LA Times
The deceptiveness of advertisements have been matter of dispute and controversy for a long period of time. As shared to us by Kim Puzzanghera, Directv is the new focus of controversy for the time being. On Wednesday, federal regulators accused DirecTV of numerous accounts of deceptive advertising in which they vaguely and deceptively inform the readers about the true meaning and requirements which associate with engaging in their “12-month” package deal. However it is not just a 12 month package but rather it requires a two year contract which a large cancellation fee. This would entitle many of their consumers to refunds.
It is a well known principle that the significant terms of an offer must be clear and concise when conveying or persuading a consumer as to why their product or plan deems superior of their competitors. It states in the article that “thousands of consumers have complained about these practices.” At such a large scale of people who are not happy with their product, DirecTv cannot merely eschew the problem. Although Advertisements aren't exactly known for their concise and clear messages, there is always an extent and boundary which must be placed and not exceeded.
DirecTv in several locations straight out deny the allegations that are being made against the, and say that they will vigorously defend themselves however much time it may consume. However many of those who are making the accusations as well with the likes of many consumers are saying that the company purposely tried to trick the consumers into buying something which they believed to be an entirely different deal. Having about 20 million subscribers. it is highly unlikely that a scale of such a large amount of people would all have difficulty and complains if the message they were giving were clear and concise.
Those who were tricked into the company’s deceptiveness and wanted out had to pay a large cancellation fee of about $20 a month that remained on their contract. That being said if they were guilty of hiding important information in their advertising they would surely have to pay large amounts of refunds to their unsatisfied consumers. A cheap trick which is used by them and most definitely many more, is to hide the “deal-breaking” catch in the fine print or obscure them in other pictures or text.
Hence we get more evidence of the ongoing trickery which is placed by companies in order to fool their consumers to paying up more money. It isn’t just DirecTv however. Left and right we can see this kind of advertising wherever you look. In order to prevent cases like this, there should be stricter limitations as to how companies are able to advertise in order to increase the satisfaction of those whom are consuming the product.
