The Five Businesses Given A Yeah, Nah Award By Consumer NZ

Consumer NZ has revealed five of the most disappointing businesses, products and services uncovered by its experts this year.

The watchdog’s inaugural Yeah, Nah Awards highlight the worst of the worst in business to pressure poor-performing companies to up their game.

So, who was bad enough to win?

The Less Isn’t More Award: Pams Value cream style corn
For being less than half corn

We've all heard of shrinkflation and skimpflation. But have you heard of corn that’s less than half corn? Could this be Foodstuffs' biggest corn-spiracy yet? The Yeah, Nah Less Isn't More Award goes to Pams Value cream style corn, for having only 40% corn.

“The remaining 60% is made up of water, thickener, sugar and salt. Mmm. By comparison Watties cream style corn had 80% corn,” says Jon Duffy, Consumer chief executive.

“Unless you don’t like corn in your corn - we’d recommend avoiding this can.”

The Grave Disappointment Award: Westpac life insurance
For receiving a disappointing 33% customer dissatisfaction rating for its life insurance policy.

Every year, Consumer surveys more than 30,000 New Zealanders about how happy they are with businesses across various industries, from banking to energy, to real estate.

The Yeah, Nah Grave Disappointment Award goes to Westpac for its life insurance offering. Across the 178 businesses Consumer looked at over the last year, Westpac's life insurance customers had the lowest level of satisfaction, expressing a 33% customer dissatisfaction rate.

“That's one in three customers reporting a terrible time,” says Duffy.

"When we looked across different insurance categories, we found customers who took out their house, contents or car insurance with a bank had lower levels of overall satisfaction than customers who used other providers. The exception was travel insurance, with some of the big banks coming out on top for customer satisfaction.

“Anyone considering taking out an insurance policy with a big bank should really do their homework before signing up.”

The Taken For A Ride Award: Air New Zealand
For cashing in on demand

A recent Consumer investigation looked at 648 trans-Tasman flights with Air New Zealand and Qantas, over 18 weeks across the school holiday periods, to understand how competitive Air New Zealand's fares were.

The Yeah, Nah Taken For A Ride Award goes to Air New Zealand for putting a sizeable dent in the wallets of families wanting to cross the ditch in the school holidays.

“From term time to school holidays, Air New Zealand flights increased on average by 43%, whereas Qantas flights increased on average by 24%.

“The biggest Air New Zealand price increase we found between term time and school holidays was 167% in 3 weeks. Over that same time, Qantas fares increased just 7%.

“In the worst-case scenario, a family of four flying from Christchurch to Brisbane with Air New Zealand could spend nearly $5,000 more than a family of four flying with Qantas, on exactly the same day,” says Duffy.

“We think Air New Zealand needs to sharpen its pencil and give families a better deal over the school break.”

The Avoid At All Costs Award: Bosch WQG24200AU heat-pump dryer

For creating a dryer that takes more than double the time to dry a load than other cheaper driers

Consumer's test team hit this dryer with a “do not buy” label due to the ridiculous amount of time it takes to dry a load.

“This Bosch heat-pump dryer takes nearly 4 hours to dry a load. But the laundry let-down doesn’t stop there. It will set you back $2,000," says Duffy.

“By comparison, our testers found heat-pump dryers that could sort your load in just 110 minutes, under half the time. Life’s too short to spend it doing laundry – we'd recommend choosing a different dryer that costs less money and time in the long-run.”

The Polished Turd Award: Vitapet and Yours Drooly dog poo bags
For selling “compostable” products that are destined for landfill

Vitapet and Yours Droolly are brands offering “a more sustainable alternative” and “compostable” dog poo bags.

This year, Consumer's Yeah, Nah Polished Turd Award goes to Masterpet, which owns the Vitapet and Yours Droolly brands, for greenwashing.

Aotearoa has limited industrial composting facilities, and even if you can access one, it won't take a used dog poo bag because the facilities can only process food-related composting.

"The likelihood of these bags being composted industrially or at home is low. They’re a disappointing and blatant example of a business capitalising on New Zealanders’ concern for the planet, and attraction to ‘eco’ products,” says Duffy.

“We think these products need to go in the bin, for all the wrong reasons.”

For more information and the full list of awards, visit the Consumer website.

Notes:

About the awards

To be a contender for winning a Yeah, Nah Award a product, business, or service must meet one or more of the following criteria:

• Failing a standard
• Stinging customers with hidden charges
• Using false claims or broken promises
• Selling products or services that are an absolute rip off
• Using unclear messaging that causes consumer confusion, frustration or just plain outrage

In addition to submissions for the awards and complaints from the public, our test and investigative research team has identified ongoing and emerging trends in the consumer landscape that raise concerns. These include uncompetitive markets, shrinkflation, greenwashing, misleading messaging, and high-priced products that underperform.

Winners were judged by a team of Consumer investigators.

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