It's the award no one shows up to collect and Qantas, Dairy Farmers, EA Games and Energy Australia have not broken with tradition as they were named and shamed in this year's Choice Shonky Awards.
The Choice Shonky Awards were established by the consumer advocacy organisation in 2006 to call out dodgy dealings and spurious claims by companies and brands.
Among this year's eight recipients were big name brands such as Qantas, which was racked over for its Frequent Flyer Toolbar. In the era of big data, the Qantas toolbar, a partnership with Yahoo, tracks users' internet searches in exchange for frequent flyer points. Because points are capped at 150 per year, it would take eight years of searching to earn a flight between Sydney and Melbourne.
Dairy Farmers' 'Oat Express, Banana Honey' liquid breakfast product came under attack for having neither oats, bananas or honey in the product. Rather it contained 1.25% oats fibre, banana extract and lots of sugar.
EA Games was named for charging Australian consumers $2.48 a minute to call its helpline after popular game Sim City was rendered unplayable because of server issues earlier this year. US customers could access the helpline for free. When Choice called the helpline, after the call had reached more than $15 in cost, the EA representative referred it to a users' forum.
Energy Australia was shamed for failing to disclose how much energy prices would rise before billing customers.
Kleenex was called out for reducing its 'mansize' tissues by 14% despite claiming a repackaging did not effect the size of the product.
Choice found Ecoeggs had flouted its 'free range' claims by stocking 20,000 birds per hectare, 13 times over the national code. Additionally, it charged a premium of $6 for 10 eggs.
A double Shonky was handed to Nuk Starlight Silicone Orthodontic Soother, a pacifier, for failing the mandatory standard – the exact same reason it copped a Shonky in 2006. Choice has referred the matter to the ACCC.
Finally, a company which claims to help you with your credit history, Credit Repair Australia, landed a Shonky for charging customers a non-refundable $990 fee for a service “that fails to live up to its name”.
“This year we received over 429 nominations over email, snail mail, Facebook and Twitter,” said Choice chief executive Alan Kirkland at the ceremony this morning, “Examples of how everyday Australians are still finding examples of overblown advertising, shonky price rises, dodgy environmental claims, junk food dressed up as health food and products that are downright dangerous.
“These nominations are then put through an internal vigorous process of testing, investigation and fact-checking that takes many months. This year's Shonkys show companies doing business in Australia need to lift their game and until they do, we will continue to stare down the threats of legal action to name and shame the most outrageous examples we find every year.”
The award ceremony was hosted by Julian Morrow and Choice journalist Kate Browne. Morrow took a couple of shots at vitamin giant Swisse, in reference to the bust-up between Swisse and his ABC program The Checkout which saw the vitamin company launch legal action against the series.
Choice has asked consumers to get in on the action by voting for the 'shonkiest' of the Shonkys and also to hashtag #shonkys on social media.
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