Tuesday, 6th January 2009 - 16:30CET

UPDATED: MCA urges operators to back their claims

Surveys which serve as the basis for any claims made in the media should be in the public domain, the Malta Communications Authority said this afternoon.

It was reacting to a request by Vodafone Malta to intervene with regards to a media campaign undertaken by Go plc.

In its adverts, Go claimed that it was Malta’s best rated provider in terms of innovation, customer experience and reliability. The MCA said it turned out that these claims were based on a survey commissioned by Go, which was not in the public domain.

The MCA said it subsequently communicated with Go to express its concern with such advertising. It said it considered that all undertakings in the communications sector should ensure that any surveys which served as the basis for any claims made in the media should be in the public domain.

Claims based on information not in the public domain could lead to a situation where undertakings made claims about their services and products or those of their competitors which could not be verified for their accuracy and correctness.

The MCA said it considered that if a claim in an advertisement was based on a survey commissioned by the undertaking concerned, this fact should be clearly stated in the said advertisement.

GO plc in a reaction said it had made various references in the media about the research conducted by GfK, which confirmed it as the leading communications company when it came to value for money, customer experience, reliability and innovation. It was as a result of this research that it had launched an advertising campaign focussing on its strengths.

GO said the detailed results were available and were published in an interview given by its CEO to the business supplement of The Times on 18 December. http://www.timesofmalta.com/business/view/20081218/news/hundreds-sign-up -to-go-four-service-package-daily

GfK is one of the world leading's market research firms present in over 100 countries worldwide.

The firm carried out an in-depth research on Malta's communications sector with special focus on the level of customer experience provided by the various operators. The survey was carried out as part of the project using GfK's patented Loyalty Plus methodology among a 1,000-strong population sample. It included also qualitative research via extensive mystery calling and shopping as well as in-depth interviews and focus groups. Gfk has carried out similar exercises internationally for telecoms giants T-Mobile and Telefonica.

GO said that the report showed that its customers were more satisfied than those of the other two main operators in the local market in various areas, including value for money, customer experience, reliability and innovation.

The company said it has been in touch with the MCA and expressed its views and concerns on the claims made by the authority, while substantiating the results of the survey.

"GO reiterates its view that it is completely correct for it, or any other organisation for that matter, to base promotional campaigns on scientifically valid research that it commissions."

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Article © Allied Newspapers Ltd., printed on Sunday, November 22, 2009. This article is for personal use only, and should not be distributed.

Comments

Charmaine Chetcuti (on 7/1/09)

@ Micheal Debono

I am too an onvol subscriber and was offered the hello line free when their technicians updated my modem. Since that day I have never paid a cent for the hello line. And I am very scrupulous when it comes to paying my bills so I pay extra attention to what is listed there. No charges for the hello line are ever listed and my onvol subcription fee remained the same!!!

Joe Grima (on 7/1/09)

Irrespective of the Go/Voda/Melita controversy, it is about time the authorities realised the immense power carried by surveys in this country. I have campaigned for years to have surveys, a lethal weapon against competitors, regulated by law as in other civilised countries. Surveys become weekly and daily occurences at election time and no one has a clue as to the veracity of the results and how these results have been achieved. The surveyors hide behind the fact that these survys are "conducted scientifically". Ask the man in the street, at whom most surveys are directed, to satisfy himself with that , if he does not have the ability to check how scientific the systems used are. MCA or other regulators should set up clear understandable guidelines for surveyors so that the ordinary citizen will be able to check the claims made by surveyors for himself without needing to have a university degree to be able to do that.

lgalea (on 6/1/09)

Michael Debono
If you have not paid for the 5 months tell them to go and tell it to the marines and terminate your subscription as soon as the period that you have paid for expires.

ray bartolo (on 6/1/09)

M Debono I support what you have said about Melita's Hello service. I was offered this service free as I already enjoyed two other services from the same company. Today I have realised that for the last six months I have been charged Euro 7 for this service. When I contacted their customer service department they informed me that they had changed their hello packages and that i should have realised from the bill. They admitted they had not informed their customers of this, yet the refused to give me a refund as I had already made use of the service. This is disgraceful. Is the MCA aware of this as it should, and why is this company being allowed to take customers for a ride. Joining the EU should have meant that consumers are protected, clearly it is not the case in Malta. Shame on MCA

Michael Debono (on 6/1/09)

I was pestered by Melita to subscribe to Hello because it did not charge any monthly fee since I am client of onvol.net. It finally resulted that the pestering was not saying the truth because once subscribed I was informed that I was wrong and that there is a subscription monthly feeof some 24 €uros. As soon as the five month prescription ends I will close my subscription to Hello. Does what I am writing about concern the Malta Communications Authority.?Unfortunately there is nothing in writing to vouch for what I am writing about. I wait patiently for the five months to unsuscribe to Hello. I cannot do otherwise.

v vella (on 6/1/09)

I regret leaving GO and going to Vodafone thats all I am going to say.

P. Mizzi (on 6/1/09)

For a moment I thought the headline was referring to the actual internet connection speeds in relation to the claims made by the operators. That's a laugh!!

Mark Agius (on 6/1/09)

Who in his right might would have not realised that that survey was commissioned by Go themselves!! typical!

J Camilleri Baron (on 6/1/09)

I think Vodaphone are right on this. GO are just spraying pepper in the eyes of their irate customers who have been experiencing very serious problems with their internet connection.

all this talk about satisfaction and innovation... yet we spend days and days without internet. i'm not interested in surveys but in good service for the good money i pay.

well done MCA... but it's not enough. you have taken a half baked measure. if you disagree with this advertising, then you should make the operator stop it.

M. Catania (on 6/1/09)

This can also apply to others that regulated by MCA such as Maltapost. Why does not Maltapost publish its next day delivery rate?

UPDATED: MCA urges operators to back their claims

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