Almost fifty complaints have been made to the Advertising
Standards Agency (ASA) about an internet promotion run by cable and
telecommunications company ntl. The company was the first to offer
a high speed broadband internet service in Scotland in the form of
ntlworld. However, the company’s promotion of this free service,
which is not available nationally, has been heavily criticised.
Customers have reported long waiting periods for receiving the
CD-ROM which is essential for subscription and some existing
customers have complained that the company has given priority to
new customers at the expense of its existing ones. The ASA has
already discussed the situation with the company and has suggested
that it was not adequately prepared for the numbers of customers
wishing to join ntlworld.
A spokesman for the ASA has stated “we are asking ntl to prove
to us that they have made a reasonable estimate of the response and
they can deal with it…if they are unable to do that, we will uphold
the complaint and widely publicise the fact, saying that they have
got their promotion wrong and they have let their customers
down”.
