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INTERCOM: Attention, shoppers.
Tonight on The Checkout.
Kirsten asks how fair dinkum
Australia's country of origin labelling rules are,
Jules dives into consumer rights for services,
and Craig goes after credit card companies.
Ready or not, here I come!
(Checkouts beep)
# THEME MUSIC
If you've watched The Checkout before...
# THEME MUSIC
Boring! I'm outta this place.
..you already know a bit about the Australian Consumer law,
so you know that...
..it's your choice, not the stores,
whether you get a refund or a replacement...
(TV zaps)
..if something like that happens.
But consumer rights aren't just about faulty goods.
The consumer law also covers services...
All clean, mate.
Joe's Cleaning, best in the business,
I'm off, see you later, bye!
..for when you pay someone for doing a job.
(Flies buzz) Hey! Hey, come back!
So if a consumer gets dodgy services,
what are my... I mean, your rights?
To start with, service providers must use due skill.
Ah!
They've also gotta take due care.
Well, it was fixed. I gotta go.
Services must also be fit for purpose.
(Siren wails)
That is, they should do what they're meant to do!
Well, that's me done, goodbye!
And that includes any purpose or result
that you specified to the service provider!
And I'd like my new doorbell to ring at less than 200 decibels, please.
You got it.
(Siren wails)
There are lots of ways you can specify what you want.
The more clearly you tell them, the better protected you should be,
and the best thing is to do it in a way that you can prove.
Attention neighbours, you are hereby witnesses
that I want my lawn mowed to 2.35cm in length exactly.
Thank you very much for your attention.
Good morning.
A specified purpose doesn't have to be in writing.
In fact, you can convey what you want without even saying a thing.
That's a cat, right?
It's a little tiny cat.
See, look, that's fine. There she goes. Good kitty.
Dammit!
Oh, didn't time travel!
The flux capacitor's not working. Yep.
If it's unreasonable to rely on the service provider's skill
or judgement, we're off the hook.
Time travel? Not possible. Yeah?
Yeah.
Speaking of time,
if a contract fixes a time for performing a service,
then under the Consumer Law, that time is guaranteed.
(Door knocks)
30 minutes and 6 seconds, that is free.
By my flux capacitor broke down...
(Door knocks) What?
You forgot a couple of things.
You forgot to say that if there's no time frame specified,
then the service has to be carried out within a reasonable time.
And you also forgot your garlic bread.
Oh, thank you.
OK, then. Thank you.
Now I feel bad about spitting in the garlic bread.
It's worth remembering stuff,
because while most businesses give good service, others...
..will try to take advantage of you in the bad way.
So remember, a contract can't remove your consumer rights
in the fine print.
Or even if it's not in the fine print.
In fact, it's illegal to suggest the terms of service
can override consumer guarantees,
or to suggest that you've gotta pay for something
which should be free under the Consumer Law,
so if anyone tries that with you, it's garbage.
There's a bunch of other useful protections in the Consumer Law too.
Like it's illegal to be false
or misleading about the need for services,
the quality of services or the price or services.
And that will be $100. What?!
Back and sides are extra.
Now I know that's a lot of info to take in,
but it is really worth knowing.
So let's recap.
Services must be fit for purpose, done with due care and skill,
Within the specified time or a reasonable time,
and those guarantees can't be excluded.
(Mimics) You got a problem with that?
It's fine.
Businesses also can't be false or misleading about services,
or about consumer rights.
Would you believe you have to pay for that?
No. Dammit!
I'll fix that.
But what happens when you get services you're not happy with?
In that case, the question to ask is, 'Was it a major failure?'
and it's not always an easy one to answer.
Yes, there are so many shades of grey.
Oh, come on!
Basically, it's a major failure if a reasonable consumer
wouldn't have bought the services in the first place
if they'd known what the problem was gonna be.
Or if the problem can't be fixed easy and within a reasonable time.
Here's a few examples.
This could be fixed pretty easily.
..but this is a... Major failure!
This wouldn't be too hard to remedy.
..but this would be a... Major failure!
This is easy to fix.
..but this would be a... Major failure!
If the problem with your service isn't a...
Major failure!
You have the right to demand that they fix it within a reasonable time.
I demand that you fix this within a reasonable time.
But there's no need to be rude. True.
If they don't fix it within a reasonable time,
you can pay somebody else to do it
and the original supplier is liable for that cost.
Or you can terminate the contract.
If it's the other thing, then you don't have to get them to fix it.
In either case, you're entitled to be compensated
for any reasonably foreseeable loss,
for example the cost of a replacement car.
(Honks horn) And if you can terminate the contract,
you're entitled to get all your money back.
And by the way, it's not just tradies that come to your house
who are covered either.
Services includes things like internet access,
but also professional advisers... Ah...
..health service providers... Dammit!
..and all manner of other services.
But the Consumer Law service guarantees
don't apply in all categories,
for example telecommunications, insurance, architects,
and even engineers in some cases aren't covered.
Hello, there. No.
Different consumer protections apply to them,
but the consumer law is generally the place to start.
It really is worth knowing your rights and how to use them,
'cause if you do, there's a much better chance of ensuring
that you don't get ripped off.
Hey, isn't the ABC a service provided too, smartass?
Nope, we're excluded.
MAN AND WOMAN: Johnson and Johnson's...
MAN: ..Sorbolene! WOMAN: ..baby Sorbolene!
BOTH: With 10% glycerine, water, glycerin, petrolatum...
And we can't be bothered reading the rest, but it's the same.
BOTH: $4.95!
For 750mL. For 500mL?
The reason this one's more expensive?
The active ingredient... ..is the word 'baby'.
MAN: Anaconda Mountain Bikes!
WOMAN: Cool! I'm gonna take it to a mountain and...
Warning, not intended for off-road use.
Oh...
Anaconda, mountain bikes for roads!
I love a sunburnt country,
a land of sweeping plains.
Of faux Australiana and dodgy ocker names.
Fair go, cobber. Every bonzer digger and his jumbuck
carries on like they're ridgy dinkum these days.
We got Aussie nappies, Aussie tissues.
There's even dinky die dunny paper for this wide, brown land.
And struth! For a country born of imports...
Speak for yourself, mate.
..we sure do like to buy local.
This latte-sipper found that...
..over 60% of consumers believe
that buying Australian-made products is important.
At least we say so if some quiche-eater asks us.
Course, different Aussies do it for different reasons.
Better quality products. Supporting local farmers.
Yeah, just don't like foreigners, aye.
But what with all the Aussie flags and koalas and big Dicks
cutting about on tucker these days,
working out whether an Australian-made claim is true blue
is bloody hard yakka.
Take something like this oil.
Oils! # ..the power and the passion... #
Is Moro olive oil made in Australia from local and imported ingredients
like it says on the can?
Or is it one of Australia's prime imports from Spain
like it says on their website?
Spain? I hate South Americans.
And what's the difference between MasterFoods'
100% Aussie-grown tomato sauce,
and MasterFoods' made-in-Australia tomato sauce?
And what about Sunraysia? It's 100% Australian-owned,
and until we got them on the dog and bone,
their website said all its juices were bottled down under,
but that doesn't mean it's Australian-certified organic juice
is made from Aussie fruit.
Take a close Captain Cook at the packet and you'll see
that it's made in the UAE.
Is that anywhere near Bali?
Maybe when they said bottled in Australia,
they meant this Australia,
which makes the question in their ad...
WOMAN: Hold on, do you know where the fruit came from?
.. a bloody ripper.
When we asked Sunraysia,
they narrowed it down to somewhere in the world.
Fair suck of the juice pouch.
And it's not just down the shops.
There's plenty of mongrels playing silly buggers online.
Take Batteries Shop.
They've got an Aussie website, they've got an Aussie address,
they've even got a picture of their Aussie shop.
Hang on.
Sorry, I mean, they've even Photoshopped a picture
of a different store in Esperance, WA,
to make it look like they've got an Aussie shop when it's a furphy.
They're really just flogging gear straight from Hong Kong.
But don't worry, we dobbed those jolly swagmen in to the ACCC.
Stone the raw prawns, Skip,
this whole malarkey's a dingo's breakfast!
Hoo-hoo-hoo! Yeah!
When the cobbers at Choice surveyed their members last year...
CROWD: Members are wankers! (All clap)
..they found...
12% of responders correctly understood
the meaning of made in Australia, 8% Australian grown,
and 3% made in Australia from local and imported ingredients.
These are the ? ? who subscribe
to a bloody consumer affairs mag.
How are the rest of us battlers meant to cope?
If an item claims it's Australian grown,
it's supposed to mean just that.
It grew here, it didn't flew here.
If it bangs on about being a product of Australia
each key ingredient or part of the product originated here
and almost all of the production processes happened right here.
These two claims are as Australian as kangaroos and Holden cars.
Well, kangaroos.
Made in Australia or Australian made
means the product's been substantially transformed here,
and that 50% or more of the cost of making it
was incurred here, whatever that means.
But it doesn't mean the ingredients are Aussie. ***.
So Australian made isn't as Aussie as we'd like to think,
like when a Kiwi wins an Oscar.
Then there's lingo like,
'made in Australia from local and imported ingredients.'
Unlike made in Australia,
these ones don't have to be substantially transformed down under,
Or spend 50% of their production costs here,
which is why these Birds Eye barramundi fish fillets,
otherwise known as Asian sea bass from Vietnam
covered in Australian breadcrumbs, can use it.
It's really not part of team Australia at all,
just like the ABC.
Companies can also pay to use the Australian made logo.
It's a certified trademark controlled by the federal government,
which has heaps of spin-offs.
Sort of like Underbelly.
The Australian grown and product of Australia logos
mean pretty much the same as the Australian grown
and product of Australia claims.
As does this fella, Australian seafood.
But the Australian made logo is more dinky diet
than the made in Australia claim,
because it specifically excludes simple processes.
So if this is all you've done and the key ingredients aren't true blue,
sorry, mate, there's no logo for you.
And as for the rules about disclosing whether a company's Australian-owned,
there aren't any.
You'll have to go fossicking yourself,
or take a squiz at the AUSBUY logo.
It's got four categories for outfits
that are at least 51% Australian owned.
MAN: See? It's easier than stealing damper from a bilby.
And it's not like this is a new drama
like Bernard Tomic or coward-punching.
Hawkie tried to sort it out in 1986 with the Australian Made campaign.
By giving Australians a sense of national pride...
In 1997, Trussie said he'd stop all the fart-arsing around with..
..a genuine level of understanding of what is meant
by country of origin labelling claims in this country.
(Siren wails)
But they did sweet F-A until 2011 when a ministerial review
again recommended a more consumer-friendly labelling system.
And the galahs in government said...
CROWD: No way, get (Bleep!), (Bleep!) off!
They were fretting over the considerable costs
to food businesses in complying.
Oi, what considerable costs?
The cost of putting clearer information on the packaging.
(Crickets chirp)
Flamin' mongrels!
Recently, police have been chinwagging
about another Blinky Bill
to sort out country-of-origin labelling.
Origin?! Go the Blues!
So, it'll only be another ten years before nothing happens.
In the meantime, you're on your Pat Malone.
So, if you care about Australian-made,
take a gander at the label,
call consumer information lines if it's a bit iffy
and check out the Australian Made website and the AUSBUY phone app
for heaps more handy info.
And, by the way,
if you see a product that pretends it comes from the Lucky Country
and it turns out to be as flash as a rat with a gold tooth,
that's against the law,
and 'misleading or deceptive'
includes any piccies on the packet as well.
So let's say someone made out like their famous Billy Tea
was traditionally Australian since 1888,
even though it was actually made by
one of India's biggest companies in India,
then do yourself a favour and dob those ratbags in to the ACCC.
'Cause while some products will try to pull a swifty
by swanning around all tarted up in green and gold,
there is one thing that's 100% ridgy-didge, sheer-as-sweat,
kangaroo's kicker, bikie's budgie
at the back of Burke's Backyard Australian...
..and it's this absolutely Barry Crocker of a system.
Hi. I'm Dr Sean Rintel,
chair of digital rights group Electronic Frontiers Australia.
If I could say one thing, it's that if an online commercial service
is free, you're not the customer - you're the product.
Many online services make money from selling who you are and where you go
to advertisers and third parties.
When you're logged in,
some services can track almost everything else you do online.
When you like, share or sometimes just access content,
you can be tracked even if you're not logged in.
If that bothers you, there's a few simple steps you can take.
Install a browser extension like Disconnect
to both visualise the amazing number of sites that are tracking you
and, better still, block them.
Or a similar extension called Ghostery
can also be installed on your smartphone.
Look for 'https' in your browser address bar.
The S means 'secure',
and you can install a browser extension called 'HTTPS everywhere'
to force sites to use a secure connection
and block third-party tracking.
And don't use those convenient buttons
to log in to one service
with the credentials of another.
Separate service - separate login.
It doesn't matter that you may have nothing to hide.
It's that you should have a choice.
(Cat meows)
..this plus this equalled me turning into a sexy bikini babe.
Hey, everybody. Who wants to play hide and seek?
CHILDREN: Yay! Yay! Go on! Yeah!
Well, that got rid of them.
Now let's play an even harder game of hide and seek -
trying to find the key information on your credit card bill.
When banks are trying to flog you credit cards, it's all about...
MAN: Low interest! 55 days interest fee!
0% on transferred balance!
You'd think we were obsessed about not paying interest.
But by the time you get your statement, things have changed.
Take this Citibank statement.
To avoid paying interest,
you just pay this bit, the closing balance,
by this date here, the minimum payment date.
Here's another one.
Don't pay this bit that's highlighted in the payment summary.
Pay this bit right down here by this date back up here.
It's clear as mud!
What the credit card statements do emphasise is your minimum repayment.
Everything about them suggests that this is what you should be paying.
In actual fact, that's just an arbitrary number
about 2%-2.5% of your bill
which leads you to pay about the highest amount of interest
that you can actually pay without getting a penalty.
Kids today.
Recently, a new law requires credit card bills
to tell you just how much interest that is,
through what's called the 'minimum repayment warning'.
It gives... Found me! No, I didn't!
It gives you an example of how much money you can save
if you just paid more than the minimum repayment.
And the difference can be huge.
For instance, if I pay $116 per month
instead of the minimum $61,
I'll reduce my payments by $1,337,
and reduce my term by 12 years!
BOY: Can I come out now? No. I'm still looking.
And here's the best bit -
if you only pay your minimum repayment
or anything less than the closing balance,
then you'll no longer get that 55 days 'interest free'.
That's right. All of those interest-free days
are only for those that pay off their closing balance every month.
It would be good if banks were a little bit clearer
about how to avoid paying interest.
And here we'll give some credit cards credit where credit is due
for saying when credit is due.
The NAB does tell its customers how to avoid paying interest,
albeit in pretty small print.
And other banks, like the Commonwealth Bank,
also provide this info in a clear and accessible, if small, manner.
Now, we haven't looked at all banks,
because some of them refuse to give us examples,
and some of my friends refuse to let me log in to their bank details.
Oh, come on, Craig - just give me your password.
What could go wrong? Go figure.
So have a look at yours and tell us where they sit.
But even if some statements are getting clearer,
we're using them less.
If you bank online, you probably have to dig around a bit
to find your payment information.
You might be able to sign up for an email or SMS reminder,
but even those often focus on the minimum repayment.
The Commonwealth Bank, for instance,
does include the closing balance in their email version.
But the SMS only includes the minimum payment.
And neither of these require the legislated
minimum repayment warning.
So in the digital world, we've actually gone backwards a bit.
So, remember - the only way to avoid paying interest
is to pay your closing balance every month.
If you can't do that, every cent you pay above the minimum repayment
is a good thing.
Otherwise, in this game of hide and seek,
it's the banks that win.
Ready or not, here I come!
Why does this bill get so high?
58313...
Welcome back to FU Tube,
Australia's leading viewer feedback segment.
First up, it's Claire, who was unhappy after buying a...
..blue shirt for my son from Target.
Claire found that the buttons on the shirt kept...
..dropping off.
In fact... Of the 19 buttons...
..on the shirt, 11 weren't sewn properly,
which made Claire think...
Target, that's not very good quality. Spot on, Claire.
Remember - under the Consumer Law,
if goods aren't fit for purpose,
and it's a... (Yells indistinctly)
..you've got a right to a refund,
and you don't need the original packaging or the receipt either,
although you will have to prove the purchase.
And your son could get the refund too,
because under the Consumer Law
gift recipients have the same rights as purchasers.
Next up, an issue that really gets people riled up...
I was extremely angry. ..the cost of parking.
If ever there was an event that justified a detailed enquiry,
this event is it. Yes, Minister.
The ABC has obtained video which appears to show
that Secure Parking's promise of 'no parking worries'
isn't always true.
Simone saw a sign at the Albert Street car park, Brisbane, saying...
Early bird parking. Pay only $25.
In before 9:30 and out after 3pm.
But when she went to the pay station later that day,
Simone was charged - $72.
And it's not just Simone.
Victoria from... Victoria had the same issue with secure parking
in Lonsdale Street, Melbourne.
They were both caught out because they didn't validate their tickets
on arrival in the morning.
That's very deceptive.
It didn't say anything about needing to validate the ticket
while you were entering.
Just rumour, innuendo and hearsay. Well, maybe, Minister.
While Secure Parking's website says you can simply
enter and exit the car park within the set times,
there's a potentially expensive
little devil in the detail.
I'm very dissatisfied with the weasel words. Absolutely, Minister.
Curiously, Secure Parking doesn't require
any ticket validation for early birds at many car parks.
I am absolutely sick to the stomach.
They say they need ticket validation at some car parks
'cause of capacity constraints.
And when Simone complained by email
they gave her a voucher,
though not her money back.
So if you're an early bird, be wary,
'cause some pretty tricky rules can turn early bird parking
from cheap to steep.
But, as consumer FUs go, it's hard to beat Gordon,
who decided to do his own FU Tube printer review.
Today we'll be reviewing the Samsung CLX-3185FN.
Gordon's verdict on the multifunction colour printer
was, well, pretty black and white.
Now, if you think Gordon was being a bit harsh,
on productreview.com.au a majority of customers
graded that Samsung printer
as terrible.
But you ARE right - Gordon was a bit harsh on the Samsung.
Actually, a lot harsh.
# HEAVY METAL
Now, to be fair to Samsung,
when Choice reviewed multifunction printers late last year,
a more recent model of the same kind of Samsung printer
was one of the two top-rated colour lasers.
And, for a printer that only cost a few hundred bucks,
we reckon Gordon and his mates got more than their money's worth.
# HEAVY METAL
Well done, Gordon.
And in case you're wondering - yes, Gordon does do other product reviews.
In fact, he just got a new gig.
Today, thanks to Mr Abbott, we're reviewing the ABC. (Cackles)
# HEAVY METAL
If you've got a customer gripe, then do tell us about it
by making an FU Tube video -
or email us at -
Please do get in touch.
The more work you do, the less we have to.
We're even asking viewers to make the promos for The Checkout,
just like... Jim from Queensland.
Liz from Canberra. Darren from the Sunshine Coast.
Tom from New South Wales.
You can DIY other parts of the show too,
like this excellent homegrown Product versus Packshot
from Lila 2, which we'll end with tonight.
Hopefully soon we won't have to do any of The Checkout ourselves.
Goodnight.
Captions by CSI Australia