Need to know
- CHOICE has been calling out poor products, services and companies with our Shonky Awards for almost 20 years
- Recent recipients range from household appliances and food items to major retailers and airlines
- The extra scrutiny we've put on brands has helped lead to discontinued products and compensation for consumers
For over 60 years, CHOICE has helped everyday Australians sort the good products and services from the bad.
It's the latter that we're particularly interested in shining a light on, and this mission was the driving force behind our first ever Shonky Awards in 2006.
Our 2024 list will be another roll call of goods and services you'll definitely want to avoid, so follow us on Facebook and Instagram to catch it when it drops.
More than 130 Shonkys later…
Since launching the Shonkys, we've given out 133 of these lemon-shaped awards to businesses or products for a range of reasons – from being simply misleading to downright dangerous.
The Shonkys raise awareness of these products and services and, as you'll see below, put pressure on businesses and government to ensure that what we consume is safe, suitable and effective.
Over the years, they've helped lead to some solid wins for consumers – here are ten of those victories.
1. Grocery giants humbled
Australia's largest supermarkets got a Shonky for huge profits in a cost-of-living crisis.
CHOICE was ahead of the curve last year when we awarded Coles and Woolworths a Shonky for recording billion dollar profits during a cost-of-living crisis and deploying confusing specials promotions in their aisles.
Consumer anger was palpable even then, with over 60% of shoppers we surveyed believing the retail giants were profiting from hiking prices when more and more people were struggling to keep up with rising living costs.
Last November's Shonky helped kick off a year of reckoning for both supermarkets, which have become the target of rising public anger and greater regulation.
In recent months, the federal government has signalled it will force all supermarkets to be more competitive by promising to strengthen unit pricing rules to help consumers compare products and bring in higher fines for retailers that break these and other industry codes.
And there's more action to come. Following on from our uncovering of dubious specials, the ACCC has launched legal action against Coles and Woolworths for similar promotions it alleges are misleading.
2. Qantas shows some spirit
Qantas received a Shonky gong for delivering disappointing customer service.
In 2022, we branded the so-called 'Spirit of Australia' the 'Spirit of Disappointment' after we found the airline's performance to be severely lacking.
Qantas's rock-bottom record on flight punctuality and customer service led us to conclude the company had given up on being a premium airline and was happy to languish at budget status.
To make matters worse, the carrier was holding on to over $1 billion in flight credits from the pandemic and consumers were complaining that flights were costing more when paid for with these vouchers.
Amid a storm of criticism, then Qantas CEO Alan Joyce apologised and retired early, while the company scrapped the expiry dates on the COVID credits.
The airline then admitted it had misled consumers by selling tickets to flights it was planning to cancel and taking too long to inform them that the services wouldn't be going ahead.
Qantas is now in the process of coughing up $120 million in fines and compensation after the ACCC uncovered this years-long scandal.
3. Unfair business tactics tackled
Checkout tactics saw consumers unknowingly sign up for Kogan subscriptions.
We've long been calling for a ban on unfair trading practices (think subscription traps and hidden charges).
Proof of the need for this measure is the fact that over 70% of Australians believe such a ban already exists, and that we keep finding unfair tactics that cost customers.
Enter Kogan First, the subscription offering from online retailer Kogan.
Last year, a number of Kogan customers found they'd signed up for this membership program without knowing, thanks to a pre-ticked checkbox and some fine print on Kogan's checkout page.
Several consumers only realised when the $99 cost of a year-long subscription was deducted from their accounts two weeks later.
We gave Kogan a Shonky for this, arguing it was unfair and that a gap in Australia's consumer laws was allowing these sorts of tactics to be deployed.
That gap could soon be closing. The federal government announced this month that it will institute a ban on unfair trading practices that could address these and other practices we've spent years calling out.
4. More rights on the way for renters
RentTech earnt itself a Shonky for pressuring Australians to hand over personal details.
Government promises to do more for renters constitute another flurry of promising results following the 2023 Shonky season.
Last year, we bestowed a lemon on the third-party rental apps that over 40% of home seekers were being pressured to sign-on to in order to secure and pay for a place to live.
Our main issue with these 'RentTech' platforms was that they asked Australians to hand over more personal data than we thought necessary.
Our investigations also highlighted that they regularly charge users extra money just for the privilege of paying their own rent.
Since shining a light on RentTech, we've seen a federal Parliamentary inquiry recommend reforms to better protect renters' privacy and state governments promising to make sure renters have convenient and fee-free ways to pay rent.
5. Harvey Norman called out for misleading customers
We highlighted Harvey Norman deals with Latitude Finance back in 2020.
In 2020, we gave Harvey Norman a Shonky for its practice of signing customers up to credit cards from Latitude Finance to let them buy products under interest-free deals.
At the time, we pointed out that, when they did kick in, the interest rates on Latitude's products were among the highest we'd ever seen on credit cards.
We said Harvey Norman's penchant for distributing the cards without making sure customers could pay for them was driving people into debt, an observation backed-up by financial counsellors around Australia.
Fast forward four years, and this month Harvey Norman and Latitude were found to have engaged in misleading conduct for the sorts of deals we pointed out.
Namely, the Federal Court ruled advertisements promoting the deals as 60-month interest free, with no deposit necessary, obscured the fact that applicants would have to take out a Latitude credit card to make the purchase.
Because the cards came with ongoing fees and other costs, the court noted it was a very different deal to what consumers had expected.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission, which brought the case to court, is currently seeking penalties from both companies.
6. Faulty florist fined
We gave online florist Bloomex a Shonky for flowers that failed to live up to expectations.
Online flower delivery service Bloomex is another dodgy operator that's found regulators hot on its heels after being the recipient of a Shonky.
The ACCC launched Federal Court proceedings against the florist in December 2022, accusing it of publishing misleading reviews and prices on its website.
The scrutiny came one month after we delivered Bloomex a Shonky for accepting orders it couldn't fulfil and providing a disappointing service that delivered some customers flowers that were dead on arrival.
In March this year, the ACCC ordered the florist to pay $1 million in penalties for making false and misleading representations on its site.
7. Bed retailer admits to illegal sales tactics
In 2022, Revitalife admitted its sales tactics likely broke consumer law.
In 2020, we gave a Shonky to bed company Revitalife for targeting older Australians with a "health survey" and using the results to encourage them to buy expensive "therapeutic" beds with questionable benefits.
Our investigation heard from several people who were subjected to high-pressure sales tactics when visited at home by Revitalife representatives.
Along with a Shonky, the company's conduct also earned it a complaint to the ACCC, which launched an investigation.
The result? In 2022, Revitalife delivered over $57,000 in refunds and admitted that its sales tactics had likely breached consumer law.
8. Wasteful washer-dryer canned
Samsung has received multiple nominations over the years, but its 2017 nod was for selling a washer/dryer combo that was nothing more than a $3000 lemon.
Testing in the CHOICE labs revealed it used a massive 210 litres of water and took six-and-a-half hours to dry a load.
In that time, you could catch a flight from Sydney to the Gold Coast and dry your clothes on the beach, as we show below.
Samsung discontinued the model shortly afterwards.
9. Ticket sites put under the microscope
New rules mean companies like Viagogo need to be more honest with their customers.
In 2017, we also gave ticketing platform Viagogo a Shonky for high-pressure sales tactics and selling tickets that didn't grant holders entry to the events they were intended for.
Our work highlighting the many shortcomings of Viagogo and similar sites helped drive reforms that go some way to protecting Australians from similar rorts.
In 2022, the federal government announced a new information standard for ticket resale websites, meaning companies like Viagogo have to be more honest with their customers, reducing the risks of consumers being misled.
And the company itself didn't go unpunished – it was hit with a $7 million fine following ACCC action over misleading claims in 2020.
10. Home insurance taken to task
The home insurance industry earned itself a gong of Shonkiness in 2011 for avoiding paying out claims from flood damage.
This was possible because it conveniently hadn't come up with a standard definition of what counted as a flood, meaning lots of policies included various carve-outs that left many people without cover.
A year later, the federal government took action and amended insurance regulations to finally include a standard definition of flood.
But there's more to do – along with fellow consumer organisations, we've highlighted lingering problems with many peoples' home and contents cover and called on insurers to give premium discounts to people who take steps to better protect their properties from flooding.
Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.
