Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2023 - Tonight, boating ` it is a beloved Kiwi pastime, but are low penalties putting people at risk? - A slap on the wrist and $200. - It was almost just as painful as the accident itself. - So should skipper licenses be mandatory? - And she thought it would be a simple fix... but then the quote arrived. - Do I need to be spending all this money to turn the computer on? I just want it to be going again. - Do you have to go with the manufacturer's recommended repairer? - And those holey tees and cheese slicers really got you talking. - Put a little bit of super glue ` be very careful ` in the central rivet, which I reckon is right there. Tena koutou katoa, welcome to the show. Now, Kiwis ` we love getting out on the water, don't we? Some consider it part of our DNA. - Yes, but there are rules to follow out there, and as our next story shows, if they're ignored, people can get hurt. Badly. - And sadly, that was the experience of a South Island family ` a shocking encounter that led them to ask whether the penalties for risky behaviour at sea are fit for purpose? Gill has the story. - ...perfection. - GILL: The smiles are back. - She's just rocking her new look and confident. - Uno. - That's after a year of surgery and dental work for Talia. - I fractured my jaw. A couple of my teeth are gone. One of them was, like, in my gums somewhere. And I couldn't talk or anything because my lips were so swollen and I couldn't eat, which was really annoying. - You know, Talia's got a hell of a long road in front of her to get fixed. - That's painful. And so is feeling the person who caused the accident got off lightly. - Never got any justice out of what happened.. - The family came to Fair Go wanting change. - It's the punishment fitting the crime. - Because even a year on.... - Yeah, it's pretty` It's pretty roar. Um... - We are way down south where if you're not getting wet, you're not living. - Everything we do we do with water. - And on one sunny winter morning, 13-year-old Talia was helping Mum's rowing crew. - Water was so flat and it was so perfect. - We were practising for a regatta and the plan was to do one last race and then finish off at the rowing shed. - Following local rowing club rules, they'd been out to sea, turned around here and were ready for their last dash, when... - We could see a recreational boat coming in from the sea. We would have been parallel to each other, with quite a bit of room in the middle. - Rowing skiff here, jet boat here, supposedly heading back to the boat ramp, but... - He turned in towards us... and came right at us. We were kind of waving and screaming. - The boat was heading directly at Talia. - You've only got a few seconds to think, how can you save your child? Yeah, because you're strapped in and it's a big boat coming right at you. - I had just finished rowing, and I was in the rowing shed. I heard Rika just screaming and she was yelling my name. - The boat hit the rigger, sending it flying into Talia's face. - The next thing I remember is holding Talia in the water, and she was not in a good state. And as I was holding Tali, I just knew that I couldn't see our other friend. - The friend went overboard, but was fine. Talia was injured and in shock. - Just touched the rest of my face, because I wasn't sure if, you know, he'd hit me anywhere else. - It's a parent's worst nightmare to be right there, and you can't stop it from happening. VOICE TREMBLES: It's still that experience that really shakes your world. Because all you want to do is protect your babies. - It had a ripple-like effect ` - The other people in the boat, the rowing club. - Rika herself was traumatised; she was offered no support and had to take unpaid leave. - She's still not the same happy-go-lucky person that she used to be, and she's always concerned. It just seems it's gone to a different level. - And what happened next made them really wonder if the investigating body understood this impact. Because after almost a year, the family got a letter giving the outcome and the skipper's penalty. Wait for it ` - A slap on the wrist and 200 bucks. - It was almost just as painful as the accident itself. - It made me sick. - You can get a $200 infringement fee just for not wearing a life jacket on a paddleboard, or not having your motor vehicle license displayed correctly, or for dumping rubbish or for this ` causing injury through reckless driving of a boat. - How does it stop anyone from doing things like that? What does that teach our children? - The family never even received an apology or if there was remorse... - Certainly we don't know about it. - They were told the investigation confirmed the skipper had left the helm of the boat, wasn't keeping a proper lookout and caused personal injury - The rules are if you're in a powered vessel, you have to give way to a non-powered vessel. You've got to look where you're going. - Still, they have no desire to name the skipper. - It's not about this guy at all. You know, we're human, we make mistakes, but for me, it's making sure that that mistake can be held accountable. - So penalties that are a real deterrent and a more serious attitude to boating safety. - Education, isn't it? When we drive on the road, we have to be licensed. What does that look like in New Zealand? - Well, right now it looks like personal responsibility. - We've done a day skipper's course because we go out of Riverton in a fishing boat. - But harbourmasters across the country know you can't rely on people to do courses themselves, so they want it mandated. - I don't mind how it gets there ` compulsory education or skip a licensing ` but that's an absolute need for us. - So why isn't it happening? - My opinion, the reason we don't have it is, the political will to bring it in. - So the Government says it is looking at this now, looking at experience in other countries. Does that give you hope? - I'm always hopeful, but when I started in this role eight years ago, we were talking about 'the government's interested,' but we haven't seen any. - And each year the need gets greater. - In the middle of summer, there'll be 300 boats between here and Horohoro, and without a little bit of knowledge, the whole thing is completely falling apart for safety. And the rules are quite different to what you see in a car. - So it would make a big difference? - It would make a huge difference. - It would hopefully mean they have fewer incidents to deal with and fewer infringement fees to dish out. Which brings us back to that $200. Penalties for boating accidents can be bigger than that, but it depends how they're investigated. And in this case, Environment Southland was in the driving seat. To put it bluntly, that really was a slap in the face for the family. - I would agree. I don't believe, in this case, a $200 infringement met the severity of the incident. - It said its hands were tied, as $200 was the maximum infringement fee it could give. But doesn't that suggest that you weren't the right organisation to do the investigation? - Well, it's probably a question for Maritime New Zealand. - This was the start of a run-around between Maritime New Zealand, the Ministry of Transport and the Council as we try to get answers for the family who felt their case hadn't been taken seriously. Fair Go asked for more of an explanation, and Maritime New Zealand told us it did carry out initial inquiries, but after looking at the severity of the case and the fact it was a local navigation issue, it decided Council was right for the job. Environment Southland covers lots of lakes and coastline and it's done lots of these investigations. It's our understanding that like Maritime New Zealand, it can prosecute using the Maritime Transport Act, which has a maximum fine of $10,000. It decided against this. - Whilst it was a serious incident, it didn't meet the threshold for a prosecution. - He told us they thought long and hard about this and they couldn't ignore the fact it was the skipper's first offence, he'd cooperated with investigators, and he was unlikely to re-offend, given, in their view, it was a genuine mistake. So what does that leave them? Council bylaws. They could see if he'd breached navigation safety rules. But at this council, at this time, the maximum penalty is $200. The family were in disbelief. But at least there's this ` - One of the things that I think that we can agree on is that the level of infringement really didn't meet the seriousness of the incident. And so this case can be used to actually build a justification for looking at things differently as we go forward. - It wants to increase the fee for breaches of this bylaw, as it's already told the family. - So that's a decision for our council to request that of central government. - So are you going to do that? - We fully intend to take that before council. - It's been a confusing run-around for the family when what they're after is simple ` - I want to make sure that if something like this happens again, there's a deterrent. - But they can take heart; there's a bright new sign already and signs of change. The maximum penalty under the Maritime Transport Act is due to increase from $10,000 to $50,000 and for more common breaches of safety bylaws, at their council, they've inspired an urgent push to increase the fee. - If you make a mistake, there should be consequences. - For Talia, there'll be more surgery at a cost of thousands, even with ACC's help. - I can't get implants until I'm in my 20s, so I'll need quite a few more different plates. - But she's putting her best face forward. - I knew she was amazing, but now I'm just in awe. Pretty cool chick, our Tali. - Phwoar, that is harrowing. - She is amazing. Look, we approached the skipper of the boat but he chose not to engage. And a big thanks to Westlake Girls for helping with our rowing shots. - E haere ake nei, coming up ` how important is getting a second opinion? - How often does that happen to people that they get these quotes but they don't understand what they're paying for? - Kia ora, nau mai, hoki mai ` welcome back. Do you know that sinking feeling when you press the on button on your computer or phone and then... nothing? - It is terrifying. And I'll tell you who knows all about that, is the person in our next story whose laptop died during a very busy time at work. - Luckily though, it was less than a year old, and so she thought, 'Easy fix.' Until the quote arrived. Kaitlin has the story. - # 76 trombones... - KAITLIN: If there's one person who knows what's behind the curtain before everyone else, it's Sandra Roberts. The entertainment publicist takes what she sees and hears and then gets busy behind her laptop to share it with the world. - Some people would say it's attached to me. (LAUGHS) But I mean, I do love my laptop. - But after working at a razzmatazz opening for Kinky Boots back in May... - With lots and glitz and glamour and sequins. - ...her MacBook Air made it a night to remember for the wrong reasons. - I went to turn it on and just nothing ` dead. I thought, 'Oh gosh, it needs a little lie down after all that excitement, I suppose.' - Sandra took it into Noel Leeming in Silverdale, where she'd bought it new less than 12 months ago. - I just didn't think that anything major would be wrong with it because it had been working perfectly fine and we'd been uploading all sorts of photos and videos and stuff the day before. - Noel Leeming sent it off to its Apple authorised service provider 'serviceplus' for repairs. A few days later, Sandra was faced with her own showstopper. - $1,822.75 ` what? - The repair bill was over $100 more than her Mac was worth in the first place. - They quoted me things that I thought, 'Oh gosh, it sounds like it was a catastrophic meltdown,' but I couldn't think about how that could possibly have happened because one day it was working perfectly fine and then the next day it wasn't. - These are the things serviceplus said needed replacing ` the audio board; the audio board flex cable, that connects the audio board to the mother or logic board; the top case with keyboard; a touch ID button; and the display screen. All considered faulty and put down to a liquid spill caused by the customer. For the record, you didn't spill anything on it? - Absolutely not. No. - Didn't drop it? - No. Nothing. No. - Any other whoopsies? - No. No accidents. No nothing. And then it just stopped working. - But because Sandra was being blamed for that, Noel Leeming wouldn't cover the costs under Apple's 12-month warranty. So she queried the quote with serviceplus. - 'Do I need to be spending all this money to turn the computer on? 'I just want it to be going again.' And he said, 'Yes, you need to have all those things fixed for it to be working again.' - Sandra asked for her laptop back and took it to an independent repairer to at least try and get a copy of her data. But they did more than that... Soon figuring out why the Mac wasn't turning on. The repairer's chosen not to go on camera. - Being a smaller business myself, I don't feel it'll be very smart. - But in their view, liquid wasn't to blame. Instead, the local repairer found there was a problem with two faulty capacitors ` these little units ` which smoothed the electrical flow to the main circuit board. - How these MacBooks work is they switch from 5V to 20V when they're working correctly. Sandra's one was only going to 5V, which indicated to me there was an issue with the motherboard. - By soldering on two new capacitors, Sandra's MacBook returned to a normal voltage and started back up again. - I didn't find any evidence of liquid spill. - Apple has rules around how its products can be fixed. For example, a faulty motherboard would end up being replaced rather than repaired. - The right to repair really needs to lift up in New Zealand and show there are opportunities for third party repairers to help. As for Sandra's laptop, serviceplus took this photo at the time as evidence of liquid-damaged parts. It says the residue appears to be dry, as if it had been there for some time. But this repairer argues moisture could be to blame. - The actual pins on the flex cable aren't damaged. That, at worst, would have caused an intermittent issue with the audio. But the MacBook wasn't switching on and that was completely unrelated to that. - Serviceplus acknowledged it could have been more specific with its choice of wording. - It possibly would have been clearer to state that the parts were affected by liquid and that there is potential for future failure if the parts are not replaced. Also, I think liquid incursion could be preferable terminology to liquid spill; we do not know how the liquid entered the machine. - But the company believes its technician found more than just condensation. - Unfortunately, liquid incursion is a serious situation on electronic devices, they can appear to function OK initially, but can or will develop issues over time. Serviceplus seeks to complete repairs to a fully functional and reliable state to ensure that the customer continues to have their full entitlements post repair. Leaving liquid residue in a device after repair is not good practice. - It's standing by its assessment that the liquid damage it found could have caused the device to not power on. - Having said that, the information provided by Fair Go appears to indicate that the main PCB may have also had an issue that we did not report. - But Sandra says she just wanted someone to get her computer going again. - It was less than a third of the cost of what serviceplus was actually quoting, and it's working perfectly fine. - Noel Leeming says it takes customer concern seriously and is happy to discuss options around quoted repairs. It's sticking by serviceplus's findings, but as a gesture of goodwill, has offered to give Sandra a brand new MacBook Air. - Oh, that is wonderful. I'm thrilled that they're giving me another one ` that's awesome. But, you know, the further conversation is what steps are they going to put in place that it doesn't happen again? - Because her MacBook's still singing... - Oh, it's wonderful. (LAUGHS) It doesn't seem to be missing a beat. - # ...down! # - Hmm, so she's now got two computers ` one for Fair Go live, one for Fair Go in re-runs. But also, people at home, second opinions ` get them all the time, on everything. - Absolutely. E haere ake nei, coming up ` so what are you entitled to when it comes to getting your devices fixed? - Ultimately, it does come down to each consumer just understanding what their rights are, and just holding their ground, really. - Kia ora, nau mai, hoki mai ` hello there, welcome back. Now, before the break we met Sandra. When her laptop stopped working it was sent away to Noel Leemings recommended repairer who quoted $1300 more than her local repair shop. - Wow. So what rights does she have? Kaitlin went to find out. - KAITLIN: Sandra's MacBook's still going strong, despite being told it wouldn't turn on again without spending $1,800 on repairs. - You know, how often does that happen to people that, you know, they get these quotes, but actually they don't understand what they're paying for. Just baffles me. (START-UP SOUND) - If that sounds like you, Paul from Consumer NZ's here to help. Hey, Paul. - So you can take it to anybody you want to get that assessed and to get a second opinion. It's never a case that you have to give up the product and just take their word for it. - It's not a question of whether the manufacture warranty still applies, you always have rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act. - The CGA says that a product must be fit for purpose, which partly means that it's got to be durable and not faulty for a reasonable period. - If it's a minor fault, then the retailer can choose what they do with it, but if it's a major, it's up to the consumer how it gets fixed. - So you can say, 'I need it repaired, I want a replacement or a refund.' - It's best practice to give the retailer a chance to put things right; if you don't, they can claim they would have fixed it if only you'd given them a chance. In Sandra's case, Noel Leeming wouldn't cover the cost of the repair job because the work had already been carried out by a third party. Paul says even then, there's a case for being able to claim costs back. - And say, 'Look, I know under consumer law 'this needs to be put right, 'and I've got evidence that it is a product fault, 'and you as the retailer, really need to fix this for me.' - What costs you in time and effort might save you hundreds of dollars. - Is there not a more beautiful sound than a computer starting up fresh after an update? Oh! So good. - So good. And hey, it's so important to know your consumer rights, obviously, as well. Now as we say each week, our show is all about you, and this next segment goes one step further ` you help create it. - It's time for Haydo's mailbag. Come on, Florence. Florence, come on. We start tonight with a canine cost of living crisis. - Hey, Fair Go. - Andy Hamilton is not happy his dog's food is skyrocketing in price. - Why is it Tux dog food has gotten so pricey? Our dogs love it, but boy, has it got so expensive. - Andy says what used to be $39.99 at The Warehouse, rose to $45, $52 and then $66. When we had a look, it was selling at The Warehouse for $60. Nestle, who make Tux, says pet ownership skyrocketed during Covid, and now there's a scramble for raw ingredients. - What we're now saying is new demands for the material we need, which has led to shortages of ingredients and packaging, higher prices. - They say in 2021, the price was $46. The recommended price now $66. While The Warehouse says, unlike the supermarkets, their prices are the same everywhere, and on average their 15kg bag is the best value. (BELL RINGS) And holy moly ` remember Pippa's t-shirt fails expose? - 20 to 30 tops coming in a week with these little holes? - Very common. - Well Robert from Auckland reckons the problem could be carpet moths. - The male energetically beats his wings in a mating ritual before bending his abdomen inward. - They can breed and feed in your furnishings and clothes. - As soon as the larva emerge from their shells, they crawl about hunting for food. - Check out what happened to Robert's threads. Robert thinks you can treat them with a repellent... Or just put your clothes in the freezer. (BELL RINGS) - Hey, Haydo. What's up with cheese slicers these days? - And do you recall Abigail from Hawke's Bay and her problem with her cheese slicer? - I'm just trying to make my sandwich and they keep breaking. This one broke, and now this one. - Abigail's mom sent us a gallery of broken cheese slices. Well, the mailbag lit up. Yowzas. Ian from Auckland recommends this slicer because it comes with spare wire. While Francis from Dannevirke says the cheap slicers last if you follow her three rules ` rule number one, put a little bit of superglue ` be very careful ` in the central rivet, which I reckon is right there. Number two always hold the slicer with both hands. Here we go. Look at that. And rule three ` the dishwasher is a no-no. That's Haydo's Mailbag for this week. (BELL RINGS) - I thought that went rather well. - I'm laughing because you dropped some cheese, so I hope you picked that up. - That'll be especially triggering for my wife ` poor her. - Yes! Right that's it from us. But if you only caught part of the show, you can catch all of it ` plus past episodes and some handy consumer information ` on the Fair Go page on TVNZ+. - And please drop us a line whenever you want ` if you've got some issues we are always here to help. - We are. We're on Facebook, TikTok and Instagram. Go to our webpage ` Email us ` Or write to us ` - Thank you for watching. Until next week... What have the carpet moths been doing at your place! - BOTH: Po marie.