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Cardiffman282's avatar
Cardiffman282
Wise owl
2 days ago
Solved

When is a gift not a gift?

When it's from VM Ltd. 

What would you say is the normal everyday natural meaning of the terms "reward", "gift" and "on us"? 

Would you tend to see these terms as meaning, well, what they say?  

Currently VM says it has some nice things for me like broadband upgrades and TV offerings that are a "reward", "gift" and "on us" [ie on VM Ltd]. 

These are presented in nice attractive tiles on my VM home page. 

(Screenshots are available upon request as they are proving impossible to post here.) 

However, a tad unsurprisingly to this old hand, none of them actually are a gift or on VM Ltd and all involve additional payment. 

Before I go and make a formal written complaint to the ASA I thought I'd "gift" VM a fortnight to sort its marketing out, check a dictionary, and do the right thing.

I will come back and update the thread in a couple of weeks. 

Cheers. 

  • John_GS's avatar
    John_GS
    22 hours ago

    Good morning Cardiffman282 

    Thanks for coming back to me and also with the evidence. This has been flagged now and is being dealt with.

    Once again thanks for bringing to our attention.

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  • goslow's avatar
    goslow
    Alessandro Volta
    2 days ago

    No doubt the interpretation of 'gift' comes from the same VM phrase book as 'keep everything the same' (which actually means 'your services will be removed or reduced' as we have seen in so many previous renewal topics on here)!

  • John_GS's avatar
    John_GS
    Icon for Forum Team rankForum Team
    2 days ago

    Good evening Cardiffman282 

    Thanks for posting and welcome back to the community.

    Can you expand on this for us and we'll do our best to assist?

    Best wishes.

    • Cardiffman282's avatar
      Cardiffman282
      Wise owl
      2 days ago

      Hi John, 

      Thanks for coming back to me.

      I believe VM is engaged in false advertising by suggesting that broadband and TV upgrades are free gifts courtesy of VM when they are in fact chargeable. 

      This false advertising appears on my "myvmo2" home page at

       https://www.virginmedia.com/myvmo2/home

      For the avoidance of doubt I am not trying to get myself some freebies here. It's about the dishonest and deceitful advertising. In my view the misleading words mentioned in this thread and shown in the screenshots need to be edited out quickly from this campaign. I believe two weeks is sufficient time. 

      If any more clarity is needed (eg the relevant ASA standards that would apply here in my view) please let me know. 

      Cheers. 

      • John_GS's avatar
        John_GS
        Icon for Forum Team rankForum Team
        22 hours ago

        Good morning Cardiffman282 

        Thanks for coming back to me and also with the evidence. This has been flagged now and is being dealt with.

        Once again thanks for bringing to our attention.