Jamster gets slammed in UK ruling
posted September 23rd 2005 5:30AM
So the full frontal assault on ringtone
huckster purveyor Jamster is shifting into high-gear, at least in the UK, where joyous British citizens will no
longer be subjected to those awful Crazy Frog jingles until after 9 P.M. In a victory for TV-lovers everywhere, the
London-based High Court ruled that the Advertising Standards Authority may continue to run its anti-Jamster campaign
(striking down Jamster's request for an injunction), and may also impose a daytime ad ban, due to almost 300 user
complaints about Jamster's questionable business practices. As anyone who has
suffered through these terrible commercials
(and who of us hasn't, many times over) knows, they are clearly targeting children with their rather juvenile 'tones
and, ala Joe Camel and friends, cartoony characters. And once your kid (or you) orders that first swag from Jamster,
prepare to become members of an opt-out only, we'll-send-you-new-garbage-everyday-if-we-can, download club. To
Jamster's credit, they did create a website allowing parents to block a phone number from ordering Jamster content, but
they have yet to implement a program notifying people in very big letters and very clearly-spoken words that they are
about to enter into an unholy pact with the Ringtone Devil.
[Via MocoNews]
Let's hope they can get those ads off TV permenently, instead of just after the 9PM watershed.
I speak for the whole UK when I say 'w00t!'
This is really good news.Its almost gone full circle though, it was cool to have a C-F then cool to hate it now its cool to have it again. Personally, I am glad. I never left second base.
Too bad most people who buy the ringtones from Jamster are adults...
I'm amazed any of these sell at all. If you're caught with these gay tones, you're literally laughed out of town.
I work for Orange, and as such, we have idiots coming in on a daily basis claiming "Orange is stealing my money!!!11222!one" when infact due to their great stupidity, they've signed up to one of those 8xxxx numbers - which is bleeding them dry of £4+ a day.
When will people learn?
(btw for all you 'idiots' out there - just reply to the txt with the word 'stop' and you'll be safe again.)
About f*cking time. Do you think we can sue jamster for psychological damages?
Every once in a while things come around that are so stupid, you wish the cold war would have ended with a nuclear holocaust.
Jamster, and stupid custom ringtones in general, meet this criteria.
Thank f**k! I hope the person responsible for the first crazy frog ringtone cry themselves to sleep at night, b*****ds!
Seriously though; I don't know what it's like for the U.S. but in the UK those ads are on ALL the time on EVERY frickn' channel! Whatever happened to 'target audience'?
I say again; Thank f**k!
Cheers;
Poncho
Man, never have I been happier not to have cable. I've never seen one of these ads (so that answers the "who among us..." question), and can do nothing but laugh at you people who complain about them. Ha!
Kerry - its one of the reasons I don't watch tv anymore... but I can't escape it at work... ARGH!!11one
Does this tactic suprize anyone? Jamster is owned by Verisign, owner of Network Solutions...
"I work for Orange, and as such, we have idiots coming in on a daily basis"
nice that you refer to your customers as "idiots". glad i'm not an orange customer.
i'd like to see a complete end to these ring tone companies. however, it doesn't look like the mobile phone companies are making a lot of effort to control it (i wonder why?)
I was disgusted to find that jamster was 'stealing' £4.50 a month from me. This went on for a fe months. I ignored the texts, thinking they were technically 'junk mail. Little did I know I was being charged every time I received a text. I never asked to be texted, I never bought anything from them , and I was consistently hounded by three or four texts a month (which would be sent at rediculous hours of the morning. I only found out through a friend that I could send the word stop to them to stop the texts. I think it is daylight robbery!!!!!!!!!!!!!!