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"Warranty Void if Seal Broken" is Itself Void From the Start

10/29/2018

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Excerpts from a great article from the cool folks at IFixIt (IFixIt.org)
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We’re afraid of warranty stickers, but really, manufacturers should be

written by Kay Kay Clapp Director of Communications at iFixit.

According to a survey published today by consumer group U.S. PIRG, 45 out of 50 appliance manufacturers automatically void the warranty of a device if it has undergone “unauthorized” repair. And worse, they aren’t even upfront about it: 31 of the companies surveyed discourage independent repair in the language of their warranty, but don’t explicitly disclose whether or not doing so actually voids the warranty. PIRG reached out to the customer service teams at each of these organizations and found that 28 of them would still automatically void a warranty. They even included a couple of screenshots from a customer support chat with leading appliance brand Bissel, where they asked point-blank:

“So independent repair would void the warranty?”
“That is correct.”  

Warranty agreements exist largely to give manufacturers a monopoly on repairing your stuff. And their scare tactics are working: When I talk to people—at repair events, on our site, in the comments of our Youtube videos—their number one fear about trying a repair for the first time is that they’re afraid of voiding their warranty. That fear has translated into a fear of fixing our stuff—and it’s become so deeply ingrained in us that we’ve become increasingly disconnected from our stuff.

If I had a nickel for every time I came across a “warranty void if removed” sticker, I could easily buy the newest iPhone. . . .

Most consumers don’t know that these stickers are actually illegal—and that’s because manufacturers don’t want you to [know that]. Under the 1975 Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, the Feds mandated that you can open your electronics without voiding the warranty, regardless of what the language of your warranty says. That makes all of that inconsistent (albeit crafty) language used by the 50 manufacturers surveyed by the U.S. PIRG illegal.

Manufacturers have been waging a quiet war against tinkerers for years. . . .

Up until April of this year, manufacturers have enjoyed this repair-monopoly uncontested. But consumers found their first warranty win when the FTC sent letters to six major manufacturers warning them to knock that “warranty void” s[tuff] off. A small victory in the ongoing battle for the right to fix our stuff, but apparently not enough to scare manufacturers from scaring us out of our right to repair.

We’re lending the FTC a hand in giving those manufacturers a fright—by re-opening our #VoidIfRemoved contest. . . .

We want everyone to know that warranty stickers are just crafty trickery from manufacturers. Don’t fall for it. The Feds have granted you a license to tinker—now let’s make sure we use it.

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DO NOT ever buy a gift card because someone threatened you!

10/22/2018

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I have had a number of very unhappy consumer victims of scams where they received very convincing calls from someone with an authoritative voice who told them that they were going to be arrested/audited/exposed as a liar/cheat/unfit parent/tax fraud unless they went to Apple (or Google or Wal-Mart) and bought gift cards and gave the codes from the cards to the person calling.

It's easy for you and I to sit back and say "That's an obvious scam" but it's not obvious sometimes, when you're tired and don't expect someone to call and threaten you. Once your amygdala fear response kicks in, your reasoning declines dramatically.

So just remember -- just like money never calls you on the phone, only scammers demand payment in gift card codes.

Never buy a gift card because someone threatened you!  (Unless it's your wife.)
Scammers demand gift cards | Consumer Information
by Cristina Miranda

Gift cards are a great way to give a gift. But did you know they are also a scammer’s favorite way to steal money? According to the FTC’s new Data Spotlight, more scammers are demanding payment with a gift card than ever before – a whopping 270 percent increase since 2015.

Gift cards are for gifts, not for payments. If someone calls with urgent news or a convincing story and then pressures you to pay them by buying a gift card, like an iTunes or Google Play card, and then giving them the codes on the back of the card – stop. It’s a scam.

Gift cards are the number one payment method that imposters demand. They might pose as IRS officials and say you’re in trouble for not paying taxes; or a family member with an emergency; or a public utility company threatening to shut off your water; or even a servicemember selling something before deployment. Or they might call with great news – you’ve won a contest or a prize! But to get it, you need to pay fees with a gift card. Scammers will say anything to get your money. And they know how to play into your fears, hopes, or sympathies. They like gift cards because, once they’ve got the code on the back, the money is gone and almost impossible to trace. But knowing how these scams work can help you avoid them, and you can help even more by passing on the information to people you know.

If you paid a scammer with a gift card, report it as soon as possible. Call the card company and tell them the gift card was used in a scam. Here is contact information for some of the gift card companies that scammers use most often. Then, tell the FTC about it – or any other scam – at ftc.gov/complaint. Your reports may help law enforcement agencies launch investigations that could stop imposters and other fraudsters in their tracks.

Report Scams

Amazon
  • Call 1 (888) 280-4331
  • Learn about about Amazon gift card scams here.
Google Play
  • Call 1 (855) 466-4438
  • Report gift card scams online here.
  • Learn about Google Play gift card scams here.
iTunes
  • Call 1 (800) 275-2273 then press “6” for other, then say “operator” to be connected to a live representative.
  • Learn about iTunes gift card scams and how to report them here.
Steam
  • If you have a Steam account, you can report gift card scams online here.
  • Learn about Steam gift card scams here.
MoneyPak
  • Call 1 (866) 795-7969
  • Report a MoneyPak card scam online here.
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Doing good & having fun both - Salem Harvest fights hunger in Salem

10/15/2018

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John Gear/John Gear Law Office has been a proud Salem Harvest sponsor since it began
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Update to the John Gear Law Office logo after 8 years in Private Practice

10/14/2018

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Finally got an artist to update my logo and add the phone.

Here's hoping it's good luck for eight more years being able to make a living while helping people who have been ripped off or who need some help planning for the end.

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Reminder: Money never calls you on the phone

10/8/2018

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The short answer to "How do criminals steal from the elderly?" is "by phone, mostly."

And new phone-based payment services that let you send money to others without even leaving your house make it crucial that you remember this key survival rule:

         MONEY NEVER CALLS YOU ON THE PHONE.

And if you think you've found the exception to this rule, call an attorney or a trusted friend with good sense to discuss the offer before you do ANYTHING that the caller suggests. If you have truly found the exception to the rule, it'll wait for you to conduct a thorough investigation.

If you feel ANY pressure to seize the opportunity at all, that's the clearest sign of all that it's a SCAM.

Remember, the phone and internet means just one thing for sure:

Every criminal in the entire world is just one click or phonecall away from you.

In years past, you pretty much only did business with people nearby; now you can be ripped off by someone from a country you can't even pronounce just as easily as by someone who calls you from a boiler-room scam operation in your own hometown.


How Criminal Steal $37 billion a year from the elderly
by Nick Leiber, Bloomberg.

Marjorie Jones trusted the man who called to tell her she’d won a sweepstakes prize, saying she could collect the winnings once she paid the taxes and fees. After she wired the first payment, he and other callers kept adding conditions to convince her to send more money. 


As the scheme progressed, Jones, who was legally blind and lived alone in a two-story house in Moss Bluff, Louisiana, depleted her savings, took out a reverse mortgage and cashed in a life insurance policy. She didn’t tell her family, not even the sister who lived next door. Scammers often push victims to keep promised winnings a secret, says an investigator who helped unravel this sinister effort to exploit an 82-year-old woman.
 
Her family didn’t realize something was wrong until she started asking to borrow money, a first for a woman they admired for her financial independence. But by then it was too late, says Angela Stancik, one of Jones’s granddaughters. Jones had lost all of her life savings—hundreds of thousands of dollars.

About one week after calling Stancik at the family business in Ganado, Texas, to borrow $6,000, Jones committed suicide.

Click to read the rest


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John Gear to speak on helping elders fight back against financial abuse

10/3/2018

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John Gear Law Office LLC and Salem Consumer Law.  John Gear Law Office is in Suite 208B of the Security Building in downtown Salem at 161 High St. SE, across from the Elsinore Theater, a half-block south of Marion County Courthouse, just south of State Street. There is abundant, free 3-hour on-street parking throughout downtown Salem, and three multi-story parking ramps that offer free customer parking in downtown Salem too.

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