They have huge catalogues of goods/hampers, so it wouldn’t need CHOICE to buy them. Totalling the value of included items or single buy items versus payments that need to be made should allow easy comparison on whether value for money and convenience.
Now that Chrisco now have Castle & Hamper King business they seem to be the only Company in this area of business. Are they using market dominance? Are their prices fair for the service they provide? Please investigate.
+1 to this request. I haven’t used Christmas hampers but they always seem to target people with payment plans (often a way to get people to buy things they don’t need or can’t use)
I did a cost comparison with Crisco and me just buying the stuff at the shop (not on special) and I came out in front. The dau-in-law gets Crisco, and given the amount of stuff that ends up with us (they give us stuff they don’t like) it is very poor value. Plus they have your money progressively for the year.
Years ago, the Crisco order turned up a week or so before Christmas and was your festive fare. Now it turns up in November (?) and seems designed to save you buying food in the lead up to Christmas, probably so you then have more time and money to spend Christmas shopping? Wouldn’t be hard to price as each hamper has a description and photo.
And of course there is the prospect of the operator going bust and customers left with nothing.
I recall one of them doing just that some years ago, and I think the name was something like Chrisco.
A copy of a very unflattering article regarding Christco and Hamper King in 2017 by News.com.au.
And the press release by the ACCC in 2016.
Caveat emptor indeed.
We have a family member that also had the same experience…,they thought that it was good value as they were paying over the year rather than a bigger hit just before Christmas…but then realised that a lot of the items in the hamper were things they wouldn’t normally buy or use…and often didn’t from the hsmper making the hamoer a financially worse off for them. As a result, they no longer get the hamper but still get hounded by Christco soon in the new year with marketing materials.
Choice has looked at Christco, particularly in 2016 as one of the Scams of Christmas, and their unfair terms where they continued to take direct debits after the hamper had been fully paid for. Product Review has 1.6 stars and many complaints about defective goods, wrong goods, extra delivery charges (Chrisco deliver to a freight company and then it charges the customer), gift card fails, frozen goods delivered thawed, goods of poor quality, not as described, overpriced etc.
