Ad description
The home page of www.OfficialiPhoneUnlock.co.uk stated "Permanently factory unlock your iPhone without jailbreaking - by whitelisting your IMEI in the Apple iTunes database".
Text on the "Unlock FAQ" page stated: "Other sites claim to do it in 5 minutes, why do you take 24 hours to 3 days?"; "How long does it take after purchase to get my unlock? Depends on your network - it varies between instantly and 10 days. Unlocks are processed during normal working hours (Monday to Friday)".
Issue
A complainant challenged whether the claim "How long does it take after purchase to get my unlock? Depends on your network - it varies between instantly and 10 days ..." was misleading and could be substantiated.
Response
iPhone Accessories and Repair (iPhone Accessories) said the time periods referred to the length of time it took to unlock from the point of availability, not the length of time it took for a pre-order to become available. They said the complainant had purchased a pre-order, the process for which was explained in the FAQ on their website. They referred to text which stated "The website says my unlock is available 'soon' and I can pre-Order. What is a Pre-Order? - A pre-order simply means that those unlocks are currently offline whilst we are in negotiations to confirm a price with the carrier and Apple. Hence why the price is always £19.99. Please note this isn't the final unlocking price which may be substantially more expensive ... they vary between £29 and £119 so expect something in this region. Once our negotiations are concluded, you will be emailed the final price which will also be on the website, and you can then complete your order and purchase the full unlock, which will be discounted by £19.99. This gives you the opportunity to get unlocked the fastest way, rather than having to keep checking our website to see if the unlock is online yet. Remember - we get our unlocks before, and cheaper than, anyone else". In addition to the information on the FAQ pages, iPhone Accessories referred to the pricelist page, where they believed the time periods for each network, which differed because each network timeframe varied, were stated sufficiently clearly to customers, in what they considered was the most relevant place because that was where customers would go through the purchase of an unlock.
iPhone Accessories said they relied on the networks to unlock handsets. They said only in exceptional circumstances were timeframes not met and they always relayed any delays to customers and kept them informed via their order status page. They supplied a report of 1,000 transactions from their database which listed the dates on which customers had placed orders and the dates on which they had received their unlock.
Assessment
Not upheld
The ASA studied a selection of data which iPhone Accessories confirmed was the total number of orders that were completed on the day in each case. We noted that for each order we studied, the unlock was supplied in less than the 10-day period the complainant had challenged. We noted that the complainant had waited considerably longer than 10 days for her unlock, but considered that an exceptional occurrence of that kind did not in itself invalidate a claim when an advertiser could show that, for the vast majority of transactions, the claim was true. While we noted the complainant's experience, we considered iPhone Accessories had supplied evidence which substantiated the claim and concluded that it was not misleading.
We investigated the claim under CAP Code (Edition 12) rules
3.1
3.1
Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.
and
3.3
3.3
Marketing communications must not mislead the consumer by omitting material information. They must not mislead by hiding material information or presenting it in an unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely manner.
Material information is information that the consumer needs to make informed decisions in relation to a product. Whether the omission or presentation of material information is likely to mislead the consumer depends on the context, the medium and, if the medium of the marketing communication is constrained by time or space, the measures that the marketer takes to make that information available to the consumer by other means.
(Misleading advertising),
3.7
3.7
Before distributing or submitting a marketing communication for publication, marketers must hold documentary evidence to prove claims that consumers are likely to regard as objective and that are capable of objective substantiation. The ASA may regard claims as misleading in the absence of adequate substantiation.
(Substantiation),
3.9
3.9
Marketing communications must state significant limitations and qualifications. Qualifications may clarify but must not contradict the claims that they qualify.
and
3.10
3.10
Qualifications must be presented clearly.
CAP has published a Help Note on Claims that Require Qualification.
(Qualification) and 9.2.4 (Distance selling) but did not find it in breach.
Action
No further action necessary.
