You can't bank on Standard's data advertising, watchdog rules

Technology was supposed to make our lives simpler, then along came data plans.

Now Standard Bank has been rapped over the knuckles for an "ambiguous" advert which consumer Garron Dace said he misinterpreted.

Dace complained to the advertising watchdog after signing up for what he thought was a 7c per megabyte deal which turned out to be anything but.

The Advertising Regulatory Board ordered Standard Bank to withdraw its misleading online advert with immediate effect.

Dace said he ended up being charged 7c/MB on top of a R149 subscription, when he assumed the deal would simply give him about 2.1GB of data monthly.

Standard Bank responded by attaching an example from its website of how the deal Dace misinterpreted works.

But the watchdog said a reasonable consumer's most likely interpretation of the bank's ad was that data worth R149 would be credited to them and depleted at 7c/MB.

"It is also implied by the introductory idea that you will have a fixed cost," the watchdog said in its finding.

"In addition, consumers are currently familiar with advertisements by different service providers offering deals and plans in a form of subscription contracts with airtime, data or SMS bundles already included in the monthly subscription fee.

"They might, therefore ... understand this plan to be similar to those that they are familiar with."

The ruling said Standard Bank's "how it works" example "does not offer any clarity at all regarding the issues at hand". In fact, it strengthened the incorrect impression that the monthly fee was an airtime credit.