Brian K.

Excellent VALUE. Inexpensive and great vacuum for the price – For under $50 (bought this in Jan 2020 for $47), this is a fantastic vacuum cleaner. As I only have two bedrooms with carpet (rest of the flat is laminate flooring), I didn't…

want to buy a super pricey vacuum. This vacuum is great in terms of performance versus cost. It cleans the carpets more than adequately. Perhaps not the deep deep clean of a $500 dyson, but I don't see any issues.

I've used it on the hardwood floors and it works just fine. You don't need super suction power for non-carpeted surfaces anyways. There are two attachments with this vacuum: the crevice brush tool for conrners and such, and a small upholstry vacuum head. The latter is great as I've used it on a couch already. My previous vacuum didn't have such an attachment.

I really like that fact that this is bagless (my first ever bagless one). Those bags were dirty and gross to empty. This Kmart one has a detachable part that contains all the vacuumed dirt and such. Just take it outside and empty it into a bag and then put it in the bin. Don't empty it inside.

The unit is small and easy to manoeuvre. I have tipped it over once or twice, but not a major problem. I just wasn't paying attention.

There are two other bagless units that Kmart sells. I chose this one because of the price and because the dirt container was not a primary concern. This one, which has 2000W power, has a small container. The 2200W and 2400W models (currently $69 and $95) are larger containers (they call it 'dust capacity'). If you have a lot of carpeted area, and find emptying the container annoying, you can get one of the pricier ones. You'd get a bit more power as well, and a few other nifty features (e.g., the 2200W and 2400W have HEPA filters).

Makes my life so much easier – I use an iPad Pro every day, and mainly for work tasks (teaching, making presentations, and having important documents/emails in front of me at meetings). It's much lighter and…

easier to carry than a laptop. I have an attachable keyboard with it (the one Apple sells), which I think adds a lot of use-value to the iPad. I haven't even gotten to the pencil yet! It's great! No more writing something on paper, taking a photo, and then emailing or uploading. You can do that all digitally, and it's much easier to erase, change colours, make perfect shapes (boxes, circles, etc.). I use the 12.9" because it's best for work stuff, but a smaller one is suitable for non-work purposes I would say. The built-in speakers are the best tablet speakers I've yet to hear. If you watch movies on this (without headphones), the sound is surprisingly good! I don't use the camera on the device, so I don't have much to say about that. Battery life is very very good. The pencil needs charging more often though, and that is easy to do (just stick it into the lightning port on the ipad).

An absolute super-blender – This blender is unbelievably powerful. It is far far far better than standard blenders you find at Kmart or BigW. While it's not exactly a food processor, it can do many things…

that a food processor can do. I make hummus in my optimum. I also blend smoothies with kale, and there are no hard bits when drinking it. It's also saved me from having to buy a coffee grinder. It's not a great coffee grinder though (the grind isn't perfectly uniform), but it's quite good and just means having one less appliance and saving money too. There's a whole recipe book and endless things you can use it for. While it's not cheap, it's very well made and should last for a long time (has a long warranty too, which tells me that it's a product that will last).

Avoid if you can – Updated: Moved to 1-star from 2-stars. They are the worst. I cancelled my service with the 30 days notice they require so that I could switch to NBN with another provider. 7…

days later, they completely shut off my service, just a day after they rang me to confirm my cancellation for the following month. I had to call them up and complain and it took an hour for them to turn my service back on. They admitted they were at fault too.

Previous review:

I've been with TPG ADSL at two different times. There's a few things about them that everyone should know. First, if you get their ADSL+home-phone bundle, they will rip you off of $20 right away. They make you "pre-pay" $20 for phone calls and bill you for this very soon after you sign up. If you never use this home phone to make calls, or barely use any of the $20, you don't get your $20 or whatever is left back. Add to that if you do make some calls and fall below $10, they bill you for another $20 of pre-pay. Again, once they bill you for this, even if you don't use it all, you'll never get it back. When you agree to their T&Cs, they make you waive some sort of consumer rights, which is how they get away with this.

Second, know their cancellation conditions. Call them well ahead of time about when you need to cancel to avoid another month of billing. They will NOT pro-rate you a month, even if you have their service for just one day of a new billing period, you're charged for a full month. I'd cancel several days in advance just in case.

Third, there are line quality issues with them that many are reporting. I'm having troubles myself, especially between 6pm and 9pm at night when others are streaming Netflix, etc. Although ADSL gives you a dedicated line, there is something called crosstalk between lines, which is a result of electromagnetic interference. If connections aren't properly made, this crosstalk can reduce the quality of your connection and cause dropouts (which I get too often). TPG will just blame it on your modem if you don't have the one they try to sell you.

Fourth, they use their own ADSL DSLAMs for some exchanges. This is the reason I am with them now. There were no more open ports for the Telstra exchange, which meant that I couldn't choose the vast number of resellers that use Testra's equipment. When NBN finally gets where I am in early 2020, I will be dropping TPG and will never use them again.

No annual fee + free international travel insurance (updated review) – Below is what my previous review was. I had rated this as a 5-star card as it clearly was. However, BankWest made some changes to the travel insurance in Dec 2019. The free…

insurance is limited to only 31 consecutive days overseas (previously it was 6 months I believe). Furthermore, the coverage has been weakened so things like cancellation costs, rental car excess and others are no longer free. You can pay to upgrade your coverage, but on last looking, BankWest hasn't stated how much this will cost. If your overseas trip is more than 31 days, you can pay to extend the coverage as well. Again, no details of approximately how much this will cost.

There still is no annual fee, and no overseas transaction fees. Several cards have this though. If you feel like you only need minimal travel insurance (medical, baggage, liability, and death), then this card would work well for you. The unknown is how much extra the increased coverage or increase of days (beyond 31) will cost.

Old review before the changes: This has to be the best card that combines no annual fee with free travel insurance. Oh, and add to that no overseas transaction fees. The spending requirement for the free travel insurance (for overseas) is prepaying $500 in travel costs before flying overseas, which means that if you purchase a ticket with points, you just have to charge some overseas hotel, activity, etc. costs with the Bankwest Platinum card to qualify for the free travel insurance. The rules changed in the last few years and it used to be solely about the overseas airfare, but they relaxed it to just $500 of "prepaid travel costs". The zero transaction fees is another big benefit, and while you can get that with other zero-annual-fee cards, the other benefits make this one perfect.