1 (RELAXED MUSIC) Tonight ` STUDENTS: Tina! They are amongst New Zealand's most disadvantaged. But that didn't stop someone running off with their hard-earned cash. I feel like we've been let down and we've been used. Chris, I don't want a punch in the face here, but has this business left you looking a bit silly? Oh, it has. Plus ` Gutted. they entrusted their precious heirlooms to a moving firm... They couldn't provide any answers about where our gear was. ...and ended up playing a game of hide-and-seek. If I lost something at work, I'd be in deep shit. You'd be in trouble. So how do you lose a truckload of personal possessions? No idea. And... Are ice cream manufacturers creaming it? We've got the scoop, and it's 'udderly' amazing. (CHUCKLES) See what I did there? This is obviously what you do at night when your kids go to bed ` hair-dry ice cream. Copyright Able 2017 Welcome to the show. Nothing worth having comes easy. If you want to get ahead in life, you have to work hard. The kids at Auckland's Glen Taylor Primary know this. They've spent months fundraising for some pretty styley kapa haka kit. Unfortunately, the world is full of dodgy dealers. It's a lesson the kids have learned far too early in life. Here's Matt. Tuturu whakamaua... kia tina! STUDENTS: Tina! The passion,... Taiki e! ...the pride,... (STUDENTS PERFORM HAKA) ...boldly written right across their faces. Ka mate, mate! Ka ora! How do you feel experiencing this now? Oh, unbelievable pride. This kapa haka group their school's flagship. Really gives them that cultural identity that they need, which is gonna benefit them ` not only in just their achievement academically, but it's gonna make them feel good about themselves and their culture. We learn all sorts, like confidence... and, like, dealing with problems the right way. STUDENTS SING: # E karanga e te iwi e. # These students from Auckland's decile-one Glen Taylor School have just been taught another very valuable lesson,... Some people aren't as good as others. ...a lesson dished out by a Maori fashion designer, who was paid thousands of hard-earned fundraising dollars for new uniforms 10 months ago but delivered absolutely nothing. It gives, like, mixed emotions, being confused, and... it doesn't give us the chance to shine, you know? Yeah. They kept asking, and I just had to tell them, 'Look, I don't know where they are at the moment.' How did it feel saying that? Oh, it hurt, mate. Yeah, it cut deep. Last year, the kapa haka group was going great guns. Ru ana te whenua! Though it was decided the old uniforms didn't match the slick performance. The talent's there. We were just missing that final piece of the puzzle. Nothing better than new kit. Absolutely. (CHUCKLES) Fortunately, a fairly solid fundraising regime was already well under way. Fundraisings, like discos,... sausage sizzles,... Bake sales. ...all sorts. How's his dancing, Nathaniel? Oh, it's... not good. (MATT LAUGHS) Oh, nah, nah, nah! I was just kidding. With a hard-to-come-by pot of cash at the ready, in August, Principal Chris Herlihy turned to Norwin New Zealand's designer Raewyn Tumaki, who had delivered in the past. The work was very highly done and great quality, and the price was right. Raewyn soon met with Chris and a member of the school board to discuss uniform design and dollars ` the meeting encouraging. Within a couple of weeks, we had the artist's impression of the design work. Raewyn Tumaki's job ` to produce 50 two-piece uniforms, all for about $3,500, $70 per person. In September, the school paid 80% upfront. Everyone was pumped. Oh, it was ridiculous ` not just with the kids, but the teachers and the community. We had organised a powhiri for the beginning of term four last year, which was in October. And the emails had sort of said that something will be there for ya. CALLS: Haere mai! But Raewyn missed that deadline. And by the time the year came to an end,... CALLS: Whakatau mai ra. ...all they had was excuses. WOMAN: Morning, Chris. Sorry for the late reply. I was in and out of hospital a bit. You feel for people in those situations, and you wanna give them a chance. She also had our money at the time. (CHUCKLES) And with the school's hard-earned money ` would you believe it? ` Raewyn missed another welcoming powhiri at the start of the year, which was also canned. Then the questions started to ask as to, 'Why aren't you doing this?' She kept promising? Every time. Later, in February, having delivered next to nothing, Raewyn Tumaki asked for final payment to finish the job. Principal Chris Herlihy forked out the $600. Since she had already had a significant chunk of change, I thought, 'Well, let's give her what she needs to get what we want.' Then the communication went cold. Chris' emails weren't being delivered. Raewyn wasn't answering her phone. So the school asked for its money back. Raewyn eventually replied saying she was struggling because she had to find somewhere to live. WOMAN: I don't mean not to answer any calls or emails intentionally. I've just been caught up with the shifting and relocating ASAP. The reasons that she gave... I guess the school teacher in me came out, and you believe in people, and you wanna give them the chance and the benefit of the doubt. That faith was badly misplaced. A 10-month wait came to nothing. I feel like we've been let down and we've been used. Chris, I don't want a punch in the face here, but has this business left you looking a little bit silly? Oh, it has. The comments that have come from some of the community, especially around, 'Do we care about kapa haka and do we value the Maori cultural identity?' you know, you can do your best to tell them what's going on, but until you can prove it with a product, then, yeah, you're left with egg on your face a bit. What do you think has happened here? I would like to think that there's been a problem and that I can believe what she's been telling me, but the lack of communication makes me think that the possibilities are endless. Wanting answers, we went looking for Raewyn Tumaki. This is where she used to live ` a West Auckland apartment. Her old landlord here told us she evicted Raewyn about a month ago because she was allegedly behind in her rent ` they reckon 6 grand in the last calendar year. 'Now it seems no one knows where Raewyn is.' So, no luck in the local marae or her old gym. 'Interestingly, after weeks of silence, the day after we contacted her,...' Look, we wanna catch up with you to get your side of the story, see where you're at. '...the fashion designer sent another email to the school.' WOMAN: It's been a tiff tuff half a year for me with myself been sick with pre cancer. As hard as it was, I couldn't deliver on time. Made me feel a great sense of disappointment in myself. My heart is burdened to get these uniforms done for the kids no matter what, and I'm determined to do that. The school isn't holding its breath. (CHILDREN CHEER) And while the waiting game continues, a message for Raewyn Tumaki. Where's the uniforms? (BOTH CHUCKLE) Like, what's resisting her not to give it to us? Cos we worked hard, so she should do the same. STUDENTS CHANT: A, upane, ka upane, whiti te ra! Hi! Pukana! (STUDENTS EXCLAIM) So disappointing. They raised $3500 and have nothing to show for it. Not fair. Not fair at all. Matt recently received a text message from the elusive Raewyn. It was brief. We haven't corrected the spelling. It simply said... As of today, the school still has not heard from Raewyn. Raewyn, it is time to pony up and get this sorted. I hate it when people disappoint kids. So if there is anyone out there who wants to help Glen Taylor Primary's kapa haka group, we'd love to hear from you too. Coming up after the break ` we go in search of the missing. They entrusted their precious heirlooms to Crown. We stored all his memorabilia, his medals and his last fireman's helmet, which was pretty... pretty special to me actually. But they vanished without a trace. If I lost something at work, I'd be in deep shit. You'd be in trouble. Plus ` there's some hokey pokey going down in the ice cream factory. This is obviously what you do at night when your kids go to bed ` hair-dry ice cream. Welcome back. The magic of making things disappear ` it's great if you're Houdini or catching a David Copperfield or Dynamo show. Not so good when you've entrusted your family heirlooms and treasured possessions to a moving company. Here's Hannah. A long, long time ago, this is how people stored their photos. It's called a photo album, and it's going to play a pretty important part in the story of Ian and Sandie, who scored a great job running this lodge in Queenstown. So, it was a beautiful, beautiful home on 11 acres, stunning place between Lake Hayes and Shotover River. And... yeah, we were hosting their international guests in a bed and breakfast. (BEANS RATTLE) These two run hotels, motels, lodges, for a living, and it does mean a lot of moving around. To shift their stuff from their Wellington home to Queenstown, they used Crown. So, we picked Crown, because they're a well-known, you know, almost famous sort of company within New Zealand for storage and removals. Crown moved about half their possessions to Queenstown, and the rest of the gear ` including all their precious old family photo albums ` they left with Crown in storage. All the family photos, all the memorabilia, all my corporate clothes. Ian's tools, so drop saws and sort of a whole lot of tools. Ian's a fireman, and so was his dad. They'd put his dad's precious fire service kit into storage as well. We stored all his memorabilia, his medals and his last fireman's helmet, which was pretty` pretty special to me, actually. You know, firefighters around the country will recognise that. So irreplaceable stuff, really? Oh, yeah. After a very happy year in Queenstown, Sandie and Ian decided to move back to Wellington. They told Crown they wanted their gear out of storage. They said they could do that, no problem at all. It wasn't about` till about a week later where they emailed and said, 'We're having trouble locating your gear.' We went back a couple of weeks later and said, 'How much longer is it gonna be?' And they said, 'Oh, we'd just` We've moved premises. We're just trying to locate it.' And I think we were just quite relaxed about it, actually. A couple of weeks turned into a couple of months. Sandie had a new job and needed her corporate work clothes. They were in storage ` but where? They couldn't provide any answers about where they had` where our gear was. If I lost something at work, I'd be in deep shit,... you know? I'd be... (CHUCKLES) If I lost a fire engine... (LAUGHS) (CHUCKLES) I'd be in deep shit. You'd be in trouble. Yeah. Crown reassured them that they were actively searching for the items. Asked for a full list of their missing goods, it came to about $23,000. Their stuff had been missing for four months. They said that it could be in amongst thousands of household units of storage. That's the number they said in that email ` thousands of household units. You give a place, a company like Crown your gear in good faith and knowing` hopefully knowing that they have great procedures in place and internal procedures to know what` where everything is. But I don't think that's the case. And then they get the news they were dreading. We have concluded extensive store searches in Wellington and to date have not been able to locate your items. We have these items recorded as missing. They thought it might be in Dunedin. They thought it might've been in Queenstown. They thought it might've been delivered to someone else. No idea. The couple had meant to organise insurance for the stored goods, but somehow, in the busyness of the move, they hadn't. They weren't insured. Not covered at all by anything. Though, insurance wouldn't fix this mess. You can replace the clothes, and you can replace the tools, but you can't replace that` that stuff, yeah. Not the photos, not the helmet, not the memories. Mm. They're the things that you just never, ever` we'll never get back. Gutted. Oh, the photos, that helmet, the medals ` that is heartbreaking. It does make you wonder ` how exactly can a moving company lose 5m3 ` that's like a truckload ` of household items and family heirlooms? Thankfully, it is a lot harder than you think, cos after six months of playing hide-and-seek, Ian and Sandie's possessions have magically reappeared. After six months of waiting, Crown has finally delivered. There it is. Oh! Your dad's one. Here's my dad's one. Yeah. Good to get that back. Little bit of memorabilia. It's really cool. Dad's wedding photos. Who's that? Me. God, you look like your daughter. No, my daughter looks like me. It was amazing, actually. It was a little bit surreal after having thought that it'd been lost forever. They found their precious items pretty much the same as they'd left them. Considering the length and breadth of the country that it's been, it's probably not too bad. (LAUGHS) That's true. Crown's explanation for what happened to this stuff is that it got mixed up with this scooter and a couple of other things which were to go to Queenstown. Somehow, the scooter stuff and the missing stuff went all the way to Auckland. Then the scooter stuff was sent to Dunedin and then to Queenstown, but the missing stuff stayed in Auckland. Crown checked its storage facilities in Wellington and in Dunedin but didn't check Auckland until, well, about the same time Fair Go contacted Crown. Crown could learn a couple of things out of this. It's that their systems and processes are a bit more robust and that they don't stop looking. Crown has reimbursed the storage costs. They say their systems are robust, but human error can happen. They've learnt from this and want to ensure that it doesn't happen again. It's been a roller coaster of emotions. It's been up and down. It's been angry. It's been sad. A tough time. The last six months has been really, really tough. We wouldn't be sitting here saying this or even have any of our gear back if it wasn't for you people and Fair Go. Yeah. And can't say enough about you. Thank you very much. Oh, yay. Yes. Great result. But did we really have to ring Crown, and then suddenly, they miraculously find their goods? Can't they just find them in their own right? Don't rely on us. At least they're back. Right. Call it sneaky, trickery or clever marketing. Retailers have a multitude of psychological strategies aimed at emptying your wallet. They are a cunning bunch. So if you wanna hang on to your hard-earned cash and avoid getting snagged, listen up! (THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS' 'THE SALMON DANCE') PIPPA: 50% off! I think price discount is really something attractive to me. All items must go! There are some shops that I go to that I only go during sale times, because I know they're far too expensive at other times. Sale ends at midnight! Two for one. Two for one discount's always good. Who doesn't love a good sale? If you thought it was just us shoppers, think again. Sales are one of the many tactics retailers use to try and lure us in. And believe it or not, we fall for this one all the time ` hook, line and sinker. The discount will win the day every time, and marketers can't ignore that, right? I almost can't blame them if that's how we respond psychologically. 'Ooh, it's on sale. Ooh, that's exciting!' Sommer Kapitan should know. She's a pretty solid shopper and a master of marketing. That's the exact` the mindset and the mentality is 'I'm going to shop smartly, 'and I'm going to shop for the biggest discounts,' regardless of the product sometimes, even. If it's a product at a certain store but it's deeply discounted, we're very interested, and we feel smart when we buy it. That's a feeling retailers bank on. If there's a sale, it catches my eye. If you go shopping, you don't have to think of anything. You see something that you fancy, just buy, so long as you don't break your bank. It's good. Sales always work. There is something magical about seeing that crossed-out price with the new price underneath. We feel good when we see it. Putting a deadline on top of that is like double-baiting the line. You know that you can earn that discount if you work toward it, and you've only got a set amount of time. So it's also you competing against yourself, which is a little different than competing against other people. Ah, yes. Retailers love to hook us in with our desire to win, like at auctions. Auctions have a particular place in our hearts. Once you decide you might like something, you're not quite sure how much it's worth, but you know that you like it. You're very interested in it, so you are willing to keep bidding higher and higher, and then you get competitive with other people, so that definitely will up the price. Definitely, especially if you're competitive. You got to beat them, and you pay... way more than your budget. I've got the world's most expensive fridge, cos I had a couple of drinks, and it was... Started at a dollar reserve or something, and it got to 150. I had a couple of rums that night, and I said, 'I want this fridge,' and I kept on bidding, and I got myself confused. And I pushed the wrong button, and I paid $360 for a fridge you could buy new for $300. 66. This is a Dutch auction, and it turns out the Dutch do things a bit differently, so the price goes down, not up. (SIGHS) That means you've only got one shot to buy, and if you're not quick enough, you miss out. I'm not even actually buying any fish for real here, but I am certainly feeling the pressure. The idea behind a lot of these tactics is that they push us over the edge, or pressure, give us a little bit of pressure to buy. (RELAXED MUSIC) Along with pressure, it seems we shoppers suffer from a fear of missing out. The saying might be, 'There's plenty more fish in the sea,' but what if there isn't? I know I would like to buy that pair of shoes, and I suddenly log back in and see only two left at this price. I'm like, 'But I do want them. Let me buy them.' And buy them we do. Are consumers a bit naive, then, when it comes to ways that we can be pressured into buying things? I might be naive about why, but it's that idea that I'm giving myself permission, and it's like these tricks and tactics of the trade give me permission to make a purchase or give consumers permission. So even if we know we're taking the bait, it seems it doesn't stop us coming back for more. Two weeks you've been out on that jetty out there, and not a fish ` end up at the fish market. what's` what is happening? No, but I couldn't buy the fish very well at the fish market. You've got a lovely cast, terrible result. Thank you. (LAUGHS) Coming up after the break ` some food for thought. Time to break out the puns. Really? We've got the scoop on ice cream, and it's 'udderly' amazing. This is obviously what you do at night when your kids go to bed ` hair-dry ice cream. Are you buying ice cream or air? Welcome back. Ice cream ` it has to be the coolest dessert in the world. Nice pun, but I've got this. Ice cream manufacturers are creaming it at our expense. See what I did there? This story could cause a few meltdowns around the dinner table. (RELAXED MUSIC) Before you come shopping with me today, I've got a one-question quiz for ya. Here goes. There is something in the supermarket that is comprised of 50% air. A product. And guess what? You are paying for that air. Could it be in the cereals? It is not rice bubbles. Although, a good guess. It's not fizzy drinks ` a lot of bubbles. Do you think it's potato chips? A big bag of chips, and there's this much chips, and the rest is air. It's not potato chips either. There's a lot of air in a bag of potato chips, but you don't pay for that air; it's not part of the weight. The answer is ice cream ` at least 50% air. Who would have thought? Hmm. Really? Why should we pay for air? Wow. Air is free. (CHUCKLES) I eat plenty of that too. So are ice cream makers ripping us off? I don't have a clue. I didn't know either. So I went to see New Zealand's expert on ice cream. He's here at Massey University in Palmerston North. I'm a food science bore, essentially, yeah. Matt Golding is a professor of ice cream. His favourite is... Cookies and cream. These cones? For scientific purposes. Master craftsman. His colleague Warwick Johnson runs their commercial ice cream machine. He tells me he had the figure of a supermodel before he started taste-testing. Ah, yeah. I think I might have had just a few (!) Even his students are into it. Free ice cream. You can't complain when you're a student. Professor Golding says ice cream starts as a kind of milkshake. It's kind of the consistency of condensed milk. Then it goes into the machine. It hits the surface of the barrel at minus-27 and starts to freeze immediately. And through this tiny pipe, the air is pumped in. The size of our air bubbles is around 0.1mm. So small that you can't actually see the bubbles in the ice cream when it comes out. You see, without the air, ice cream would have the consistency of a brick. The creaminess we associate with ice cream ` yes, it does come from the fat, but it does come from the air as well. The ice cream comes out warm. Minus-6 degrees. Then it's frozen at minus-30. They raid this fridge... ...no more than once a week. (GNARLS BARKLEY'S 'CRAZY') The best way to show the effect air has on ice cream is to melt it, but that's not easy either. First, I tried in the fierce Taranaki winter sun. Nothing happened. Then I went inside. No luck either. So I got cunning. So, this is obviously what you do at night when the kids go to bed ` hair-dry ice cream. And to be fair, there wasn't a huge drop in volume with the air out. About half an index finger. Ooh! Whoa! The Brits tried it too. They were more amazed. What?! That is horrendous! Professor Golding says the expensive gourmet ice cream has less air, more fat and is harder, while the cheaper ice cream has less fat and more air. An optimist would say it's better for you. A spoonful of this is actually half the calories that you actually seen on the ingredient listing itself because of the presence of air. Kids, listen up ` some ice cream is made with vegetables. Well, vegetable fat. So, you can make ice cream with a whole different range of fat types. Professor Golding says the future of ice cream is unlimited. Concepts like bacon-and-egg ice cream. But this does not mean ice cream for breakfast. I know my kids would probably have it ` not just for breakfast, but for lunch and dinner as well if they had the chance. Oh, you are the ice cream expert now. Can I show you one more thing just quickly, for you at home? Look at this. Ice cream in a cone, but it's not actually ice cream. You see, ice cream is a technical term. It has to have 10% milk fat to be ice cream. So this is a dairy dessert. There you go. But it looks and tastes and feels like ice cream. That's the show, but we will be on Facebook for the next half hour to answer your questions. Our programme is all about your concerns, your problems, your issues, so please do contact us. We're sitting right here waiting. Mm-hm. Join us on Facebook. Or you can email us... Or write to us... Until next week,... ...goodnight. Copyright Able 2017