It’s a smartwatch that promises to help keep children safe, but parents who have bought a Moochies device say it shows their kids are hundreds of kilometres away from where they actually are.

It’s just one among a slew of complaints customers have against the watch seller — from incorrect charges to difficulty cancelling plans.

Now, the Telecommunication Industry Ombudsman has raised concerns that the products are still being sold in the lead-up to Christmas, when “unwitting parents could buy these watches for their kids”.

‘Never even slightly accurate’: customer complaints mount

Marina Haddow bought her son a Moochies watch when he wanted to start catching the bus to school by himself.

The 10-year-old has autism and Ms Haddow wanted to make sure she could track his journey to school and that he could contact her in an emergency.

Moochies smartwatches are marketed to children and can have up to 10 phone numbers loaded onto an internal SIM card for calls.

They retail for $266 on the Moochies website.

The watches are also marketed as having tracking software, so parents can keep an eye on their children’s whereabouts, and an SOS function for children to send an emergency message to their parents.

Ms Haddow bought her son’s second-hand and tried to reactivate the SIM card, but was told it was not registered to her so she would need to send it back to the company in Queensland for a replacement SIM.

When she got the watch back, Ms Haddow activated it online and gave over her credit card details to be charged a $20 monthly SIM card fee.

But the watch never worked.

“It couldn’t make or receive calls,” Ms Haddow said.

The GPS function showed her son hundreds of kilometres from where he actually was.

Ms Haddow then discovered her credit card had been charged fees for four months for the old SIM card that had been replaced.

She emailed the company requesting a refund but was refused, until she forwarded Moochies its own email it had sent her, telling her the first SIM had to be replaced.

A month went by before the company replied, agreeing to refund the four months’ worth of fees.

Do you know more or have a similar story? Get in touch with Rachel Clayton at clayton.rachel@abc.net.au or clayton.rachel@protonmail.com

Ms Haddow only discovered she had been charged after she switched credit cards and was sent emails from Moochies saying her monthly $20 payments had been unsuccessful.

The ordeal of being refunded fees for a SIM she never used was so taxing that she immediately cancelled the second SIM plan.

It was successfully cancelled but other parents have not been so lucky.

The ABC has spoken to another seven customers with similar stories — the watch has never worked for calls, shows their children in the middle of the Indian ocean or hundreds of kilometres away in other towns.

Moochies in liquidation, watches still on sale

Buyers who have purchased faulty devices or been incorrectly charged describe challenges even contacting the company.

The first payments taken from one customer’s account (seen by the ABC) were deducted by Moochies Holdings Pty Ltd, an Australian company that went into liquidation last year.

Telstra has confirmed it was a carrier for Moochies SIM cards up until March, when it terminated the contract.

“At that time, we were in contact with all active customers directly, providing them with three months of free service to give them time to move to another device.

“Telstra Wholesale disconnected all services on 30 June 2024,” they said.

Moochies smartwatches are still being sold at Harvey Norman, Dick Smith, Kogan, Mobileciti and Amazon.

Until recently, they were also being sold at Big W and JB HiFi.

In a written statement, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) said retailers selling products distributed by a supplier that had entered administration or liquidation must advise consumers of any limitations this may mean for the products, and refund products that do not function.

Big W, JB HiFi and Harvey Norman did not respond to requests for comment.

A spokesperson for Mobileciti told The ABC it was not aware that Moochies had entered liquidation last year and therefore had not informed customers.

It said it had received complaints about the watches not working and offered claims under warranty on a case-by-case basis.

A Google listing for Moochies also says the company is permanently closed.

Liquidators’ report alleges insolvent trading

Documents from the liquidators, lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) in October 2023, show Moochies Holdings had an exclusive license to sell children’s smartwatches made by Funtastic Limited in China.

A group restructure in December 2021 led to the Australian company becoming a holding company for two UK companies — Moochies Technologies Ltd and Moochies Trading Ltd.

The Australian holding company was being held by a receiver appointed by secured creditor Timelio — a finance company — that was owed more than $1.1 million.

The receivership ceased in November after former directors Adrian Lisle and Ryan O’Neill, who live in the UK, declared bankruptcy and could not pay back creditors.

Mr O’Neill, who was described in a press release as coming from a legal and political background, told the ABC his bankruptcy was “the most humiliating experience I had to deal with”.

He said he and Mr Lisle had been convinced to sign a personal guarantee deal with Timelio.

Mr Lisle said there were always issues with tech products, “especially a small wrist-worn mobile phone to be used by children”.

“However by and large there were no significant technological problems. The company spent very heavily on research and development to ensure that it had a world leading product,” he said. 

Mr Lisle said since Kid Tech Co was launched he has had no involvement in the company. 

The liquidators’ report also said the liquidators believed the company was insolvent from July 2022, possibly earlier, and had since then accrued more than $3 million in debt.

Investigations by the liquidators found the directors “may have breached” sections of the Corporations Act by trading when there were “reasonable grounds to suspect insolvency” including:

• defaulting on two payments to the Australian Taxation Office amounting to almost $50,000
• holding just $1,432 cash
• owing $43,864 to two creditors with invoices that were 90 days overdue

Bank statements from customers sighted by the ABC show monthly SIM card charges coming from “Kids Tech Co”.

Kids Tech Company Ltd is registered in the United Kingdom, with its sole director being 83-year-old woman Patricia Lisle — the mother of a former director of the original company.

Former director of Kids Tech Co Kaue Garcia told the ABC the company’s SIM cards were being run on the Vodafone network through wholesaler Pivotel.

Pivotel’s chief executive, Peter Bolger, confirmed the company used to have a wholesale agreement with Moochies and had a current agreement with Kids Tech Co.

Mr Bolger said he had “no information at all on how many people may be having problems” with the network.

A Vodafone spokesperson said the network was working as intended and no issues had been raised by wholesale partners such as Pivotel.

Customers and smartwatch company at odds over cancellations

Mr Garcia said any issues customers had with cancellation had been fixed and the company had “set up a direct link on the website for customers to request cancellation”.

Customers the ABC has spoken to disagree.

They say their efforts to communicate with the company go unanswered for weeks, even months, while payments for the SIM card accounts are still being taken from their bank accounts.

Adelaide mum Morgaan Wilson bought her 12-year-old son one of the watches on sale from Big W in August because he wanted to start walking to school by himself, but it never worked: “It was just a disaster.”

Ms Wilson waited so long without an answer from the company she had to cancel her credit card to stop being charged.

She later received emails from Kids Tech Co saying payments for her Moochies account were unsuccessful.

Another parent, Benny Herbert, could not even get the watch account to load.

Mr Herbert’s son was gifted a Moochies Odyssey smartwatch for his birthday a few weeks ago.

His son’s mother signed up for the SIM plan with no issues, but once the $30 sign-up payment was taken from her account the screen was “stuck on loading”.

Despite repeated attempts to set up an account and use the app, Mr Herbert said the watch never worked.

“I’ve tried on my phone and can’t even log into her account or create one of my own, it just gets stuck on the loading screen … Loading, loading, loading and nothing happens.”

Telco ombudsman chasing up complaints

The complaints go back years.

Harley Jones, a father in Melbourne, bought a Moochies watch a few years ago and said he was outraged by the lack of communication with the company when the watch did not work.

The watch was meant to help keep his young daughter safe, he said, but it showed her being in the middle of the Indian Ocean on the tracker and none of the messaging or call functions worked.

The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) said it had received a “small number” of complaints in the last year regarding the watches.

“We reached out to Moochies a few weeks ago and found out that they are ceasing their membership with us and are in administration.

“We are continuing our efforts to find out if the administrator is handling outstanding complaints.”

ASIC said it could not comment on individual companies.