A washer-dryer combo unit that takes 25 hours to complete a full cycle is among a raft of winners in consumer advocate CHOICE’s annual Shonky Awards.
The latest iteration of the Shonkys – which are now in their 21st year – were announced by CHOICE on Wednesday, with Virgin Australia, Ticketek, Ticketmaster and Sony also picking up gongs.
“At a time when most consumers are doing it tough, you’d think that companies might give us all a break,” said CHOICE chief executive Monique Perry. “Unfortunately, consumers continue to be treated badly by businesses across Australia, so there was no shortage of contenders [this year].”
Hisense was blasted for advertising its Series 8i washer-dryer as having achieved an eight-star energy efficiency for its drying function and a five-star rating for its washing.
This is because only a very specific Eco setting achieved the ratings, as opposed to the normal mode that most households would use day-to-day, CHOICE said.
Running both the washing and drying functions consecutively on Eco mode takes more than 25 hours to launder a load of clothes. Perry said Hisense’s advertising was “gaming a broken system”. “Manufacturers get to nominate their own program [for energy ratings] and it’s usually one that produces the best energy-efficiency outcome, rather than one households would actually use,” Perry said.
Washer-dryer combos in general take longer to cycle but CHOICE singled out the Hisense model because of the mismatch between the advertised energy rating and how most consumers might expect to use the machine.
“It goes without saying that over 13 hours to dry a load of clothes is an unrealistic wait time for most households,” Perry said. “Use both the energy-efficient cycles together and you’ll be hitting over 25 hours of laundry.”
In a statement, Hisense said: “We understand that some customers prioritise energy efficiency and lower running costs, choosing to run cycles overnight, taking advantage of off-peak discounted electricity prices; while others may place greater importance on factors such as speed and capacity.”
Ticketek and Ticketmaster both won awards for what CHOICE claimed was a practice of “fleecing fans with tricky ticket tactics”.
Dynamic pricing – where ticket prices fluctuate based on interest – has long been a practice in overseas markets such as the United States, but Ticketmaster and Ticketek have begun adopting the pricing tactic locally, which Perry said is pushing ticket prices “to ridiculous new heights”.
“Earlier this year, John Farnham fans who logged on to Ticketek looking to secure tickets to a tribute concert found themselves facing inflated prices of up to $1650. Similarly, NRL supporters who purchased tickets to some matches in 2026 through Ticketmaster reported ‘In Demand’ seats selling for $50 more than a regular seat just one row and one bay apart,” she said. “We think that’s pretty shonky.”
A Ticketek spokesperson said dynamic pricing was the most effective way of reducing scalping via unauthorised secondary market resellers by reducing the opportunity to prey on unsuspecting fans.
In response to the Shonky Award, Ticketmaster issued a statement: “For In Demand tickets, Event Organisers set the prices of sought-after seats closer to market value and may review these over the sales period. These prices do not automatically increase because more fans join a queue.”
Virgin Australia won a Shonky for applying a deadline to credits issued to customers whose flights were cancelled during the COVID-19 pandemic, with CHOICE pointing to figures that the airline retained $75 million in credits that expired.
“Customers were forced into booking trips by June 30, 2026, with a deadline for actually taking the flights by May 27, 2027. Customers who didn’t successfully scramble to book a flight in time lost their money to Virgin’s revenue,” Perry said.
A Virgin spokeswoman said: “Following a number of extensions between 2023 and 2025 we regularly communicated the expiry date and later extended the fly-by date to May 27, 2027, giving guests almost another year to travel.”
Electronics and entertainment company Sony was awarded a Shonky for its move to phase out physical copies of games for its PlayStation console from January 2028, at which point customers will only be able to pay for digital downloads of games.
“Now, this wouldn’t be too much of an issue if customers actually owned digital content purchased from Sony. The reality is, however, you’re only buying a licence to access the content via Sony’s digital storefronts – a licence which can be ended at any time, without a refund,” Perry said.
CHOICE said such a system proved problematic in June when a movie licensing agreement between Sony and StudioCanal ended in Europe, which meant 500 films that customers had paid to own in their digital libraries vanished.
Pet insurer Petcover won a Shonky for a policy that updates every year to reclassify all conditions the pet has previously experienced as pre-existing, thus excluding them from the policy – even if the customer doesn’t change to a new one.
“The policy’s definition of pre-existing conditions is also problematic, and one of the broadest we’ve seen, including any condition with the same clinical signs as another injury or illness. This is a policy that reduces cover every time you make a claim,” Perry said.
Quest Nutrition won a Shonky for its Protein Chips, which CHOICE found were priced 886 per cent more expensive – at more than $20 per 100g – than a similar, non-protein version of chips from a different brand.
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Elias Visontay is a National Consumer Affairs Reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via email.From our partners
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