Imagine you’re shopping online and, just before you check out, you get offered the option to pay a bit extra for a “100% guarantee” your order will be protected from damage or loss while it’s being shipped to you.

It sounds like a good deal. So good, in fact, the retailer has assumed you’d be crazy not to take it and has already added it to your purchase. All you have to do is pay.

But at $25, this insurance policy will almost double the price of the single product you planned on buying. Is it worth it?

It’s a predicament Australians say they’re finding themselves in more and more when buying online from small businesses around the country.

We encountered this scenario ourselves on the website of a Melbourne audio appliance outlet earlier this month.

Contributors on Reddit and our own have vented about the add-on charges, accusing the businesses of obscuring their obligations under Australian Consumer Law (ACL) and exploiting shoppers’ anxieties.

“Everybody has their hand out,” says ĚÇĐÄVlog memberĚýPhil Tannenbaum, an online shopper who often sees offers of shipping protection on the sites he buys from. “They’re getting very, very creative, adding text to make it seem like you really need to [buy] this.”

Shoppers aren’t the only ones questioning these prompts – consumer regulators have labeled them as a “sneaky” example of a “dark pattern” – a feature built into an app or website designed to make us spend more.

So is shipping protection ever worth paying for? We’ve taken a look at several policies, and while some do offer unique perks, others may be selling rights you already have.

On this page:

• What is shipping protection?
• Is shipping protection ever worth it?
• How to know if shipping protection is worth adding
• Why are businesses offering shipping protection?

What is shipping protection?

Shipping protection, shipping insurance or transit cover policies are add-on “protections” consumers can choose to add to their purchase when ordering something online.

They’re usually presented when you’re about to pay for a product – often with a check box you can select at the checkout to add the cost of the policy to your purchase.

But in some cases, policies are pre-selected and added to your cart by default, or the checkout page is designed to make the option of checking out without shipping protection less obvious.

Policies tend to cost a few dollars, but some will set you back as much as $8, or even $25.

What they provide and how it’s sold to you varies widely.

Some businesses threaten to wash their hands of any responsibility in cases where your parcel is lost, damaged or stolen while in transit, unless you stump up for their shipping protection.

Others strike a friendlier and more generous tone, offering extra perks, such as the right to a replacement if you change your mind or priority customer support if you opt in.

While some large online retailers freely offer credits if something goes wrong with your delivery, it appears small businesses are more likely to try and reserve such perks for those who pay extra – most shipping protection policies we’ve seen are offered by modest-sized enterprises.

Is shipping protection ever worth it?

We’ve looked at shipping protection and delivery guarantee policies from several Australian small businesses, and while some sell unique benefits, it’s unclear if others offer anything more than the rights you already have.

Despite what some businesses might tell you, the ACL gives you – for free – the right to compensation in certain situations where something has gone wrong with a parcel delivery.

Know your rights

Under the ACL, you are entitled to a refund, replacement or repair if you receive damaged goods. This includes if you bought the goods online and they were mailed to you. 

The business or online store you bought the goods from should provide this remedy and shouldn’t pass you off to the courier company they used.

Your rights are weaker if a product arrives late or never reaches you at all. The ACL doesn’t protect you in cases when this happens for reasons outside the retailer’s control, including when it’s the fault of the courier or postal service provider.

However, businesses may still provide you with a remedy in these situations (even if you didn’t buy shipping protection) thanks to their own rights to compensation from courier and postal companies.

These rights appear to be working in many circumstances. We’ve had reports from consumers who have received refunds or replacements for broken or incorrect items, even though they never took up a business’ offer of shipping protection.

Is your parcel protected after it’s been delivered?

The exploits of porch pirates – thieves who steal unattended deliveries left outside residential properties – have gained infamy in recent years, thanks to the rise in online shopping and more of us fitting our homes with security cameras and smart doorbells.

Unfortunately, neither the ACL nor most shipping protection policies cover you if your parcel is stolen by someone creeping around on your verandah.

If the delivery has made it as far as your home, what happens to it while it’s waiting for you is usually considered outside the retailer or courier’s control.

The only possible exception may be if the delivery service provider left the parcel in a location not considered secure under the terms and conditions of your purchase.

How to know if shipping protection is worth adding

Next time you’re presented with the option of paying a bit extra to get shipping protection with an online purchase, follow these steps to determine if it’s worth it.

1. Check your rights

Understand your rights around parcels and deliveries under the ACL listed above and compare these to the information the retailer has provided on its shipping insurance policy.

Protection policies appearing to just sell your rights back to you probably aren’t worth getting.

2. Look for carve outs

Beware of protection policies that don’t offer cover for parcels that arrive late or go missing for reasons outside of the retailer’s control – these are offering the same rights you already get for free under the ACL.

3. Consider extras

Some shipping insurance policies carbon offset your delivery, promise quicker customer service or allow you to swap what you’ve bought if you change your mind.

Businesses aren’t obliged to extend you these benefits under the ACL, so a policy that comes with these extras may be worth buying if it suits your circumstances and you feel the price is appropriate.

Who to talk to when something goes wrong

If something you’ve ordered arrives damaged, late or goes missing, contact the retailer you bought it from.

If you deserve a remedy under the ACL for a broken product, the business should provide this.

If not, such as when the product has been delayed or lost by a third party, you should still contact the retailer and give them a chance to provide a solution. Retailers who send products to customers via the mail often have their own rights to compensation from courier companies, so may be able to reimburse you.

In all cases, retailers should never direct you to their delivery service provider or courier and tell you to resolve the issue with them.

If an issue can’t be resolved, contact your state or territory fair trading or consumer affairs agency for further assistance.

If you made your purchase with a debit or credit card, consider applying for a chargeback.

Why are businesses offering shipping protection?

Retailers are being encouraged to offer add-on shipping protection by business publications and e-commerce service providers that operate online stores.

Some of these groups point to statistics overseas and warn their business customers that instances of parcel theft, loss and damage are on the rise.

Others say consumers expect faster resolutions to delivery issues, and warn that retailers taking on the “burden” of issuing refunds or replacements may not be able to provide these quickly enough, losing repeat customers and money.

In fact, e-commerce company Ship-Safely, in an attempt to get retailers to integrate its shipping insurance product into their checkout pages, glosses over the rights provided to Australian businesses and consumers by the ACL altogether.

The company tells its clients they shouldn’t be considered responsible for parcels arriving damaged and warns that most delivery service providers aren’t legally obliged to guarantee delivery or replace lost products.

It’s worth noting that articles sent via mail get damaged or go missing relatively rarely in Australia. The Commonwealth Ombudsman hears complaints about Australia Post and Star Track., and says that of the 4566 complaints it received in 2024–25, 20% related to missing parcels or letters and 4% were to do with damaged articles.

Furthermore, contrary to the claims of Ship-Safely, the ACCC has previously taken action against delivery providers who didn’t compensate businesses after products they delivered to customers got damaged in transit.

In 2023, Australia Post and StarTrack were ordered by a court to pay $2.9 million to businesses after admitting they had denied valid compensation requests.

Policies deliver money to retailers

Some insurance providers also highlight the opportunity for retailers to earn extra money by offering shipping protection to customers.

Ship-Safely says retailers integrating its insurance product into their websites can earn up to 10% commission for every policy a customer buys.

ShipSure, a similar provider, promises to let business owners set their own percentage markup when selling policies and “make additional revenue”.

Businesses voice concern over fraud costs

It’s worth noting that small Australian retailers have previously argued they face rising costs associated with facilitating return requests for products they sell online.

These include cases where customers are abusing refund and return processes for financial gain by submitting fraudulent chargebacks. Some operators report losing thousands of dollars and say dealing with returns has eaten into their profits.

The post Do you actually need shipping protection when shopping online? appeared first on ĚÇĐÄVlog.

On this page:

• What is Temu?
• Who owns Temu?
• Why is Temu so popular?
• Why is Temu so cheap?
• Is Temu legitimate? How reliable is it?
• Are Temu products safe?
• Is Temu ethical?
• How much information about you does Temu collect?

What is Temu?

It’s the online marketplace scaling new heights of popularity in Australia since launching here almost three years ago. The Temu app and website are among our country’s most downloaded and visited.

Since first emerging in the US in late 2022, Temu (pronounced Teh-mu) has become known worldwide for its broad range of cheap products, incessant marketing and gamified shopping experience.

An online marketplace, Temu allows retailers and manufacturers to list products to be bought by shoppers in the numerous countries around the world it offers shipping to.

What’s available changes all the time, but cast an eye over Temu’s app or website and you’ll be offered everything from clothing and craft supplies to power tools and electronics. 

This sheer variety has made Temu synonymous with weird and wonderful novelty products not found on the shelves of mainstream retailers.

Temu has drawn legions of Australian shoppers since launching here. A Roy Morgan survey in September last year found 4.7 million of us were buying something off the platform every year, with domestic sales believed to be worth $2.6 billion in the 12 months to June 2025.

But not everyone’s a fan – shoppers and experts continue to voice concerns about dangerous products, suspiciously low prices and customer data privacy. Here’s what you should know before buying from Temu.

Who owns Temu?

Temu is operated by Whaleco, a subsidiary of Chinese company PDD Holdings.

Australia-based merchants have recently been allowed to list their products on Temu, but most goods on the platform are still made and shipped from China.

Why is Temu so popular?

Temu’s low prices – obvious after spending just seconds on its app or website – are a major reason why consumers keep coming back to the platform.

Between August and September 2025, ĚÇĐÄVlog surveyed over 200 people who had bought items on Temu. Many said its low prices would encourage them to buy from it again or to recommend it to others.

Several argued Temu gave them the opportunity to buy products that were of the same quality as those sold at traditional budget outlets like Kmart, but for less.

Experts say an aggressive marketing strategy has played a significant role in Temu’s rapid ascent, and this is also borne out when speaking to users.

Just over 32% of the shoppers we surveyed said they initially learned about Temu through some form of advertisement. Almost 30% said they had heard about it via word of mouth, while 22% said Temu had been featured on a social media account they follow.

Temu’s strategies have translated into significant popularity – within months of launching here, it had become one of the most popular apps in Australia.

‘Gamifying’ the shopping experience

Retail experts have credited the unique ‘gamified’ experience Temu provides to shoppers as another reason for its popularity.

This is encountered soon after opening Temu’s app, which comes armed with spinning wheels and periodically-appearing mystery envelopes and prize boxes – all of which give you the chance to win coupons, discounts and cashback deals to use on the platform.

Winning in these games is virtually guaranteed, but they often come with a catch. For example, you might have to buy more products than you originally wanted or spend more out of your own pocket before you can unlock a prize.

Temu’s games may have helped attract some shoppers, but it’s clear they push others away – several we surveyed said these features were irritating and made them unlikely to recommend Temu to others.

Quirky products

Temu has also gained attention for its regularly changing range of products, many with novel descriptions and uses.

Visit the homepage of Temu’s site or app and you’ll never be presented with the same cache of goods more than once.

Rather, you’ll often encounter items with strangely specific uses, from neck cooling fans and headphone-cleaning tools, to kitchen devices designed to slice and store particular fruits and vegetables.

Other products appear eerily similar to those sold by competing retailers, except for the noticeably lower price offered by Temu.

Why is Temu so cheap?

Toys and novelty goods going for as little as $2 or $3 and constant promises of sales and free shipping have cemented Temu’s reputation as an ultra-low-price retailer. 

But the platform’s price competitiveness can also be seen across more everyday items. We recently found a fashionable-looking men’s leather belt being sold on Temu for just under $14 (a similar item on other sites costs at least $30). We also spotted a suitcase that appeared similar to one being sold for around $100 at major retailers going for just $40.83 on Temu.

In fact, Temu’s prices are so low that they appear to have redefined what Australians consider to be cheap. Research conducted in 2025 by Roy Morgan found that, since Temu and Shein (another online marketplace) launched here, fewer Australians now associate traditional budget stores like Kmart and The Reject Shop with low prices.

Cutting out the middleman

Temu has previously argued its low prices are possible because it connects consumers directly with the factories that produce its goods, many of which are in China, allowing it to cut out middlemen and deliver “wholesale” prices to consumers.

Temu says this process constitutes a “teaming up” (hence the name Temu), which pushes prices down.

Customs duties exemption

Exemptions to customs duties granted by many of the countries that Temu ships to have also been credited with helping the platform deliver low prices.

These taxes are charged to businesses bringing goods into a country, but many governments (including Australia) don’t levy them when the goods being imported are under a certain value.

The prices of Temu’s goods tend to be low enough to avoid these taxes that would otherwise increase the retail price paid by consumers.

Poor treatment of workers?

But there have been more critical suggestions put forward for why the prices on Temu are so low.

In recent years, labour rights organisations and reports written by political inquiries overseas have argued that there’s a high risk that at least some products sold on Temu are made with forced labour.

In October last year, Australia’s government-appointed Anti-Slavery Commissioner raised concerns that e-commerce platforms like Temu weren’t reporting (or being required to report) what they’re doing to assess and address the risk of forced labour in their supply chains.

Temu has denied allegations it sells products made with forced labour. The company says it requires third parties doing business with it to follow a code of conduct which bars all forms of involuntary labour.

Temu has also told ĚÇĐÄVlog it plans to voluntarily submit a Modern Slavery Statement covering its activities in 2025 to the Anti-Slavery Commissioner this year.

Is Temu legitimate? How reliable is it?

Our survey of over 200 Temu users last year – and our experience of buying products from the site ourselves – has given us an insight into what it’s like to shop on Temu.

While we can confirm that Temu does deliver the goods it advertises at the prices promised, there are things to watch out for when using the platform.

Temu shoppers give their verdict

Most of the Temu customers we surveyed had bought home or kitchen items (73.3%) or clothing (72.9%). Other popular purchases included jewellery and accessories and art and craft items (both 41.9%) and shoes or pet supplies (31.9%).

Of the shoppers we surveyed, 80% said they were satisfied with what they had bought.

“You get what you pay for” was a common verdict among customers, many of whom felt the quality of the items they’d bought had been in line with their expectations – which were often low.

A large number of users felt empowered by Temu’s refund process – the ease with which they could get their money back when a product wasn’t fit for purpose or as described meant they were happy to keep buying from the platform.

Almost 79% of respondents said they would buy from Temu again and 71% said they would recommend it to others. But some shoppers have had negative experiences. 

Customers often called out the poor quality of goods sold on Temu (especially clothing) or complained that products didn’t match the descriptions or photos accompanying their listing on the platform.

A few also shared concerns about the safety of particular categories like electronics or the conditions of the workers who make the products sold on Temu.

Others complained about poor-quality packaging, which they said had left items damaged after delivery.

A number of users nominated the experience of using Temu’s website and app as a cause for irritation, saying they were fed up with the number of games interrupting their use of the platform.

Some shoppers also found it hard to buy enough products to meet Temu’s minimum spend requirements or were unhappy with the number of notifications they’d received after using the service.

However, the majority of survey respondents still had a positive experience with Temu, with over three-quarters saying they’d shop there again.

Scrutiny leads to improvements: Our experience with Temu

Since its launch in Australia, we’ve kept an eye on Temu and how it serves consumers, buying several products from the platform to gauge the service it provides.

In the past, we’ve called out tactics deployed by the company across its platform which put pressure on shoppers to make a purchase.

Soon after Temu’s Australian launch, we noted its site and app came with multiple scarcity cues, such as free shipping countdown timers (that would reset after hitting zero) and numerous alerts warning that items were “almost sold out” or were already in a lot of other shoppers’ carts.

Since pointing these out as examples of unfair website ‘dark patterns’  – deceptive tactics designed to make you spend more than you intend – we’ve noticed fewer of them appearing on Temu.

Discount claims wound back after questions from ĚÇĐÄVlog

Our scrutiny has also led Temu to change the claims it makes about discounts on its products.

Previously, we noticed many of the prices listed on the platform were accompanied by “strikethroughs” suggesting the relevant products usually sold for much more. But when asked, Temu didn’t provide any information on when these products had ever been sold for those higher prices on its website.

The ACCC says these sorts of markdown displays can be misleading if the retailer hasn’t sold the item at the strikethrough price for a reasonable period of time before the sale started.

Since drawing attention to this, we’ve noticed Temu appears to have reduced the number of strikethrough displays on its site. 

Remaining markdown displays now come with a disclaimer saying they’re based on the “most common price” at which the product was listed by the relevant seller on Temu’s Australian platform within the past 60 days.

Are Temu products safe?

Even with its fairer shopping experience, we still have concerns over the safety of products sold on Temu.

Last year, we gave Temu a Shonky Award for hosting unsafe products after our expert testers discovered several toys sold on the platform didn’t comply with s.

Temu removed these items from sale after we alerted it to our findings and it certainly isn’t the only international marketplace falling short in this regard  – our testing also uncovered potentially dangerous toys on eBay, AliExpress and Amazon.

And we’re not alone – almost 16% of the Temu shoppers we surveyed said they had been concerned about the safety of something they had bought through the platform.

Respondents reported being sent toys whose parts posed a choking hazard, clothing and household goods that appeared flammable, unstable furniture, and materials that came with a strong chemical smell which they were worried could harm their health.

A number of customers were also sceptical of the safety of electrical items sold through Temu and some said they would avoid buying these in the future.

Temu has previously told us it promptly removes non-compliant products, but we’re calling on the company to sign up to the ACCC’s voluntary Product Safety Pledge.

Signatories, including other online marketplaces like eBay, AliExpress and Amazon, have committed to taking steps to prevent and remove unsafe products appearing on their platforms and to report on their progress in this endeavour.

While Temu hasn’t signed this pledge, it has added its name to a scheme to crack down on the sale of non-compliant communications devices established by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

Is Temu ethical?

Temu has been accused of selling products made with forced labour. Some Temu shoppers have previously told us they’re concerned about the implications Temu’s cheap prices have for the workers making the products.

Others fear the easy availability of such cheap products is damaging the environment.

Temu has previously told us that accusations of forced labour are “completely ungrounded” and that its standards and practices on the issue are in line with other e-commerce platforms.

Artists in countries where Temu operates have also accused the company of hosting sellers who have ripped off their work.

Temu says anyone who believes their intellectual property (IP) is being infringed upon by a seller on the platform can let it know via its dedicated IP infringement report portal. The company says it will remove alleged infringing material when provided with a report that complies with its policies.

How much information about you does Temu collect?

Several consumers we surveyed who’ve used Temu in the past told us they’re uneasy about returning to the platform due to concerns the company might be stealing their data or that it may have poor privacy controls.

A look at Temu’s privacy policy reveals it collects the kind of information we’re regularly asked to give away when shopping online, such as contact details and shipping addresses.

It also collects details on the device you’re using, your IP address and approximate location, as well as information about your interactions with the games that are ubiquitous on its app.

You have to create an account to buy from Temu, but users also have the option of signing in via an existing social media profile or their Google account. If you do this, Temu will collect information on your profile on these platforms, including your photo, username and email address.

If you come to Temu via an online advertisement, it will collect data on that interaction, too.

Temu says any data you share with it is “safeguarded” and “encrypted”, but like other e-commerce businesses, it will share at least some of your information with subsidiaries and affiliates where necessary to deliver its services.

These include its advertising and business partners, who may in turn use that information to target you for advertising.

As a marketplace hosting multiple sellers, Temu may also share some of your information with any of the merchants on its platform who you buy products from. This will include your shipping address and contact details, but not your payment or device information.

Temu has previously told ĚÇĐÄVlog that users in Australia have the right to access, delete or correct information held on them, but that it retains “some necessary data in accordance with local laws and audit requirements”.

The post Temu explained: Is it worth using? appeared first on ĚÇĐÄVlog.

Nobody knows how many unsafe products are for sale on the world’s most popular online marketplaces, but it’s safe to say the numbers are staggering. These borderless operators have become a conduit for super cheap goods of dubious quality. 

In recent years ĚÇĐÄVlog has called out several shopping platforms for making unsafe products available to Australians, but it’s clearly an international issue.

In a recent mystery shopping exercise, International Consumer Research and Testing (ICRT), a London-based global consortium of consumer organisations (including ĚÇĐÄVlog), provided fresh evidence.

What they tested

Researchers from consumer organisations in Germany, France, Denmark and Belgium found that a high percentage of products purchased on two of the world’s biggest marketplaces, Temu and Shein, both based in China, failed EU safety standards and posed a safety risk to children as well as adults.

In the ICRT project, the researchers tested 162 products across three categories: toys and products for children under three, USB chargers, and necklaces.

The forensic detail of the reporting reveals the multitude of health risks that can lay hidden in items purchased on these platforms.

Children’s toys and products were tested for physical hazards such as sharp edges, long cords, or poor construction; and for chemical hazards including phosphorus flame retardants, formaldehyde, phthalates, cadmium, PAH (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon) and pentachlorophenol.

Children’s products were also tested for the risk of electrical shock, overheating and burns, and access to batteries. And they were checked to see whether safety labelling was compliant with EU standards.

Necklaces were tested to see if they contained potentially dangerous substances that are regulated in the EU, including cadmium, lead, nickel, PAHs and phthalates.

USB chargers were tested to see if they complied with safety requirements to prevent shock, fire and overheating and were durable enough to withstand impacts and repeated use.

Safety failure rates of 65% and 73%

In all cases, the results were enough to recommend a rethink on buying certain goods from these sites. Sixty-five percent of the products bought on Temu failed to comply with EU safety standards, while the failure rate for Shein was an even less impressive 73%.

Most of the safety risks that the ICRT team discovered were of medium to high severity. Overall, about one quarter of the products tested posed a serious safety risk, while in other cases products lacked required safety warnings, had misleading warnings or had other comparatively minor safety risks.

The worst safety failures were in the children’s toys category, where all 27 products purchased on Shein contravened EU standards, and 26 out of 27 bought on Temu failed.

Several teething rings, rattles and bath toys contained small parts, stickers, or suction cups that could easily detach and be swallowed, posing a choking hazard.

A toy tissue box shaped like a bus sold on Temu had excessive amounts of formaldehyde in the cloth tissues, a substance that’s commonly used in clothing to reduce wrinkles. The EU limit for children under 36 months is 30mg of formaldehyde per kilogram of material. In two of seven cloth tissues the testers found 164mg and 143mg respectively.   

A silicone teething glove sold on Temu had around four times the permitted levels of nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEs), which can adversely affect human hormones.

Of the 52 USB chargers tested, only one from each marketplace was fully compliant. The rest had a high or medium level of non-compliance. Seventeen of the chargers (12 from Shein and five from Temu) posed a serious fire risk.

A Temu spokesperson tells ĚÇĐÄVlog that the success of its platform “depends on keeping out bad actors so that responsible merchants can operate and customers are protected. Our approach aligns with the public interest in preventing unsafe or illegal goods from reaching consumers”.

“Most sellers on Temu operate lawfully and responsibly,” the spokesperson says. “When violations occur, they differ in severity, and we investigate each case thoroughly. Every incident we identify strengthens our system and helps us stay ahead of emerging risks.”

A Shein spokesperson says the company “takes product safety very seriously and is committed to offering safe and reliable products to customers. All products in question were offered for sale on the Shein marketplace by independent third-party vendors”.

“As soon as we were informed of these findings, out of an abundance of caution, we immediately initiated our standard protocol to ensure that these items were removed from sale globally.”

Thousands of sellers, billions of parcels

The ICRT project manager who oversaw the coordinated mystery shop, Berlin-based SĂ­lvia Gomes da Silva, tells ĚÇĐÄVlog that the sample size was relatively small given the volume of products sold into the EU via Temu and Shein, but the findings nevertheless deliver a “strong warning signal”.

The failure of two-thirds of the products to meet EU safety standards shows that “the current system struggles to cope with the realities of cross-border e-commerce,” Gomes da Silva says.

Rather than revealing a failure of regulation, however, the results highlight “a structural mismatch between traditional market surveillance tools and a business model based on millions of low-value parcels shipped directly from outside the EU to consumers”.

“Authorities were set up to inspect warehouses and physical shops, not to control billions of individual parcels from thousands of third-party sellers,” says Gomes da Silva.

Any workable way forward must include online marketplaces such as Temu and Shein doing their own proactive surveillance to prevent unsafe goods from being offered on their platforms in the first place, Gomes da Silva says. But at the moment the opportunity for profit far outweighs any risk of consequences for non-compliance.

“The legal and enforcement framework has not yet fully caught up with the scale, speed, and opacity of these China-based online marketplaces, and the platforms have not used their considerable technical and financial resources to close those gaps proactively. They’re taking advantage of the profit gains while they can,” Gomes da Silva says.

While it’s nearly impossible to measure the impact the mass importation of unsafe products is having on people who live in the EU, there are indicators.

The EU’s Safety Gate system collects notifications of dangerous non-food products found in the EU and their associated risks, such as chemical exposure, electric shock, burns, and choking. Recent Safety Gate annual reports show that alerts have reached record highs, with toys, electrical products and items containing hazardous chemicals among the top categories. A disproportionate share of the alerts are linked to products originating outside the EU.

“We have strong evidence that unsafe goods including those sold online can and do cause real injuries and health risks, and that alerts are rising,” Gomes da Silva says.

The loophole must be closed

Stine Müller of the Danish Consumer Council was involved in the ICRT testing of children’s products purchased on Shein. He points to a critical regulatory loophole, one that also exists in Australia.

The EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) requires online marketplaces to remove goods from their platforms that don’t comply with EU standards, including goods from third-party suppliers. But there’s no law that says they have to prevent these products from being put up for sale in the first place.

“From our perspective, this is the key problem [that] needs to be addressed as it poses an unacceptable risk to European consumers,” Müller says.

Requiring marketplaces such as Temu and Shein to ensure that products are safe before they go on sale is the key because no regulator has the resources to hold thousands of sellers around the globe accountable.

“The rules and requirements are there for a reason, to decrease the risk of accidents to children and to consumers in general. Preemptive measures by these marketplaces would make it at least possible for the authorities to enforce regulations. This is now all but impossible, since they often can’t even reach the seller from the country in question, in this case China,” Müller says.

The Danish Consumer Council believes that global online marketplaces should be held to the same standards as any other business importing goods into the European market. But the relentless onslaught of super cheap goods bought online is a different challenge for regulators than automobiles or beef or computers or other goods coming in by sea or air.

When informed by the consumer organisations about products with serious safety defects, both Temu and Shein removed them. But it was an infinitesimally small step toward protecting consumers.

The scale of goods flooding into the continent makes an effective solution look like building the pyramids. In 2024, about 12 million low-cost parcels per day were imported to Europe from China according to the European Commission, many of them via Temu and Shein. That equals about 4.6 billion parcels for the year. It was twice as many as in 2023 and three times as many as in 2022.

The post EU consumer groups flag multiple safety failures on Temu and Shein appeared first on ĚÇĐÄVlog.

It may seem counterintuitive, perhaps even nonsensical, but Australia’s Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) currently has no power to help consumers with complaints about the world’s tech giants, such as Google, Meta, Apple, Microsoft and Hubbl.

And yet 1537 people have come to the TIO since 2023 with complaints about these omnipresent digital platforms, and complaints to the TIO have been rising year on year.

They are the same sort of complaints the TIO receives about the telcos it oversees, such as Telstra and Optus. They’re mainly about fees and charges, service breakdowns, and accounts being blocked. Meanwhile, the TIO makes clear on its website that it only handles complaints about internet and phone services. ĚÇĐÄVlog has also heard from many people who’ve been ill-served by a digital platform.

For Ombudsman Cynthia Gebert, it’s a case of regulation falling behind the modern day realities of the digital world.

“It’s heartbreaking telling people that, unlike issues with telco providers, we don’t have the power to help resolve their digital platform disputes – no one does,” Gebert says.

“When things go wrong online, the cost is profound: people and small businesses are losing time and money. People are struggling to solve their complaints directly, coming up against unhelpful chatbots and automated emails – so they turn to us.”

TIO wants to become the Communications Ombudsman

According to the final report of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s Digital Platform Services Inquiry published earlier this year, nearly three out of four Australians think it should be easier to lodge a complaint about a digital platform, and over eight out of ten of us think we need an independent body in Australia to handle such complaints.

Gebert wholeheartedly agrees, which is why the TIO is calling on the federal government to change its name to the Communications Ombudsman and to add digital platforms to its remit.

“When someone loses access to their telco service, we work with the consumer and the company to resolve the issue. But when someone is accidentally locked out of their social media or cloud storage account, and the platform is not responding, there’s nowhere for them to go,” Gebert says.

The TIO breaks down digital services complaints it receives into two categories, transactional and social disputes. Most of them (78%) fall into the former and involve fees and charges, account access, and privacy breaches. But social disputes can involve thornier issues such as offensive or illegal material, misinformation and harassment. The TIO has to tell these people that it can’t help, and that no other independent body in Australia can either.

“Using services provided by big digital platforms has become unavoidable in modern life, but what happens when something goes wrong? Consumers need a well-resourced external dispute resolution body to resolve consumer complaints and identify systemic issues,” says ĚÇĐÄVlog director of campaigns and communications Andy Kelly.

“Appropriate internal dispute resolution processes should also be established and digital platforms should take a proactive approach to identifying complaints, rather than making consumers jump through hoops just to get a response.”

In a recent report on the issue, the TIO cites a number of chilling cases in which people’s lives have been upended due to an issue with their digital services provider, ranging from businesses not being able to continue functioning to accounts accidentally being deleted along with all the purchased digital goods.

Complaints to the digital platforms themselves are mostly exercises in frustration that rarely lead to an acceptable resolution. 

“We are calling for the Australian Government to expand the TIO to become the Communications Ombudsman. To support government reforms such as the under 16s social media ban and digital duty of care. It’s more important than ever that people have appeal rights when digital platforms get things wrong,” Gebert says.

The post Why your complaints about Meta and Google aren’t being resolved appeared first on ĚÇĐÄVlog.

Joanne Rowles should have just returned from a holiday to regional Western Australia.

“It was supposed to be for around now, towards the end of the year, early summer,” the Perth resident says, describing the plans she’d made for the road trip with her family.

“It was going to be up north in Kalbarri,” she adds. “I’ve got some really nostalgic memories of my own childhood up there, so me, my husband and my son were going to go for a long weekend up there.”

Instead, the three of them had to stay home after Joanne discovered a $600 gift voucher they had been relying on to pay for their accommodation had expired sooner than expected – and sooner than is allowed under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL).

“Without the gift voucher, we couldn’t afford the rest of the holiday, so it was actually cancelled,” Joanne says.

Hotel voucher expired sooner than legally allowed

The gift card was issued by website Hotelgift in December 2022 and Joanne had received it in a time of grief.

“I had a pretty significant personal loss. My first baby was stillborn and I have an amazing group of brilliant friends who were so supportive. And as part of that support, they put some money together and gave me the voucher.”

Still recovering from their loss, Joanne and her husband didn’t use the card straight away.

“We were grieving,” Joanne explains. “And then we were very lucky, we actually got pregnant again. So I then had a high-risk pregnancy, because of what had happened in the first, and then I had a newborn.”

Under the ACL, gift cards sold in Australia have to be redeemable for at least three years from the day they were purchased.

Following the birth of her son, Joanne still hadn’t used the $600 on her card. Assuming the voucher was ACL-compliant, she felt confident putting it to one side to redeem later.

“It had been in the back of my mind and once my son was a bit older, we decided that we’d like to try and use it … I did some mental maths and I was like: it was gifted [in 2022] so it should still be good,” she says.

But when she tried to redeem the card in June this year, she had a shock.

“I went to apply to use the gift card and I put the code in. It said it was expired and then I noticed the two-year expiry date.”

Australia’s best hotel gift card?

Written on the gift card Joanne received was a line mentioning that the voucher would only be valid for two years from the date of purchase. The same disclaimer is made on Hotelgift’s website.

Joanne admits she made a mistake in not paying enough attention to this, but hoped Hotelgift would make an exception after she explained what she and her husband had been through.

But multiple emails pleading her case to representatives of Hotelgift parent company Experiencegift got her nowhere – the company said it would not extend her card or issue a new one.

Experiencegift argued that because it was based in the Netherlands, it was applying Dutch law to its products and this allowed it to limit its gift card to only be redeemable for two years.

The company said it was applying these Dutch legal requirements to all customers, no matter where in the world they were based, in order to be “fair and consistent”.

This application of Dutch law over Australian regulations is despite Hotelgift claiming on its website to be “Australia’s Best Hotel Gift Card” and “the best way to gift a hotel in Australia”.

ĚÇĐÄVlog has seen other websites offering accommodation gift cards (some even based outside Australia) that last three years, in line with the ACL.

What to do if you’re having issues with an overseas business

By October, when Joanne should have been on her holiday, she was instead seeking the assistance of her state fair trading agency, Consumer Protection WA.

In emails seen by ĚÇĐÄVlog, the agency’s representatives said they had tried to negotiate with Experiencegift to see if they could secure Joanne a goodwill offer from the company, but had also come away empty handed.

The agency isn’t alone in hearing nothing from Experiencegift – the company also didn’t respond to any of our emails seeking comment on Joanne’s story.

In theory, all businesses supplying goods and services to Australian consumers, regardless of whether they are based in Australia or overseas, must comply with the ACL, including the three-year minimum redemption period for gift cards.

But this may not happen in practice, andĚýoverseas companies selling into Australia have been known to deny Australian consumer rights.

If an overseas business isn’t respecting your ACL rights, you should first explain this and try to negotiate with the company’s representatives.

If this doesn’t work,Ěý, like Joanne did with Consumer Protection WA. You can alsoĚý, the national consumer regulator.

The ACCC will likely just provide you with information or advice, but your state or territory regulator can help negotiate a resolution between you and the business.

If this isn’t successful, your agency may then take further action, including taking the company to court.

But they’re less likely to do this if the business is based outside of Australia and is the source of only a few complaints resulting in limited harm.

Joanne’s experience a warning to others

Joanne has given up on a gesture of goodwill from Hotelgift, but wants her experience to be a warning to local consumers, considering the company’s marketing to Australians.

“Coming up to Christmas, [gift cards are] such a common gift. International companies and purchasing online have become so commonplace that sometimes it’s hard to remember that they’re not necessarily all covered by the same laws,” she says.

Consumer Protection WA, who assisted Joanne with her case, agrees and recommends buying gift cards from companies that are actually based in Australia or have a presence locally, as these are more likely to follow the ACL and its three-year minimum redemption period.

How to know if the business you’re buying from is Australia-based

Here are some tips from Consumer Protection WA on how to check if the business you’re buying from is based, or has a presence, in Australia:

The post This hotel gift card claims to be Australia’s best – here’s why it’s not appeared first on ĚÇĐÄVlog.

The 2025 Black Friday sales are here and retailers and manufacturers are dropping prices on lots of products in the lead up to the end of the month.

In recent weeks, we’ve seen major retailers such as Harvey Norman and JB Hi-Fi, and manufacturers like Samsung and Tefal, cut prices on their stock by as much as 70%.

Every day brings more deals, and while we have seen quality products going for cheaper than normal, Black Friday can also be a time when retailers try to offload unpopular products, leading to dud items getting mixed in among bargain stock. 

In fact, some of the most attention-grabbing markdowns we’ve seen this year are on products that have performed poorly in our reviews.

So how can you avoid ending up with a dud? 

As an independent expert tester of many of the products being slapped with Black Friday markdowns, ĚÇĐÄVlog is uniquely able to shine a light on the actual quality of what’s being discounted.

Read on to find some of the best deals we’ve spotted so far on products our experts have tested and recommend (available exclusively to ĚÇĐÄVlog members). But first, we’ll reveal the deals we’ve seen that look like attempts by retailers to clear out dud stock.

On this page:

• Poor performing products in the Black Friday sales
• Good products in the Black Friday sales

Poor performing products in the Black Friday sales

Even at Black Friday prices, many of these products are outperformed by cheaper alternatives in our tests.

However, some of these items could have unique strengths that suit your circumstances, so check our reviews for the breakdown of the pros and cons we found for each.

Wasteful whitegoods

They’re front and centre in the Black Friday sale from retailer e&s, with markdowns of almost 30%, but the Haier HDV70AWW1 clothes dryer and the Smeg FAB32RPB5AU fridge are among the whitegoods our experts say you should avoid.

Our fridge experts gave the Smeg a flat out 0% for temperature stability and observed poor temperature evenness when they put it through its paces.

With its top shelf section recording significantly warmer temperatures than the bottom, any food you leave in this refrigerator could go off faster than expected, adding extra dollars to your grocery bill.

Meanwhile, even at the Black Friday price of $549 at e&s, the Haier dryer is outdone by cheaper vented dryers that perform better, according to our latest dryer review.

This model came second-last in our latest test, with our experts marking it down for poor energy efficiency – making it much more expensive in the long run than other vented models.

Ruinous robo vacs

The TP-LINK Tapo RV20 Max Plus, Narwal Freo X Plus and iRobot Roomba Plus 505 Combo + AutoWash Dock all feature in Black Friday deals from either The Good Guys or their respective manufacturer brands.

With discounts of almost 50%, they’re sure to grab shoppers’ attention, but beware – these suckers all featured in our recent rundown of robo vacs to avoid, languishing at the bottom of the score table following our latest test.

They all do a decent job cleaning hard floors, but struggle with tasks like mopping and sucking up pet hair.

And there might be some of your own hair on the floor after you’ve encountered the apps required to run some of these models – our experts were tearing theirs out trying to work the platforms used to operate the TP Link and iRobot, finding them frustrating and buggy.

Dusty air purifiers

Take a glance at Black Friday promotions from Dyson and The Good Guys and you might spot the Breville Smart Air Viral Protect Compact and Dyson Hot+Cool HP2 air purifiers.

Both have been marked down from their usual prices, but only after they were marked down by our testers, earning ĚÇĐÄVlog Expert Ratings of just 45% and 48% respectively in our latest review.

This is because we found them to be bad at clearing up dust and smoke and less energy efficient than other models. We also found the Dyson to have relatively noisy low and high fan speed settings.

A tiring TV

The Hisense 65Q6QAU TV found infamy earlier this month when we called it out as one of the TVs shoppers should avoid, but now it’s getting a second shot in the limelight as part of The Good Guys’ Black Friday sale.

Bargain hunters beware – this model came out second-worst in our latest TV test.

Our experts observed disappointing picture quality on its high and standard settings and a remote that could be difficult to use. It also took a boredom-inducing 20 seconds to turn on.

With prices dropping on lots of TVs this Black Friday, you’ll likely find better 65-inch models going for less, so check our reviews and shop around.

An abysmal air fryer

With a whopping 63% Black Friday discount from Kitchen Warehouse, the Kitchen Couture Dual View 10L stainless steel air fryer is tempting.

But even at the $184 markdown rate we saw it for, you could get something better for less.

This fryer came dead last in our latest test, with our experts finding it difficult to use. 

And despite being a big unit, we found its individual drawers were smaller than those of most other models, meaning you may not be able to cook as much as you’d expect.

A marginal mattress

Original Mattress Factory is selling its Refresh Firm Queen at half price this Black Friday, but the 50% reduction in price doesn’t make up for the fact this mattress came equal last in our latest review.

We found it didn’t hold up after we simulated eight years of use, losing more firmness than other models.

Our experts also criticised the retailer for charging a fee to customers who want to return or exchange the mattress during its 30-day trial period.

Good products in the Black Friday sales

Only ĚÇĐÄVlog members can access the following information on top performing products featuring in this year’s Black Friday sales. 

If you’re not yet a member, join ĚÇĐÄVlog to get instant access to all our expert, independent reviews or log in to unlock this article.

These are some of the best Black Friday deals we’ve seen so far on products scoring well enough in our reviews to be recommended by our expert testers.

Note that we’ve listed these deals as we found them in mid-November – the Black Friday sales are popular and usually finish up by early December, so some products may have sold out by the time you’re reading this. 

Prices can also change and new sales can begin at any time, so you may want to do your own price comparison for the products we mention here in case a better offer has emerged.

Finally, it still pays to check our reviews before you buy â€“ even at their discounted prices, some products here may still be outperformed by cheaper alternatives that aren’t getting marked down for Black Friday.

The post Best and worst deals of the Black Friday sales appeared first on ĚÇĐÄVlog.

Australia theoretically became a safer place for children on 22 June 2022, when mandatory button battery safety standards came into effect.

Since then, manufacturers selling products containing button batteries in Australia have been required to secure battery compartments to prevent children from accessing them. They also have to undergo their own testing to make sure batteries are secured, and include warnings and emergency advice on packaging about the dangers of button batteries.

This product safety legislation was a world first, and it applies to retailers as well as manufacturers – but not to online marketplaces themselves when acting as an intermediary between the customer and a third-party supplier.

The impetus for this long overdue reform couldn’t have been more urgent, or more tragic. As of 2020, three deaths and at least 44 serious injuries had resulted from children ingesting button batteries in Australia. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) also reported in 2020 that an estimated one child a month is seriously injured after swallowing or inserting a button battery.

Bright, shiny and lolly-shaped, small children naturally want to put these bite-sized batteries in their mouths. Once that happens, they pose not only a choking hazard but can cause severe internal burns and tissue damage when lodged in any part of the body.

The risk is increased by the fact that medical professionals can misdiagnose symptoms and be slow to link a child’s worsening illness to a button battery ingestion.

Many products fail our test

Laws, of course, only work to the extent that businesses follow them. ĚÇĐÄVlog has conducted several battery button safety tests in our labs in recent years, and failures have been common. Last year, we reported on the results of our test of 15 common household products containing button batteries. Ten of the products failed to meet the mandatory standards. 

The focus of our most recent safety test was the online marketplaces Shein, AliExpress, Amazon, Kogan Marketplace and eBay.

We purchased five toys or novelty items from each site that contained button batteries – products that would likely be attractive to small children. The results once again show that adherence to the mandatory button battery safety standards is spotty at best, with online platforms failing to stop sellers from listing unsafe products. 

Amazon, eBay and Shein remove the products

We reported the results of our button battery safety tests to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) as well as the online marketplaces. 

When we alerted AliExpress about our findings, the company rejected them as ‘unsubstantiated’ within hours. When we appealed that decision, our appeal was rejected. Amazon, eBay and Shein removed the products from their sites shortly after we reported them. 

A Shein spokesperson tells ĚÇĐÄVlog the company “takes product safety very seriously and is committed to offering safe and reliable products to its customers”, adding that its code of conduct stipulates that vendors that sell products on its platform must comply with the laws of whichever country they’re sold in. 

In May 2023, the ACCC issued its first penalties for violations of the button battery standards against The Reject Shop and Dusk totalling around $240,000. The retailers were selling novelty Halloween products that failed to adhere to the safety standard. 

In October this year, the ACCC recalled three products with non-compliant button batteries. Two of them –  (sold by Oceana International) and  (sold at Coles supermarkets) – were Halloween themed. The third were  (sold by online retailer Shein).

The Wiggles sell thousands of non-compliant headbands

In more recent legal action, the ACCC compelled the famed Australian children’s musical group The Wiggles earlier this month to admit it had breached regulations by selling thousands of Emma Bow headbands that lacked mandatory button battery safety warnings. The headbands were recalled in August 2024 and The Wiggles have agreed to produce an episode of its podcast “Wiggle Talk – A Podcast For Parents”, which will cover the recall of the Emma Bow headband and discuss safety issues relating to button batteries and children’s toys. 

In two other cases this year, the ACCC issued eight infringement notices and $150,240 in penalties to Hungry Jack’s for supplying a Garfield-themed toy that didn’t comply with the safety standard, and commenced court proceedings against the retailer City Beach for selling 70 product lines with button batteries that were non-compliant.

The long road to regulation 

ĚÇĐÄVlog has been campaigning on button battery safety since 2016, when we launched a petition in partnership with Kidsafe Queensland and The Parenthood calling on the government to introduce mandatory safety standards. This followed the deaths of four-year-old Summer Steer and 14-month-old Isabella Reese, both of whom had swallowed batteries. Isabella’s mum, Alison Burns, became a tireless advocate for mandatory standards following the death of her daughter, setting up an organisation called  to raise awareness and drive change. 

According to Queensland Health, around 20 children a week around Australia are taken to the hospital due to a suspected button battery incident. 

The ACCC issued a voluntary industry code for button battery safety, but it did little to reduce the risk of injury and death to children. Manufacturers generally ignored it. 

In 2019, we tested 17 common household items – including ear thermometers, kitchen and bathroom scales, and remote controls – against the voluntary standard. Ten had unsecured batteries that could have easily been accessed and swallowed by children.

In 2020, Australia recorded its third button battery death. Three-year-old Brittney Conway died after swallowing a button battery that became lodged in her oesophagus, burning a hole through to her aorta.

It was clear that self-regulation wasn’t working. But now that government regulation has been introduced, it’s also clear that mandatory standards are one thing, and universal compliance is another. 

“It’s disappointing that online marketplaces continue to undermine the effectiveness of strong mandatory standards by failing to ensure that the products they sell are compliant and safe,” says deputy director of campaigns and communications, Andy Kelly.

“That’s why ĚÇĐÄVlog is calling for stronger product safety laws that make it illegal for all companies to sell unsafe products – and online marketplaces should be no exception,” says Kelly.

The post Shein, AliExpress, eBay and Amazon failing on button battery safety appeared first on ĚÇĐÄVlog.

The dark horse on Australia’s sales calendar, Black Friday, with its companion Cyber Monday, has truly taken off. 

The weeks-long sale now eclipses the Boxing Day and end-of-financial-year (EOFY) sales as the year’s biggest shopping event.

With the 2025 instalment underway, we’ve got the latest on who’s dropping prices and how big the bargains are, along with advice on how to buy your favourite products and services and what to avoid.

On this page:

• What is Black Friday?
• When is Black Friday?
• Is Black Friday big in Australia?
• How good are the discounts and are they worth waiting for?
• Where can I get a bargain?
• What to avoid on Black Friday
• Your consumer rights on Black Friday

What is Black Friday?

Black Friday is the high point of a sales period in late November when many major retailers have significant discounts on their products, both online and instore.

These sales often run for several days in the lead up to Black Friday itself and then continue over the following weekend.

Most then finish up on the following Monday, known as ‘Cyber Monday’ due to its traditional association with online-only discounts.

Black Friday sales originated in the US, but have become increasingly common in Australia since the early 2010s and are now seen as marking the beginning of the Christmas shopping season.

When is Black Friday?

Black Friday falls on the last Friday in November. In 2025, that will be 28 November, while Cyber Monday will be 1 December.

But most sales have already started – several major retailers and manufacturer brands including David Jones, Bing Lee and Lenovo have had Black Friday discounts in place since early November.

But there’s still time for others to join the fray and you can expect more Black Friday deals from popular brands to drop in this last week of the sales.

Most deals will run through to 28 November and beyond, but some may be exclusive to Black Friday itself.

A lot of sales will then finish up on Cyber Monday, but some discounts will stay in place even longer – last year, two big retailers kept their sales running until 4 December, two days after Cyber Monday.

This is in line with the trend observed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) of Black Friday sales events increasingly starting earlier and finishing later than they did in the past.

Is Black Friday big in Australia?

Many of us are keen to take advantage of Black Friday, as evidenced by a survey ĚÇĐÄVlog conducted last month of 1009 Australians to take a read of people’s thoughts of the event.

Over 70% said they’re interested in purchasing a product in this year’s sales.

It’s hardly surprising then that Black Friday is increasingly considered Australia’s biggest sales event and was recently labelled so by Australia Post.

In the past few years, ABS data has regularly shown national retail spending to be higher in November than December, suggesting Australians are consistently shopping more during the Black Friday period than in the lead up to Christmas.

We spent over $5 billion instore and online between Black Friday and Cyber Monday in 2024, according to an Australia Post eCommerce report.

Following a survey of shoppers and retailers ahead of the 2025 season, Deloitte expects this Black Friday to be even bigger than last year, forecasting consumers will spend 14% more over the November and December period than they did in 2024.

The Australian Retailer’s Association and Roy Morgan are also expecting consumers to up their spend from last year, predicting we’ll shell out $6.8 billion over the four day period from Black Friday to Cyber Monday.

Illustrating how large Black Friday looms on the retail calendar, businesses told Deloitte they expect 35% of their November to December sales to occur just on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

How good are the discounts and are they worth waiting for?

You can expect most Black Friday discounts from big retailers to range from 20% to 50%, though in rarer cases you might see reductions of up to 70–80%.

While many Australians are keen to take advantage of these deals, we’ll be approaching them with some scepticism – 52% of respondents to our recent survey thought the discounts in Black Friday sales aren’t always genuine.

It’s a well-founded sentiment – as with any big sale, markdowns can vary by product and, despite what advertisements may imply, discounts may not be storewide.

Case in point, in June this year, retailers Michael Hill, MyHouse and Hairhouse Online paid penalties of almost $20,000 each after the ACCC alleged they had misled consumers about the size and scope of their 2024 Black Friday sales.

While a genuine Black Friday deal will likely be nothing to sniff at, ĚÇĐÄVlog is seeing retailers hold more sales throughout the year, and the discounts on offer at these often rival most of those we see on Black Friday.

Find out about sales from your favourite brands throughout the year by signing up to their email newsletters or following them on social media, so you can catch and compare offers as they come through.

Are the products themselves any good?

Some of the most attention-grabbing markdowns we’ve seen this year are on products we advise shoppers to avoid, after they performed poorly in our tests.

Results from our October survey suggest Black Friday duds are a recurring theme – 53% of respondents who had bought something in a Black Friday sale in the past regretted the purchase or had a negative experience.

But we do also see top performing products going for less – check out our rundown of the best and worst Black Friday deals to see which of the items we do recommend are getting the Black Friday treatment.

Where can I get a bargain?

Lots of major retailers including Harvey Norman, JB Hi-Fi, Myer, Kmart and Amazon are running Black Friday sales that will last until at least 1 December.

A slew of popular manufacturer brands such as Dyson, Samsung, LG and Koala are also marking down selected stock for the same period.

Over the years, we’ve seen a broad range of offers from outlets big and small, and with Black Friday becoming more popular in Australia, you can expect lots of retailers to join the action.

Most Black Friday deals are available at physical stores and online, but some may be exclusive to a brand’s website.

Tips for bagging a bargain on Black Friday

Clothes, shoes, manchester, kitchen appliances and tech will be among the most popular purchases this Black Friday, according to our October survey of shoppers.

But consumers aren’t just buying products – recent years have seen travel and entertainment attract a growing proportion of our Black Friday spending.

Clothes and shoes

Almost half (42%) of respondents to our October survey said they were interested in buying clothes or shoes this Black Friday.

ĚÇĐÄVlog follows sales closely and our buyers are always seeing where the best deals are to be had on a wide variety of goods.

For clothes and shoes, ĚÇĐÄVlog buyer Narelle Cornelius advises looking beyond the appealing price reductions and being realistic about what’s on sale (which can be limited) and whether it suits you.

“They usually have limited stock, colour and size options,” she says. “Retailers are hoping the promise of big discounts gets people in, caught up in a frenzy and starting to buy things they don’t want or need.”

Because many clothing retailers are now offering deals at almost every turn, Narelle says it pays to keep an eye on bargains at other times. Some of these other sales may offer more savings than Black Friday, or include discounts on the items you’re actually after.

“With sales happening all year round, people would be better off keeping a close eye on their favourite stores and websites for sales,” she suggests.

Kitchen appliances

Of the shoppers we surveyed, 27% told us they’ll be on the lookout for small kitchen appliances this Black Friday, while 16% said they’re hanging out to buy larger kitchen aids, like bread makers and large kitchen mixers.

We’re always testing these sorts of devices and have plenty of tips to share on how to grab a good appliance during the sales.

Air fryers

If you’re looking to get on the air fryer bandwagon, make sure you’ve got enough space in your kitchen and look for a model with a viewing window and internal light to save you from repeatedly having to open it during cooking. For more, see our guide to buying a great air fryer and our latest air fryer reviews.

Coffee machines

Keen for a coffee machine? See which type (manual, automatic or pod) will suit you with our coffee machine guide. 

No matter what configuration you’re after, it pays to keep an eye out for machines with clear and simple controls and to get info on the warm-up time, which can vary by machine. For more, see our home espresso coffee machine reviews.

Kitchen mixers

With some mixers able to do anything from kneading bread and pizza dough to mincing meat and making pasta, it’s no wonder these appliances are a popular Black Friday purchase.

But before you buy one, work out which type will suit you – whether you should go for a single or twin tool attachment model will depend on what you like to cook.

It’s also important to think about which attachments and speed settings will best cater to your cuisine of choice and how much storage space you have available in your kitchen. Get more info with our kitchen mixer buying guide.

For other popular kitchen appliance buys, make sure you’re not settling for second best by checking out our reviews of toasters, kettles, microwaves and more.

Home technology

One in five survey respondents told us they’re interested in grabbing a phone or TV this Black Friday, while 17% said they’ll be on the hunt for a new computer.

Smartphones

If you’re looking for a smartphone, we recommend confirming with the retailer that any phone you’re considering supports all the available 4G and 5G bands for your network and local area. WhistleOut has a .

Battery life and camera quality are also vital metrics that vary between phone models, and you’re going to want to make sure whatever you’re buying meets your standards. See how popular models compare with our latest smartphone review.

TVs

Got your eye on a new TV? We recommend making sure the screen size matches the space where you plan to put it. Sitting too close to a big TV means you’ll start seeing the pixels (dots) that make up the screen.

Also, make sure you can connect any devices you’re planning to use with it (most new TVs only have HDMI ports) and check the unit’s model number – this will tell you what year it was made and can help you identify the latest model or drive a hard bargain on something older.

See our guide to getting a bargain TV and advice for buying a TV on Black Friday for more on how to do this.

Get our verdict on all the other hottest tech items with our headphone, wireless speaker, soundbar and laptop reviews.

Travel and entertainment

Deloitte’s 2025 holiday shopping survey found consumers plan to spend 30% more on experiences like entertainment and travel over November and December, compared to the same period in 2024.

Major travel brands are already seeking to snap up some of that spend, with several airlines, accommodation providers and tour operators hosting sales this Black Friday.

As with tangible products, however, shopping for things to do can come with its own pitfalls.

Visit our Travel page for advice on common scams to avoid, how to get the best value insurance, the easiest ways to manage your money overseas and more.

Our Tickets hub, meanwhile, has info on your rights and advice on how to dodge scams targeting popular events.

What to avoid on Black Friday

As with any sales rush, Black Friday has its fair share of consumer pitfalls ready to entrap shoppers racing for a bargain.

Fake websites

Cyber security company Trend Micro recently warned that rising living costs are fuelling “discount desperation” and causing some Australian consumers to click every time they see a discount online.

This makes shoppers more vulnerable to one of the biggest threats we consistently see in the retail scam space – websites promising products at big discounts that are, in reality, phishing portals designed to steal your money and sensitive information.

Some sites are copies of the official pages of popular outlets, while others are “ghost stores” – wholly invented operations, claiming to be small local boutiques.

Shoppers making orders through any of these sites are usually left waiting for products that never arrive or find their purchases are poor-quality knock-offs.

To make matters worse, ĚÇĐÄVlog has seen scammers being allowed to promote these criminal sites through ads on social media and search engines.

Signs you could be looking at a scam shopping site include big discounts on almost all advertised items and an unusual URL for a page that’s claiming to be a well-established brand.

See our tips for spotting a scam copycat site or a ghost store for more info. If you think you’ve provided money or personal information to a scammer, see our guide to what to do if you’ve been scammed.

Scam messages

With online shopping being the method of choice for many consumers this Black Friday, lots of us are likely already awaiting updates on when our bargain buys will be delivered to our doorstep.

But scammers have well-worn ways to exploit this eagerness to make sure our parcels get to us safely.

Criminals claiming to represent courier companies regularly send text messages urging us to click on links to secure upcoming parcel deliveries, arrange re-delivery or pay fees to receive a parcel.

Don’t click on links or numbers included in these sorts of suspicious text messages. 

Reach out to the company that is claiming to contact you by using details you’ve found yourself to confirm any requests for information or money.

Be aware that scammers are currently able to use technology to make it appear that their messages are coming from trusted sources, like Australia Post.

Extended warranties

When buying a new, expensive product, the retailer might offer you extra protection that goes beyond the manufacturer’s warranty. 

These extended warranties (sometimes also called ‘protection’ or ‘product care’ plans) come at a cost, but most of them aren’t worth it.

We’ve found many carry the same or weaker protections as your existing consumer guarantee rights.

These rights are given to you under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) and decree that expensive products should last a reasonable amount of time, such as a few years.

If staff are trying to upsell you an extended warranty – something former retail workers have told us they were directed to do – ask what rights it will give you beyond your ACL rights.

Finally, pay close attention at the checkout: we’ve seen retailers adding these products to your total purchase both instore and online without making it obvious.

Dangerous products

Black Friday’s global status can make it a great opportunity to score an online bargain from an overseas retailer, but be aware that doing so could land you with a product that could be a risk to you and your loved ones.

Items for sale on international sites don’t always meet Australian safety standards and may even be the subject of a targeted recall here.

Children’s and babies’ toys and baby safety items are just some products we believe you should think twice about before buying from overseas.

Just this month, we gave global platform Temu a Shonky for selling unsafe products (among other issues). It came after we found toys for sale on the site that didn’t meet Australian battery safety standards.

We also found a hair dryer that poses an electrocution risk for sale on the popular platform.

Temu removed these items from sale after we contacted them last year and the company isn’t the only international marketplace we’ve called out – we’ve also found dangerous items on eBay, AliExpress and Amazon.

That’s not to say everything you buy in Australia is safe – only certain high-risk products, such as aquatic toys, bicycles and some baby products, are subject to mandatory safety standards.

See how you can protect yourself with our guide to avoiding unsafe products. Check if an item you’re considering is the subject of a recall by searching for it on .

Dud products

ĚÇĐÄVlog has been testing and assessing products and services for over 60 years, never afraid to name a poor-performer when we see one.

Every November, we call out the year’s worst in our Shonky Awards. Consider our recently-announced 2025 Shonky winners a roll call of the goods and services you’ll definitely want to avoid this Black Friday.

Also check out our rundown of the worst products we’ve tested this year and stay across our regular guides on products to avoid to keep abreast of what you shouldn’t be buying.

Your consumer rights on Black Friday

In Australia, you’re protected under the ACL, whether you’ve bought a product in a bricks-and-mortar store or online. 

Companies based overseas that sell products here online need to adhere to the ACL as well, but while that’s the case in theory, in practice you might find it difficult to get a satisfactory resolution if you have problems with something you’ve bought from them.

Retailers need to provide a remedy (refund, replacement or repair) for a faulty product, but they’re not obliged to give you a refund or exchange if you just change your mind or find that something doesn’t fit.

So, if you’re stocking up on Christmas gifts and aren’t sure whether your mum will love that vacuum cleaner, check the store’s returns policy before you buy.

Find out more about what you’re entitled to with our guide to using your consumer guarantees.

The post Everything you need to know for Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2025 appeared first on ĚÇĐÄVlog.

Ending up with extra things in your online shopping basket can be more than just frustrating, especially when you’re charged for the unwanted goods and sending them back would cost way too much.Ěý

When the business appears to be local but is actually based overseas – in this case Lithuania – the red flags really start flying.Ěý

Many people have reported having such an experience with the website for Derila pillows, so we decided to investigate.

Is Derila pillows a scam?

Derila’s website made liberal use of dark patterns when we investigated in 2024, a coercive marketing technique designed to trick online customers into making choices they don’t intend to.Ěý

Dark patterns can include ‘scarcity cues’ such as countdown timers or warnings of low stock or expiring discounts. Or they can be ‘activity notifications’, where you’re told with a sense or urgency, for instance, that someone just bought the item you’re considering.Ěý

Derila’s dark patterns featured all of this, but they also included a more sinister tactic – automatically adding items to your shopping cart that you had to deselect if you wanted to get what you intended to order and nothing more.Ěý

When we took another look in November 2025, Derila was still up to its old tricks, including pre-selecting multiple pillows and pressuring customers with a hurry-up-and-buy countdown timer that simple reset to zero.

For one customer we heard from last year, ordering from Derila entailed receiving six pillows when they’d ordered two and being automatically charged $165 extra. Others have ordered a single pillow and their order has been automatically bumped up to four pillows.Ěý

The only way for these customers to get a refund for the extra charges was to return the pillows in a very tight timeframe – all the way back to Lithuania.Ěý

The ACCC says people who receive products they didn’t order don’t have to pay for them, as long as they let the business know they don’t want them. The business then has a month to collect the extraneous items at their own expense.Ěý

But that didn’t seem to be an option with Derila.Ěý

ĚÇĐÄVlog focused on Derila as part of our campaign against unfair business practices, of whichĚýdark patterns are a prime example. Many of these practices slip through the cracks in the legal system. While Derila may not legally be regarded as a scam, many customers said they certainly felt like they’d been scammed. There are no specific laws against many of the practices Derila employed, but it’s clear that there should be.Ěý

Dark patterns at work: Frank’s story

Another customer we spoke to last year, Frank*, said Derila dominated Google search results for the word ‘pillow’. And when promised a 70% discount, he added a single pillow to his shopping cart.Ěý

“The pillow was $69 minus 70% – equals about $22,” Frank says. “But once it starts, there’s no turning back. You can only go forward on their website. You can’t check what’s in your cart. You are then bombarded by page after page, all with large buttons saying ‘add this special to order’. Underneath and extremely close to these large buttons in extremely small print, is ‘no thanks’. To click on the ‘no thanks’ without touching the large ‘add to’ buttons is almost impossible.”Ěý

Frank thought he had navigated the minefield, but when he finalised his order for a single pillow he instantly received an email saying he had paid $165 for four pillows.

Spooked by the unwanted charges, Frank cancelled his credit card and changed passwords, worried that he had given his credit card details to a scammer.

Prohibitive cost for returnsĚý

The pillows in the cases we’ve documented were delivered from Wetherill Park, a suburb in Western Sydney, but in all cases, when the customers sought to return the unwanted pillows,Ěýthey were told they had to be returned to Lithuania – at a cost that would dissuade anyone from doing that.Ěý

Aside from the people we heard from directly, many others have reported that they’d been stuck with a bunch of pillows they unknowingly paid for and didn’t want.Ěý

The customer who ended up saddled with six pillows (after ordering two) eventually got their money back after lodging a complaint with PayPal, which had facilitated the transaction through an automatic payments system (more on this below).Ěý

But others have had orders for a single Derila pillow automatically changed to four and had to wear the extra cost. Sending the extra ones back was not a viable option.

ĚÇĐÄVlog investigates: What happened when we placed an order

To find out for ourselves, ĚÇĐÄVlog placed two separate orders for a single Derila pillow last year using first a credit card, then PayPal.Ěý

When we clicked on ‘order now’ with the credit card order, we were taken directly to a checkout page where four pillows were pre-selected instead of one. We were on the lookout for dark patterns, so we took the trouble to deselect the order for four.Ěý

When we placed an order for a single pillow via PayPal, it was preselected to two.Ěý

Derila’s preselection tactic may explain why so many customers thought they ordered a single pillow but ended up with four. For the record, our pillows were also shipped from Wetherill Park.Ěý

While we didn’t end up with pillows we didn’t mean to order, we were treated to a veritable onslaught of dark patterns. No less than four add-on offers appeared that we had to manually deselect before we could complete our order. Had we not de-selected, we would have inadvertently bought these items.Ěý

Yelena Nam, who was a ĚÇĐÄVlog campaigns and policy adviser at the time,Ěýsaid this kind of stuff should not be allowed.

“Apart from the potentially misleading or deceptive tactics, Derila employs a number of business practices that are unfair. It should be illegal for businesses to design online shopping sites to trick customers into making choices they don’t mean to make.”

Unauthorised PayPal transactionsĚý

In an added twist to this story, many Derila customers wondered how their money was instantly deducted from their PayPal accounts with no verification checks. These customers said they hadn’t set up automatic payments with Derila or authorised the increased purchase amount.Ěý

Another Derila customer we spoke to last year, Gary*, confirmed to ĚÇĐÄVlog that the extra charges came out of his PayPal account before he could do anything about it.Ěý

“The way it works is that you go on to their website and order one pillow, and then somewhere in their software they change that to four. And then that goes straight through to PayPal without any review, and they charge your credit card. The first thing you know about it is when PayPal lets you know there’s been a payment made. The feeling of powerlessness in this situation is not good.”Ěý

While we’re not suggesting that PayPal knowingly took part in anything illegal, the company does seem to have partnered with a questionable retailer.Ěý

We contacted PayPal about this last year, asking about the automatic payments, refunds, and whether PayPal would sever ties with Derila given the many complaints about the business and the experiences of our case studies.Ěý

PayPal Australia, as well as the company’s head office in San Francisco, both acknowledged the issues we flagged and said they were looking into the matter, though it would take some time.Ěý

PayPal Australia finally responded, saying, unhelpfully, that “PayPal is dedicated to ensuring a safe and seamless payment experience on our platform, and our teams work tirelessly to protect our customers from any potential activity that violates our policies.”Ěý

PayPal suggested that people who have a problem with a transaction should contact its customer support team. The Derila customers we’ve heard from say that doesn’t really help.

Customer service nightmare: The wheeler-dealer botĚý

For disgruntled customer Gary, things got weirder, and worse, when he tried to resolve the issue with Derila directly.Ěý

In the back and forth emails the Derila customer service responses read like a hyper-friendly chatbot that’s also a wheeler-dealer. This suspiciously machine-like Derila employee first offered Gary a free ‘Huusk Limited Edition Cookbook’, ‘Nuubu Detox Guide’ and an extended warranty for all Derila goods if he withdrew the request to ‘modify’ his order.Ěý

With no takers, this was followed by the offer of a 15% discount on the extra pillows if he kept them, later increased to 30%.Ěý

With these offers turned down, the it’s-gotta-be-a-bot became unreasonable: Gary was told he couldn’t change his order because the pillows had been shipped.Ěý

Then the final straw, as others have also reported, came when Gary was told that if he kept and paid for the extra pillows, Derila would donate four pillows to hospitals in the Ukraine.Ěý

After strenuous efforts, and no luck getting a refund from Derila, Gary’s request for a refund from PayPal was denied too. “Of course I can’t prove that I didn’t order four items,” he says.

Who’s behind Derila pillows?Ěý

The Lithuania-based company behind Derila pillows, UAB Ausica, also sold a number of other products when we investigated, including Hiloi nasal strips, Synoshi scrubbers, Tvidler earwax removal, Klaudena cushions – and possibly many others.

There was substantial anecdotal evidence that the issues many customers encountered when ordering a Derila pillow were also a problem on some of the websites for other UAB Ausica products.Ěý

UAB Ausica is based in Kaunas, Lithuania. (UAB is a Lithuanian abbreviation for a private limited company.) Its Australian Business Number has been active since June 2023, but reports of the pillow flimflam predate that.

And there were other worrying things going on with this business.Ěý

We did a search for ‘derila pillow scam’, for instance, which returned a slew of articles that referenced a scam in the headline but then went on to enthusiastically promote the product, an apparent search engine optimisation (SEO) trick.Ěý

Then there were the small army of online influencers hyping up Derila pillows on Tiktok and YouTube.Ěý

There appear to be considerable resources behind this operation. Derila’s international website is well-designed, and the extensive product descriptions promising better sleep are competently written. It’s easy to see how people could be taken in.

The ĚÇĐÄVlog verdict: Steer clear of Derila pillows

When we investigated, the Derila T&Cs said customers had just 30 days to return the pillows and get a refund, but then went on to say customers actually have to let Derila know about returns and mail back the pillows within 14 days. All the way back to Lithuania, that is.Ěý

Other hallmarks of unfair trading and dark patterns came up as we placed our orders, including hard-sell tactics such as claims of ‘low stock’, ‘only 12 left’, ‘70% off’, ‘last chance’ and a ‘don’t-miss-this-deal’ countdown timer that continually resets.Ěý

And we were treated to a barrage of pop-ups saying ‘Ben from Sydney purchased 2 pillows’ and the like.Ěý

Derila also claimed that its pillows have CertiPUR-US certification, yet neither UAB Ausica nor Derila was listed on the CertiPUR-US database.Ěý

We contacted Derila through its customer support email to give the business a chance to address the issues customers were experiencing, since no other contact details were available. We gave the business 48 hours to respond. Eleven days later Derila got back to us, saying the issues we raised “have been resolved”.Ěý

“We are diligently updating our digital system to guarantee that all orders are accurate and free from technical issues,” the spokesperson said, adding that “any Australian customer can now return unwanted products to our warehouse located in Australia”.Ěý

If accurate, it was a change of policy that had been a long time coming. Gary’s take on having to mail the unwanted pillows back to Lithuania to get his money back was firmly in line with the views of the many other Derila customers who have called out the company. “That’s just unacceptable,” Gary says.Ěý

Our take on the unfair trading practices deployed by Derila and other businesses operating in Australia is the same.Ěý

“Unfortunately, Derila’s not alone when it comes to these practices,’ says ĚÇĐÄVlog’s Nam.Ěý

“Many businesses take advantage of a gap in the law that allows a raft of unfair business practices to go unpunished. That’s why ĚÇĐÄVlog is calling on the government to introduce new fairness laws to ban unfair business practices like these for good.”

ĚÇĐÄVlog lodged a complaint with the ACCC in 2024 about Derila’s unfair trading tactics.Ěý

*Names have been changed to protect privacy.

The post Dodgy Derila: The nightmare pillow brand that outraged customers globally appeared first on ĚÇĐÄVlog.

When Amazon arrived in Australia in December 2017, the online retail giant struggled to gain a foothold. But its strategy of undercutting all competition on price and quickly delivering the goods eventually paid off.Ěý

These days around eight million Australians shop on Amazon, which means goods bought on the site are being transported hurriedly along our streets more or less constantly during working hours, and often well beyond them.Ěý

Many of the casual workers delivering these items face considerable stress, and many hold multiple freelance delivery jobs to make ends meet and to hedge the ever-present threat of deactivation from the employer apps they rely on to book gigs and manage their employment.

In 2021 the Transport Workers Union (TWU) surveyed around 250 Amazon Flex drivers and uncovered a range of issues. Over half said they were under pressure to rush on deliveries, and nearly three-quarters said they were worried about their vehicles being overloaded.Ěý

How Amazon Flex works

Under the Amazon Flex model, the company turns just about anyone with a vehicle into part of its delivery fleet.Ěý

Owners of smaller cars, or ‘sedans’ can choose up to a four-hour delivery block, while vehicles that can hold five passengers can make deliveries for six and a half hours and vans for eight hours. In the latter two cases, a half-hour unpaid break is included.Ěý

Drivers commit to working for a number of hours on a given day without knowing how many parcels they’re expected to deliver during those hours. They only find out when they pull into an Amazon depot to pick them up. Amazon uses an algorithm that supposedly determines how long it should take the driver to deliver a certain number of parcels based on the delivery locations, but it doesn’t reliably factor in variables such as traffic, hard to access locations, and parking difficulties. These variables mean drivers are often frantically racing against the clock.Ěý

The owner-drivers have to pay all the overheads – fuel, vehicle maintenance, the costs of their digital devices and connections, and any other equipment that may be necessary. They get none of the benefits due to normal employees, such as superannuation and paid leave.Ěý

For some, it’s just a bit of extra money that comes in handy. But others depend on these low wage gigs for economic survival.Ěý

Unfair termination a constant threatĚý

A 2023 report by The McKell Institute – a Queensland-based not-for-profit research organisation – found that gig economy drivers in general remain underpaid and overworked, and their casual employment can be terminated through no fault of their own. Amazon and other employers simply deactivate the apps which are the workers’ primary interface with the business.Ěý

There’s a sense of desperation among these drivers, whether it’s parcel or food delivery or rideshare. In the McKell report, 79% of the 1036 drivers surveyed said they depend on the income to make ends meet, and around a quarter reported having their work apps deactivated or suspended. For many drivers, this is a constant worry.Ěý

The TWU is currently pursuing a case with the Fair Work Commission on behalf of an Amazon Flex driver who was deactivated this year for not being able to deliver parcels, even though he carefully explained why it wasn’t possible in each case. He had been a driver since 2020.

Regulations can’t keep up, leaving workers unprotected

The gig economy basically went crazy when it first took root in Australia. According to a 2020 study by the Actuaries Institute of Australia, it grew ninefold between 2015 and 2019 on its way to reaching the mark of $6.3 billion in revenue, with a surge of 32% in 2019. Regulations were slow to catch up.

In 2022, a NSW government committee tabled the first of two reports on the gig economy, which made the case that the legal framework under which gig workers such as Amazon drivers operated perpetuated “the overwhelming power imbalance” between workers and multinational corporations.Ěý

At the time, gig workers were not even guaranteed minimum wage, let alone paid leave. The committee recommended that they receive such entitlements as well as the power to bargain collectively with employers and join unions, which had long been denied. Ěý

That same year, the TWU scored a major win when the NSW Industrial Relations Commission ruled that delivery drivers in the state who owned vans that could carry between 1.5 and 3 tonnes were entitled to $43.74 an hour. For Amazon Flex drivers, the rate was set at $37.80 an hour in NSW for all delivery vehicles.Ěý

The approximately 45% pay increase to $43.74 for non-Amazon drivers was phased in between February 2022 and July 2025.Ěý

Enter the Fair Work CommissionĚý

Then, in August 2024, action was taken on a national scale. The federal government updated fair work legislation, allowing the Fair Work Commission (FWC) to set minimum standards for gig workers – technically known as ’employee-like’ workers – including payment.

It also protects these workers from being arbitrarily kicked off the apps they depend on for their employment.Ěý

In August, the TWU made an application to the FWC on behalf of Amazon Flex and other delivery drivers calling for company-funded superannuation, safety training, paid rest breaks, worker representation, and dispute resolution and consultation rights. The case is still pending.Ěý

In the TWU’s view, these minimum standards would set a benchmark, and it wants to see Amazon get on board.Ěý

Meanwhile, nobody’s getting rich in the gig economy package delivery game. Amazon Flex drivers outside of NSW can expect to make around $118 for a four-hour block of delivery time, just slightly above the national minimum wage of $24.95 per hour.

TWU national secretary Michael Kaine tells ĚÇĐÄVlog that the situation for drivers has not improved since the 2021 driver survey.Ěý

“Amazon is dangerously undercutting rates and standards in Australia and without curbing this Amazon effect it will drag down the entire transport industry,” Kaine says.Ěý

“For years these workers have struggled with impossible delivery timeframes, overloaded vehicles and union-busting tactics. This is a company that has a worldwide reputation for appalling treatment of workers. We urgently need to see decent pay and standards in the gig economy to return a fair playing field, and end the rampant exploitation of workers.”

Kaine calls the FWC’s oversight of Amazon drivers and other gig workers “a world first”, but how the new protections will play out remains to be seen.Ěý

Amazon says drivers are treated fairlyĚý

We asked Amazon Australia whether it was taking the criticisms of its Amazon Flex system into consideration and planning to improve conditions for drivers.Ěý

Rather than responding directly, Amazon directed us to a blog on its website that paints a positive picture of being an Amazon Flex driver. The blog says drivers are paid competitively, have flexible work hours, are given the right number of packages to safely and comfortably deliver, and are paid extra if they have to go over their allotted time block to complete deliveries.

Delivery algorithm ‘in the realm of fantasy’Ěý

Katie* has been an Amazon Flex driver for about three years and says that while she appreciates the opportunity to make money and the freedom of deciding when she wants to work, the terms of her employment are inherently unfair.Ěý

“It’s a subcontractor arrangement with Amazon, and as such, you don’t get the same benefits that you would get as an employee. So you’re not going to get sick leave or annual leave or superannuation or any of those things at all. Basically, if you don’t work, you don’t get paid.”Ěý

And while there’s a certain amount of freedom that comes with the gig, it comes to an end once you commit to a delivery block.Ěý

“When we accept the block, we’ll see the depot that we’re going to, the time, and also the amount that we’re gonna be paid for that. What we don’t have any control over is where we’re going to be delivering, what we’re going to be delivering, or how many packages we’re going to be delivering,” Katie says.Ěý

That can have unexpected consequences. Katie says the accuracy of the Amazon delivery algorithm exists “in the realm of fantasy”.Ěý

“It’s supposed to factor in the distance that you drive, the amount of time that it would take you to get between one spot to the next spot, and the estimated time it takes you to actually do the delivery,” Katie says.Ěý

“That’s fine until you’re doing units, particularly lots of units that have an intercom, because the person that you’re delivering to is more than likely not gonna be there. So you can’t get access, which means that you have to start buzzing neighbors and that takes longer. You may not get parking either.”Ěý

It’s just one scenario where the algorithm fails to take reality into account. Delivery lockers at high rise buildings that are already jammed full are another.

‘Without us, they wouldn’t have a business’

Katie draws a distinction between drivers who are just trying to earn a little extra money and those for whom it’s a full time job. She puts herself in the former category. Her vehicle is classified as a sedan, where deliveries can go from 3:45am to around 8:00pm. But the bigger vehicles with more cargo can work longer hours, well into the dark, when it’s hard to see and harder to park. Katie says she’s fortunate not to have to do this.Ěý

At the depots, Amazon Flex drivers rarely interact, Katie says. It’s all about grabbing the packages quickly and hitting the road. But Katie says there’s an air of frantic desperation among many drivers, since not being able to deliver a package never sits well with the company, no matter whose fault it is. The last thing an Amazon Flex driver wants to do is return a package to the depot.

Trying to communicate with one of the biggest tech titans of our day can feel a lot like talking to a very tall building, Katie reports. If a driver has a legitimate dispute, it’s a David and Goliath situation. It’s better to just stay quiet, especially if your livelihood depends on it, she says. But Katie doesn’t understand why it has to be this way.Ěý

“We’re the last link in the chain of when people order the package to getting it in their hand, and I think Amazon forgets that and they tend not to treat us with the same respect as other employees. Because without us delivering the packages, they wouldn’t have a business.”Ěý

*Katie is a pseudonymĚý

The post What’s it really like to be an Amazon delivery driver?Ěý appeared first on ĚÇĐÄVlog.