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Lost ashes
Reporter:
Libby Middlebrook
It's one of the most entrusted business arrangements you'll ever
make. Leaving your loved ones in the hands of a funeral
director.
Barb and Doug Matthews employed Faithful Funeral Services to take care of everything, when their elderly parents passed away three and five years ago. But this month they discovered their parents' ashes had never been interred.
We got in touch with Brenton Faithfull from Faithfull Funeral Services, who apologised for the administrative "glitch" that meant the Matthews' ashes had never been interred. It has now been completed.
Funeral costs
Reporter:
Libby Middlebrook
No avoiding it. We're all going to die. But can you actually afford
to?
Funerals cost an average of $9000, right up to $15,000 for a large affair. Up to 70 per cent of people these days are cremated, but you don't actually have to use a funeral home.
You can go direct to council crematoriums, it can be cheaper, and they can help you with the paper work.
By law, you have to be buried in a cemetery, Maori or private burial ground, but ashes are different.
You can pretty much pop them wherever you like, but some councils are stricter than others. So make sure someone checks in with your local authority, before scattering ashes in public places.
Plastic Not-So-Fantastic?
Reporter
: Ali Mau
Plastic bags are an environmental menace, and Kiwis use over a
billion of them each year. Many major Kiwi retailers have
introduced "degradable" plastic bags in an attempt to address the
issue.
But international research and some plastics experts here in New zealand are questioning whether the technology of degradable bags really is better for the environment. They say the bags are designed to break down into smaller and smaller pieces over time. However they only do that if they're left to blow around in the open air, as the technology they use needs oxygen, light and heat.
They can't be composted or recycled, so most of the bags go to landfill. Once they're buried in a landfill with little oxygen, light or heat, they don't break down any more quickly than a normal plastic bag, and international research suggest they might even be a worse choice environmentally.
No Harvey Norman No!
Reporter
: Gordon Harcourt
Lisa from Napier bought a flash phone, a super flash thousand
dollar phone, the Nokia N8.
She says it never worked properly. She took it back to Harvey
Norman, about 25 minutes' drive away in Hastings.
She took it back to Harvey Norman THREE times, and three times they
sent it away to Nokia.
Lisa says it wasn't fixed.
We think the repair notes show that Harvey Norman was telling Nokia to give Lisa a credit. We think that's against the law, the Consumer Guarantees Act. That act is very clear - the supplier, the retailer replaces or refunds goods, not the manufacturer. So Harvey Norman, not Nokia, should replace or refund Lisa's phone.
Eventually Nokia replaced the phone as a goodwill gesture, and after I got involved Harvey Norman let her swap it for a flash Samsung. She's happy with that, no argument.
Our point is that under the CGA, it was always Harvey Norman's job to replace or refund. Harvey Norman says it didn't replace or refund the phone because it wasn't faulty - they blame a corrupt memory card. "Utter cr-p" says Lisa. There's no mention of corrupt card in eight pages of repair notes.
Harvey Norman says I've got the facts wrong - it didn't tell Nokia to credit Lisa. We think the paperwork shows otherwise. I've asked, but Harvey Norman won't explain how I got the facts wrong. As usual, Harvey Norman wouldn't do an on-camera interview.