CHOICE November 2021

Welcome to this special edition of CHOICE, celebrating our 2021 Shonky Awards. Perhaps because they are so high profile, or perhaps because they’re a bit controversial, I get more questions about the Shonkys than anything else we do. Here are some of the most common things I’m asked: Why do you do the Shonkys? We haven’t always done them – while CHOICE has been around since 1960, we’ve only been handing out Shonkys since 2006. I think the original idea came out of a frustration about the number of bad products we were coming across in our testing and investigations and a desire to do more about it. Giving an award to a bad product hopefully has two effects. Firstly, it’s like a big, red ‘Do not buy’ sign on the particular product. We…

Telecommunications and credit providers were found to be the worst performers for customer experience in 2020, according to a scorecard released by the Consumer Policy Research Centre in partnership with Roy Morgan. The scorecard was gathered from insights from almost 7000 respondents from May to December 2020. “Telco providers ranked extremely poorly on user experience and accessibility which is disappointing and ironic, given their core business is communications Australians deserve better from these companies,” says CPRC CEO Lauren Solomon. Credit and personal finance, including the booming buy now, pay later market, were found to be equal-worst performers in the scorecard. “We know that as time went on, consumers exhausted available resources and increasingly turned to credit to make ends meet. “Young people have been particularly exposed by glossy, fast-credit that extracts significant premiums by way…

CHOICE has welcomed the Treasury’s proposed legislation to better protect people from unfair contract terms. The proposal includes massive fines for big businesses that do the wrong thing, making it illegal to propose, and to rely on, unfair contract terms and giving courts more flexibility to respond when they do. Unfair contract terms have been banned since 2011, yet businesses continue to rely on them. If implemented, the legislation will establish a strong deterrence that we believe will reduce the number of unfair consumer contracts. CHOICE has argued for stronger powers for regulators like the ACCC. But unfortunately, the proposal maintains courts as the only way for consumers to challenge unfair contract terms. Consumers face many barriers to taking big business to court, with the cost being prohibitive for many. However, the proposal does…

Pet ownership experienced a boom during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are now an estimated 30.4 million pets living in Australian households, up from 20.5 million in 2019. And the proportion of households with at least one pet increased from 61% to 69% over the last two years according to Animal Medicines Australia. Dog ownership increased the most. Over a million additional dogs now live in Australian households compared with 2019. Companionship was the top reason for wanting a dog, with breed temperament and size also considered relatively important. Companionship and rescue were the top reasons for owning a cat. Overall, 70% of pet owners reported their furry friends had a positive impact on them throughout the pandemic – with almost half (47%) feeling ‘very positive’. Reasons included that pets provided joy, comfort…

CHOICE called Qantas and Virgin four times a day over nine days and found some times are certainly better than others. Qantas customers listening to the jaunty strains of interminable hold music as they try to sort out flight cancellations during a COVID-19 lockdown could be forgiven for wondering why the airline hasn’t put more resources into customer service. After all, the tax-funded government bailout package for Qantas now stands at about $1.5 billion. Amid the biggest travel disruption event in recent history, couldn’t more of our dollars have been put towards customer support? As one respondent to our March 2021 travel cancellation survey puts it, “they really, really need to improve their customer service. I can’t understand why they didn’t use some of the staff that were stood down to help process…

The average debt levels for people receiving help from their energy provider in Victoria peaked in April, and has come down slightly since then. According to the state’s energy regulator, the Essential Services Commission, at the end of June there were 60,000 electricity and 43,000 residential gas customers accessing tailored assistance from their provider to pay their energy bill. The average debt for those on tailored assistance peaked at $1142 in April. “The number of customers receiving assistance is relatively stable or dropping, but the average amount owed is now higher than prior to the pandemic,” the commission’s executive director of energy Sarah Sheppard says. “The ongoing economic impact of the pandemic is being felt across the community and we will continue to monitor debt levels.” The number of energy disconnections, however, remained…