine publishers have a duty of care not to carry misleading and false advertising and I expect both Onspeed and WU to abide by the law.
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crisp_biscuit
regular
Reg'd: Fri
Posts: 369
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of course it is up to a customer to find out what they are purcashing before they spend money
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putasolutions
regular
Reg'd: Tue
Posts: 12276
Loc: Infinity and beyond
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My two pennies worth, whilst I was well aware that it isn't broadband I do miss the download speed at Jaynees, but Onspeed HAS made a difference to general surfing.
Please post your query to the boards, so that others can learn
Remember there is no such thing as a simple question, just a question you don't know the answer to, though they are the easiest to answer
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