New Zealand's Consumers' Institute just released its first annual Complete Ass Awards for bad products and services, Voyeurwebbers.The award for the worst product and service -- appropriately called the Super Ass Award -- went to the Telecom firm for its Xtra broadband service. The Consumer Institute said the firm's advertisement is xtra-ordinarily bad and so is the service.
Institute executive director David Russell said that since Telecom "unleashed" its broadband speeds, the institute had been "inundated with complaints of slower speeds and frustrating cutouts". To make matters worse, "you can't switch on the telly or open the paper without being confronted by the leering geek band, the Xtraordinaries, proclaiming unlimited broadband speeds and no data caps", he said.
But the awards don't stop there. The institute's Lazarus Award, for a product that refuses to die, went to Txt 8555 competitions. Russell said the "rampant vagabond" text-message competition charged entrants $3 for every message sent to them by the company and then awarded them a prize lower than the value of what they had spent on their phone bill.
The Pet Rock Award, for a service as useful as a pet rock, went to Harvey Norman for its extended-warranties offers. Russell said the warranties usually offered no more protection than was already guaranteed under New Zealand's Consumer Guarantees Act.
"They're good little money-earners," Russell told reporters. "You pay them for the legal rights they have to offer you."
The Fine Print Award went to the Mitre 10 Mega company for its promise to beat any rival's prices by 10 per cent, but the fine print said the product was not allowed to be on sale at the competing store.
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