1 (RELAXED MUSIC) Tonight ` we're in the Aussie outback. (SPLASH!) PlayStation ` it's a great way to console yourself during the heat of the day. Especially in Australia, where the temperature was, like, 45 degrees all summer long. But downloading down under can be a real downer when you move to this side of the Ditch. If someone wanted to buy a PlayStation, I'd maybe suggest waiting, if you are planning on moving somewhere. Plus... (SCREAMS) ...the Flat Stack sequel. Oh! OK. I'm a fail as well here. We reveal the knack to mastering the Flat Stack... You shouldn't have to go through a training programme to actually use the product. ...and put some little gripes under the microscope. I've always wondered why Copper Kettle salt and vinegar chips from Bluebird don't have any vinegar in them. Little bugbears can become big problems. Remember, your small problems mean a lot to us. Copyright Able 2017 Kia ora. Welcome to the show. The digital revolution has changed the way we shop, chat, date and play. Yeah. Forget rugby, cricket or netball; video gaming has become the world's fastest-growing pastime. It's estimated two-thirds of all Kiwis play video games. They're great home entertainment, but the gaming can come to an abrupt end if you head overseas. Here's Garth. This is Zane's world. These are Zane's mates. Zane is 17. He lived here in Emerald, Queensland, on the edge of the tropics. (SPLASH!) Not all the fun and games happened at the waterhole. There were plenty of ants,... and dust... and heat. So plenty of this too. If it's 45, air con's the only way to go. This is kind of an all-weather option, right? Especially in Australia, where the temperature is, like, 45 degrees all summer long. It was just a great way to, you know, not die in the heat. But what about here in much cooler Northland? We're no longer in Australia. We're in the Hunt family's new home, in Whangarei. So you two are playing together as a team? Yeah. But you're also playing with other people and against other people? Yeah. That's pretty cool. Only a minute left. That's Zane's friend Ben. He's over from Queensland for a visit. Lucky, because Zane's PlayStation 4 was supposed to be his lifeline to his old mates, but it's become a bit of an antisocial network for him, thanks to PlayStation's terms and conditions. It's like a park that's always open, provided you've paid the fee to join in, and provided they let you play with your ball, right? Gaming in the 21st century means you might have paid for the ball and spent hours playing with it, but it's not your ball; it's their ball and their rules. The trouble started soon after Zane returned. Oh, about a month after I moved, I thought I better set up the PlayStation and start talking to my friends again, and found out that I couldn't actually use it. It was locked to the Australian credit card still. To be fair, Zane's gaming hardware still worked fine, as did any games he'd bought on hard copy. But it was the digital downloads that had the problems, and that's a real problem, when more and more gamers download, rather than buying discs. These are games Zane had invested hundreds of hours playing; games Zane thought he'd bought and paid for. So I bought this ` Tropico 5. I bought it on my Australian account. But whenever I try and use it, even on my Australian account, it'll come up and say that I've got to repurchase this game. 'To use the content, purchase it from the PlayStation Store.' But you bought it already. Yeah, and that's how it's on the hard drive; you just can't open it at all. And to buy it, it's another $50 or so. And there are dozens more missing some or all of their features, and it adds up. More than a thousand dollars? Definitely. Maybe $1200 or so. It's gone from being something quite fun being quite a headache. Yeah. Now imagine we aren't talking about PlayStation gaming. Imagine everything Zane bought in Australia could be locked here by the company who sold it to him there. He and Ben now have to sort through, because some won't work any more. Like, these pants are OK, but that laptop? Nah. The top? Fine. What about that? There's a lot to sort through. These Aussie shoes? Nope. These are good, though. Imagine if someone was saying Maggie the miniature poodle was going to be fine, but Flossie the fully vaccinated Australian moggie would be a partial puss. Some features not available here ` no purring or cuddles from Flossie on our shores. Suddenly this seems ridiculous. So why is it any different for PlayStation games? The Sony System just seems unnecessarily punitive to anyone who happens to move country, and there's no real reason why the system that they have seems to be place. None that Sy Taffel can work out. And he's a pretty informed source ` a PhD in digital media ecologies ` and he's a gamer. This is not how the whole gaming industry operates. Microsoft Xbox and the PC game platform Steam both allow you to change countries if you shift, at the click of a button, though with Xbox you can only change it every three months. It only seems to be Sony that has this rather bizarre country-locked model that doesn't let you say that you've moved country, and you're forced to create a new account for your new country. And there are hundreds of people online who, for a number of years, have been complaining that this is completely unfair and unreasonable when we live in a globalised world, when people do move from country to country, and it's not always something that's foreseeable several years in the past, when you bought the machine and many of the things that have been subsequently purchased to go along with that account. Zane never thought when he sold his Xbox to buy a new PlayStation in Australia that he'd be locked into a system that might make him repurchase his games if he ever shifted back to New Zealand. What teenager possibly would? He was just going where his new mates hung out. Everyone is drawn to PlayStation sort of through that. So you're telling me if Zane wants to stay your friend, he's going to stay on PlayStation. Pretty much, yeah. (LAUGHS) Fair enough. That is part of the trap ` the rest is in the fine print. I looked through the terms and conditions and I didn't actually find anywhere saying that your account would be locked to the region that you made it in. There was nothing like that in the visible terms and conditions. Not locked, but there is this ` So what exactly was Zane buying? You aren't buying ownership of an object or a device, you're purchasing a licence, which means you don't technically own the thing, but the owners of it are allowing you and you alone to use it, which means it's a non-transferable thing. Have you tried to talk to PlayStation? Many times, and all the responses were, 'Oh, sorry, we can't help you there.' Really? Yeah. And over the phone, email, Facebook every way I could contact them, they said they can't help. Why? They didn't say. They just couldn't help at all. So we contacted the PlayStation people. And try this irony. Zane's games ` some of them ` are region locked, country-specific, but no one from Sony in this country could talk to us about that. No, we had to wait for word from the London office, and here is what they told us ` Sony wouldn't comment on why its competition can. A spokesperson told us there are third-party sites that will sell Zane credit for his Australian PlayStation Plus account, so that he can keep using what he bought there. The spokesperson described those as 'trusted providers'. Oh, so would Sony guarantee anything Zane bought there? They said, 'We're not sure about that.' It's still a workaround, not a simple fix. Ben has a suggestion for Sony's PlayStation. They should try and maybe unlock ` like, release the region lock. Zane's suggestion is more like a burn. It's so close to Christmas so, like, if someone wanted to buy a PlayStation, I'd maybe suggest waiting, if you're planning on moving somewhere ` don't buy a PlayStation. Wow, there is a whole world of communication out there I didn't even know about. Yeah, and I think Sony ` smart, big company, invented the Walkman; good job ` could probably just sort this out and help some teenagers. Wouldn't that be nice? Coming up after the break ` who knew Flat Stacks would get you so fired up? It is a very good concept, I must say, but there is a design flaw. Try as hard as we could, we just could not master the Flat Stack. Oh! OK. I'm a fail here as well. So what's the knack? There we go. (CHUCKLES) Plus... I've always wondered why Copper Kettle salt and vinegar chips from Bluebird don't have any no vinegar in them. Salt and vinegar chips with no vinegar ` is there really such a thing? Welcome back. It never ceases to amaze us which stories generate feedback on this show. Some get a trickle of responses; others, like last week's Flat Stack containers, get a torrent. If you missed it, here's Hannah with a recap and sample of some of the feedback we got. I'll just wait for the onions to get a little more brown. Michael and Sinatra love making curries. Dash of sugar. It just helps to bring the flavours out. They don't like any of this to go to waste, which is why at a recent Auckland Home Show they spent $140 on four sets of these flash Flat Stack containers. They could be actually crushed to a small size, so they stack up very easily. Just like this. And it is a very good concept, I must say, but there's a design flaw. It doesn't work for us. 'Yep. As hard as they tried, the biggest Flat Stacks just didn't, well, stack up.' (SCREAMS) 'So we gave it a shot.' It just doesn't click-clack at all, does it? It can't get a grip. It just doesn't clip on at all. OK, let's try with the curry. And this is pretty typical. Put the whole lot in. You put it on. OK. Ooh! OK. OK. I'm sorry` I'm a fail as well here. Just to demonstrate what's actually happening, we're going to fill this one with water. 'The trial was about to get a whole lot messier.' I like a challenge. Oh! Oh... I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry! You said it was all right to wet the table. 'My failure really upset a whole heap of dedicated Flat Stackers.' Here's a taste of some of the feedback. (BLEEP!) I've just watched, I think, the most ridiculous demonstrations I have ever seen on Fair Go. Some even sent in how-to videos ` how to put the lid on quickly, easily and effortlessly I have these containers and have used them for 18 months. They are great. Far out! I love my Flat Stacks. I've only got one arm that works, and I have no problems putting the lid on. Strangely, as hard as they tried, none of our two-armed Flat Pack testers could get the lid on. (BLEEP!) Oh, my shoes are wet. And they weren't the only ones having troubles. Oh, stuff it! So two very different takes on Flat Stacks. If there is a knack, the Dsouzas can't work it out. It has to work for me. If it doesn't work for me, it doesn't work. Are you doing it wrong? Is that the problem? You shouldn't have to go through a training programme to actually use the product. I'm telling you seriously, it doesn't make sense. So what do you think, New Zealand? Is it operator error, or is there a knack to the Flat Stack? After the show, the distributors of Flat Stacks, ShowTV, got back in touch and invited us to their Mt Maunganui headquarters to give the Dsouzas' containers the once over. So, Phil, you are going to show me how these things work. Absolutely. Here we go. We've got the pink and the green ` the infamous ones. Long ones first. There you go. And those ones. OK, I'm happy with that. 'Then we test out some typical leftovers ` soup, curry and rice.' It's not like a ClickClack, where you're pushing down. It's sideways pressure, not pushing down. OK. So now we'll just check the Dsouzas'. Here we go. Oh. It's just a little bit jammy. A little bit tight. 'A couple of lids hard to shut. One was actually warped.' I'm happy to admit that's harder than it should be. 'The Dsouzas didn't have problems with these smaller Flat Stacks, just these ones.' Ooh. Tighter than I would like, to be fair. 'A couple of these were also quite hard to close, but Phil showed me...' OK, I'll hand it over to the maestro. '...that there's definitely a technique.' Here we go. (CHUCKLES) Always shut the sides first, then the ends. And Phil hooks his fingers under the rim while pressing down on the bar. Now you're just skiting. Should I do it looking away? A bit of know-how makes all the difference. Is there anything you'd like to say to Mike and Sinatra? Absolutely. We're happy to acknowledge that some of these containers are absolutely harder than they should be to use. We have no interest ` we can't survive in business with unhappy customers. So we're more than happy to replace or, if that's no suitable, to refund your purchase price. Phil says any customer with a faulty product, just give him a call. They come with a five-year warranty. That would be a warranty claim, no problem. So finally, these guys are so confident in their product that they're going to let me pick, at random, one out of these sets. Phil, how many are here? We just calculated there are 843 to chose from. OK. What'll it be? What'll it be? This one. Right-oh. OK. You're going to go right to the bottom? That one. This one. And I know just the people to should test them. All right, moment of truth. Fresh from the warehouse. Flat Stacks for you to try, Haydo. No pressure at all. I'm gonna undo it for you. Here you go. My fingers are warmed up, ready to go. Push this down. Let's see... how you go. On top... (CLICK!) Just that last one. Oh, not quite. I don't have a lot of faith in you, at the best of times. Continuing with our good news theme, there have also been some developments at the Foxton Cemetery. Change is in the air at Foxton Cemetery. It's nice to see the children's area's nice and dry. After months of seeing the cremation garden and children's graves underwater for days on end,... Really good to see the council has done something to hopefully stop flooding in the short term. ...preliminary work has finally begun on a long-term fix to the flooding problem. They've taken all that swamp away and made a bit of a basin there, so hopefully the water is going to stay there. This is what's got locals so outraged. I think it's absolutely disgusting. Lynette and her mum, Lila, blamed a new road in the cemetery and its lack of drainage for the flooding. It's heart-breaking. What's going on here? I think the first thing we've got to say, Matt, is we're extremely sorry, cos we appreciate this is quite distressing for the families. We have every intention to try and resolve this in the very near future. Horowhenua District Council has engaged an independent consultant. All they need now is some fine weather to do the job. And that's what they got this week ` a pocket of sunshine that saw the digger get out and start working. It is an improvement on when we were here two weeks ago, definitely. And it's actually an improvement that they've done something. The council says this is just the beginning ` But it's a start. And for Lynette and Lila, it's like seeing a rainbow on the horizon. The roses are starting to grow nicely again, too. Yeah, it won't be long and they'll be in flower soon. And hopefully a sign of brighter times to come. Thanks, Matt and the Fair Go team, on behalf of our extended Robertson family and all the families that have loved ones in this area. I mean, we didn't just do it for our family, we've done it for everyone. That is a great outcome. You got there. It's hard doing it not a table. You've just gotta line up your lid, and then you click-clack. Coming up after the break, the heat goes on appliances that don't last the distance. Hello. Have you been stuck with a faulty appliance? It's just not toasting both sides. We might live in a throw-away society,... ...but that doesn't mean you can't get your money back. Plus ` Hi, Fair Go. I've got a question for the Christchurch Press. The ballistic missiles were once a paperboy's dream. But the new, improved, re-packaged, version is, well, a bit of a flop. Which has terrible ballistic properties. Welcome back. Maintaining, mending, repairing ` these words are fast becoming a thing of the past in today's throw-away society. Yes, like, our population might be getting older, but the lifespan of our appliances is definitely getting shorter. But how short is too short? Before you chuck that appliance, you might want to learn the art of complaining, because there could be a refund in it. Hi again, Brad. Hello. We see you've got a flash new toaster. Four slices, with a crumpet setting. But 14 months on, it's not working so well. It's just not toasting both sides. We get this a lot, Brad. And the good news is, the problem is generally pretty easy to fix. First, Brad, you need to go and see the shop where you bought the toaster. But I bought it on sale. That doesn't matter, Brad. It only had a one-year warranty. In this case, that shouldn't matter either. You see, Brad, something like a flash toaster should last for longer than 14 months. So even though the warranty's expired, you're still covered by the Consumer Guarantees Act. Oh, the CGA! That's right ` the CGA. So you can ask the retailer or the manufacturer ` you choose ` to sort it for you. If it's a small problem, they can repair or replace it. If it's major issue, you can choose to have it replaced or get a refund. I just want my toast toasted. Indeed. Before you go, Brad, here's a bit of advice from Fair Go. Be clear about what's wrong, how you'd like it resolved and when you'd like it done by. Be polite and keep a note of everything. Brad is learning a lot. Brad's learning a lot. Hadyn's learning a lot. I never realised the CGA could outlast warranties. It can. And on that note ` before you fork out a lot extra for an extended warranty, just think long and hard, because you may not need it. You must be a hit at dinner parties with that big brain of yours. Now, there is a long list of things that can get your consumer blood boiling. Yes, we get hundreds of complaints every week. The list of pet peeves includes telcos, insurance companies, car dealers and supermarkets. Our mantra has always been 'no problem is too small', which means it is time for that very occasional series ` but getting quite regular and very popular ` Haydo's Mailbag. Enjoy. (WHIMSICAL MUSIC) Welcome to Haydo's Mailbag. It's the back-to-school edition. Kids are happy, parents are relieved. Hi, Fair Go. I've got a question for the Christchurch Press. David's problem was his newspaper and how it flew through the air. Historically, it was delivered, wrapped up in Glad Wrap as a roll. It had very good ballistic properties, always landed on the property. It was dry when you went to pick it up, should it be raining. It's now delivered instead as a flat-pack, which has terrible ballistic properties. Invariably, the paper doesn't even arrive on my property; it's either on the footpath or in the gutter. On a wet day, whether it gets on to the property or not, it gets wet. The Press tell us it's all part of getting greener ` David agrees. Why not just roll the paper up and put a rubber band around it? Jan from Wainuiomata has chip issues. Hi, Fair Go. I've always wondered why Copper Kettle salt and vinegar chips from Bluebird don't have any vinegar in them. There's none in the ingredients list at all. Jan's right. The chips contain potato, sunflower oil, salt, lactose, sugar and a variety of food acids. The chip manufacturers confirm this. Now, it's a little tricky, but it is true these salt and vinegar chips do not contain vinegar, but they do contain the food acids that are used to make vinegar, if you see what I mean. Hey Fair Go,... Another David, from Wellington this time, spotted something different about his Just Juice. I was wondering why is the new Just Juice 2.4 litres, when it was 2.8 previously in the old packaging. David's right about the change. The new Just Juice packaging is pretty flash, and the juice has 50% less sugar. The downside is it has nearly 15% less juice. That's 400ml less. Hmm, that's a lot of juice. David's not happy. I just think it's quite sneaky, really, eh. Just Juice say,... Just Juice wouldn't tell us what their recommended price is, but David says on special he pays $4 for the old juice. We found the new juice on sale for $3.90. That's Haydo's Mailbag for this week. Remember, your small problems mean a lot to us. Oh, solving the problems of the world. It's a great series, isn't it? I'd just like to say ` salt and vinegar is without a doubt the best chip flavour. I don't agree with you, but salt and food acid doesn't really have the same sort of ring on the packet. No, it does not. No, not quite alluring. That is the show. But we will be on Facebook for the next half hour to answer your questions. And take your feedback about chip flavours. Our programme is all about your problems, your thoughts, so please do contact us. We're on Facebook, or you can email us... Or write to us... That's our show. Now, next Monday, we're off. We're having a holiday. We hope you are as well. Yes, but we will be back in a fortnight. Until then,... BOTH: ...po marie.