Vodafone rebuked for "abolishing" roaming charges
By Barry Collins
Posted on 28 Oct 2009 at 10:35
Vodafone has been reprimanded by the Advertising Standards Authority for claiming that it had "abolished" mobile roaming charges.
A series of internet, SMS and print ads run by the mobile network over the summer claimed the company had "abolished" the extra fees for making calls in 35 European countries.
That provoked the ire of no fewer than 21 complainants, who argued that the word "abolished" implied that Vodafone had axed the charges permanently, rather than for only three months over the summer.
'Abolished' could be construed in several ways - Vodafone
Vodafone reached for the Oxford Concise before putting up its defence, arguing that "the dictionary definition of 'abolished' was 'formally put an end to' and it did not necessarily mean the perpetual end or that something ceased to exist in its entirety."
Indeed, the Vodafone lexicographers argued that "the word could be construed in several ways and therefore it was reasonable to expect that it would be qualified."
The ASA wasn't swayed by the argument, however, upholding five out of six complaints about the various ads. "We considered consumers were likely to understand the ads, in particular the word 'abolished', to mean that roaming charges had been removed permanently, as opposed to having been suspended temporarily," the ASA's adjudication states. "Because that was not the case, we concluded that the ads were misleading."
Vodafone has been told not to run the ads again - a sanction that carries about as much weight as Kate Moss, given the promotion ended in August.
The company has also been told "to ensure that significant conditions of promotions were made clear, and did not contradict the main claim, in future ads."
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What a ridiculous argument. Vodafone have gone down in my estimation - why would I want to be a customer of a company that is clearly devious in how it uses language. Everyone knows that "put an end to" does NOT mean "we fully intend to start again in 3 months". At the very least it means "we currently have no plans to start it again".
Hopefully they will lose some potential customers seeing as the ASA sanctioned punishment is meaningless.
By halsteadk on 28 Oct 2009 
Hardly surprising, is it? Having redefined the meaning of "unlimited", the mobile phone companies are moving on to further mangling of the language.
By davidbryant4 on 28 Oct 2009
Meh
Although I agree the word abolished was a poor choice, they did make it clear it was a limited time in the adverts.
" sanction that carries about as much weight as Kate Moss, given the promotion ended in August"
Nice one Barry.
By JStairmand on 28 Oct 2009
@JStairmand - I think regardless of the small print they dug their hole deeper by later claiming they meant "abolished" as "formally put an end to" - which they clearly didn't if they fully intended to re-start what they were "ending".
By halsteadk on 29 Oct 2009
@Meh
Of course they did. In very small point white text on a constantly changing background, displayed for a brief period of time. Thats even worse than the radio adverts that spend 20 seconds extoling the virtues of the new low priced product, and then in a three second disclaimer 'speech' cram twice as many words as were spoken in the previous portion of the advert, with no easy way to discern what was said or the implications. Hardly honest advertising, is it.
I wonder if I can subvert the defintion of "temporarily suspend" to mean abolished, when I inform Vodafone I am temporarily suspending my monthly payment plan. Or "temporarily suspend" mortgage repayments.. Can we call this the "Vodafone defence" in court, perhaps?
By alan_lj on 26 Nov 2009
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