There was a large illustrated advertisement on p7 of the Bricks and Mortar supplement of The Times on 20 October by a property investment company called Insidetrack. It gave its phone number as 0870 128 6465 and the website address as www.insidetrack.co.uk

At the bottom of the advertisement the following appeared in small print:

"Calls from BT landlines cost 4p per minute. Calls from other networks may vary"

which of course is misleading.  Does anyone have a standard complaints letter to the ASA (to save time drafting one)?

Just send them a copy of the advert and your comment that it is "misleading price indications" and they will take it up , they are well aware of this type of misleading advertising..
if you have a scanner, you can scan it and send it by e-mail to:-  new.complaint@asa.org.uk  

This reminds me that I must check up with ASA about a complaint I made against CPW mag that lists a lot of 0870 numbers but doesn't give a price indication.

Thank you Derrick.  Email sent to ASA with scanned image of the advertisement.

Is there any statutory requirement to quote the cost of a call to an 0870 number?
(Clearly there is a requirement not to mislead if it is quoted).

pw4 wrote on Oct 24^th, 2006 at 4:08pm:

Is there any statutory requirement to quote the cost of a call to an 0870 number? (Clearly there is a requirement not to mislead if it is quoted).

Yes there is a requirement in non broadcast advertising to state the cost per minute for these numbers.

There is no statutory (i.e. legal) requirement to state the cost of calling 0870.  The ASA's codes do impose such a requirement, but the codes do not have the force of law.

hoxne wrote on Oct 26^th, 2006 at 10:46am:

There is no statutory (i.e. legal) requirement to state the cost of calling 0870.  The ASA's codes do impose such a requirement, but the codes do not have the force of law.

But major commercial advertisers always ultimately comply with them because respectable advertising agencies do not want to appear on the permanent bad boys list of their own trade association.

hoxne wrote on Oct 26^th, 2006 at 10:46am:

There is no statutory (i.e. legal) requirement to state the cost of calling 0870.  The ASA's codes do impose such a requirement, but the codes do not have the force of law.

I realise ASA have no remit to enforce anything instead often referring to Ofcom, etc if not dealt with but I thought there was a statutory requirement albeit for non-broadcast adverts to.

Thanks for clearing that up.

bbb_uk wrote on Oct 26^th, 2006 at 8:18pm:

hoxne wrote on Oct 26th, 2006 at 10:46am: There is no statutory (i.e. legal) requirement to state the cost of calling 0870.  The ASA's codes do impose such a requirement, but the codes do not have the force of law. I realise ASA have no remit to enforce anything instead often referring to Ofcom, etc if not dealt with but I thought there was a statutory requirement albeit for non-broadcast adverts to. Thanks for clearing that up.

Thanks from me also - ASA codes are not by definition statutory but that's the information I sought.