‘Fair Go’ gets 100 letters a week

Press, 4 August 1981, Page 15

‘Fair Go’ gets 100 letters a week

* “Fair Go’s" 100th programme will broadcast during the present season but ■<the producer. Shaun Brown, •J has no plans to celebrate the .•.occasion. The show is on “’■Tuesdays on One. * "Fair Go” receives on an /•average 100 complaints a f>’eek, of which about five a per programme are dealt ’'with. 3 "Naturally, people have •J got used to the sort of /.problems that "Fair Go” attempts to solve,” said Shaun

Brown. “What used to be a big surprise no longer amazes viewers to the same degree. But the problems we deal with on the show are extremely important to the person attempting to deal with them, even if they sometimes seen trivial and ‘every day’ to other people. “Fair Go” staff handle two levels of complaints — those which can be sorted. out successfully before the programme goes to air, and

those which can't. “Although we use only about five per cent of letters in the show, even that five per cent is not really our choice,” Browrr emphasises. “In the end, the. people who write to us determine what the viewer sees. If their problems are major, then our items are major and . vice versa.” As far as, possible, the team avoids repetition of problems; and they have a list of the complaints they ■ don’t do on air. . .

“We don’t deal with garage complaints,” said Brian Edwards.

“There are so many and they’re very hard to sort out. If "you did one you’d be swamped by people with garage complaints. Perhaps Television New Zealand should devote a programme to garage complaints!” “Fair Go” also automatically rejects stories that complain the Government isn’t giving the writer a fair go and they don’t handle domestic disputes. But what sort of person writes in to “Fair Go?” Who are these people who have the courage to come on television and tell the . nation their grievances, without even the comforting blanket of anonymity that perhaps radio or newspapers might offer?

Edwards and Brown sum them up succintly: “Pretty

angry people. They come to us because they've tried every other avenue. They feel desperate, helpless and we are the last resort. They don't really care if the whole country’s going to be watching them if it means positive results.”

And what about the person or the company complained of? How much does it take to appear on screen when you know you may be judged the villain of the piece before the show is over?

“The person who fronts up on screen can usually command viewer respect, whereas the person who doesn’t appear may be considered, rightly or wrongly, to have something to hide,” Shaun said.

He was quick to emphasise that a refusal to front up on screen in no way affects the decision whether or not to proceed with the story.

Edwards doesn’t think that a “Fair Go” finding against a company affects the business for very long. “The affect on the small retailer who may have failed to give someone say, a refund, would be minimal.”

If a viewer has shopped there and got consistently good service himself he won’t stop going. Rather than pointing out that “you shouldn’t” shop at so and so’s, “Fair Go” hopes to raise consumer consciousness.

“Some of the writers use us to get it all off their chests,” Brian says. “They’ve often suffered great frustrations .in getting anything done and since it can cost quite a lot to get legal advice, people will come to us.

“Lawyers will sometimes encourage their clients to write to us, if they feel that we might be the last hope."