When new flagship smartphones are released we see millions of consumers clambering to get their hands on the mobile phone in question, which can quickly lead to increasing shipping times for the device. This has certainly been the case recently with the Apple iPhone 5 and the LG Nexus 4 devices with lots of customers waiting weeks to see their orders finally fulfilled, and today we have news of an UK O2 iPhone 5 ASA ruling after complaints were made by some customers.

The Advertising Standards Authority in the UK has ruled against carrier O2 and the time it promised customers they would receive their orders of the Apple iPhone 5 according to The Daily Mail. The company had let its customers believe that if they had placed an order for the iPhone 5 before 4pm on the day before the launch, they would see the handset delivered to their address the next day.

O2 stated in the small print on its website that the only exceptions to this would be residents that lived in the Highlands and Islands because of their remoteness. The ASA then received six complaints about the carrier’s claims with five of these customers not receiving their iPhone 5 on the launch day after getting their orders in before the 4pm deadline.

The carriers parent company Telefonica UK argued there was three different types of iPhone 5 orders for the launch, which included a pre-order for handsets to arrive on launch day. As soon as O2 had exhausted the initial stock of the handset they ceased to continue taking these orders from customers, and only took orders for future supplies with dispatch once stock was replenished with these simply called standard orders.

O2 continued by saying that its customers would have been made aware what type of iPhone 5 order they had made, and for those making a standard one will have been notified that the order could take up to five weeks to arrive. The company believes that some customers making standard orders may have been confused by a frequently asked question that was online, and thought it concerned their order.

The ASA didn’t agree though and found that not enough distinction was made between these two types of order for the iPhone 5, and it seemed that all orders made before the cut off time would be fulfilled on the launch day. O2 has since accepted the ASA ruling and promised to make their ads clearer in the future.

Did you get an iPhone 5 from O2?