EACH and every year on December 25, thousands of Aussie families score a stress-free Christmas thanks to companies like Hamper King and Chrisco.
But a stress-free Christmas doesn’t come cheap and sometimes it doesn’t even come stress-free. Despite that, hamper companies still have thousands of devotees who sing their praises. Others, not so much.
ARE THEY ACTUALLY A RIP OFF?
In a recent investigation conducted by Channel Nine, the network crunched the numbers and conclusively found customers were paying an eye-watering premium for retail items to sit in a basket and be wrapped in cellophane.
Buying three bottles of champagne from Dan Murphy’s, specifically a Bollinger Special Cuvee Brut NV Champagne, a Moet & Chandon Brut Imperial NV Champagne and a Piper-Heidsieck Brut NV Champagne, you’d pay $150.85. Buying those same three bottles of champagne from The Hamper Emporium would instead cost $229.
Department stores Big W, David Jones and Target were all also found guilty of pushing premium prices on hampers. Big W charged $22 purely for the hamper, David Jones charged an extra $130 and Target added $24.
This price hike isn’t something that surprises QUT Associate Professor and retail expert Gary Mortimer who has done numerous calculations on the price difference between hampers and shop items.
“Make sure you do a price check. You can always find similar types of items in hampers for much cheaper,” he said.
Mr Mortimer said hamper companies specifically target lower socio-economic groups by advertising the ease of small weekly payments.
“Often people find paying a little bit each week, say $3 to $5, much easier than having to come up with hundreds at Christmas.”
Despite that small apparent fee, Mr Mortimer said it was important customers realised they were paying for a service — which was going to push the price up.
And even though Mr Mortimer admitted there were benefits in investing in an annual hamper, he said a family’s best bet would always be to “grab yourself a $10 basket from Kmart and make a hamper at home”.
While it was impossible to dispute the price hikes uncovered by Channel Nine, comparing companies like Hamper King and Chrisco to store pricing was trickier.
Stefanie Menezes, a spokeswoman for Australia’s leading consumer advocacy group Choice, said it’s difficult to compare hamper boxes with retail prices because brands often create special sized products specifically for hampers.
Regardless of that, Ms Menezes said it’s important consumers still research the products.
“While Christmas hampers promise to deliver everything you need for your Christmas feast, consumers should do their homework. Watch out for tricky terms and conditions, and beware of difficult cancellation policies,” she said.
“It helps to check whether the items are being sold at an inflated price, especially with electronics. It might work out cheaper to buy your own basket and slowly start buying and saving away your own treats over time.
“Shoppers should also look out for whether the items in the basket are useful or festive. Some hampers offer tinned spaghetti and two-minute noodles but not everyone one wants those on the dinner table. To budget for next year’s holiday season, consider setting up a savings plan.”
HAMPER COMPANIES IN TROUBLE
One of Australia’s largest hamper companies found itself in a social media storm earlier this week when thousands of customers were left waiting for Visa prepaid cards.
The VISA card works like any other credit card, meaning it can be used Australia-wide and is not store-specific.
And for Renee McKinnon, a mum-of-four from Adelaide, it was a proposal too good not to jump on.
Ms McKinnon paid close to $3000 over 12 months to Hamper King, putting toys on lay-by and booking a holiday in the process, knowing she’d have the bulk sum from the VISA card to fall back on when those companies came knocking.
But, the Adelaide mum is still waiting for her cards and has been begging stores like Big W and Kmart for weeks to keep popular toys she placed on lay-by weeks ago off the shelves.
After numerous phone calls and failed communication with the company, Ms McKinnon took matters into her own hands, creating the Facebook group Boycott Hamper King.
And she was floored by the response. Not only did Ms McKinnon receive thousands of messages from fellow disgruntled customers worried about getting their prepaid cards in time for Christmas, she also noticed another constant complaint.
Numerous customers of Hamper King alleged the company wasn’t delivering what it was advertising in its brochures.
A large reason, Ms McKinnon said, of why people were attracted to hamper companies was because of the excitement around the box’s arrival, especially the way it was presented.
But leading up to this Christmas, a number of Hamper King customers claimed the items they’d been paying off for a year arrived in Coles plastic supermarket bags. Several commenters on ProductReview.com backed up the claims, while a statement from Hamper King also confirmed the practice and detailed its partnership with Coles.
“In the past, Hamper King sourced the food products to go in its hampers and packed them into boxes for delivery by a courier company,” a spokesperson said. “This year, Hamper King entered into a contract with Coles to source and deliver all the food products in Hamper King hampers.
“Six weeks before delivery of the hampers in November, Hamper King communicated with all its customers alerting them to that change. They received a follow-up notice reminding them four weeks before delivery.
“Coles’ delivery format is in plastic bags. Where the goods are perishable, the plastic bags are transported in chiller boxes. All food products are transported in refrigerated vehicles.
“The food products delivered from Coles are all exactly the same as those presented in the catalogue. On rare occasions where a particular item is unavailable, it is substituted with a product of equal or superior quality.”
And it isn’t just Hamper King that’s been in trouble.
In 2016, Chrisco copped a $200,000 fine after it was caught out helping itself to customers’ bank accounts.
In November, 2015, Chrisco was found guilty of breaching Australian Consumer Law after informing consumers they could not cancel a lay-by agreement after making their final payment.
Under the company’s so-called HeadStart plan, Chrisco would take the surplus payments and put them towards next year’s hamper — even before the customer had agreed to purchase it.
SO WHY DO PEOPLE DO IT?
Spending $1100 to be sent a $1000 gift card or paying a 15 per cent fee to invest your own money into a credit card might seem like a puzzling idea to some but there’s plenty of families that swear by hamper companies each and every year.
Families from rural areas, who live hours away from shopping centres, are especially attracted to the companies. In a comment on Essential Baby, a woman named Lyn explained why she was a loyal customer.
“I have been Chrisco for the last eight years. I live rurally and this is so much easier than driving over to the major town with heaps of eskies in tow to buy what I want to Christmas and the New Year,” she said.
“Each year when my hampers arrive, they last me 12 months. I still have pasta from the Italian hamper I got last year.
“I love it and NOTHING anyone here says will make me change my mind. I don’t have to drive into town. I don’t have to shop with the crowds. I don’t have to rush home
“I don’t have to take lots of eskies. I wait at home and they will deliver into my house. My only chore is unpacking ... but this is so much nicer than unpacking grocery bags,” Lyn wrote.
Ms McKinnon, who paid $94 a week since Christmas last year and a $250 administration fee on top of her VISA cards, said it was nice to receive a lump sum of money at Christmas time.
“We can choose how much we want to save and get a bulk amount in November so all of a sudden Christmas is taken care of. They’re convenient,” she said.
“We’re a young family trying to get ahead by doing something like this and we’ve been had.
“I’m devastated. How can Hamper King be OK with this? I’m so ropeable and so upset.”
In a statement, Hamper King said the delivery delays stemmed from underestimating demand for the hampers.
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