(JAZZ MUSIC) - Tonight ` she was a pioneer in Antarctica; her work vital in understanding global warming, but that work has gone missing in the post. - About 1700 slides in total, I think. And my field notebooks that went with my observations down there. Irreplaceable. - We're on a search for answers. Plus ` the wetsuit offence that could cost you hundreds of dollars. - Do I have to? - Yes. - Ooh, you really got in there, didn't you? - (LAUGHTER) - You gotta do what you gotta do. - And ` is this petrol app a money trap? - I lifted the bowser; he said, 'Actually, it's 95 you want,' I said, 'No, I use 91.' - What responsibility do companies have to make apps easy to use? www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2023. Tena koutou katoa. Welcome to the show. Hello, old mate. - Hello! Look, Aotearoa punches above its weight for firsts ` first to climb Everest, first country in the world where women could vote. - We are a country of pioneers, and the farmer in our next story is a prime example. As an Antarctic researcher in the '70s, Anne's work is now in demand internationally. - Sure is, but she's come to Fair Go because there's a big problem with that research ` it's missing. Garth has the story. (PIANO MUSIC) - Sundown at Fleecewood. Anne Grassham is scaling the hills, while her mind soars back to the mountains of Antarctica. - It's just beautiful ` you have that same, sort of, lovely long shadows, beautiful colours coming out of the... what is essentially a black-and-white vista. - One of those mountains ` Anne Hill ` is named after her, after she put it on the map. We'd normally show you some old pictures; we'll explain in a moment why we can't. - I just like anything that's got a bit of adventure with it and exploring and something that's new. - In 1977 Anne made her first trip to the ice, researching Antarctic volcanoes. And that's all that's left? - Yep, that's it. - Anne was one of the first women paid by our government to go to the ice, a pioneer who returned a further three times with the US Antarctic Programme. It's something from that past that we're chasing now. - All in a box ` about this height ` gone. - And by gone she means lost ` in the post. - A parcel which had all my photographs in it from the four seasons that I spent on the ice ` about 1700 slides in total, I think, and my field notebooks that went with my observations down there. - This is irreplaceable? - Irreplaceable, yep. - And last seen at the farm gate, when she sent it out by courier. If this were a nice woolly jumper or a pair of socks that had gone stray in the post, well, that's annoying, but what we're talking about are unique and valuable scientific records of a fragile part of our planet ` we've all lost something in that parcel. Quite simply, Anne's photos could be crucial to helping us understand our climate crisis, in a place where its effects are felt most sharply ` the polar regions. - As far as global warming's concerned and comparing how snow and ice cover has changed, they actually have a lot more scientific importance that I had realised when I took it. - Anne's research was headed to Ohio State University's Polar Rock Repository. It's compiling a public database of Antarctic images. There are a lot of blanks to fill in ` Anne's archive is exactly what the director there is looking for. - I think it's gonna help give us a baseline for understanding, um, just how things are changing on a... almost a annual basis. Some glaciers advance, some retreat; it'll show surface conditions for people who are doing what they call exposure-age dating ` it's just... it's a wealth of information. - I packed it all up, and she bought the label for it and paid for it, and I stuck the label on the box and sent it off and... not to hear anything about it since. - Actually, Anne's heard plenty ` been on phone calls and emails about it for five and a half months ` just without any result. That's two seasons on the farm, while also running a business selling hand-spun wool, which she manages to courier everywhere with little fuss. - I'm on rural delivery ` somebody picks it up from the end of the drive. - Anne had taken the parcel to her letterbox for her Rural Post contractor ` that's NZ Post ` but that parcel had a UPS label on it, which should have been picked up by UPS, or rather by Aramex, who UPS subcontracts for collections. Though, where Anne lives, it would still be collected by, yep, her Rural Post contractor. - It accidentally went into the New Zealand Post system. - November, the box heads to Auckland. It got here OK from Nelson, but it didn't hop on a plane to the States. Instead, a short hop over the road and around the corner. Anne's package had made it here, which is the right place if you're a New Zealand Post parcel trying to get overseas and the wrong place if you're not, so here it stayed for four months. NZ Post says this is, 'a Customs Controlled Area and secure, 'and nothing can be released without its authorisation.' Anne's parcel was flagged by Customs as... - What can you do about it? You know, I've tried to follow it up as best I can. - It hadn't taken long for Anne to work out the package hadn't been delivered, so she asked New Zealand Post to investigate, and it did. 'We had a number of emails, calls and correspondence with Anne over the next three months, 'trying to locate where the item was being held. 'As the product had a UPS label on it and was our competitor's product, 'we could only help to ascertain what happened up to a certain point.' - UPS wasn't helping much. - They were very insistent that they could do nothing until it actually got scanned. I could not do anything either, because I was the receiver, and that only the shipper could initiate action from New Zealand. - But Anne says UPS told her it was up to the person who'd paid for the label to complain. - No allowance for human error! Number isn't in their system ` they don't have the parcel. You know? - Late March, NZ Post transfers the parcel. On it goes, still not to the States, but up the motorway a bit. Yep, it made it here, to another New Zealand Post facility, but at least one where they could pass it on to the next courier. Oh, gidday. Thanks. Nobody told Anne, though. - You hear all this thing about AI these days ` you know, am I really talking to robots? - From here it takes a day or so to get a bit further across town to here. Aramex looks after a lot of deliveries for UPS in New Zealand ` hey, thanks ` and it finally got its hands on Anne's parcel four and a half months after it had left Nelson. 'An error occurred when NZ Post collected the parcel and... 'It should have been sent to our Aramex depot, which... 'We understand that NZ Post were not aware the... 'with other undelivered freight and deemed the parcel as lost.' - They're used to dealing, I think, with mail-order stuff from, you know, big shops, so it's, like, 'Oh, well, 'that one went missing ` we'll just, um, pay the, uh, 'insurance on it and send another; no big deal.' They don't value the items that are entrusted to their care, and that's what, um, I find difficult. - April ` at last it's heading toward the airport again. Tantalisingly close now, it was veering off once more. We reckon it probably wound up here, at UPS in Auckland, where it spent at least two weeks before someone got hold of it and got hold of Anne, who by that stage just wanted her parcel back home. - That's a good part of my life there. - Unbelievable. (SCOFFS) - And so, with Fair Go still asking questions like, 'Is it OK' and 'Can we see it', UPS sends the parcel on via NZ Post, back to the same rural post agent out of Nelson who picked it up five and a half months before. Anne gave authority to leave, and within 24 hours, there by the door is a box, a new box, shrink-wrapped, addressed to her. - It is all exactly as I packed it. - 1700 images from a frozen past and years of work. - Yes, I'm very happy. Thank you very much. I really appreciate what you've been able to do for me in getting this returned. - It's clear from reviewing this customer's enquiry that we could and should have done better and sincerely apologise to Anne. - Aramex says it contracts NZ Post for a small number of... as there are some rural areas it doesn't cover. 'Upon review of this particular incident, we have identified an 'opportunity to put some additional checks in place for...' Good news for all customers and for science ` it'll be on its way to Ohio again soon. - You know, we're scientists ` you know, we share stuff. - Though she'll choose the courier company very carefully ` not just for her sake, but for all of us. - What a cluster! You know the most reliable thing in that whole story? Anne's wheelbarrow ` it never lets her down. - It's true. Look, it is worth noting that Anne did have her return address and phone number clearly visible on the package and inside it. - And NZ Post say they're looking at creating a collection place outside of its Customs controlled area, for packages that may just have come to the wrong place; then they can be returned more easily. - Which is good news. E haere ake nei ` coming up ` - I can hook you up with a tank of 95! - Why this Z Energy Customer was left with no other option than to give her petrol away. - Mm. And it's been a wet old week, but was this really necessary? - Well, his for sure smells like fish. (LAUGHTER) - Like plastic. - Yours reminded me of a new car. - Find out why we were out in the atmospheric river for a sniff test. Kia ora, nau mai, hoki mai. Welcome back. Now, be honest ` how many of you, including you, have filled up the car with the wrong petrol? I'm guessing... Yeah, that's what I thought. - Yeah. Just the once. But have you ever bought the wrong gas without even lifting the nozzle? That's what happened to a first-time user of Z Energy's petrol app ` What's more, she wasn't allowed to switch. Kaitlin has the story. (ACOUSTIC GUITAR MUSIC) - Oh no. Oh no! - Donna was having a day, forgetting a significant something... - Nothing! - ...at the worst place and time. - Got to the gas station on 'E' for 'Enough', and, uh, no wallet. - Empty tank, empty pockets ` well, except for the cell phone she had handy, which gave her an idea. - I thought, 'Ah, I've downloaded the app, the Z app.' - About a month back, she'd seen people talking online about the app's special feature, Sharetank. - Sharetank scans all Z stations in your area to bring you the lowest Z pump price. - You could pre-purchase at a cheaper rate, get the best rate and use it later. - But on that fateful day in Avondale, Auckland, Donna wasn't wanting to bag a deal for the future; she needed fuel then and there. Only, she'd never used the app before, so she asked Z's staff for help. - Stood next to me and led me through the app, telling me what to scroll through, what to hit next and led me through the purchase. - Did they offer any tips? Any warnings? - No. - So what they told her next came as a shock. - I lifted the bowser, and he said, 'Actually, it's 95 you want.' I said, 'No, I use 91.' - She'd never been asked what fuel grade she wanted. - I just said to him, 'Can we undo that transaction or change it,' thinking it would be a simple process. - Far from it. Z Energy's terms and conditions state... So even after calling Z up, there was no back button for Donna. - Telling me that they don't have the ability to turn that transaction around. He kept calling it 'Sharetank litres', and I pointed out it was actually a VISA transaction. - Z had only one solution ` she could 'gift' her litres to someone else with the app. - Not my intention, standing there, next to my car with no petrol. - And having exhausted her weekly gas budget ` $102. - That was it. - Fair Go knows of other Z customers who've purchased the wrong fuel using Sharetank. So in this digital age, what responsibility do companies have to make sure their apps work for everyone? We put that to the team at Journey Digital,... - So if you just have a look here... - ...a developer that creates all sorts of apps, websites and software. How obvious do features on an app need to be? - They need to be at the forefront, they need to be easily found, easily discoverable for all types of users. If it's not really clear to the user, they essentially remain hidden, um, and undiscoverable, and they won't be used. - Donna says her Sharetank settings were set on Premium 95 by default, and it was the same for Dane and I. - You've got the 95 at the top there, and then my two main actions are at the bottom. It'd be nice to have grouped those together. The buttons are blue, which is the same as the background, and so from an accessibility or an impairment point of view, it's quite hard to see that I need to make a choice there. - When you click over to the next screen, there's another chance to change the fuel type, if you can spot it. - What is not explained is the fact that I need to swipe between them if I wanted to adjust that. - Z Energy says the fuel grade selected remains visible throughout the purchasing process, including this final summary screen. But that might not be enough to ensure everyone's clear on that, especially given how many of us buy gas. - Designing for different demographics, from young to old, from learning impairments to visual impairments ` sometimes those don't, uh, sit nicely with beautiful brand execution, but they are important to maintain a fair level of customer service across all your customers. - Let's not forget, in the real world, gas stations already know the importance of spelling things out. - They've got things in place for that because people do it all the time. - Donna resigned herself to putting the word out on our show. - I can hook you up with a tank of 95! - But thankfully, Fair Go seemed to push the right buttons with Z. Z's now refunded Donna her 100 bucks and offered a $50 voucher on top. But the company told Donna that's only because she was a first-time user and wasn't given the right advice at the time ` its policy on refunds and exchanges still stands. - The primary reason we don't enable transferring Sharetank litres between fuel grades on a user's account is that different grades have different prices per litre that change regularly at any given Z station. - But Z Energy has taken Donna's feedback onboard ahead of launching an updated version of its app later this year ` being heard in the real world beats any savings Donna would want in the virtual one. - Huh. - There's an app for everything, isn't there? Look, I'm very pleased we got there in the end for Donna. - Technology ` it's supposed to make life easier. E haere ake nei, coming up ` the rental-car-cleaning fee issued for something quite unexpected. - I thought, 'Well, this is preposterous, and it's just some little mistake, 'and maybe it's the wrong vehicle.' - Nau mai, hoki mai. Welcome back. Marijuana, weed, dope, pot, whacky baccy. - Ganja? Ganja. - It's got a multitude of names, but just one distinctive smell. - Yes, a smell so strong that when the couple in our next story returned their rental car, the company was in no doubt as to what the smell was and promptly issued a cleaning charge. - But was it justified? Gill went on an unexpected journey. (BASSY POP MUSIC) - Five great days in Southland, but holidays can't last forever. Time to drop the car, catch the flight and cherish the memories; Andrew and Nathalie's trip had come to an end. But problems with their car-rental company were about to start. - (SNIFFS) - It was questioning what kind of a trip the retired couple had taken. - When the team were working through the cleaning process, they could definitely smell allegedly some marijuana or some cannabis. - The car was understandably sent for cleaning, and the bill was sent to Andrew. - Explaining the scenario and explaining there's a cleaning charge of $200. - # I'm free to do what I want any old time. - Now, a note about Andy ` he admits he lives for highs. - # Cos I'm free. # - But not from whacky baccy ` instead, it's a wacky sport that puts him in the zone. - Wing foil or wing assist when there's no wind. We love it, because you immerse yourself in nature. - So, are you sure there's no doobies involved? - None at all, no. And neither of us have ever smoked, either tobacco or marijuana or anything else. (CHUCKLES) - So what about that whiff of spliff? - I thought, 'Well, this is preposterous, 'and it's just some little mistake, and maybe it's the wrong vehicle.' - Then his mind started expanding. - I thought either it was a straight-out rort, and they just wanted some extra money, or maybe the cleaner had been smoking on the job. - Then it almost exploded ` the bill for $200 arrived. - I went back to them in writing and said, 'Look, this is ridiculous, 'so I'm going to spend as much time 'as takes to make it clear on social media 'that you've made a terrible mistake,' and I said, 'and I'll go to Fair Go.' - This is what he posted on the rental company's Facebook page and on his own. - I got reply from a friend, who is not only a fellow wing foiler, um, but is the partner of an importer of wetsuits and said 'I think it's your wetsuits.' - Now that's trippy. And this is a little bit weird, but for the sake of investigative journalism, we venture out as a human sniff test. Give it a go. - OK. Do I have to? - Yes. - Ooh, you really got in there, didn't you? - (LAUGHTER) - Ah, yeah, it smells like pee. No, it doesn't. - (LAUGHTER) - Well, his for sure smells like fish. - (LAUGHTER) - Like plastic. - Yours reminded me of a new car. - Everything but the kitchen sink, or marijuana, so we get to the point. Jackie, do you know what weed smells like? - Yes. - (LAUGHTER) These wetsuits can sometimes smell like weed, like marijuana. - Really? Really? - Yeah. - Interesting. - Ah. A little bit. - Nothing to do with the people wearing them? - Not when they're called Andrew, no. He began to think this was the explanation. - I googled 'Wetsuit smells like marijuana' and actually it's a common issue. - It's in the news, it's a hot topic on Reddit and a hot item for your wardrobe. And this scientist has other examples of different compounds smelling pretty much the same. - Tellurium is an element that has a very strong garlic aroma. Benzaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide ` completely different structures, but the both smell like almonds. - They might hit the same receptors in our noses or give off similar vibrations ` it's complicated. - We do know to be able to smell something, a chemical compound has to become volatile, so it has to go into the air. It could be how you store your wetsuit. If you left your wetsuit in a hot car in the summertime, more volatiles would be left off, and these could be particular volatiles that have a distinctive smell, that maybe it smells like weed. - Which is just what happened on Andrew's holiday. - Had to find somewhere to put Nathalie's wetsuit, and under that flap in rear boot seemed a good place. - He wanted to share his discovery. - So I rang the branch manager, and luckily he had volunteered for surf life saving. - So he did some research himself ` in the end, we agreed to refund the customer. - Go Rentals wants to be fair, but to keep its cars fragrant, which is hard work, with problems like this every week. - Children's milk gets spilt on the seats, and unfortunately, the bacteria goes bad and that turns into a vomit-type smell. The other classic is fish bait left in the vehicle boot; faeces. - Urgh! - Yeah. Smoking is a reasonably regular occurrence as well. - But while dents are easy, how do you prove something you can't see? - It's definitely a challenge for us. - And not a challenge Andrew wants again, so he's found solutions. - A vacuum storage bag, which once they're inside and you suck a vacuum out, nothing's going to smell. - Plus a special wetsuit deodorising wash. And here's one he prepared earlier, but which one? OK. I'd say this one's been washed with the shampoo. - Correct. - Whoa. You can actually smell it. - And this is actually me. - (BOTH LAUGH) - Well, you smell nice ` just not as nice as the other one. - No, correct. - So, fresh as a Daisy, Andrew can hit those ocean highs and avoid the financial lows. Although... - Actually, if I had been smoking in the vehicle, I'd probably be relaxed enough to say, 'Well, $200, that's OK. No worries,' but since I hadn't, I wasn't. - Marijuana-smelling wetsuits. Do you think there's a product in that, maybe an app for that? I'm not sure. I'm very confused. - Oh, I don't wanna think about it. Look, good on Go cars for fronting up to and being good sports. Well, that is it from us. But if you only caught part of the show, head to TVNZ+, where you'll find past episodes and some handy consumer information. - That's right, we're here to help you with all your problems, and I mean all of your problems ` please get in touch. - We're on Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok. You can go to our webpage, tvnz.co.nz Email us ` fairgo@tvnz.co.nz Or you're very welcome to write to us still ` PO Box 3819, Auckland 1140. - Thank you for watching. I know what you're doing ` go and smell your wetsuits. Until next week,... - BOTH: ...pomarie.