CHOICE October 2021

A few months ago I celebrated my ninth anniversary with CHOICE. Given how many problems we come across in our day-to-day work, you’d think that by now I might have become a hardened cynic. For better or for worse, that’s not the case. Because for all of the rip-offs and unsafe products that we find, we also find plenty of great ones. There are lots of people out there genuinely trying to come up with new ways of making our lives better. Some businesses even seek our advice about how to improve their products. That just makes me more disappointed when we come across others who are making products that appear to be deliberately designed to trick people. There’s probably no industry where we see this more than in packaged food, as the…

As of 30 June 2021, the compensation tally for victims of fees for no service and dodgy financial advice had reached a whopping $1.86 billion. The payouts have been coming from six of Australia’s largest banking and financial services institutions – AMP, ANZ, CBA, Macquarie, NAB and Westpac – whose many misdeeds were aired at the banking royal commission and detailed in its scathing 2019 final report. As of early August, NAB had compensated or offered to compensate 677,531 customers for fees charged where no services were delivered, and will have paid out $556,144,345 in total when the process is finished. In the case of AMP, 225,513 customers are due compensation for the same institutional misconduct, with a total of $230,418,976 eventually making its way back to customers. Westpac owes $578,441,530 to 71,498…

Aportable cot for babies was recalled in late August after CHOICE laboratory tests revealed serious safety failures. We contacted the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) about the issue – and we urge parents to return the product to the retailer for a refund. The product in question, the Mamakiddies Baby Playard Happy Dino portable cot, failed the mandatory and voluntary safety standards in our labs and “presents a long list of risks including fall, suffocation, entrapment and strangulation”, according to CHOICE tester and expert Kim Gilmour. The cot was sold through retailer MyMoonMart. It declined our request on 12 July to issue a recall to its customers, but subsequently told CHOICE it was no longer selling the Mamakiddies cot. On 25 August, the product was finally recalled following our consultation with the…

In a recent case launched by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) in the Federal Court, the Bank of Queensland (BoQ) was found to have several unfair terms in its standard-form loan contracts for small businesses going back to November 2016. They included clauses that permitted the bank to vary the terms and conditions of the contract without giving borrowers advance notice – a practice known as ‘unilateral variation’ – and without letting borrowers get out of the contract without paying a penalty. Worse, the BoQ contracts had indemnification clauses that let BoQ make a claim against customers for losses caused by BoQ’s mistake, error or negligence. “Small business owners deserve to be able to enter into fair loan contracts, especially where they have little or no ability to negotiate the terms,”…

The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) has begun proceedings in the Federal Court against Origin Energy over its dealings with customers experiencing financial hardship. The energy provider allegedly breached its own hardship policies by making “unilateral” changes to customers’ hardship plans, cancelling some plans and failing to consider customers’ actual ability to repay the plans. The alleged breaches happened to 18 customers and in some cases led to wrongful disconnections of residential energy accounts. Various state energy ombudsmen received complaints about Origin’s treatment of customers in financial hardship, and brought them to the attention of the regulator. “We are very concerned about the alleged conduct by Origin, particularly the use of automation to make changes to hardship customers’ payment plans without first seeking their agreement,” AER chair Clare Savage says. “We consider that the energy…

As well as causing respiratory and other physical health problems, COVID-19 can also affect mental health. Extended lockdowns, self-isolation or loss of employment can cause or worsen mental health issues, such as anxiety or depression. If you or a loved one are experiencing mental health issues, it’s a good idea to visit your GP who can assess and diagnose conditions, and make a mental health treatment plan with you. The plan will include treatment options and goals, and will be kept private between you and your GP. Through the plan, you can also access Medicare-subsidised visits to a mental health professional. The number of sessions eligible for Medicare have risen from up to 10 to up to 20 per calendar year. The 10 extra sessions will be available until 30 June 2022. These…