Let's face it, this year's silly season is going to be a bit different. Covid-19 could upset travel plans, supply chain issues could delay the perfect gift, and financial stress is always a Christmas concern.
To talk through some of the potential pitfalls to watch out for this festive season, Kathryn Ryan is joined by Gemma Rasmussen, head of communications and campaigns at Consumer NZ.
Rasmussen says we’re all now aware that big changes can happen very suddenly due to developments with Covid-19.
Photo: Pixabay/BeFunky
Listen to the full interview
“If you’re booking accommodation, probably the most important thing we would recommend is to read your terms and conditions and have a really good understanding of what you’re signing up for. Some people are wondering with will happen if there is a localised lockdown and whether they can get their money back.
“You need to look for a clause that states what will happen if accommodation can’t be used due to events outside of the control of either party, for example a lockdown.”
She says that if the contract doesn’t have such a force majeure clause, it then relies on the contract and commercial law act and the contract is ‘frustrated’.
“This means that it can’t be fulfilled due to events outside of both parties’ control and, in this situation, it is within your rights to request a refund. We would encourage people to get familiar with what they’re signing up for before they hand their money over.”
Rasmussen says that if the contract isn’t quite clear, people should just ask the provider about whether they can get their money back if there’s a lockdown.
“What we’ve found is that it can always be a bit trickier when you’re trying to deal with things after the fact whereas, if you’re proactive, that can help a lot.”
As for flights and ferries, Rasmussen says Jetstar and the Interislander are being very flexible and allowing people to change their dates without additional fees. Air New Zealand, which has coped a bit of criticism from Consumer NZ, are still encouraging people to buy flexi fares which cost a bit extra.
As for food, Rasmussen has a warning about buying your Christmas ham; she says a lot of New Zealanders are unaware that 90 percent of the ham on our shelves is imported.
“If it is important to you to be eating a kiwi pig this Christmas, there are some things to look out for. To buy local, you need to look for two stickers. That is the 100 percent New Zealand ham sticker and the pig care born and raised in New Zealand sticker.
“A lot of packaging says made from local and imported ingredients and what this basically means is that probably the only thing local about your ham is going to be the water in it.”
And she suggests that rather than feeding off that ham for the rest of the month, we get smaller hams and only don’t consume them any longer than a week.
“You don’t really want to be opening yourself up to the risk of food poisoning and eating that bacteria. We would say, as general rule, keep it to a week.”
Popular Christmas gifts are flying off shelves and not being replaced quickly enough to keep up with demand due to supply chain issues and courier capacity. Rasmussen suggest that, to offset gift anxiety, we look to locally made products.
“You can look for that New Zealand made labelling and sometimes there a little bit less mass produced and can feel a bit more personal and authentic. If you’re really struggling and cannot find that ‘thing’ you can consider the gift of leisure or a subscription, these are things that are really easy and they love and you don’t have that nervousness and wait times.
“We [Consumer NZ] haven’t been the biggest fan of gift cards in the past because of their expiry dates being a little bit less generous but if you know someone really loves a certain shop then a gift card can be nice way to get around that as well.”
For those on a budget, Rasmussen suggests steering away from hamper schemes and instead setting up an automatic payment to save for Christmas shopping.
“We have found that commercial Christmas hampers like Crisco and these schemes, you do actually end up paying a lot more money than the value of the goods that you receive… if you are able to do that budget and set up that account in the New Year, you will end up with a lot more money.”