Tonight ` One, two,... Sugar is all through our food supply. ...three... It's the dietary villain of our time. 'If you have pre-diabetes, you need to be really cautious about what you eating.' But avoiding the sweet stuff is easier said than done. So I saw this drink here, and it said 'lower in sugar'. And that's what's in this bottle. So it was a real shock. Plus the insulation shocker. Don't get stuck under there, James. Brodie helps an elderly couple left in the cold. Oh, there you are! Oh, I see what you mean. It's quite, um` Oh! And ends up with the warm fuzzies. Fair Go comes to the rescue once again. (LAUGHS) And a game of peekaboo in the pipes... When was the last time it was cleaned? When was the last time it rained? ...reveals some furry delights. Live animals, dead animals. Yes, that really is a possum in the drain. Copyright Able 2016 Welcome to Fair Go. You hear a lot about the evils of sugar these days. And you see a lot of words and phrases, like low sugar, reduced sugar, less sugar on food labels. But less than what? One fair go viewer read the label, bought the product, and was not impressed. Here's Mark with a story that is way too sweet. One, two,... Sweet, seductive... ...three... ...and deadly. Sugar is the big mac daddy bad boy food of our generation. Sugar is all through our food supply. And on top of our sugar mountain is the supermarket, where 80% to 90% of all packaged and processed food contain it. To go to the supermarket with you is like going to the Serengeti with a lion looking for a wildebeest, isn't it? (LAUGHS) At least I know what I'm looking for. And if you're worried about your health, then what we find on the shelves may shock you. If you have pre-diabetes, you need to be really cautious about what you're eating. ...29, 30. NZers, on average, are consuming between 20 and 30 teaspoons of a day! The World Health Organisation says we should only be consuming 12. Is it any wonder obesity and diabetes levels are exploding? Paul Prosse knows all about that. You can't use honey, can't use jams, you know? So anything that where there's sugar. Last year, Paul, a school teacher was diagnosed as pre-diabetic. You get lots of chocolates from the kids and these sort of things, so probably just quite a bit of, um, sugar in the diet, and I used to have sugar in my tea and sugar on my weet-bix. There's a family history of early deaths through heart problems, so his high blood sugar levels were a wake-up call for Paul and wife Jenny. So it was a real shock. My dad died of a heart attack as well, so I think that's why my doctor was also saying, 'Hey, look, you need to control this.' For Paul's body to be sweet again, he needed to cut out the sweets. No more cakes and lollies ` no sugar with his tea. He's actually lucky to get a cup of tea made by me, cos I don't actually drink tea myself. Cheers, hon. But watching what you eat isn't easy, and this is why. It was a hot day, and I was like, 'Right, I'll grab a drink, and let me see if I can find something that we can both share together. This is what Jenny picked up ` a bottle of Charlie's Coconut Cooler. ... though I saw this drink, 'Coconut Cooler ` lower in sugar.' But 'lower in sugar' than what? A hashtag leads you to the back of the bottle, where it says in much smaller print ` I was like, 'Oh, OK. Well, maybe I'll just have a look and see how sugar there was in there. 'Oh, it's got 37 grams of sugar.' That's nine teaspoons of sugar. So I, sort of, turned to Paul and said, 'Right, you're not having more of this.' This is what nine teaspoons of sugar looks like ` three quarters of your daily allowance in one drink. If it says it's lower in sugar on there, it's sort of a message that if you need to worry about those sorts of things, that you should be able to pick this product up and be reasonably confident that it's going to be appropriate. Which led us to wonder whether Charlie's, who are best known for their Honest Squeezed Orange Juice, were now taking the pith with their new juices. The reality is that those kind of claims confuse people, and they don't know what people mean, and if you take them at face value, people have no idea what they're actually buying. We know the fizzy or sports or energy drinks are no-nos, but what Claire is looking for is how much sugar is in the drinks we think are good for us. In the old nutrition guidelines, you could include fruit juice as one of your servings of fruit, but it's changed now, and basically, fruit juice needs to be considered as part of this 12-teaspoons maximum, um, of free sugars a day. One glass of orange juice is around 6 teaspoons of sugar. So two glasses of orange juice a day that would be it? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. OK, here we go. Aloe vera. Nice and green. 46.8 ` that is 12 and a bit teaspoons of sugar in what appears to be a health drink. And the honey thing confuses people, I think, because they associate that with some kind of health benefit. Forget about sugar substitutes such as honey, maple sugar, agave, coconut nectar, brown rice syrup, etc ` they all count as sugar too. Here's another health drink ` homegrown's raw green. So 8 teaspoons of sugar in this? Yeah, in the whole thing Now, I would not expect that. So it's not white sugar, that people think of, but we still need to consider the fruit. when it's been squashed down, Um, it's still part of the sugar that we need to limit. Read the nutritional information on the back of the bottle, because what's on the front can be confusing. Here we go. 25% lower in sugar. Near enough 30 grams of sugar still in that. The information is in grams, and about four grams of sugar makes up a teaspoon. You need to be good at maths. I'm not. (LAUGHS) Uh, four` five fours are 30? So there's five teaspoons of sugar in that. Yeah. Are five fours 30? CAMERAMAN: Five fours are 20. Can we do that again? BOTH LAUGH What is it? That's why it's so hard. Five fours aren't 30. Five fours are 20. So that's six. That's over six. Well, there's actually seven and a half teaspoons of sugar in this 350ml simply squeezed bottle advertised as having 25% less sugar. Part of the problem is that those kind of claims, if people don't know what they mean, they may be making choices and still be having a lot more sugar than they realise. And as we know, that's literally, a big problem, and one of the fingers being pointed at sugary drinks. The government's ruled out a sugar tax. So how about this as an idea? Grams can be confusing, but everybody knows how much a teaspoon of sugar is, right? So why don't we actually put the number of teaspoons of sugar on the bottle like this. It would actually help people understand what they're buying quickly and easily, because at the moment you've got to do a lot of research and a lot of looking to find out what's actually in there. What do you think food manufacturers would make of that? I don't they'd like it, really, because, you know, people might stop buying some of the products. Who knows? But it could give clearer information to those people who have to treat sugar as a health hazard. It has a certain design that has a number in it, and you know that what's in that bottle has that many teaspoons of sugar. That would be a really clear thing to say, 'Oh, yeah, should i grab that one or not?' You know? Yeah, a teaspoon logo. I mean, it would just make sense, wouldn't it? Mm, good for a consumer. Yeah. Anyway, Charlie's say they comply with all regulatory requirements by listing all the ingredients and showing all nutritional values. 'We have nothing to hide,' they say. 'What you read is what you get.' The coconut cooler drink says 'lower in sugar' because it is lower in sugar compared with most of the other products in the fridges where they're located. Charlie's says people who are really concerned about their sugar intake either avoid the whole category or at the very least, turn the packs around and read the nutritional panels. Mm. Here's a good reason to do that. 600ml bottle of tonic water. I was shocked to discover this has got more than 13 teaspoons of sugar in it. But that lime in your gin is very healthy. Phew! Yeah, exactly. (LAUGHS) Now, over the past few weeks, we've been rolling out our True/False Consumer Challenge. Yes, we know bars have to offer tap water for free and 10-year passports don't apply to kids under 16. So, what's tonight's brain teaser? We're at Westgate Shopping Centre, so the perfect place to pose this consumer question. If someone buys you a present you don't like, you're entitled to take it back and exchange it. True or false? That's a tricky one. I would say true. Yeah, I would say true too. If you've got a receipt or proof of purchase or like an exchange gift card thing. I'd say false. I would say false. True. True or false? We'll tell you later in the show. Mm, see it's a bit tricky. A bit of a mixed bag there. And there's 20 bucks' of Fair Go money on the line for anybody who gets them all right. (LAUGHS) That's right. The answer is coming up, and something else to get you thinking with winter fast approaching. We get down and dirty in Waihi,... Don't get stuck under there, James, because i know the Waihi firemen, and there's not one of them that can help you. (LAUGHS) ...after an elderly couple were left in the cold by insulation contractors. What on earth went wrong here? Bit of a long story. And ` ever wondered what's lurking in your drains? Live animals, dead animals. Yep, that's a possum up the drain. Welcome back. Making your home more energy efficient is a really cool idea. It cuts the carbon footprint, slashes power bills, makes those long winter nights a lot more comfortable. Oh, yes ` unless, of course, your contractor cuts corners and leaves you in the cold. Brodie explains. Here he comes! Jim Cameron might be a pensioner, but I reckon he'd give some young fellas a run for their money. What a trooper! Not only can he get under the house with ease, this mechanical engineer can build boats. Check out the amazing job he did on the 54-year-old Ngahere in Whangamata he bought a few years ago. He and wife hazel live in sunny Waihi. The day we met them, it was an absolute cracker. Not a day that you'd feel the cold, but that's what we're here to talk to them about. You see, they signed up to get insulation through the government's subsidy scheme in 2012. Of course, being pensioners it was quite good ` you know 60-odd percent, I think. And the finished price was well within our budget so we went ahead with it. Bit of comfort. Installers came and carried out the job ` 101 square metres of under-floor insulation. They went 'round, did what they could, then said to me, 'There's a little area under the bathroom that we couldn't get to,' and I knew they wouldn't get to all of it, so I was quite happy with that, and away they went. Jim's interpretation of 'little area' was this little area, but the reality was a bit different. Let's start in the dining room. There's no insulation at all under this room here. Then there's the kitchen. The kitchen hasn't got any ` that part there, no. And hey, let's not forget this bedroom. This is the third room that isn't insulated. And you only knew about that because you went under the house? I went under the house to renew a phone cable, and that's when I found it. Yep, that little DIY job Jim did last winter revealed nearly 30 square metres of the house wasn't done. Which is a lot. Yes, it's a lot. And you'd paid for that it? Yes. You paid for it, as well. ALL LAUGH They started making contact with the installers, Smart Energy Solutions, and eventually someone came out to have a look. The first thing he said was, 'You're right, Mr Cameron, there's insulation missing. But after the visit, well, they waited, did some crosswords, bit of reading, some more waiting and nothing. So we started firing emails off again, and we go no reply from any of them. We were just totally ignored. It would be fair to say Jim and Hazel weren't impressed. We felt we'd been let down by the company. Mm. We felt like they had too and wanted to get to the bottom of it. Smart Energy Solutions heard we were making the trip down, and guess what? They turned up on the same day. They wanted to put things right, and apologise. Tell me what on earth went wrong here. It's the perfect storm of issues that have accumulated. Um, we had a` When we did the job, we had just taken over a, um` what you call a stressed company, and so there was sort of a story to that. It's not` It's not right, but there is a reason for it. Paul says the lack of communication with the Cameron's was unacceptable. We've sent someone out. We haven't communicated with them, um, and because it was such an old job, all the paperwork was archived, so some of the staff were a bit lazy, and they didn't go and get the paperwork and check that, yes, we hadn't done all of it, yet we had charged for it. Today, his team is back under the house in a bid to put things right ` and Jim is the perfect supervisor. Don't get stuck under there, James, because I know the Waihi firemen, and there's not one of them that can help you. I was on hand, of course,... I really don't want to do this. ...in a supervising role. Oh, there you are! Oh, I see what you mean. It's quite, um` Oh! Now, Smart Energy Solutions say the reason those parts of the house weren't done is for health and safety reasons. The underfloor is extremely low. So normally, the installer should've` should come out and inform the customer to say that we can't do all the house, we're only gonna charge for the product we've put in. Now, that didn't happen in this case, and combined with the lack of communication, these guys are very sorry. We do a huge number of houses. Uh, we've done` in the last six years, we've done over 35,000 homes, so we're always gonna drop the ball sometimes, and we've dropped the ball here, and we want to put the hand up and say, 'Let's fix it. Let's make it right.' Jim and Hazel are now, well, very impressed. Very relieved. Very satisfied, I think. I'm thinking if I had to have insulation done again, I'd probably go back to 'em after meeting those guys. WOMEN: Yes. (LAUGHS) Fair Go comes to the rescue once again. Oh, hey, look, we try. We try. (LAUGHS) (LAUGHS) That is a great result. I do like an ending like that. And that is just a textbook way to sort a problem, isn't it? Mm. Uh, that subsidy scheme the Camerons used, it's called Warm Up NZ Healthy Homes Programme, uh, it's subsidised insulation for eligible owners and landlords of homes built before 2000. If you want to find out if you qualify, go to ` And we have even more outstanding consumer advice coming up, including unwanted gifts. Does a shop have to give you a refund? Our brain teaser's got some stumped. That's a tricky one. I would say true. Yep. Yeah, I would say true too. All will be revealed soon. And ` When was the last time that it was cleaned? When was the last time it rained? Ever wondered what might be lurking in your pipes? Live animals, dead animals ` possums, cats. 1 Welcome back. Now, e know it's nuts to buy a house without seeing a pre-purchase inspection, but how many look below the surface? A problem with your plumbing can leave you financially and emotionally drained. So what is the worst that can happen and how can you escape that fate? Here's Garth. And a possum, as you'll see. You never know what is lurking in your drains until you take a closer look. Live animals, dead animals ` possums, cats ` foreign objects, toys. Yes, that's a possum in the pipeline. Welcome to a backyard that could be anyone's. We're about to find out if the homeowner has a small problem with their drains or a big one. The guys from Drain Surgeons found that possum down some other hole. What will they find here? So that's as far as it goes. Silt and dirt. A few roots coming through` coming through the top of the pipe. Not very` You know, that just needs a really good clean basically. So 50 years of living badly, basically. (LAUGHS) That's right, yeah. OK, this is an older place, but what if your sewer pipe is blocked solid, yet the house is brand new? So not only is this your first home, but you're the home's first owner, right? Yes, that's correct. There shouldn't be anything wrong with this place. It's completely sweet. Yeah, well, that's what I thought. What's with the hole? The hole wasn't there less than three year ago when Charlotte bought the house in Papakura on her own after saving hard. Her appliances, and shower, toilet all drained fine. until one day that stopped. And she noticed water seeping from the walls. The first drain unblocker found a mess in the manhole, then it got worse. It looked like her drain wasn't hooked up to the public sewer and just maybe it had never been connected. ...they could only see a pipe and clay and nothing else. She called in the builder, who called in the plumber. And when they got down there they saw their pipe was connected, but then they found another pipe connected to nothing... She called in the developer, who called in the French multinational company that runs this water system for Auckland Council. I've learned a lot about drains, so, yeah. (LAUGHS) Deeper and deeper pockets, but none were ready to reach into them. It could literally be thousands of dollars we're talking about here. I think minimum $8000. You think eight? To the house builder's credit, the drain was made new, but Charlotte was going to have to pay for it. No one could agree what had gone wrong. They're all adamant that it's the builder, it's the council, it's the developer. Nobody says, 'Oh, my guy should've put that pipe there, We put that pipe there.' So I don't understand how so many houses get built if nobody can agree what pipe goes where. Charlotte turned to her building guarantee with Home First, which, it turns out, doesn't cover drains ` standard exclusion, they can't say why, it just always has been like that. We've been digging deep into this one. We've gone right into the property file for this place. We've got documents coming out of our earholes. We're not even sure if we've solved this one yet, but we might have some good news Charlotte. Hi, Garth. (LAUGHS) Our research showed a complete trail of signed-off inspections. Everyone had done their jobs ` on paper. No could say exactly why Charlotte's sewer pipe ran nowhere. But we thought no way should this cost her. Yet, what chance of getting a multinational, a council and a builder to cough up? It's been agreed between Veolia, Auckland City Council and MJB Construction Limited that we will cover the associated costs of the repair. OK. It's done in good faith as a goodwill gesture, without prejudice, without accepting any responsibility for the failure. OK, wow, that's great. (LAUGHS) Thank you very much, Garth. (LAUGHS) How's that? Three out of three splitting the bill. Charlotte feels believed and relieved. Well done. Excellent. Thank you, Garth. Thank you. Take it easy. (LAUGHS) Thank you so much. A missing pipe is a rarity, but even brand-new homes can have problem drains. And how's the drain at this older house cleaning up? Well, if we're coming squeaky clean, actually, this is my backyard. I've had trouble with the storm water backing up, so I'm paying these guys for to give me a picture that probably won't be pretty. They've found the blockage. When was the last time it was cleaned? When was the last time it rained? (CHUCKLES) Well, that's right. BOTH LAUGH Jetted it clear, but further on ` So something down there, all the way down, is stopping it. Something way down in the bottom of gully. I may be doing some more digging this weekend. Don't get too cocky ` how are your pipes? Because Bill says, whether the house is old or brand-new, he finds blockages, construction botch ups and pipes that aren't where they're supposed to be. People tend to do pre-purchase inspections on the roof and the cladding and the painting and seem to neglect the drainage, which is what you can't see, and, um, often comes to bite them. Hopefully not literally. Another good result! Yes! And how funny is that possum? (LAUGHS) Polly, apparently, is her name, we've been told by the company. And no sign of Polly since they visited that storm drain in South Auckland. But if you think there's a Polly in your pipe or something much worse, possibly also beginning with 'P', Oh. uh, there are plenty of CCTV operators out there. A camera inspection of your pipes, plus a report might cost 200 to 300 bucks. It could save you thousands. Yes. Right, now for the answer to tonight's consumer challenge. It was a classic consumer question this week. If someone buys you a present you don't like, you're entitled to take it back and exchange it. This is by law, remember. True! I think I might give this one away. False! BOTH LAUGH And false is right ` But` But you could ask for a store credit, couldn't you? Absolutely, and a lot of store would probably give you one, but unless they have a specific policy, they're not obligated to do so. While we are on the topic of consumer gripes ` coming back by popular demand is that Fair Go hit from 2015, Dumb Charges. Yes, that's right. You guys flooded us last year with a raft of dumb charges, from sneaky extra ticket booking costs, a fee for not using your credit card... That was my favourite! Unbelievable. ...and of course the $1.50 paper charge. Well, we are now back on the hunt. If you've had to pay a fee or been charged for something that you think is just dumb, let us know. Well, that's the show for tonight, but Gordon will be on Facebook for the next half hour to answer your questions. Our programme, of course, all about your problems, your thoughts, and we do love to hear from you. We're on Facebook ` both of us ` uh, email us, or write to us ` And next week ` Well, that is nearly us for the morning, but first we have one more prize to give away. A dream prize! A dream holiday! Celia Christie of Wellington, you and your family have won a $4000 tropical island holiday. The lady says that, 'You've won a major prize to Rarotonga.' And I went, 'Yay!' And then the lady delivered the... 'But!' and I went, 'Oh yeah, what's the but?' And she says, 'But you have to pay for your airfare.' An overseas trip without airfares. Hardly 'a journey for pleasure'. So you would have felt short-changed? Oh yeah. There's only one thing worse than taking on the tax department ` that's your boss. You know, we're always saying to companies when they've done something wrong, 'Front up and fess up. Apologise and put it right.' And it makes no difference if that company is TVNZ.