You may want to check the exact terms of that Mint Mobile unlimited plan. The National Advertising Division recommended that Mint stop or modify its claim that its service is “now just $15 a month” because it could be misleading to customers.
The $15 rate for the unlimited only lasts three months as a promotion, after which customers need to choose a different plan, with the unlimited data option going up to as much as $40 a month depending on the length of service. The NAD, which is part of the Better Business Bureau, recommended that Mint stop using this claim or more clearly disclose that this is a promotional offer. The fine print can be found on the site in small font below the “Unlimited” offer.
Mint told the NAB that it “respectfully disagrees with NAD’s determination that the contours of the promotion were inadequately disclosed and that consumers reasonably interpret the phrase, ‘now just $15/mo’ to mean that ‘the rate is one in perpetuity, or of longer duration similar to introductory pricing offered by other wireless carriers’” because it only offers plans in three, six, and twelve-month increments.
Mint Mobile, now a unit of T-Mobile after it was acquired in March in a $1.35 billion deal, is one of the fastest growing prepaid providers, thanks in part to its slick marketing campaign built around investor and actor Ryan Reynolds. AT&T, a longtime rival to T-Mobile, raised the issue with the NAD. Ads featuring the Deadpool star are a mainstay of YouTube, with the claim being the center piece of video, banner and TV ads.
Mint said in the NAB statement that it plans to appeal the decision.
A Mint spokesman wasn’t immediately available to provide additional comment.