Fighting fair:

Fair Go celebrates 40 years on air this week with the first of two documentary specials built around interviews with former presenters and hosts Kevin Milne, Philip Alpers, Liane Clarke and Kerre (Woodham) McIvor. Current Fair Go champions Pippa Wetzell a

TV milestone for New Zealand’s consumer rights show.

Age has done nothing to weaken the bite of Fair Go as it champions the underdog in the battle against scammers, businesses and local authorities who get it wrong. Four decades of helping New Zealanders who have been ripped off, short-changed or given the runaround has turned the show into a Kiwi icon, and current presenters Pippa Wetzell and Hadyn Jones know they have big shoes to fill. “It was very much part of my childhood TV viewing because it was one of those things that was on in every household through the 80s,” says Wetzell, who was a newborn when the first episode aired – with Brian Edwards at its helm – in April 1977. She took over the presenting role in 2011 and was joined by Jones just over a year ago. The pair follow in the footsteps of not just Edwards but also, among others, Kevin Milne, Kerre Woodham, Carol Hirschfeld, Alison Mau, Rosalie Nelson, Liane Clarke, Greg Boyed, Leigh Hart, Simon Mercep and Gordon Harcourt. “We take the legacy seriously,” says Wetzell, “as, over the decades, Fair Go has built up a reputation and we have a huge responsibility to that, to our viewers, obviously to the people we are trying to help, and to the people on the other side, to be fair and make sure things are entirely above board.” She says the team’s stringent attention to detail surprises newcomers.

“I think sometimes new people come on board, start tackling a story and then realise the dotting of the i’s and the crossing of the t’s is more serious than they have ever done before.”

Jones, an experienced journalist who presents TVNZ’s Good Sorts, says there are valid reasons for caution.

“Before Fair Go started, (the media) never used to name and shame businesses. They used to say there has been a complaint about a Wellington department store or something but they never named it,” he says. “If we are going to do that we need to be very careful. We have a lawyers’ meeting on Friday and our toughest obstacle is getting things past them.”

The pair say talking to previous presenters while researching the upcoming special anniversary episodes revealed Fair Go has definitely made its mark.

“Kerre McIvor said some businesses used to put themselves above their customers and I don’t think that that exists – certainly not to that degree – any more,” Wetzell says. “I think they realise now how important customer service and customer relationships are.”

And sometimes a phone call from Fair Go is all it takes.

“Businesses and local councils will actually get things moving once you give them a ring and say, ‘This is going on TV next week so you might want to do something about it’,” Jones says.

“It’s sad in a way they need that motivation to do it.”

Both presenters know what it is like to fall victim to some kind of rip-off.

“The scammers are getting smarter,” says Wetzell, admitting to almost falling for an on-line holiday accommodation scam while Jones’ downfall was online shopping.

“I bought some prescription sunglasses from a website and they charged me in US dollars and my invoice was in New Zealand dollars. I complained and complained but I didn’t win in the end,” he says, adding he has learnt his lesson.

“It does show the advantage of shopping local. Next time I’m going to go down to my local optometrist.”

Hadyn Jones is amazed at the number of complaints received by Fair Go and warns, “Don’t mess with their chocolate biscuits. They notice. One person thought Twisties had gone straight – they haven’t. One man was convinced his Big Mac had shrunk – but it hasn’t.”