Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2023 - Tonight ` they paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to a builder, now they're desperate for answers. - We don't know what the future looks like for us. We don't know what tomorrow's going to show us. - We question the man responsible. - So where's the money gone? - And phone cases ` do they guarantee protection? - You ready down there? - We put them to the test. - Let's do it. Wow. (LAUGHS) - Plus, get your diaries out ` there's a significant birthday you'll want to mark. - Nowhere did it say, only while you're 65 and not a minute later. - Tena koutou katoa, welcome to the show. Our first story features members of a community, linked in ways they never dreamed of. - That's right. These hopeful homeowners met online after their builder took hefty deposits and failed to deliver. Garth has the story. - GARTH: Welcome to Joydeep and Ashita's home. This is meant to be the front door. This is the... what, the entrance? - This is the entrance, yes. - Let's call it a dream home. - Boxing Day, we were looking at the furniture, dining tables, because the expectation was, by this time, we should have already moved in. - Clearly, it is not yet a reality. - It's been like this for more than a year now. - Their reality is delay, despair and debt. - We have already incurred $200,000. And once you lose this kind of money, you will never be able to recover that. That's the whole for your life. - You feel that way now? - Absolutely. - Mm. - Wayne Gates absolutely knows how that feels. - So, yeah, we're almost up onto where the house would be. - In Wayne's world, this was meant to be a place he retired to, with wife Eleanor and a view across the treetops. - That was the idea of the mezzanine, actually, on the back of the house, that it would be high enough to look over. - Two years ago, they confirmed a construction contract and paid a deposit to get it underway. So this is what you got for your money? - Uh, yeah. Well, admittedly, a lot's grown through it since, but yes, this was just gravel down so that they could actually access the site properly, and as you can see, it was all marked out. - And a few trees have come down, by the look of it, as well. - Yeah, well obviously the site was cleared with all the trees that the council had approved to take down. - And then nothing. That's it? - That's it. - $89,000 thank you very much. These hopeful homeowners never planned to live near each other. They are neighbours without houses. The neighbourhood is online; not a street, a WhatsApp group. - These are our real neighbours, I'd say. - They share the same pain, without being our actual neighbours - But you've never met these guy? - No. Never in person. - No, never. - A common thread with people who say this man, Dean Lister, owes them explanations. That's him. - Yeah, that's the man ` Dean. - And his company, Eleven Ltd, owes them money or a home. - People are angry. People are sad. A lot of people have moved on just because they couldn't really find any result or closure. - There's a number in the group chat; sounds like it's Dean Lister's. - Eleven Ltd is financially` there's nothing left there. - So where's the money gone? - What we have been hearing from his other customers is that none of the houses are getting built. Everyone is losing the deposits. And we, I think, have lost the most. - Dean Lister says he found this a challenging site to build on. Joydeep says that was covered, with an extra $14,000 paid for earthworks. The contract says you're meant to pay after it's practically completed, yeah? But what happened here? - So essentially, I think till earthworks it was all good; we have paid him afterwards. But for foundation he said that the concrete guys needs to be booked in, and as a customer, you don't know how it works. we would say, 'OK'. We have paid $70,000 for foundation as well. - Remember that's on top of Earthworks ` $44,000 all up, plus a deposit of $86,000 ` running total ` $200,000 ` and a year on, still no concrete. - The sole reason for not doing that works was because of the weather, and the site conditions due to the weather. - How can the weather have been a problem for 12 months? - But the couple and their online neighbours wonder if that holds water. One kept a recording of their conversation with Dean Lister about their building delays. Have a listen to what they shared with us. - I can't afford, at the moment, to pay people up front to get them on site ` that's my biggest issue. So basically what I'm having to do is get funds from other jobs and then slide the money sideways to get your one up and running. And that's proving to be difficult. - Two weeks after this, Dean Lister was pushing Joydeep and Ashita to pay in advance for their next stage. Is there a link? - Joydeep's money went into Joydeep's job. - Those things just don't add up though, Dean. If he gave you $70,000 for his foundations and he didn't get a foundation, how can the money have gone into his job? - All I'm saying is that the current situation that I'm in means that I've had to cease trading and the company is going into liquidation. That's where we sit, and that's the only sole reason that we're not doing extra works. - Joydeep And Ashita doubt that; since January they've been project managers as well as customers ` finding suppliers and tradies, dealing with an engineer who had bad news. - So this has not passed geo-tech inspection. - The plans call for 300mm of hard fill to prepare the ground for a concrete foundation. When the engineer tested, it showed half that depth ` a fail. Fixing it would require adding piles or starting over ` either costing tens of thousands of dollars extra. Dean Lister could hardly blame a contractor ` he himself did the earthworks. - Dean hasn't even bothered calling us, even to apologise ` 'sorry I left you in this situation.' So I think, not only a shitty builder, but he's just a bad human being, just to leave us, you know, in such a mess where we have no way out. We don't know what the future looks like for us. We don't know what's tomorrow going to show us. - And that is the burden that I am currently carrying with myself every single day. - He says Covid lockdowns and price increases put pressure on the business, but it's his fault too. - I'm deeply, deeply sorry for it and I wish it would be different. I only wish it could be different. Ultimately, being the director of the company, I'm 100% at fault. And the company has ceased trading, and we're pending liquidation and that's it. It's not the first time ` Companies Office records show his two previous building companies went bust 15 years ago. - There's no more companies for me. I'm done. This has broken me. I'm broken. - Eleven LTD was a member of Master Builders. What does the boss there have to say? - They were suspended over a year ago, which means they're removed from our website, they cannot access guarantees, and they cannot hold themselves out to be a master builder. - If a builder wants paying before they've done the progress, what does that say? - You should be wary of that. Be very careful and be wary about paying too much upfront. Those schedule of payments, they're there for a reason and they're there to protect the consumer. - They can also take out a guarantee with Master Builders, but what does that get them? - So if the builder doesn't complete the build, if they, for instance, go into liquidation, we will pay up to 20% of the contract price. Generally, that's sufficient. - Not all of Eleven Ltd customers had that Master Build guarantee in place. - It's still a lovely section. One day maybe someone will build on it, but it won't be us. - He's still waiting for Dean Lister to explain what he did with nearly $90,000 paid to Eleven Ltd. - It's a little bit hard to deal with, to be quite honest. It's probably why we don't actually come down here at the moment ` it's just, you know, just resurrects all the bad, bad feelings about it, really, and the fact that nothing ever happened and that we've been let down by someone who promised us so much and did so little. - But if just one thing has gone right for Joydeep and Ashita, it may be this ` the guarantee certificate for their job ` up to $171,000 in this case. So they make a claim and Master Builders inspects. - First of all, the builder hasn't completed. They simply haven't done the work, and that's obvious. And there are deficiencies in the work. So it's very clear when we've looked at it, they have an absolute claim. - So you will pay out? - Yes, we've paid out the maximum amount under the guarantee. But it's a sad situation ` it's very difficult for them and that's a very unfortunate situation. And it appears that that's a situation where the builder has got into commercial difficulty, and they have made some mistakes in terms of the build. - It's not all they've spent, but it covers most. Not enough now to build the house they dreamt of, but enough to start over. - So heartbreaking for those families. - Yes, and we've received a lot of complaints about the Master Build guarantee over the years. - Nice to see it actually paying out and Master Builders themselves fronting on camera. - Sure is. E haere ake nei, coming up ` there's something on offer in addition to your pension at 65... But you'll have to be quick. - Get it while you can, in that 12-month period and that's it. - And how much phone protection does your drop case offer? And is there any comeback if it fails? - They wouldn't even have a look at my phone ` they just... told me to go away. (STARTLES) Shhh. (SOFT GRUNT) You've had a big day, Dad. VOICEOVER: Imagine if instead of the kids wearing you out... (SNORING) ..you wore them out. Get AIA Vitality and start thriving. - Kia ora, nau mai, hoki mai. Welcome back. Now, we love saving people money on Fair Go ` especially when those costs can be avoided. - And our next story could save you hundreds. A wee tip though ` you're gonna have to get out your diaries. Kaitlin has the story. - (BLOWS PARTY HORN) KAITLIN: Did someone say birthday freebies? There you go. - Oh. - Eat free. - Oh, yum. - This is free. There you go ` Kelly Tarlton's! - (CHUCKLES) - But there's one gift Mabel won't be getting, not at age 75... - Lovely. - ...a shingles vaccine. - As far as I knew, and I've always known it's been free for age 65 and upwards. - Not so. There's only one birthday in a lifetime that includes a free jab ` your 65th. - Nowhere do you see, where it's advertised, as non-funded shingles injection, unless you're 65 ` the year you're 65. - Get in while you can. - Get it while you can, in that 12-month period, and that's it. - Right now, people who are immune-compromised or over the age of 50 can get the vaccine, Shingrix. - 'Don't let shingles crush your party. 'Once you reach 50, your risk of shingles increases. '1 in 3 people will get shingles in their lifetime.' - Mabel had meant to get her vaccine a few years back, before the pandemic. - They didn't have any in stock and they said, 'Oh, just come back another day and we'll... and you can have it.' - She wasn't told that time was running out, like it did for Sue in Masterton, who got a notification from her GP when she turned 65. - You now qualify for a free shingles vaccine. Nowhere did it say only while you're 65 and not a minute later. - That was through waves of Covid restrictions, so Sue waited for things to settle and went back last year, aged 66. - They allowed two weeks grace, either side of your birth date. And of course, I went in in June and my birthday's in May, so I was two weeks over. The only option left for Sue and Mabel was to pay for it themselves. - She told me that the shingles injection that I was going to have was going to cost me $700. $700? That's terrible! Two injections, one six months apart, for $350 each. Well, I had a terrible shock. It's almost unbelievable, really, that they would expect senior citizens to pay $700 out of our pension. - There are other vaccines that are funded for a limited time. Think immunising kids for HPV, pneumococcal meningococcal B, but Shingrix is the only one that's funded for just the one year. It's important to note the shingles vaccine didn't used to be free at all. That changed in 2018 when Pharmac began funding the brand Zostavax. Why was that decision made to only make it free for 65? - It was the balance of the severity and frequency of the disease versus the decreasing efficacy with age. And the age of 65 was chosen as that sweet spot. - But also to avoid significant cost. - So this is a treatment that everybody will get once; there is no evidence that repeated vaccination with these vaccines is useful. These are expensive vaccines, but no, the primary driver, as I say, was that combination of need and effectiveness. - When the vaccine was first funded, there was a catch-up program... - ...for those aged 66 to 80, and this went on for two years. - Mabel says she'd heard nothing of the sort. - People need to know. People don't know. - Public health agency Te Whatu Ora says it's emailed people aged 65 to let them know they can get it for free, and the funding criteria can be found on its website. As for what's on the telly... - 'Who` Who do you think you are?' - The manufacturer of Shingrix, GSK, told us all its ads contains statements about the funding status of the vaccine in line with the Medicines NZ Code of Practice. There's the reference to the criteria. - Casual observer of a TV ad would not notice anything to do with an age window, I don't think. - In the past year, 60,000 doses of Shingrix were distributed, though records don't show how many of them were free. Pharmac's considering funding it for more people in the future, including people ages 50 to 64, Maori and Pacific people over 60, immune-compromised, and over 65s who either had the old vaccine Zostavax, or missed out because of Covid restrictions. While we wait, Mable wants to get the word out. - To not know that you have to have an injection in that year is unacceptable, really. I think the more people know about that, the better. 'Do I want it? Don't I want it? 'If I do want it, it's free.' - For a time. - For a time. For a time. - Oh, I tell you what ` I had shingles when I was younger, and I would do anything to avoid it. That's my advice. - All right, good to know. E haere ake nei, coming up ` what kind of phone case offers the best protection? - I know you're a fan of these. (CLUNK!) - Kia ora, nau mai, hoki mai. Welcome back. Now, mobile Phones ` I think we've all heard of them, most of us have one ` and like them or not, we depend on them and they are far from cheap. - Yeah, that's right. And that means a protective case is on most people's list when they buy a phone. - But how much protection do they really offer? And do you have any comeback if they fail? Gill went to find out. - Sometimes you get unlucky. (LAUGHS) Great start. - That was funny. - But it's no big deal. - I'll talk to you later. - Other times it really sucks. And Kevin knows, because while this is a dummy phone, it happened to his real phone, an iPhone 14 Pro Max. - I was in a rush just trying to slide my phone in my pocket, but for some reason it didn't go in. - It was from 2degrees ` the phone itself and a recommended protective case. - I paid around $60 for the case alone and I spent 30 bucks on the screen` the glass screen protector. - Yet even with that protection and not too big a drop... - See the whole thing shattered at the back. - He told his friends it was his fault. But... - They were the ones who said like, 'No, it's a drop protection case ` 'it was supposed to protect your phone.' - No wonder people think this, when some ads show armour-like protection. - We have a survivor on our hands. - But real life can be very different. So confession time ` had a little accident with my phone, didn't recover. So, like Kevin, I've got lots of questions to ask. Good Tech is familiar with drop damage as it repairs and sells pre-owned phones. In general, is it worth getting a phone case? - Absolutely ` you should treat a phone case like insurance. It's cheap and you don't have to keep paying all the time. - So my phone smashed, Kevin's phone ` just from his pocket ` smashed. Why is that then? - Sometimes it just gets that wrong angle and you're out of luck. - But importantly... - Cases differ significantly. You can get ones that are cosmetic, that look nice, but they don't actually give great protection. - I feel a test coming on. Unscientific, but hopefully of some help. - I'm looking forward to it. - A $5 gel case; a heavy duty, $90 one; a $23 wallet; and a $20 gel case that Frazer swears by. - Pretty good ` you've got a raised edge. - Outside, we try the trouser pocket tumble. Clean bill of health all round. So we try one with no case and... - Oh! - That's not bad. - A bit of a dent. So protective gear on and time to step it up a notch. You ready down there? - Ready as I'll ever be. Let's do it. - Not a drop your phone's likely to experience, but we want a serious test. We're not holding out much hope for this little guy. He has no case. (CLATTER) - Wow. (LAUGHS) The whole thing separated. - What do you get for five bucks? - Ooh! It's dug right into the phone. This phone is toast. - Onto the $20 gel one. So I know you're a fan of these. - (LAUGHS) It does what it says on the lid, not a scratch on it. - Anyone would think you know what you're talking about. And now the wallet ` on trend, Barbie-style. - We got quite a bit of damage, actually. - Front and back, smashed. - Good news is the case is fine. - And the one that would leave the biggest hole in your pocket? $90 case. - (EXCLAIMS, LAUGHS) The case is basically destroyed, but the phone is absolutely perfect. - It is just a one-off, so a repeat could be different, but it does back up what Fraser's years of experience have told him ` - You want something that's relatively thick. It's got the raised edge to protect from the face down, and you want it to be kind of soft so it's got a little bit of shock protection. You know, we saw that $90 one and, you know, it did a good job to protect the phone, but you're not going to be using it again. And then we saw another one that was $20, $30, and that looked like that could have kept going for a long time. - But back to Kevin. He told me he felt his case wasn't fit for purpose and that he called in to the 2degrees store in Porirua. - They wouldn't even have a look at my phone. They just told me to go away. (EXCLAIMS, LAUGHS) - One thing about Kevin, he doesn't like losing. So although he could use his insurance to get a replacement phone for 500 bucks, he felt 2degrees should take some responsibility. - If they were, like, really nice about it, I would have been like, 'OK, all good. I'm just going to go with my claim. That's fine.' - He persevered. - I spoke to the manager and his response was even worse. - Eventually, 2degrees said it would assess his phone but wouldn't cover the cost of repairs. So Kevin took the company to the Telecomms Dispute Resolution service. - TDR reached out to me and said, 'No, 2degrees is not agreeing to do any repairs or even settle for anything. - At Good Tech, they can see the problem. - The burden of proof of actually showing that your phone smashed because the case you had purchased didn't do a good enough job, I think that would be really hard to prove. - And as 2degrees told Fair Go ` - With phone cases, it's important people realise they're like bike helmets or seatbelts ` highly recommended, but not effective 100% of the time. - So Kevin's gone with his insurance. New phone, same old case. - The reason is, I can't buy a new case now co I just spent $500 on the cover so I can't buy a new case. - He's good with that, but wanted this story to alert others and to be a wake up call for 2degrees customer care. It worked. 2degrees said ` - We are sorry to hear that Kevin wasn't happy with our customer service We pride ourselves on being NZ's fairest telco, so it stings when people feel they haven't been treated well. We're reviewing what happened and seeing what we could have done better. - And that review's worked a treat. Kevin got an email saying... - They've credited $500 towards my monthly payment plan, which is pretty good because like, that's the amount I actually spent on my insurance. - Hopefully that put a smile on your face. - It actually did, yeah. You know, I appreciate you guys like, you know, pitching in. - And so your score ` 3, 5, 9... Seems Kevin has cracked it. You're the winner. - I told you. (LAUGHTER) - I feel for Kevin because I have done that exact same thing, where I thought it was going into my bag and it just went down the side. - Oof, thoughts and prayers. It can be harrowing losing a phone. Ah, just a note, the phones that we chucked off the building, they weren't actually functioning; we are not wasting good money on bad phones. So don't you be worrying about that. - That's right, and that's it from us. But if you only caught part of the show, you can catch all of it ` plus past episodes ` on TVNZ+. - Good, cos our programme is all about you guys at home, so let us know what's going on in your life ` preferably consumer issues but we'll take all of them. - We're on Facebook, TikTok and Instagram. You can go to our webpage ` Email us ` Or write to us ` - Thank you for watching. Remember, keep your loved ones close and your cellphones even closer. Until next week... - BOTH: Po marie.