{"id":45758,"date":"2013-09-11T16:29:54","date_gmt":"2013-09-11T14:29:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=45758"},"modified":"2013-09-12T10:32:53","modified_gmt":"2013-09-12T08:32:53","slug":"cell-c-to-pull-15cmb-advert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/45758\/cell-c-to-pull-15cmb-advert\/","title":{"rendered":"Cell C to pull 15c\/MB advert"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A billboard from <a title=\"Cell C\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/forum\/showthread.php\/1641-Cell-C\">Cell C<\/a> which states \u201cIf it costs more than 15c\/MB you\u2019re paying too much,\u201d has been ruled as misleading advertising by the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (<a title=\"ASA\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/forum\/showthread.php\/1814-ASA-Advertising-Standards-Authority-of-South-Africa\">ASA<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>The complaint stated that a subscriber recently exceeded his data bundle only to discover that he was being billed 99c\/MB.<\/p>\n<p>When he queried this, he said that Cell C informed him that he needed to purchase an additional data bundle on top of the data allowance included in his contract to qualify for the 15c\/MB.<\/p>\n<p>Cell C did not dispute this, with its representative, Clear Copy, explaining that the advertisement was a call to action for two groups of people:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Cell C customers not aware of smartdata bundles; and<\/li>\n<li>Subscribers of other networks who are probably paying more than 15c\/MB.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Clear Copy told the ASA that Cell C has two types of data charges: a flat 99c\/MB rate and a 15c\/MB rate available through the operator\u2019s SmartData bundles.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The billboard draws a comparison between what one would presumably be paying elsewhere &#8211; &#8220;too much&#8221; &#8211; as opposed to what Cell C is charging &#8211; 15c\/MB,&#8221; the ASA said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The overwhelming impression therefore is that all non-Cell C customers should rethink their data costs, and that excisting Cell C customers are, by default, charged only 15c\/MB.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The ASA pointed out that there is also no mention of having to load an additional SmartData bundle (at an additional cost) to secure the advertised rate.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The respondent (Cell C) has an obligation to clearly communicate this vital information to customers beyond the nondescript &#8216;Terms and conditions apply&#8217;,&#8221; The ASA said.<\/p>\n<p>In its ruling on the matter, the ASA said that the billboard creates a misleading impression by omitting material pricing information, and is ambiguous as a reasonable person would assume that the 15c\/MB data price applies to all Cell C\u2019s subscribers.<\/p>\n<p>The ASA instructed Cell C to withdraw the advertising with immediate effect.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">More on Cell C<\/h3>\n<p><a title=\"Cell C network \u201cperfect\u201d by November: CEO\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/44959\/cell-c-network-perfect-by-november-ceo\/\"><strong>Cell C network \u201cperfect\u201d by November: CEO<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Cell C admits network \u201ctaking strain\u201d\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/44595\/cell-c-admits-network-taking-strain\/\"><strong>Cell C admits network \u201ctaking strain\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Cell C dead by 2014: analyst\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/44470\/cell-c-dead-by-2014-analyst\/\"><strong>Cell C dead by 2014: analyst<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"Cell C sign-ups boom\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/43272\/cell-c-sign-ups-boom\/\">Cell C sign-ups boom\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Cell C seeks profitability within 3 years\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/42158\/cell-c-seeks-profitability-within-3-years\/\"><strong>Cell C seeks profitability within 3 years<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The ASA has found that one of Cell C&#8217;s adverts claiming \u201cIf it costs more than 15c\/MB you\u2019re paying too much\u201d is misleading to customers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":12396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[2170,42,26],"class_list":["post-45758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","tag-asa","tag-cell-c","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45758"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45808,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45758\/revisions\/45808"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}