The consumer watchdog, Choice, announced the winners of its People’s Award at a dinner at Sydney’s Australian Museum last night, with eBay, Bunnings, TPG and Samsung winning top honours.
The award, which recognises top performers in the industry, saw eBay winning comfortably in the hotly contested online retail market, while Bunnings took the gong for the bricks and mortar performer.
Among the technology winners, Samsung came away with the Top TV Brand, while TPG had the best value mobile phone, and won praise for its customer support and overall quality of service.
Miele took the prize for the Best Washing Machine brand.
The winners in the eight categories were chosen by a panel of Choice experts, while the consumer’s voice was heard via the People’s Choice Award for Best Retailers and Best Value mobile Phone Service categories that were opened up to more than 200,000 members, and determined by popular vote.
“In the hotly contested online retail market, eBay comfortably took out this award winning 29 percent of Choice members’ vote. Choice Members praised eBay for price, product range and security,” said Choice Spokeswoman, Ingrid Just.
eBay was also placed a whopping 22 percent ahead of next place getters, Apple and Amazon.
Deborah Sharkey, Vice President and Managing Director for eBay Australia and New Zealand said: “We are absolutely thrilled to have won the People’s Choice award and we would like to thank the Choice members who voted for eBay in this category.
“Today 78% of all items available for sale on eBay.com.au are brand new and it is incredibly satisfying to see that consumers are switched on to this and are also taking advantage of it!”
In the bricks an mortar category, 2180 survey respondents gave their stamp of approval to Bunnings, for a range of factors including product range, extended trading hours, friendly service and ample parking.
Meanwhile, in the best TV brand categoy “Samsung has been the standout, releasing a series of quality models catering for the buyer wanting a small TV in the study, right up to 150cm-plus panels providing the full home cinema experience,” said Choice.
Other awards went to NAB Classic Banking for the best low fee bank account and Ubank’s USaver from NAB for the best online savings account.
The Consumer Champion was named as Adam Brimo, a 23-year-old software graduate who set up his Vodafail website in response to problems he and others were experiencing with Vodafone’s mobile network and customer service.
