Choice (Chippendale, Australia) articles from January 2003

Choice (Chippendale, Australia) archives from January 2003

Financial planning: a scandal.(Editorial)
January 1, 2003... We have a very scary article on page 8 of this issue. It reports on CHOICE's latest survey of financial planners (carried out in conjunction with ASIC) and shows that you could quite easily be unlucky enough to find planning for your future in...

Hair dyes and skin reactions. (choice cuts).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Last July in CHOICE we asked about your experiences with hair dyes as part of an international consumer investigation into hypersensitivity and allergies. A big thank you to all who sent in their stories. We had 15 responses covering 15...

More bad news on baby walkers. (choice cuts).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... There's been evidence that baby walkers are dangerous for several years, and in CHOICE, September 2002, we reported on an Irish study showing they can delay the physical development of a child. Here's further evidence supporting the case for...

Travel compensation fund: back-up if that bargain goes bust. (choice cuts).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... When Getting a good deal on air travel came out in CHOICE, August 2002, a travel agent wrote to remind us of the importance of choosing a licensed travel agent. In a competitive market, there's temptation for agents to undercut the prices of...

Eat fish for your brain. (choice cuts).
January 1, 2003... Two recent studies have again shown it's important to eat fish and seafood regularly. We already knew it can protect you from heart disease; now two new studies have found it can help manage mild symptoms of depression and reduce the risk of...

Wait till you see me after lunch! (World Consumer Snapshot).(German trends in plastic surgery)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... The consumer magazine Test reports on a new trend from the US emerging in Germany: lunchtime visits to a plastic surgeon who, quick smart, removes your wrinkles or age spots or plumps up your lips. In these sessions, special laser...

Royal ice cream. (World Consumer Snapshot).(Duchy Originals, from the Prince of Wales)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... It doesn't necessarily taste better, but it's organic and its profits support a charitable foundation... which may be reason enough for many a Brit to support a new range of luxury organic ice creams from Duchy Originals, the organic food...

Love your pet. (World Consumer Snapshot).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... The Spanish consumer magazine Compra Maestra asked its readers why they owned a pet and got some interesting responses. Four out of five Spanish households surveyed had a pet: most popular were dogs, cats, birds and fish, followed by rabbits,...

Electrical alert. (choice cuts).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... A letter from a lucky subscriber has prompted an alert about potentially dangerous electrical wiring in homes. While investigating the cause of flickering lights, they found a plug on a ceiling light transformer in a very dangerous state....

Cellu-stop stopped. (choice cuts).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Got a jar of CELLU-STOP cellulite-reduction cream that just didn't work in the bathroom cabinet? You're entitled to get your money back, thanks to court action brought by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. It's...

Safety switches. (Update).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... CHOICE, July 2002 In July we published a Choice Cut about the nuisance factor involved in accidental triggering of residual current devices (RCDs)--in the case we reported, a couple had lost all the food in their fridge and freezer. A...

EnergyStar for home electronics. (choice cuts).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Most modern TVs, VCRs, DVD players and other home entertainment equipment can be switched from standby to operating and back via remote control. While this is convenient, leaving your appliances on standby instead of switching them off fully...

Thumbs up. .(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2003... * Laurie and Pauline Stott of Mudjimba, Queensland, award a thumbs-up to The Good Guys at Kawana, which took back an espresso machine, no questions asked, in exchange for buying another model, as the first one had confusing controls and...

Online banking with St George--Macs beware. .(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2003... I've been banking online with Westpac without problems, so I recently asked my husband to do his banking (with St George) online as well, as we can't always be near a bank at the right time. After the first phone call to St George we logged...

When a cup's not a cup. .(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2003... We recently bought a rice cooker. The box stated the capacity of the cooker as eight cups raw, 16 cups cooked. There was no information anywhere else on the box. On opening the box and reading the supplied material, we found out that a cup...

Too many poor plans: the quality of advice given by some financial planners in our survey is frighteningly poor. How can you avoid incompetent or mediocre planners and find a winner? (Survey: financial planners).
January 1, 2003... The results of this `quality of advice' survey are disturbing. Too many planners put their own interests ahead of those of their clients by: * Ignoring their clients' needs and objectives. * Producing generic (rather than tailor-made)...

HRT--getting the balance right: what are the risks and what can it promise? Should you go the HRT route, and what do you do if you're already on it? (Health: HRT).(hormone replacement therapy )
January 1, 2003... If you're a woman of just about any age, you'd practically have had to be living under a rock not to have heard the recent future over hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and breast cancer. For weeks after the announcement that a major US...

Made in ... made how? More and more people would prefer to buy from companies that treat their workers fairly, don't employ children and don't exploit the developing world. But how can you tell which companies do what? (Report: fair trading).
January 1, 2003... We don't hear much about `corporate social responsibility' at a mainstream level in Australia. There's the occasional expose of global sports shoe companies' production practices in developing countries or a vague tribal memory of the `sweat...

Loafing around: buying a loaf of bread used to be simple, but the choice these days is enormous. Does it really matter which kind you choose? (Nutrition: bread).
January 1, 2003... White, wholemeal, multigrain, rye, soy and linseed--like most of our staple foods, there's a lot of bread to choose from these days. Eating a few servings a day of any kind is good for your diet, but if you'd like to know more about different...

Reader car reviews: your fellow readers have again spilled the beans on their experiences with a number of popular car models.(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2003... Most of our reviewers used the motoring press, the web, brochures and car dealers to research the best models for their needs--and some (how clever) also looked for advice from CHOICE. For example, our large online motoring section includes...

The Choice Wine Buying Guide 2003. (Choice Books).(Advertisement)
January 1, 2003... Fill the ice bucket, crack open the bubbly and drink a toast to yourselves. Due to the great success of the first CHOICE Wine Buying Guide, the 2003 edition will be available from February. Thanks to all our subscribers for helping to make this...

Food bites.(food labels, safety, and marketing)
January 1, 2003... You asked... WHAT'S THAT? A subscriber wants to know what some of the ingredients she's seen on food packaging mean. * Gums are often used to stabilise a mixture or as a thickener. Some common ones include guar gum, locust gum...

Pressing concerns: on test: 10 steam irons selling for between $50 and $100. (User Trial: irons).(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2003... It looks as though you've a good chance of getting a reasonable iron when you pay $50 or more for one: our trialists judged all those on test as equally good. None of the irons scored top marks for everything, but all did a good job and you'd...

Powders vs liquids: do liquid detergents wash as well as powders? (Update: laundry detergents).(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2003... Every time we've published a laundry detergent test in the past few years, many readers have asked us why we didn't include liquid detergents. Because they don't wash as well and they hold a considerably smaller market share, we used to answer....

Sound's different: don't worry too much about picture quality when shopping for a digital camcorder--it's mainly their sound quality that sets them apart. (Test: digital camcorders).(Buyers Guide)
January 1, 2003... Whether it's that dream holiday or your kids growing up, a digital camcorder can help you preserve your favourite memories in high, never deteriorating quality. Some of the models in this test are of a size that wouldn't have been out of place...

Recalls & bans.(Directory)
January 1, 2003... Nowadays there are so many product recalls we may not be able to print all of them in CHOICE. For comprehensive recall information go to the Federal Treasury website: www.recalls.gov.au. If you don't have web access, call the Safety Policy Unit...