Redten caught red-handed over broadband claims

 

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By Matthew Sparkes

Posted on 23 Jul 2008 at 10:36

Redten, the company which offers customers a "free PC" with their broadband connection, has been reprimanded by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over misleading claims.

Adverts from the company claimed that its packages offered "unlimited broadband" and "unlimited internet downloads", both of which were found to be misleading by the ASA as the company slowed connections to dial-up speed after either a 5GB or 15GB cap.

Another advert claimed that a "free upgrade to 24Mb/sec broadband" was available, which the ASA ruled was not true.

"Because we had not seen evidence to show that the download cap excluded only atypical users, or that customers were able to obtain an upgrade to 24 Mb/sec free of charge, we concluded that the claims 'unlimited broadband', 'unlimited downloads' and 'free upgrade to 24Mb broadband' were misleading," explains the ASA ruling.

The ASA also took exception to Redten's blase attitude to the complaint. "The ASA was concerned by Redten's lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code clause 2.6 (Non-response).

"We reminded it of its obligations under the Code and told it to respond promptly in future."

The news is the latest in a string of troubles for the company. Redten recently went into administration, but was taken over by a new company, Fatcat Comminucations.

However, both companies shared an address, and the Fatcat domain name was registered to a Watford Electronics email address - the same company originally behind Redten.

When we contacted the company's customer support number and asked to speak to the press department we were told by a member of staff that they were "not interested, mate," before they hung up on us.

In March this year, all Redten customers also went a week without an internet connection.