The Troubleshooter 7-25-24

Yea ripped up news, need advice who you don't have to come running just as fast as we can. Show Shooter's gonna help come Man six is the Troubleshooter Show. No Tom Martino, Hi, Tom Martino here, welcome to the show. Three oh three seven one three talk seven one three A two five five. That's the number in the studio. We also have our our number for the Troubleshooter Network three oh three Martino three oh three six two seven

eight four six six. That's three oh three Martino that you can call her text at any time and we'll get you on the show. You don't have even have to wait. You know, we have a lot to talk about today. One of the things I love talking about is with the heat the way it is right now. Don't get ripped trust me when need comes. So toa ripoffs, but I want you to be safe. If you need your air traditioning checked eight eight eight heating dot com and they are especially great

if you're putting in a solar system. They have high efficiency electric units and hybrid furnaces that do both electric and gas. Three three seven seven zero two seven seven six. Hey, John Fuller's with us my co host today, feel free to chime in, John. You know, really, if you think about it, there's a trend that makes sense. Trade schools are up, colleges are down. Colleges have been in a steady decline over ten years. Still competitive, but a steady decline. And there are many many reasons

given. Believe it or not, not all young people feel it's worth it. But another thing young People survey said, as who Richard Dawson said, survey says on family feod you remember that time anyway. So one of the things that one of the things people cited, we have young people who don't who feel like they can't find a school aligned with their goals and their philosophies.

Now I'm not sure you need a school aligned with your goals and philosophies, but there are some students saying that they don't want to be indoctrinated by the way one way or the other. They want education. They feel education should be facts and figures and history and all of that. I don't know if that's possible, because every single person who will teach will give their bend to it. Everyone. I'm not sure it's right or wrong. I just

know it's going to happen no matter what. When you give history, you're gonna give opinions, You're gonna give your lecture. I don't know if education can be totally objective. I don't know if it can be, so then we're faced with the idea. If it can't be objective, then what is it. It's skews toward the person doing the teaching, And right now we have basically mostly liberal people teaching, and they're teaching, and I'm not saying

they're trying. I don't like the word in doctrinate. I don't really see. I don't believe there's some big plot to indoctrinate are young. I think it's just the way they feel. I truly have said this before over and over. I don't think people are trying to hurt anyone. I don't think they are. I disagree with the Trump camp when they say the liberals are trying to destroy America, and I disagree with the liberal camp when they say Trump is the biggest threat to democracy ever. I mean, I think I

just hate when people do that. Now, No, we can disagree vehemently, and I do with a lot of things, but I don't think anyone's trying to destroy us. I think they, in their minds are trying to do the best. So a lot of these kids saying, well, I

know they're you know, I just don't want to hear it. I don't want to be part of it. A lot of Jewish students have been really hurt lately because of all the demonstrations and violence toward them, even though they have nothing directly to do with Israel's reaction to Hamas, they're feeling a backlash. Yesterday when Natyaho's gave us each Some people would call it when he when he preached, but I'm telling you he was really passionate. But there were

a lot of people protesting. Must call it like it is. They were, They were liberals protesting. Now here's here's the bottom line. They're saying, Okay, this is going far beyond self defense. Again, no matter where you lie, I'm just trying to make the point here that people are

getting sick and tired. There are even surveys that show people are moving to different parts of the country to be near people who are physically physical philosophy, physic, philosophically, Thank you philosophically, my God, thank you for a moment there I felt like Mark ha ha, he almost founds like a lawyer. Yeah. So no, no, but there are people moving to align

themselves politically and philosophically. I mean, do you think there'll ever be a time in this country where people move into air is based on philosophy or based on I don't know, what are you politics? Do you think that will ever happen? Seriously? I know people think it's already happening. I mean they're part of Yeah, of course, there are parts of the country where you just not want to go because it's known as a bastion of some some

one one one way or the other. Yeah, definitely. I mean think about it. For a million years, Boulder has been viewed as, you know, the People's Republic of Boulder. I mean, as long as I've been in the state thirty years plus, it's been referred to as, you know, something along those lines. So you should be fairly well, you know, warned that if you move to Boulder, you're going to be surrounded by to a large degree that philosophical And what about Colorado Springs that has the

opposite, Yeah, exactly the opposite. Okay, and then we have Florida and Texas, but off to California. There are parameters that you have. Not everybody has the wherewithal to just get up and move. So I think you're talking about a lot of people. Yeah, you're right, they don't have the wherewithal to get up and move. But the migration over time and where kids move and kids live and stuff, Yeah, it's it's happening. By the way, I want to mention that Kelsey's got a landscape or problem.

We're going to get to her. And then I just wanted to say that I think that I'm going to make some statements here that I looked up some crime statistics and most crime toward violence and people are happening in liberal cities and states, but consumer crime and white collar crime are in conservative areas.

And I've said this before. I mean, you know, I've been one way or the other, but I will say that when it comes to consumer issues, and I'll just say it because I know I have mostly a conservative audience. I mean, talk radio in general's mostly conservative, and I am two in ninety percent of the areas of life. But I do believe, and John, I know this is as an attorney, it cuts both ways with you, guys, because I know a lot of lawmakers around the country

tend to with personal injury attorneys try to clip your wings. I mean, I think it has been correct me if I'm wrong, do mainly conservative governments feel leave business alone, leave insurance companies alone, and there they try to cap your awards, whereas more liberal governments or entities try to give the consumer more of the edge. As an attorney, I'm not asking you politically. Is that right or wrong? Am I am? I am I lying dying

here. I think if you're painting in broad strokes, that's pretty true. So it's morely, but it's but it's to be expected though, talk because you know, the majority of business owners and people that are stakeholders, if you will, you know, by and large that group tends to vote more conservatively and stuff, and and they're the people that are the most impacted by, you know, by these claims and stuff. I mean, listen, I am as I that's this is what I do. Okay. I am

very, very very in tune to the plaintiff's personal injury world. And that includes everything from you know, medical malpractice on down. And I've heard every argument in the world and I've seen the effects of tort reform, and I've seen the you know, both the pros and the cons. I own a business, I am very sensitive to insurance rates going up, and I don't want, you know, fictitious claims. And as an attorney, I also don't want fictitious claims. I want my client's case to you know, to

stand on its own. And I don't take claims that are shady and and I've certainly had plenty of opportunities needs to do that. But by and large, your business owner class tends to be more conservative, and you know that's that's the group that wants tort reform and controls and caps and damage you know, limitations and all that kind of stuff, right right, I would say that in general, and again, people, if you're listening, I'm not

trying to convince you to vote or to be one way or another. I'm talking about the reality of life and what happens in laws and why people like certain areas of the country and others don't. But in law, basically, I've always found and sometimes it goes too far. But like for example, in Colorado, we have a very liberal state right now, used to be conservative then it was a little mix. Now it's very very liberal, and we have very strong renters' rights now we never used to. So there's good

about that. There's a lot of good about that. I mean, people need rights, but did they go too far? If you're a landlord, you'll say yeah. So I've come to a conclusion and that is what we need, is no lopsided one way or the other. I think the balance of power is what brings us wisdom. I do, but again that's my thought on that, and I am only looking at it from a consumer standpoint.

Now, Kelsey, you have a problem with a landscaper. By the way, landscaping starts at about May, and we get problems through October and November. What's the issue in general? And then we'll come back and take it in detail. What's the issue, Kelsey? So, unfortunately, my neighbor, three of us in a row here, have hired one particular person to complete our backyards. And it's been almost two months and unfortunately they are not complete. Not okay, not complete. But hold on, did they

at least start the job? They? Okay, hold on, we'll come right back to you. I'm Tom Martino, three oh three seven one three talk seven one three eight two five five. Waterpros dot net is a company that I a person. Let's put it that way. Paul the waterman at waterpros dot net is someone I truly believe in. He is so passionate about water, he really is. Why is he because he knows that you can

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two. And thinking of real estate, if you're facing any kind of a transaction with real estate and you want someone looking over your documents, Oh Brian Legal Services. He's our real estate expert. We've had Brad on the air for a for like a couple of years now, and he's been so good at answering questions, whether it be with the transaction itself, with leases, with commercial deals, with anything that you have with real estate, anything,

Oh Brian Legal Services. Call him. He'll consult you on the phone and then tell you what it will cost or give you an estimate. Ohlslaw dot com. It's Wyse Olslaw dot com. Seven to zero three sevens zero seventy three eighty eight. One Clear Choice Garage Doors. What do I mean by that? Just what it says, it's your one clear choice. Why? Because, first of all, if you go to their website, every price for every service and every product published, that's how proud they are of their

deals. One Clear Choice Doors dot Com. One Clear Choice Doors dot Com. They have twenty four to seven service too for emergencies if you can't catch your door open or closed, if you have a broken spring if you need help, and of course regular service and maintenance new garage doors as well as new openers. That's one clear choice. Doors dot Com. All right, we just got up on YouTube and we stream every day on YouTube and Facebook.

So welcome my Facebook flunkies. Sorry, Byra, we had some technical difficulties which means I had to reboot this system. Okay, yeah, so we don't have a little bit. So are we up? Now? We are up? We should be up. We're up. Okay, we're up. Let me turn that down. You can tell when I tune in. Okay, there we go. So anyway, welcome YouTube Moron's Facebook flunkies. We're here and we are ready to go for you. Now, as far as this landscaping thing, let's continue. Kelsey, So when did you guys?

What's that? Guys? Did you drop a line? Yeah, she'll be right back. Okay, good, she'll be right back, John, John Fuller, I got a question for you, Yes, sir, someone wants to know with malpractice Tom. This is the text, So I'm just reading. Tom always discourages. I don't always discourage, but the text says I always discourage it, saying it's too expensive and you hardly ever, Win, I don't want to put a negative bend on it, But but what's

the truth about malpractice? John? It really really is difficult, isn't it. It is? I mean, the standard is very high, and we have a mechanism in Colorado that requires that you have what's called a standard of

care expert before you file a lawsuit. And that means another doctor who has the same or similar credentials as the one that you're complaining of that will go on record up front and say the other doctor screwed up basically, And if you don't have that, you can't file a lawsuit, or if you do file a lawsuit instead is kind of get dismissed and you'll owe a bunch of

money. So the risk is pretty high. Now. Interestingly enough, we have one major insurance carrier, That's what I was going to say, that's the dirty secret. Yeah, that ensures most of the doctors, if not almost all of the does. So if you're insured by them and you're asked to be an expert against another doctor ensured by them, could you be blackballed? Well, they'll certainly send one of their attorneys to sit in the meeting

with you. That you know, listen, the unmistakable message is that they don't want any of their insured attorneys to be cooperating with plaintiffs that are bringing malpractice cases. Okay, that's probably not a written policy anywhere, but it's certainly in practice. And so the reality is that you have to go out of state to find these experts that are not insured by this company, and that does get very expensive, sometimes, you know, five to seven thousand

dollars just to get a doctor to review it. So it's not that you're just trying to pooh pooh the medical malpractice cases. They are difficult, they do cost an awful lot of money. They are for all the marvels, and there's a very good chance that they're going to make you go all the way to trial just because that's a way for them to win by attrition, which means you, you know, you better be very well healed before you can even bring that case, and second, all the way to the end.

So when you have the average little run of the mail bad outcome, you know, a bad outcome doesn't equal malpractice. There has to have been a mistake that you know that leads to the damages. And for the run of the mill case is just not worth it. You know, Kelsey, we got you back, So you and your neighbors hired who? We hired John Marino with get her done landscaping? Get her done landscaping? And tell me when did you hire him? We hired him right at the end of

May, maybe first day of June. And what's the problem that he started all of the jobs some of the jobs? Are you speaking for just yourself or the neighborhood? Tell me, what's how many people do you know hired him? So I know of myself and three others, but hired him? And what happened? He has started the jobs. He has started them, he has not completed them. Now what percentage did he do of the jobs? Like the most in the least, so I would say they're all probably

about seventy five percent complete. Okay, okay, Well it doesn't sound like a rip off. It sounds like someone who's overwhelmed or maybe he ran someone. Maybe he ran out of money too. He definitely runs out of money, I can tell that. My biggest problem with him is that he tells a lot of He's a he's a storyteller, that's for sure. He has a different excuse and a different lie every day, and he also posts a lot of tiktoks where he is able to spend his money and time at the

bar, but cannot seem to finish our jobs. Kelsey, Kelsey, he got seventy five percent of the work done, So I got two questions. First, the work that was done? Good? Better? Best? Good? Okay? And does it does it have to be redone? Any of it? Yes? Part of it will need to be readone now? Uh? And did you pay more than seventy five percent? Yeah? Why my bad? I guess did all of the neighbors pay ahead of time too? Yes? Are you paid in full? Kelsey? Yes? Gosh, dang

it? How much you there? So in total we've paid. It just depends on the house. But I would say, yours, what did you pay for on the job? About thirteen thou thirteen? Okay? You paid thirteen thousand for one hundred percent of the job. What does she say about it? Every day? He says he's on his way to finish. I mean, how did you find get or done? Let me guess what Facebook, Marketplace or next door? He was door knocking in the neighborhood. Yeah,

that's by the way again, not a sign of a ripoff. But let's put it this way, if we took a universe of ripoffs, we would have ninety eight percent of all ripoffs start at the door. It doesn't mean that everyone who comes to your door's ripoff, but if you took the universe of people ripped off, ninety eight percent of them would say it started with a knock at the door when it comes to home services. So it's a bad place to start. But in any case, you got you're in

deep right now, and we're going to give him a call. Now where is he out of? What? What? What part of town? Are we talking here? So I'm in Severance. So he runs around here and wins their it seems like prim okay, So he's up north yep okay. And then I want to give him a call too, Like I want who should we put on this Kachina. I'll give him a call right now, Doc? Oh yeah, Doc's in the studio. Okay, Doc, let's

uh, let's do that. Let's give him a call and see if we can at least hear what he has to say, get a good impression for this, and we'll see. I'm Tom Martino three oh, three seven to one, three eight two five five. You know, I just posted a new video today on YouTube and Facebook and Instagram and all that. It's about. We're not Facebook, but YouTube and all the rest. So here here

it is. It's about the whole house fan and an attic fan and how ventilation is very important to cool your home and how to save on air conditioning. And I recommended QC Colorado. I did that on my own. I am a customer. I have them in my home and I'll tell you what. It's unbelievable what it does. This fan, a whole house fan, destratifies your air, evens out your temperatures. Therefore your air conditioner works less. That's the short story. In reality, there's so many different ways to

use it. Some people turn it on in the morning and at night and they turn the air off completely. Some people put it on all night, or some people leave their house cooking all day. They don't want to waste air conditioning and in order to cool it down it when they get home, they turn on that fan and boom. Within ten minutes, the entire house is cooled down and evened out, and then the air conditioner works less.

Qccolorado dot com. Check them out. You will love this company. You will love the way they do business, and you will love how fast and easy it is for an installation and how much money you'll save. Three three eight hundred thirty four nineteen. Three oh three eight hundred thirty four nineteen Frank Duran, The real estate Man dot com. Now you heard me talk about his free analysis of your property giving you an idea of what to list it

for, what it will sell for based on his vast experience. I'm going to tell you some other stuff. Frank also doesn't require you to stay with him on a long term contract. Now, let me explain the comfort in that he knows he's going to please you based on his experience, and he knows the business so well. He's not going to penalize you or force you to stay with him if you're not happy, he says, give him a day and you'll see what he can do, including outbound marketing to hundreds of

thousands of prospective buyers. Three oh three nine two zeros sixteen twenty two Frank durand The real estate Man dot com. Tom Martino here three all three seven one three talk three all three seven one three eight two five five. Welcome to the show. We have John Fuller with us UH and we are here solving problems. If you have any questions complaints. I do have a question here. By the way, I gave out my private number, my private

Google number. It does come directly to me twenty four to seven, so you can text me at seven four seven nine nine nine fifty two eighty seven four seven nine nine nine fifty two eighty. Now we also have the station's text which is five seven seven three nine. So anyway, I do have a question here, and let me go to it. Okay. So somebody wants to know about QC kinetics. That's QC and it's K I N E t IX. They want to know what it is. Now I want to

explain something to you. This is really important to me. Regenerative medicine is a word given to multiple therapies, multiple ones. Originally, regenerative medicine was mainly something called prolo therapy that just means self healing and prolo therapy. Originally and it still is there is it was injecting into painful areas an irritant like cayenne pepper or something like that. Now you might ask, why the hell

would they do that to an injury or into a painful area. Well, they used to be before that called trigger point injections or dry needling or any kinds of stuff like that, where trigger point injections later became pain medicine injected into that area or steroids. But really, originally, somehow researchers or doctors knew back in the day that if you irritated an area, it would self

heal. Now, the injury itself might have been so severe you didn't get that healing started, or you may have interrupted the healing by being immobile or by icing or something like that. That's right, Icing actually interrupts healing. Now, it does hold down inflammation and give relief, but it slows down

healing technically. When you get injured, the idea of swelling is to immobilize the joint, and the idea of the white blood cells is to rush into the area and to clean out the area, and then red blood cells to increase circulation and then blah blah blah, so you heal again. Prolo therapy would put an irritant into the join, which would cause your body to go

after the irritant and form a bit of scar tissue and healing tissue. That's why scar tissue is more hearty than surrounding tissue, because it's meant to bind and to secure. So that's what prolo therapy was. Then later on people said, well, let's help prolo therapy not just do let's not just do this injection of cayenne or capsation. Why don't we put some blood in it. So they did platelets, blood platelets, and that's platelet rich plasma PRP,

and then that was used as a prolo therapy. That's a regenerative medicine. Then stem cells came along and people said, let's do stem cells. Here's the problem in stem cell therapy. You have two kinds. Two kinds. One your donor stem cells are taken out and reinjected. The second kind is where they take out stem cells from others and then they put them into

a lab and ship them around the country. Now, I want to say something because this is really important and this cost me a lot of money back in the day when I rejected people who did the shipping of the cells because I wouldn't represent them. Now, as with everything in life, things change. It is still best still very best to have your own stem cells harvested and reused. That's the best therapy. You get more living stem cells if

you do that. Platelet rich plazas a good therapy. The combination is even better. But here is what happens, Like a QC kinetics case, whatever it's called. Yeah, yeah, the kinetics place, there's nothing wrong with them. These places use mostly stem cells that are shipped in. You don't get many living stem cells when that happens, but you still get you still

get regenerative powers. So to say it's useless would not be accurate. But to say it's as good as other stem cell therapy would not be accurate. So it does have healing qualities. That's regenerative medicine and QC kinetics. That's what they do. As far as I know, they don't have They don't have stem cells they extract from you. But maybe they do, but I don't think they do. Somebody else wants to know. So that's the long

short of it of regenerative therapies. Now, technically steroids are not regenerative. In fact, they're just the opposite. They do help, but they're degenerative over time. And pain medicines are not regenerative. They're masking remedies and therapies. Nothing wrong with it, but that's what they are. So you are going to hear regenerative therapy used a lot like Denver Region for example, Denver Region dot com I use. They do stem cell therapy. They extract them

from you and reinject them. But they also do ones that are shipped in for certain things and they mix them with your own so they do a combination sometimes and then they do some PRP as well. And they're right here local denverregen dot com. Okay, so in any case, that is the story about Regenda tre medice. Now I have another question here. This is for some reason people detect it. Would it be a good idea to refinance your house loan to become debt free? Okay, this is a this is all

in the math. If you can get a mortgage lower than what you're paying in credit cards, even though you have to turn in a mortgage that is low. Interesting for example, if you have a low rate like I think this person is three point five percent. If you what you have to do is say what am I paying right now? So if you have like I'm gonna use easy numbers. One hundred grand you're paying at three point five percent, and you're paying another twenty five at nineteen percent. You have to do

a mathematical formula to find out your blended rate. Okay, so let's say your blended rate is twelve percent. Well, then yes, you refi because even if your mortgage goes to seven, your mortgage is still going to be seven. And then that twenty percent comes down to seven three point five goes up to seven, but when you do your blended rate, it'll still be lower than the blended rate you had beforehand. So it's all in the math. And if you don't know how to do a formula for blended rates,

just ask someone or go online, use AI or something like that. But that's the magic of math. There is no opinion here. You should refi if your blended rate per month will be less. But there's one other thing you should keep in mind. I'll go over right after this. American Restoration is a company you hear me talk about. It's actually called American Restoration twenty four to seven because they are available twenty four to seven, as any restoration

company should be. But the term restoration is used in a lot of situations. Sometimes they're not really restoration companies that all their carpet cleaners or their plumbers, or they're what contractors. Here's the deal. American Restoration has the EPA certifications, the knowledge that know how, the insurances and the bonding and everything you need to get the job done right. So please don't just call anyone ask about their qualifications. Do they know about unattended death, black mold,

asbestos? Do they know about dangerous substances? Do they know how to abate things the proper way? And have they worked with insurance companies? That's what you want to know, And then you're going to call AMREST two four to seven dot com or American Restoration eight three three seven am REST that stands for American Restoration eight three three seven am REST. Hey, if you're looking for

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dot Com. They'll answer you honestly and openly and help you through your solar system everything from sales, insflllation and service three oh three seven zero four two four four nine. You know RVs I used to joke mean real vacation. Now recreational vehicles is what it really means. But you know what they are

real vacations because you set your own schedule. And lazydays dot Com is the RV authority We're proud to represent because no matter where you go in the country, you're gonna find a Lazy Day And they have service centers, and they have lots for new and used RVs. They'll take yours in trade. They'll even buyer used RV. They have one right here, a brand new service facility, Exit two forty five on Frontage Road, right there, Lazy Days dot Com. Hey Tom Martino here. Now, one thing I wanted to

say. I did want to talk about a blended rate consolidation caution, but I need to take Dave and then we'll get started with him, and then I'll talk about it's good to consolidate if you can get a lower blended rate. But there are some cautions when you do equity loans or refinancing to pay off debt that I'll go over, I promise you. But Dave, go ahead, and let's talk about this credit card fraud. What's going on? Hey? Tom, good morning. Hey, I've got I'm looking for some

guidance on this. I head beck in May somebody. It's about a credit card in my name, has my address on it. How do you know? I got a bill? Okay, I got a bill from you know, like a visa All right? Card? Now, now, so you get the bill at your place, and did you look at the statement? Yes? Where were the charges made anywhere? Anywhere place you're familiar with. It's one charge and it's uh, somebody transferred from another credit card a card

yeah, so and you're positive it's not you, so obviously. So how much is it about fifteen hundred bucks? Okay? Did you contact the company? I've contacted the company? You know? Is it? Is it a legit credit card? What credit card is it? Yes? Yes, it is. It's a Breeze Easy Visa signature card. Okay, I look it up online and you know everything else tells me it is okay, And so what do they say, Well, they say, what they want is my

social security last to just my social security number and telephone number. Of course, I tell them I'm not willing to give it to them. Why, Well, I just figure that if they've got my name and everything else, they've got plenty of information. Yeah, but they want to see how much. Okay, I understand, I understand. Listen, here's what you do then, okay, I'm not going to tell you what to do as far as that goes. I would give them the last four digits and I would

give them the information. But I'm going to give you some very important information on how to handle this, okay, and it's critical that you follow my steps. We'll do that right after this. I don't want to rush you. And a lot of people just face this. They do face this, and they want to know what the hell do I do because they're going to come after you, okay, especially if you don't cooperate, because if you don't cooperate, they're going to assume you're guilty. We'll address this right after

that. Plus cautions on consolidation ripped up needed so you don't have come running. Just as fast as we can. Shooter's gonna help come. Man. This is the Troubleshooter Show. No Tom Martino, Hey, Tom Martino here, Welcome to the show. Three O three seven one three talk seven one three eight two five five. Okay, so listen, we have a number of discussions going on. I want to get right to him. I have John Fuller with me to my personal injury expert, my accident lawyer dot co.

And he's talking about more than just a personal injury. But if you have any questions you can call him. I want to talk about this blended rat thing. Okay. Now, now again, it's a mathematical formula. So you have a certain percent you're like a certain amount of money you're paying at, let's say three percent on your house, and then you have credit card bills you're paying at nineteen percent or twenty percent. And then you have

what's called a blended rate. That means you take the percentage you're paying at certain percentage and the other percentage're paying at another percentage, and you get a blended rate. A blended rate means your real rate you're paying every month for all your bills not just one of them. So if your blended rate turns out to be lower than your blended rate before a home equity loan, then

that by all means refinance. So if you have a three point five percent loan, okay, and it's one hundred grand, let's say you're home I'm using fake numbers. But let's say your home loans one hundred grand and you're paying three point five percent and that's all you have, then you're blended rate at three point five percent. Right now, Let's say you have another one

hundred grand in credit card bills. So let's say you're paying five percent on your home at one hundred grand, and you're paying ten percent or you're paying fifteen percent on the other one hundred grand. Then you can see where that average would be easy to figure out. Where it gets more difficult to figure out a blended rate is where you have different bills at different interest rates.

But you can figure out a blended rate. When you do, you then compare it, and if you can refy your home and get a lower blended rate, you should do it. But there is some caution here. Here's the caution when you consolidate your credit cards. You're putting a lot of short term assets into a long term loan. That's not good financially because a lot of the things you're throwing in there might be vacations or clothes or an appliance

that aren't meant to be financed for thirty years or twenty years. So it's a bad financial move, although it's saving you monthly. So what should you do about that? If you get a better blended rate, it's your turn. It's your chance. I should say to pay more than on the part

of the principle that represents short term assets. So instead of paying mostly interest, because you've lowered your blended rate, you can now take extra money and put it toward the principle for that part of the principle that you need to

pay off. The other thing you can do is this, You can also take the blended rate you have and keep it the way it is, but you can't keep adding to it. A lot of times, when people pay off their credit cards with an equity loan, they have empty credit cards and psychologically feel, oh, I can use that card, and so they start charging them up again, and they end up now with twice as much debt they have the debt they refit into their home that they had forgotten about,

and now they have new debt piling up on their cards. So those are the two cautions. Pay off the principal quicker, the part that represents these these assets that won't last, or these or the makeup or the vacations or whatever. And then also don't keep loading up your cards. Now with the credit card fraud, Dave says, what do I do? They want the

last four digits of my social and they want some other information. Well, Dave, I personally don't have a problem with that, but I'm not going to tell people to do it. So you really only have two choices, okay, really only two. One you cooperate with them and hope that they realize it's not you. But some people feel, oh, they're just going to use that information to shore up there information to see to make it look

like me. But John Fuller, attorney at Law, I want to ask you, somebody, what do you think the chances are of a legit credit card company saying you call and say, somebody took out this card my name, it's not me, and they ask you for information. What do you think the chances are and I really want your honest opinion of them taking that information and now putting it into that application to make it look more like you

fairly slim Tom. You know, the credit card companies can actually go out and do searches, and I only know this from personal experience, where you know, if they're looking for Tom Martino, they can put you know, or anybody really close to Tom, so you may get a same birthdate, or another Martino that lives, you know, one door down. And what they're trying to do is find somebody that's that's kind of impersonating somebody else or

you know, that kind of stuff. And so they can already do that without the social so they likely found to you that way, and so all they're really probably trying to do is to verify that you are who you say you are. And that may be one step closer to getting it worked out, but I doubt that that's going to make them come after you any more than they already are. That's a thank you, that's well put, and that's the way. That's what I wanted to say, Dave. But like

I said, you have two choices. One is to cooperate. The second one is not to cooperate. See just two choices. Now what happens if you don't cooperate, they're going to not believe you and they're going to come after you, which is fine. They can come after you. They're also going to try to maybe put it on your credit report. It's better if they come after you in court because what you'll simply do is show up at court and defend yourself. It's not me. They'll have to show signatures and

proof, and they won't. They won't be able to. It's that simple. Okay. You can also exercise your rights, tom you can. You can you know, demand that they provide you written evidence of debt and you know, your signature, and I mean, you can go down that road and make them do that stuff. And they'll have to do that. But you know, chances are whoever opened that credit card, you know, probably

did sign your sign, your name to it and stuff. So they may think that they're, you know, doing the lord's work here and that it's a completely legitimate prove of my and Dan. They're not. By the way the car opened. And that's why I want to say something. That's one of the reasons they want your the social and other information because they can't share the information with you unless they know who they're dealing with. And if it was John, John and Tom, if it was physically like a different state

or city, that's also, isn't that Sometimes? Yeah, I mean if it was open in Georgia and he's in Colorado, that's certainly going to make his case for him. But let me explain something to people that they may not realize. And I don't mean to speak down to people, but this is something that we also have to realize. There are a lot of consumers who are really good at scamming this way. In other words, they actually send their credit card information to a relative in Georgia and they say, go

on out to a Best Buy and let's buy two Giant TVs. You send me one and you keep one, and then I'm going to protest the charge. I mean, there are people that do that. So then they protest the charge saying I was never in what I haven't been in Georgia, you see. So that's why just saying someone else did it is not enough. But when push comes to shove, they have to show that it was you.

And actually, even if you did one of those scams where you had a friend in Georgia buy you a big screen and bought themselves one, and then they that the credit card company takes you to court. Even in that case, they still have to prove it. And nobody's going to be able to prove it. I mean no, let's put it this way. No one will take the time to prove it. They'd go to look at the

security footage when the purchase was made, see who the person is. I mean, come on, the practicality is they're not really going to come after you if you say it was fraud. Do you realize a line item for credit card issuers on fraud is just that they're right offs. They're right offs. That's why we pay the interest rates we pay. It's a calculated write off. So those are the two ways you deal with it. Three oh three seven one three talk Mitch, you have a question, Go ahead,

sir. Yeah. My brother was you had a new plan built a stole at one of those little uh Bush pilot plane. Yeah and I yeah, I just got back and he had a trainer, he didn't have his license yet, and this girl was training it and they went to Oshkosh and dropped that plane on landing there stalled it and dropped it and he broke his pelvist and they hurt and they're not wanting to tell people. Well, hold on, let me, let me, let me analyze this. I don't know

what you're saying. I don't know who you're who the bad guy is here, but hang on because it's interesting. Oshkosh is going on right now, the largest air show UH for UH for people, and we'll talk about that and more coming up. Three oh three seven one three A two five five. You know, if you want auto repair and maintenance electrical included, and you want dependability and honesty and value, and you want longevity, all of it and good people sharedan auto tech dot com. It's that simple, as

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Hi Tom Martino here, I'm not sure where we're going with this, but let's start now, Mitch. He says his brother ordered an airplane from a factory I think he's talking about. And it's a stole airplane, meaning short takeoff and landing. It's for bush pilots or people, you know whatever. So he said he was taking the airplane to Oshkosh an air show and there was an accident. Now, Mitch, he left a lot of holes in the story. Let me ask you. Is this a factory built aircraft?

No, he it was built at the factory, but he did he would fly there and do a lot of work as solf. Okay, So this is called they're they're called home built aircraft, or they're called experimental aircraft. It's where you participate in building at least fifty one percent of it, and sometimes factories set up workstalls where you can go and do the work. But they help you. Is that what he did? Ye? Okay,

So he got this experimental aircraft and then he took delivery of it. And what happened then, Well, he took delivery and just finished it, and then he hired somebody, that instructor that wanted to get hours so to take it there so he could get flight time. I yet. Okay. Now when he took it there, did he go with the instructor? Yeah, he was in the plane. So he hired an instructor to take him in this plane to Oshkosh. Yeah from where? Uh, South Carolina, I

believe. Okay. Then what happened, Well, when they came around you know that little grass one ray or something, she stalled the plane that dropped about thirty feet and the instructor stalled it too high. Yes, because we all stall when we land, right, that's what you do. You stall about six inches above the ground. Right. Okay, So so she miscalculated and she landed hard yep. And did it hurt him? Well, he cracked his pelvis. He's pretty sore. I don't think. Oh my gosh,

did it did it destroy the aircraft? It's hard to tell, but yeah, all the framework inside and the landing gear is pretty much bent everywhere. Okay. And did she hold her did you say it was a she? Yeah? Did she hold herself out as an expert in that type of aircraft? You know? I don't know that part. She was the people that build and suggested her do it. Okay? And may I ask another

question. When you build an experimental aircraft, whether it's at the factory or at your home, you're supposed to have the FAA or a designee inspected to get an air worthiness certificate, and then you're restricted around an airport for a certain amount of time before you you can fly across country. So did he do all of that? He was flying it there a little bit. I

don't know how much, but uh, I'm going to it. Let's assume for argument's sake, he did everything legally to get it to where he could take it to Oshkosh, and then he hired this instructor. So is he wondering if he has a case against the instructor? I think so? He had insured for two hundred thousand, which it was probably worth or something. They didn't want to go through insurance or anything like that. Now, hold on, did he also have insurance on that for his medical payments or personal

injury. Well that I don't know. I just left him, but he was pretty much Now is the instructor? Is the instructor hurt? I don't think so. I mean a little beat up, but not I don't think so. No, they walked away because let me just tell you something. And is the plane still there? Yeah, he had entrance company. They put it on the trailer and they're storing it there. Now. Okay, now you understand she could actually sue him. Do you understand that? No?

I didn't because he built the plane. Yeah. And and this is the little known secret about experimental aircraft. You're taking full responsibility. She could claim that it was defective. And that's why she stalled it. She was trying to say that he was on the plane. And see she's already trying to say that. So John, this is a mess, right, John Fuller? Okay, the way here? Yeah, what do you think I mean he's worried about going after her, She has to worry about her coming

after him. Yeah, I mean this is really more up your alley as far as the airplanes and stuff are concerned. But it just sounds like a mess when you're dealing with these homemade you know, yeah, planes and different certifications, and let's call it, let's call it an experimental car, let's call it a hot rod. Right, what would happen? I mean, you'd go to insurance first, right, for coverage for the injuries, of course, okay, and then after that you would go if you wanted to

do. I mean, in other words, if you hire someone, you drive a race car driver to race drive your hot rod out to a car show, and you're with him and you get in an accident, I mean, either one can sue either one. Right, you could say he was driving recklessly. He could say it was effective. Well, of course, and one of the two of you is going to be right, or there's going to be an allocation of responsibility through you know, some sort of a

comparative negligence or assumption of the risk or something along those lines. But I mean, listen, insurance is not a separately liable party. It's just a substitute payer for some person's liability. So if that if the if the pilot is negligent in the operation of the plane and crashes, and it's the pilot's fault, then the insurance company is going to pay for the damages that were done by the pilot. It's not Orange Company is a separately liable entity.

Right. And here here's another thing. Okay, does she have anything? If you do? Sure, you know. Here's the other thing, Mitch, she has to look at Some instructors actually have insurance that they carry while they're instructing. Does she have insurance? I guess she should have. Well, not necessarily, not necessary, it's not required. So these are things, these are things he's going to have to look at, John, Right, But that would be a separate source of payment for her same liability.

Right. And she may be covered as a driver or a pilot under his policy as a you know, an effective permissive user, or she may have coverage under her own instructors you know, liability policy or you know, or there may be any number of other you know, avenues of payment. But it's still her negligens. Now, if there's a product's liability type you know, component to this, the manufacturer or whoever that that entity would be, may have their own liability, or it may be it split between the pilot

or the manufacturer. I like to think of it like this. You have one basket of damages. I mean, you just have one basket of damages. It's all your pain and suffering, it's your futures of everything. But it's still just one basket. Now, who's responsible for paying the basket off is a whole separate inquiry. And and there may be people that have have a small percentage of liability, maybe ten or fifteen percent. There may be people that own half of it or but you still just have one basket of

damages that you look for everybody to be jointly responsible for. Yeah, it is really a weird, Mitch, it's a weird situation. Now, did your brother did he require medical attention? Well, he went to the hawk By did X ray, but there's nothing they can do on fracts of Pelvit's really he's just sore. But he was also saying that now that that's happened, because it was his plane, he's not able to get insurance that he gets another plane for five years. Is that true? Oh? If Yeah,

for sure, I mean he's gonna have it. Well, especially an experimental plane, it's hard enough to get insurance on those. It's very any could yeah you can, Yeah, you can insure it. You can ensure anything. I mean, really, if you pay enough. Experimental aircraft are actually don't have a bad safety record really for those, but it has to

be done properly and all of that. And then John, you know the fact there are two kinds of experimental aircrafts well, probably way more, but the two main kind is what's called a kit that you buy from a factory and it's been designed and it's been put together, it's been flown. And so then you get one of those kits or you literally buy plans and you go out and buy tubing and and materials and build it yourself. I mean

there. Yeah, so with a factory, I don't know of any and I just looked it up ever of any kit manufacturers being held responsible for because all they're selling our parts or components. And then but it gets really hairy when they allow you to come to the factory and assist in the building process. And you know, it's let's put it this way, it's one of the last bastions of the frontier where people haven't been polluted yet. I mean,

and it's it's quickly I can see it going away. I mean, and really you can also count on Tom, I mean in a completely voluntarily or voluntary environment. Courts are going to enforce waivers. And I can't see that any company would let somebody come into their place and participate in the construction of a plane without waving fifty eight ways from Sunday. Potential liability of that, you know, aircraft being unworthy down the road, don't you think absolutely?

In fact, the Experimental Aircraft Association is called the EAA. They put on Oshkosh by the way. It's the largest pilots organization in the world. And what it does is that it lobbies specifically for this kind of stuff. So you you know they've been through it before. So Mitch what he should call them for information? Although I will tell you this, they're going to

look askance at someone trying to collect from each other. It's almost like an unwritten rule that when you're involved in this kind of thing, leave that leave each other alone. You know what I'm saying. That's just the way it is. So it's it's a weird area of law. I personally have done an experimental aircraft from from from a kit and mine was even weirder because I hired professionals to help me, and and so it just gets so crazy. And when I sold mine, John, do you know I didn't sell an

aircraft? Did you know that I sold his part part essentially? Yeah, that's that's exactly what I did. And not only did I sell parts, they were they were not airworthy until that person decided to assemble them or reassemble them or you know, inspect them, blah blah blah. So it's there's just so many things that that can go wrong, Mitch, I person. We don't think anything's going to come of this unless this person is heavily insured

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Dot Com. Hi, Tom Martino here three O three seven one three talk seven one three eight two five five. Welcome to the show. Here to help you solve problems, answer questions, take complaints. Hey Tom, Can I ask John a question? Yes, sir? Hey John, Yes, sir. I took your advice. I went on board a uh A dash cam right on I was watching some Let's have a question for you. It's obvious that when I've seen these videos where somebody break check somebody and they

hit them, that the piece and who break checked them is liable. So my question is, if what a stupid thing to do to you? What are you trying to punish someone so you know they're trying Oh you mean they're doing it on purpose. I thought it was like you're pissed off they're following too closely. No, they're doing it to try and get an insurance claim. But my question is this, Sean, if somebody break checks you and then you're a responsible citizen and you wait and let them pull up and they

keep doing it. I know you're supposed to say X number of car links behind the person in front of you, but if they keep break checking you and let's say you go into them, are you liable because you weren't far enough away. So you're wondering if after a certain threashold you can just go ahead and hit them. Is that right? No? No, no, no. No. Question is if you know, let's say your three car lengths behind, and then you know they keep break checking you, are you

responsible or is it a deliberate attempt to create ashurance fraud? Doctor could go either way. You know. The beauty of a webcam or a dash cam is that you're going to have a video of exactly what transpired. Ultimately, if you're the guy who's claiming the other guy who's at fault, you have the burden of proof, just like I said the other day, and you're

going to have to prove that his negligence was greater than yours. And so, you know, we've all heard of people that do this scoop and squad or whatever they call it, where they pull in front of you and then lock up the brakes and try to make you run into them. I don't

know if that's exactly the same as a breakcheck. Usually a breakecheck involves at a road rage or something to where they got is upset at you and that kind of stuff, and then you know, really the purpose of the breakcheck is is almost more of an assault of sorts, you know, against the other party to make them almost have an accident. You know, I don't think really most people that are breakchecking are trying to get you to run into

them. They're just trying to fact that I looked it up here and they say that. Most of the time they're trying to tell you to back off. But there are cases where people have tried to put in insurance claims and so it's both really, but most of the time it's just like saying, stay off my back, you know, right. So what was your actual question, though, Doc? What are you asking? Is it? Ever? Are you ever held responsible for running into someone who breaks checks? Really?

That's basically my question. The legal presumption is that you're at fault if you rear in somebody. So it's a rebuttable presumption. But to rebutt it, you're going to have to prove that they were more negligent than you in the cause of that accident. That's the legal answer. You're presumed to be at fault because you ran into a car from behind. But it is a rebuttable presumption, and one of those factors is going to be your nice new

video. Great okay, speaking of that, I just got a text on this here and it says, here, what happens when you hit a bicyclist a cyclist at a four way stop? They don't stop anymore? John? Is that the same? I mean, you're not automatically guilty, are you? Well? I hate that because I think bicyclists also have you know, they have their own responsibility to not be negligent. And I think before you blow through an intersection, even though you don't technically have a duty to stop.

I think you have a duty to not create an impediment by blowing through a stop sound when there are other people that have the legal right away. So I don't think you get to have your cake and eat it too, Okay, three, all three seven. Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. Yes, sure, I mean, but unfortunately that's a whole different bugaboo for me and I. You know, I have a really nice mountain bike or hybrid bike, and it's an e bike. It's not a free

wheeling scooter. It's not one of these big giant things you press the button and go, but it's a pedal assist if you want it. And I love riding, but I also there's just this prevailing attitude from cyclists and it's almost like they're angry all the time. You would think you'd smile when you're out riding your bicycle, they seem to be so damn angry. I don't get it. Yeah, you know, I tend to default to the rule

of gross tonnage, which is kind of a boating term. But you know, the guy, the guy who's bigger, badder and has the right away he has the right away. Exactly. It's better to be wrong and alive than right and dead, you know, So I don't know you're right. There is that kind of you know, that mentality, and I think it comes from just so many people that you know, drive to close leave it, yeah, push him off the road that do a lot of stuff that

they really shouldn't do, so to a two way street. And I, you know, I used to spend a lot of time on a road bike and stuff, so I've seen it all. But I got a trivia question. I got a trivia question. A right of way in the air. A hot air balloon is there and it wanders off into some controlled airspace, and there's an airliner who has the right away. I would guess the hot

air balloon dust as he's restricted in his maneuverability. That's exactly right. That's in fact, the law reads, the less maneuverable aircraft has the right away. Ding ding, ding ding. You should get my dinger. All right? We got more coming right up. Okay, And for solar, you want to go to Red Rocks roof and solar. Red Rocks does forty tax credits because all of their materials are made right here in the US. They also it can help you with loans, and they can help you with other

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materials from their from their remnant yard, the materials are free. Call them the Artigranite dot com. Get your price right now three oh three three eight six fifty nine nineteen. Hey, I want to talk to Joseph Canno. I got a question here, Joe. Somebody texted me and said, they have a four to one K, but they're still working. Okay, they're over fifty nine and a half, so they're like in their sixties. But

they want to know. They heard about an in service rollover, so they want to know can they continue working and keep the four oh one K, but at least put some of it into an annuity for the future. That is right though, you know, that's exactly what it's called in service transfer. And as longer excuse me, fifty and a half, you will be able to take money out of the four oh one K and put it into safety with our annuity, you know, and there's no penalty, right,

no tax event. In fact, some people take the entire amount of their four oh one K, you know, they don't have to close the four a one K. They can continue to work and the implorer will actually match, you know, the contributions that the employee's making, so they can actually take a portion of it, or they can take the whole amount out of the four to one k. I suppose they are fifteen over fifty nine and a half. I don't care if they're working. They can do that.

Now, there was something that came up yesterday I wanted to ask you real quick. We talked about we always talk about rolling over a lump sum you might have in a retirement account. But let's say you save some money, okay, and you got money in the bank. I mean, there's nothing to prevent you from converting some of that money. Again, you don't always put all your eggs in one basket, but you can take a lump sum of some of your money and do an annuity and get tax deferrals. Right.

Absolutely, that's what they call a non qualified annuity. Non Qualified means that the money that you're putting into the annuity has already been taxed previously with a savings account, investment accounts, broker's accounts, whatever. That is not an IRA, not a four one K, that's qualified account. So when you pull it out, you don't pay tax on the full amount. Then that is right. Then they're going to tax to you on the money that

you already pay taxes on. That's the beauty of non qualified annuities now is that done automatically, Joe. So if you have a non qualified like and you start taking income, who figures out the tax ode on that that company, that company that has the annuity will figure that out, and then you'll automatically only pay tax on the amount of gain on the gain. That is

correct. That's absolutely correct. And a lot of people have both. They have a qualified annuity and they have a non qualified annuity, so they can actually and you know something else real quickly, then well, if that annuity doesn't have any mandates like the rmbs that require a minimum distributions exactly who that let's see total like almost like a beautiful right, let me give out your number three oh three seven seven nine sixty six hundred. Appreciate that shoe seven

seventy nine sixty six hundred. My moneymway dot com. And by the way, you call us now get on the show, get help information referrals three oh three Martino. Leave a message if we're not there in the evenings and we'll get back to you three oh three Martino News need advice, so you don't have Shooter's gonna help. Come man, this is the Troubleshooter Show. Know Tom Martine Hey, I'm Tom Martino. Welcome to the show. Three O three East seven one to three Talk three oh three seven one three eight

two five five. Welcome. What's going on in your life? If you need help with a consumer problem, don't wait, get it done as soon as possible, and uh get a call to us and we'll try to work on it and do what we can to solve your problems. And uh, some of the problems that have been coming up lately very interesting. First of all, Uh, we have John Fuller with us. People have had some questions on personal entry one, including on aircraft accident with an instructor? Can

an instructor be held responsible? Almost anyone can be held responsible for anything if the evidence shows. But that doesn't count as much as where do you get paid? You know, so many people overlook that. Even with malpractice, Yeah, even if even if, even if you prove malt, sometimes what are the damages? And John, with malpractice And I don't mean to pick on malpractice, because there have been giant lawsuits for malpractice around the country.

But one of the things that I find again, you know, the last thing in the world people want to do is try to instruct people on how they're not going to get what they think. In other words, when people call me on the show about any kind of a problem, I hate telling them, well, you know, there's not much we can do for you, but let's talk about malpractice in that regard. For example, there are people who went through excruciating pain and oh, they they left something in me,

and then they corrected it immediately. Okay, I know that sounds horrific, but it happens, and it's ridiculous. So they oh, imaging showed something was in them. That image horrified the person, and then you hear I could have they should have almost died, almost almost exactly, or almost paralyzed for life. I've hearn this. But then they corrected it, and they corrected it immediately, and they corrected it without further harm and without further

cost. As crazy as you might not, as crazy it might seem to you, there may not be enough damages to go after they went and messed up your perfectly good case. Can you believe that? Mm hmm? And really, John, Yeah, go ahead, you bring up a great point. I mean, you know, and we laugh about it, we make jokes, and oh, you had a perfectly good case up until you survived and and all that stuff, but it's not a laughing matter. I mean, people get hurt all the time by doctors. But here's the reality.

Doctors are people just like anybody else, and sometimes they make mistakes. Those mistakes are called malpractice. But sometimes we just have bad outcomes. Even despite the very best, you know, the practices getting employed, sometimes things just happen and you end up with a bad outcome. And I mean I've probably

done a thousand intakes for medical malpramics. I began my career in a men MAOL firm, and I bet ninety five or so percent of the cases that we would get to call in were just bad outcomes, you know, just something didn't go the way it was supposed to. And only when you have an actual mistake that is coupled with real live damages that were caused by that mistake, are you in the realm of medical malpractice? And John and that got a lot of shocked to people, don't you think a lot of it

is communication, both before and afterice. I mean, when we go over surgery, you try to be as honest as you can about what the possible the outcomes might be. And then if some of that happens. Talking to the patient explaining why it happened and what the remedy is really takes away a lot of the anger that patients have. Yeah, well, I think you

bring up a great point. And but again, any bad outcome is going to looked at or it's going to be looked at with a jaded eye, because people think that, you know, anything less than the best outcome must be the result of some mistake. And they have a really hard time accepting the fact that sometimes bad things just happen, even despite the best and the most appropriate efforts by the good doctor. But there are things that we tell

people that are known complications. Sure, and sign a whole big form that says the same thing, listing out five hundred different things that could go bad. But people just sign those and think, God, it's for other people, that's not for me, right, ah you Okay, So here's the deal. It's it's the kind of thing that if you have permanent damage but

temporary discomfort doesn't rise to the level. And and and we had one case where an infant baby, oh my god, was given some drops okay of medicine and horrific mistake was made she never gave the drops to her baby. I don't forget. Oh god, it was so long ago. I forget how it was decided. Yeah, it was so was it nitro or something for heart or it would have killed her baby instant instantly forgetting it? It didn't. And John, this person was so upset she wanted to sue.

And I said, but how do you explain? Okay, but what are you suing for? Can you sue? I guess I'm going to ask, can you sue for being scared? Can you ever sue for being scared? Or what could have happened? I don't know. I mean, I guess you could sue, right, but you know in a vacuum. Yes, general distress is a real and it certainly can follow some really egregious behavior.

But you know, I recall that that that copulter call. I think you guys brought me in on it. And you know, despite telling this lady that, look, I mean, good on you. You discovered it. You didn't give it to your child. If you had given it to your child, yes, but thank god you didn't, and your child's okay, And you discovered it, so your damages are very, very small compared to what might have been if you had, you know, if you had given

that to your child, and thank goodness that you didn't. That's right. It's a hard concept for people to get there so mad about what might have been that it's very difficult for them to sometimes step back and go, wait a minute, thank god, what that what might have been didn't happen. I mean, I could make a kamala joke here about the things that were that aren't that were that was, you know, but but the work salad, but exactly, but thank god they didn't happen, and as a result,

you don't have any damages to sue about. Okay, So on this I have an I have another question here. Let me see. I'm going to this text. By the way, I'm accepting texts on a personal Google number I've had for years and I've opened it up to the public now twenty four to seven, and I will use it on the show and you can reach me. It's seven four seven eight. Anyway, here's bottom line. My ex roommate left a car in my garage. It is not roadworthy,

but they have not gotten it out of my garage. Okay, so what can I do if this vehicle is all but abandoned. Well, that's the whole point, is it? Abandon John? We get this a lot with different things. But let me ask you, what would you do if you had a roommate or somebody and they left a car behind. What would you do? I'm assuming they're the owner of the property, the person who's writing

me. So what would you do? I mean, you have a car there, you know, I always say common sense, but I don't know if this person has it towed away or to a junkyard, an impound or whatever. I don't know. Do you sneak it out in the middle of the night so it gets towed off the street? What do you do? Well? I think you would. I think you would start by giving notice to the actual owner, you know, sending sortified letters and I'm going to get rid of this. It's a property. If you don't come and secure

it, I mean, you've got kind of a notice problem. And I don't know that the law imposes that, but I certainly think to cut off at the past any attempts to suggest that you owe them for their their property. Once you've gotten rid of it, you know, put them on notice that you're going to get rid of it. And then that's a crazy idea

that they could just leave it and you somehow become responsible. Yeah. So anyway, when you have, if you truly had abandoned property, again, if you can show you tried to contact them and they never got back to you, I would get rid of it. You know, you might. You might even want to sell it and something like that, because then you

can prove the open the actual value on the open market. And then another thing, the worst case scenario is maybe pay them what you've collected minus maybe storage, I don't know, you know, you probably sue them for and you know, some sort of of a storage fee that was an implied fee of leaving it in your garage that you're having to pay rent on and get a judgment and then technically foreclose against that. I mean, you could end up taking ownership of that vehicle, but it would be a long path to

get there, but I could see that happening. Yeah, three three seven, one, three eight two five five more Right after this, Hey, Retirement Planning Center of the Rockies is a place to call, to consult with and to possibly hire to help you plan for retirement. It's the earlier the better, of course, but so many people reach them in their fifties and

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charge. The artigrantit dot Com always call to get prices first. That's how confident they are. The Artifgranted dot com three oh three three eight six fifty nine nineteen. Hi Tom Martino, your troubleshooter three oh three seven one three talks seven one three eight five five. It's amazing to me how many how many emails I get about cars and how many questions. Now when I say I get questions, some of them come directly to me on text. Others

come through email through help at troubleshooter dot com. That's an email address. I also get them through nextdoor, I get them through YouTube and Facebook, and I get them through even LinkedIn Instagram and things like that. So really there's a number of places where I get increase. But okay, listen to this question. I mean, I don't want to make fun of questions. Every question I say is a good question, right, But here's the question

from James. Do you stay firm on the price when selling a car now? I don't know if they mean do I or should you? But it all depends. I believe the marketplace is the most accurate place to get pricing on anything, because if it is worth it, it will sell. It's that simple. If there's enough demand and you ask a price, it will sell. If it will not sell for that price, you can only do so much to convince people to pay it. In fact, most of the

time you don't convince people of anything. People convince themselves to buy it, although a good salesperson can, but that goes a whole different there's a whole different topic. If you're selling something on a one up thing, you're not a professional. You're not going to talk people into anything, Okay, So bottom line, you stay firm only if you are confident you're going to get

the price. And then what about buying a car online? Now, I'm getting a lot of these car quest a lot of car questions in fact, and I can't save them all for Car Day because there's too many. But it says buying a car online outweighs the longer wait times for delivery, does the convenience outweigh the longer wait times. What would you buy online? Of course I would. I mean nowadays, buying online is exactly the same as

buying anywhere else, as long as you're dealing with licensed dealers. If you're dealing with individuals online or in person, you can get ripped off with either, but online there's more of a chance of getting ripped off. I can't tell you how many times people have bought a car site unseen, site unseen online from a private owner, through Facebook or through somewhere scent payment, got

the car and it was nothing like represented John. In a situation like that, sure, you can probably go back through correspondence and prove someone lie to you or cheated you. But then what do you do about it? What do you do? What's the practicality? You've already taken the car, You've already taken delivery. So I like online car buying. By the way, I've purchased the last three cars I had online, but they were from licensed dealers, John, How do you purchase I have done the same thing.

Yeah. Now, I'd like to tell you I go to a dealer and haggle, but I don't. Yeah, So I you know, I generally don't buy too many brand new vehicles, so a lot of mine intend to be you know, direct buys with with owners and stuff like that. But you know, I have bought a couple of vehicles off of eBay motors I think, or online like that. Yeah. Now, by the way, the reason I am the reason I am reading these is because I've had them for so long and I on car days sometimes you can just do so many

car questions. We have so many calls on cars, so I don't always get to them. But if you've written one of these questions, I hope I'm answering them for you. But like like this one, and again, I piled up more car questions than others because, as I said, I saved them for car day and don't always get to them. Okay, other questions I can get to, like during the week, but I kind of saved cars and I shouldn't that they were piling up. How would you answer

this one? What are some hidden costs to consider when buying a car? Well, there are a lot of them, but they're not hidden. Okay, But I think the biggest problem is with the FNI department that stands for finance and insurance. Okay, their job is to sell you products on top of the car. That's their entire job. Some of these products are physical products, like the things for the car, like coats, and they used to be like, you know, pin striping. Now they do paint protection.

They call them and glow yeah, or or some of them are like yeah, just crazy stuff. I'll tell you, almost almost everything they sell you at a car dealership in the FNI department, In fact, I can't. Yeah, almost everything they sell you is useless, or you don't need, or you can buy cheaper one of those three. Useless you don't need, well, that would be the same as useless you can buy cheaper elsewhere,

including the insurances. Never buy insurance at the dealer ever, okay, never, not credit, life, not disability, not anything like that. You can always buy that cheaper. Always buy it cheaper if you want it. The next thing, the extended warranties. Never ever, ever, ever, ever, I'm not talking about prepaid maintenance. There's nothing wrong with that. But if you have to keep going back to that dealer, consider that. But if you can go to any franchise dealer, prepaid maintenance packages are

the only thing they sell that I think are great deals. Now there are some other things you may want to consider. And I personally learned a lesson here. I didn't realize that new expensive wheels on a car, these aluminum or magnet whatever they call them. These you know, you know what mean, these wonderful, beautiful, fancy looking wheels, they're not hubcaps, they're wheels. They're a magnet for damage. Go up sometime when you're in a

parking lot and look at the wheels of these fancy cars. Almost every single one of them is chewed up or they have abrasions or scratches or something. It's almost like you can't not do it. I mean, okay, So this one guy asked me when I was buying this one car, fourteen hundred dollars, he says, and it'll cover your wheels for the life of the car, not just one clan, It'll cover it never goes up. You

pay one time, fourteen hundred bucks and it covers your wheels. I think maybe there was one hundred dollars deductible, and I'm thinking it either replaces or repairs. And I say, I'm not paying fourteen hundred dollars to cover a wheel or wheels. Not three weeks after taking delivery of that dang thing. I I don't want to talk about it, but I scuffed two on the left side, and one of them could be buffed and fixed. That was six hundred. The other one had to be replaced eighteen hundred. And I

thought, oh my god. So naturally I call a dealer and said, hey, you know that protection I bought. No, I'm just kidding, IIA, but anyway, I bought it from then on out, and it's the most used thing I ever do. That's the one thing I because you can't just go to your insurance company and buy protection for your wheels. To me, you will never not use it. Unfortunately, John, are you a reels perfect? Come on, I defy anyone on YouTube or anywhere.

Go on, morons, tell me about your wheels. Tell me you don't have any kind of problems on your wheels. Go ahead. I have one trailer that has really nice wheels on it, and I dinged them up. Yes, I admit it. There's something about him. It's like they just I don't know anyway, So I would buy that. Oh, don't ever

buy windshield protection. So a friend of mine buys windshield protection. You pay forty five hundred or twenty five whatever you pay, you know, over the life of the car, it's financed or whatever, and it replaces all your windshields. Right, oh, bull, if you look closely, it's it's not it's not forty five hundred, but well, whatever it was, you

got. You get up to forty five hundred or five thousand dollars in coverage, meaning so you replace three windshields on some of them two windshields, you're done. But they charge you this ridiculous amount. And then I call Compass Insurance and he says, Tom, you're paying an extra ten or fifteen a

year for zero deductible glass protection. Right. If people knew how much profit the dealers make off of all that different coverage, they would never buy any of that because most of it is available, you know, elsewhere, but the dealers making at least fifty percent of that premium as staying with the dealer as just profit. Right. That's right now again, So go ahead, John, Oh on my car, I was just looking at the purchase sheet.

There were ten additional options that the P and I guy may you know, often me from extended coverage to windshield protection, to ceramic finished protection, to gap product, all these things. That is what they try and make their profit on. Yeah. Yeah, And by the way, I I have no problem if they want to try to sell people stuff. I've seen car deals where the extras on a car that started out at around forty five to fifty or eighteen thousand dollars. Holy moly, No, I'm not kidding.

In fact, if anyone has purchased a car recently and you're listening to this in a podcast or on a delayed stream or whatever, if you have purchased a car, I would like to know the add ons you bought. Now, I'd like to believe a lot of my listeners don't have a lot of add ons, and not all add ons are bad. Like I told you, there's nothing wrong. I think with prepaid maintenance you get what you pay. In fact, you save money. There's no doubt, John,

did you ever look at prepaid maintenance? No, But I was going to say, I really do think for a lot of people, gap insurance is a good coverage. Well, and there's some caveats to it, and those need to be explained. But you know the reality is when you roll off the showroom or even if you don't buy anything else, I know you owe more than that car as well that moment. Okay, But most of the time, John, most of the gap is not something that's covered by the

policy. Most of the gap comes from from negative equity from previous deals, or paying too much for a car. They will not They absolutely will not pay for that. If you were stupid in buying a car. It doesn't cover stupidity. It does cover if you're if you're a year into it and your your your loan balance has gotten down a little bit. We've never had GAP not pay when when somebody's had a total vehicle and the you know, the fair market value of the total loss is less than they owe. We

have never had GAP not pay that. Different from my client, No, Well, here's what I was going to say. In most cases, GAP doesn't cover the gap in the In the areas it does cover. There are certain times you if you mapped out a loan, there are certain time periods that it will cover you, like within two weeks or three weeks of a

car. I don't mean it's written that way. I mean where it's mathematically where they cover because, like you said, John, when you drive off, So for a few weeks you're really vulnerable, then for another for a year or so you're not, then afterwards you are. It depends on where what cycle you're in on that loan as to what your gap does. Your gap is most in the beginning and then diminishes and then goes back up again

toward the end if you have a long loan. But the point to make it is even if you buy gap, John, Yeah, don't buy it at the dealer. Well maybe, but your your example kind of presupposes that

you're you know, your your gap could be a lot higher. I mean, my circumstances are when my clients, you know, admittedly sometimes oh a crap ton more than the car is worth, but after you deduct the fair market value from it, the amount the gap is being asked to pay is quite a bit lower than you know, the actual value of the car. Right. No, No, I never had a situation where they haven't paid. Well, it's been a lifesaver for some of my clients, and and

and for the people that don't have it. The flip side of it is you've got a big pile of negative equity and you don't have a car, and you've got to figure out something to do. And if you don't have that money, you got to go roll that into a new vehicle. So you're but if you're going to buy it, I'm still gonna I'm just still going to say this. If you're going to buy Gap, don't buy it at a dealer. Buy it from your insurance people. And yeah, but

you've got to finance it. That's why people put it on at the dealership because they don't have the money to go and buy that for cash at your insurance agency or whoever. Get people. You know, you paid in a premium, you paid in a premium, you're financing it. I mean, let's I want to talk to Compass about that. I don't think you pay a lump sum for GAP, but but can you get Compass on after the break? I would like to ask him about that. I'm not arguing,

Listen. What I'm saying is this, but it's even if you're paying it over six months, there's find out going to be that the person is paying it over sixty months or seventy two or one hundred thousand months or whatever they finance cars for these days. Yeah, versus paying it off in a six put John. Okay, First of all, we're also going to assume that if you buy it at a dealer and it's and it's a five year gap, you're going to get money back when you sell it or trade it in

and you're not. You're not going to get a rebate. And and the other thing is, it's all I'm saying is this. It doesn't cover you want. It covers you one hundred percent of the time, but you're not in gap one hundred percent of the time over the life of a loan. And again, people, the gap it covers that John's talking about is the gap in value versus a normal loan. They will not go more, ever than one hundred and twenty five percent of value. So you've got to be

careful. Not one hundred twenty five percent of what you paid, it's one hundred and twenty five percent of value. And people find that even with gap, if this is the wrong kind of gap, it won't be covered. I'm not telling you not to get it. What I'm telling you are two things it very seldom covers. When it does cover the gap John's talking about, buy it from a regular insurance dealer. But let's find out I got to take this break. People are pissed at me. We got more coming

right up. Yeah, and let's talk about a situation where you want to save money on ac where I was just talking to Deputy Doc about getting this whole house fan for his place, and in my opinion, it's one of the smartest purchases I ever made. Now, Frankly, the reason I made the purchase is I was looking into this and he was going to advertise, and so I said I'll buy it, and I bought it, and then he became an advertiser. Now I am happy I met him because then I

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If like you're out all day and you come home and your house is really hot, ten minutes it's cooled down. Then your air Works less q Secolorado dot Com. Honest to god, I'm a satisfied customer, and I'll just sing their praises. Three oh three eight hundred thirty four nineteen. Hi Tom Martinez here three three seven one three talks seven one three A two five five.

Brian Burns is with us from Compass Insurance Group. Brian, we're having a discussion about buying gap insurance at a car dealer, and I said, look, you know, gaping assurance doesn't cover stupidity. There's a lot of things that doesn't cover. But mind you, there are probably times when it's not a bad idea. It's not gonna it's not going to cover all situations, but when it does cover it can be it can be a pretty good

help. But if I said, if you're going to buy it, buy it from an insurance program, I'm sure you'll get it cheaper than you would at a dealer. John mentioned some John mentioned something. He said, Well, the reason people buy it at a dealer is they can finance it, And again there's pros and cons there. You can finance it over three years, five years, seven years, whatever your loan is, but you don't get rebates if you sell your car, it's paid for and it's done.

But I want to know when you buy GAP insurance if I, Brian, I don't even know if I have it or whatever, or how it works with insurance. Do you like quote it for everyone? Or how does gap work with you guys, we'll offer it on a brand new purchase. Really, as you can imagine the least gap or loane gap. Usually leases have it included in their lease payment, so it's not even really it's kind of

a moot point anymore. It's almost always in a lease I see at least, but a loan, if someone's putting a decent down payment on it, it makes no sense because it's it's truly there. You've already paid down the loans. It's only when someone is financing it almost at one hundred percent do you have that conversation. So we ask about it. But I will say, to the point of you know, people being to finance it, I

don't think three people realize how cheap it is. It's not an expensive coverage, so we're not talking about adding on a bunch of monthly expense onto your premium. And it's not a lump sum. You don't have to pay a lump sum for the life of the car. No, no, no, it's per policy, it's per policy term and so. And that's the other advantage is maybe you need it for the first couple of years until you paid down your loan enough where if you have a loss, the value of the

car now is exceeds the loan amount. And so we're is if you get it from a dealership, you're you're just getting a set amount that you're paying of the life that loan. When you do it for insurance, it's you can cancel it, you could get you could remove it at renewal after six months, after twelve months, after what however long you need. That's a really good point. But how much is it? Let's say ten bucks a month, I would say is an average amount, John, what about that

bro that is pretty damn good? Does does Fred Layer offer that? I don't know that, John, That's a good question. Now, I would say. All I'm saying is, listen, there are savvy purchasers and and there are things in life that you can always buy better from somewhere else for cheaper and more advantageous terms. That's not why the finance and insurance departments exist at dealerships. They exist to make money and and everything they can roll in.

It's croak and choke or under spray, overspray or bug film or window tent or window serial number registration, or whatever the heck you can think of to add on. There's two components to it. Number one, the dealers make a lot of profit on it, and number two, the finance companies make a lot of profit on it too, because they're financing these ridiculously overpriced amounts over the life of the loan. Let me get this compass insurance home.

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you to call with any problems, chrestener complaints. The important thing is at the first sign of trouble, give us a call. If you paid somebody, they didn't do the work they're promising you, they keep delaying, or maybe you're wondering about your hail damage, don't get ripped off there, and anything else on your mind we'd love to help you with. There are many class action lawsuits going on right now, probably more than in history. Honest

to god. There are eighteen open claims people can claim. We'll go over some of those coming up in the next hour. And anything on your mind, don't forget. You can also call three oh three Martino and you can call that number twenty four to seven and get in line for the next show. Three oh three six two seven eight four sixty six. Yeah, ripped up news, you need advice? Who you don't help come running just as as came. Shooter's gonna help coming Man Dix is the Troubleshooter show. No

Tom Martino. Hi, Tom Martino here, Welcome to the show. Three oh three seven one three talk three oh three seven one three eight two five five Welcome. We are here to help you solve problems, answer questions, take complaints, make your life a little easier. I have John Fuller with me, my accident lawyer dot CO. He's here to answer questions along with

me, and uh, let's talk, Kathy. What's going on. Well, I got like a little half sheet of paper, fuller than half from the United States Census Bureau, and I said, well, this is a scam because you know almost everything Nowaday, that's weird as a scam. Well, the Census Bureau does go around to Holmes and they do leave cards. So what do they want? Well, it's such an extensive survey, and it's just it's it's I think there was a lawsuit that when it came out

of Washington because they were asking really personal questions. Hold on, let me ask you. You're right it could be a scam. I mean I don't know if you're right. I mean, you're right to suspicious because it could be a scam. So but let me ask you this. Did they did they knock at the door, first, No, nobody's gone that far. I'm supposed to have it filled out today, but I had what did it? Was it mailed to you? Yeah? And was it mailed from where?

Where? The actress? Yeah? The address? And where do they want you to? Where do they want you to send the information to the US Census Bureau National Processing Center. There's a PO box Jeffersonville, Indiana. Really Jeffersonville, Indiana. Okay, go ahead. This question a question you know about your house? About are you looking for a job? You know, could you work? If you know, we're retired, So if you work, if you got offered a job, what hours are you gone from

your house? That that sounds that sounds like normal questions, but it's it could be something weird. I mean, I don't know why. I mean, I've heard of census questions that ask all kinds of weird stuff. Now, just so you know, that is the That is the address of the Census Bureau, the National Processing Center. Is it specifically twelve oh one East tenth Street. No, that's not on here. What is there a street on there? Or it's a post office? Sheets of paper or twelve oh

one East tenth Street. That's it? Yeah, yeah, the one in me to log into their ware. I'm having enormous problems with their software. And what is the u r L? What is the u r L they want you to log into? Okay, respond dot census, dot gov, slash ACS. I've seen this before. It's called the community survey and they do it sometimes between the ten year census SATI. No I know. And by the way, so if you would believe how many people believe it's a

scam and it's not. And I'm telling you that there's a penalty for not responding. Did you know that? Oh? Yeah, they give you that first. They threaten you before you've even taken the survey. They want to know, do you know some of them ask some of them ask sexual preference and sexual habits. Yeah, is it asking you? Taking that off? But I think that was involved in the lawsuits that was coming out of Washington or that general area. And you're selected. Here's what it says. You're

selected randomly. They will find you if you do not participate. There's a number to call if you have any questions. What do you not want to answer? Well, it's hard because we're in the middle of a move and so lots of things are packed up, and so they want to know like all kinds of things about like our utility bills, what were they the past twelve months for your gas and electric and you know that sort of thing. Sewer And then in some questions that were on their computer stuff, they combined

sewer and water and ours are not combined. They're separate, and so there's like no way to answer that question, and so you do because they're threatened and if you if you don't answer questions correctly, you're also threatened with lawsuits. In trone, no no only if you intention No. No, only

if you intentionally mislead them. They said, okay, in other words, you can give it your best estimate, oh, because it doesn't have anything for approximately so the last you know over the past twelve months, well, I just don't have all the last twelve months. By the way, these are done yearly between the ten year census. They're done yearly at random addresses, and they just try to keep statistics up to date. And what they say again is you do estimates of answers. You don't have to do a

lot of research. But how do you know it's supposed to be do they say the deadlines today to be postmarked or is someone picking it up? Yeah, it's a no. You know, I would just do it online. Do you know Here's what's really weird. Do you know there are more complaints about the census than taxes and everything else in government. It's the number one complaint. They can what I've experienced today, I can believe in what did

you experience? I try to use their software they're online because my response date is today, and it was, well, it put my husband in there four times, so and so to answer all these questions for him four times. So you know, if you're getting income, you do that by four and your husband's name is Mike, and so you put one fourth in for each mic And there was no way I could take out the extra husbands. So now I have four husbands. Oh no, some of the ones that

are causing me. The biggest trouble is they want to know like income for the past twelve months, like in your interest, if you have a bank account, or if you're in and tell me what you don't what you don't want to answer that or what no I can answer it. I what I was going to do is I was going to go to my taxes and pull up turbo tax because I've got that on my computer, and then you know, put in the amounts for interest or you know, social Security that sort

of thing. But it asks for the last twelve months, so you know, I have it for the last calendar year. And so everything's packed up in a box because we're moving, and you know, there shouldn't be a research project. Or people have to go back and you know, pull all their bank statements, all are utility bills for the last twelve months, just to answer senses. This is absurd kind of is Yeah, I wouldn't mind putting in, you know, things that I can pull off my taxes for

last year. But if I have to go back and you know, pull all kinds of statements or call Excel or United Power, geez hey. You know, here's the deal. If you you should put in as close as close as possible to the accurate answer and not worry about researching. But you shouldn't You shouldn't leave, you should not respond. If you don't respond, Like I said, I've never heard of people like going to jail or anything, but they do become a pinon in your ass, you know, I

know they talk. I know they talk about possible imprisonment and all that, but that's only for Trump. No one else would get in trouble like that. For that dims with one this many answer questions answered, especially on sexual orientation. I know, hey, there was one year they were asking so many weird questions. I think they were asking about if you gained your lost weight? I mean, god, you wonder what the hell? Now?

There are some people who are convinced, you know, that this information is going to be used against you somehow, you know, either with insurance companies or with taxes. Especially, they really hate it because they think they're just looking to raise my taxes. But believe it or not that census information cannot be used by local assessors. But no one believes that. Everyone believes the government. I mean everyone mistrusts the government, so they don't want to they

don't want to do it. So by the way I saw it, it's pretty easy to sign on. It really does look pretty easy. Now, Becky, what is your comment? Becky just called in? What is your comment on this? So? I used to work as an enumerator for the census, and we just did the census in twenty twenty yes, so there is no reason why she would be getting a mailer from the census. Yes, yes, there is every ten years. No, that's the extensive census

they do every single year. They do the community surveys and they randomly pick communities. That's I already read about it here, so that the one you're talking about is every day answering those kind of questions, but you actually work for them. The one you're talking about, you're correct, they do every ten years. That's the that's the actually you know, I knocked on the doors and I met with people, and yet how many people lived in the

apartment or the house or whatever. But did you mind a lot of resist, Becky? Did you find a lot of resistance? Not at all. Really, everybody was very welcoming, everybody was willing to answer the questions and just it was really a very nice experience. Wow. Yeah, And Becky's right. The big survey is the one that happens every ten years. The community surveys are done every year, but not all over the country. Every year they pick the ten year census, as I said, this is everyone.

Then in between they pick random counties or random addresses and every year send out those questionnaires to those random ones and then they combine the data. So Kathy, like I said, you know, you got to do it now, Becky said she wouldn't do it, but she worked for him. But I'm telling you they have fine people in the past, and you don't want to to get into that. And as far as online, go ahead.

They tell me in their letter that the survey is to help meet critical needs in your area, like the sitting on where to build a new school of health clinics and fire stations, and they do all kinds. I mean that just seems so bogus. Well I know it does, but I don't know. Look at they also say it's it's for everything. I mean, it's that the census information, not the people, not your name and address, but the information is shared by tons of people. All of these surveys you

see, and all of these everything is based on it. I mean, this is the central data point in the United States. People don't do their own surveys. So as I said, everything I'm seeing says mandatory, mandatory, mandatory. Like it or not, it's mandatory. So you know, you can decide for yourself. And as I said, I looked online and I don't see any issue at all. It let me write up right online and again I had to put in a number there or something, so I'm

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are happy to help you. That's O'Brien Legal Services, olslaw dot com. Hi, Tom Martino, you're a troubleshooter. So the community census, which has done every year, is different than the ten years census. Mike's got a comment on it. Go ahead, Mike, what's going on? Yeah, yeah, I worked in the nineteen ninety census. It is a numerator first, you know, he did the paper yeah, the paperwork shuffle. And then when that ran out, I volunteered with other people and this other

guy to get the stubborn customers. And we right, right right, We worked these slum hotels across this on Culfex, across the streets and said Sam, as they tore them all down. But you know, I help one guy falsify one because he just you know, he would he just went to open the door and he just beat it. More answer. But when I get those those lengthy ones. I just I falsify it. I just make it up. You know, you know, if you make a good faith

if you make a good faith effort. And again, I don't know if they take you to court to try to figure out if you lied or not. Anyway, but a lot of people tell me they do that too. They falsify or they not falsify, but they just write down random stuff that might be close. Now, technically, if you know something to be not true and you exaggerate one way or the other, supposedly that is a crime. That's worse than not answering. But well, well the White House can

lie to us. No, not our white House. You know. It is amazing though, when you bring that up seriously, Mike, if you read the campaign emails from either side, honest to God, did you every single time Biden gets on the air or makes a speech or does an email, he outlines all of these major things he's done in three and a half years. I mean, I swear to God, and he says every time he's accomplished more than any president in history, or in thirty five or fifty

years or whatever. I don't know where I was, but anyway, thanks Mike three h three seven on three Talks seven one three eight two five five. No, I am so tired of when these presidents do this crap. I mean all of them, you know, when you think about what they say, and when he says he took the worst economy and turned it around, Uh, the one he was handed it was after COVID. I mean, that's kind of like a little disingenuous, don't you think, Chopper?

You got to follow up, Deputy Chopper, what's happening? Yes, Tom. Last week at Kayla called on a car repair at Grand Valley Auto Repair, a two thousand Suparu Legacy. She said, she said it was a seventeen hundred dollars thing and she's having the same problems right, And she took it to Subaru and they said it was one thing. And she took it back to Grand Valley they said it was another thing. And I reached out and I talked to her, and I said, why don't you just ask

Grand Valley one question? Why did they think their mechanic is better than the authorized repair station at Subaru. Well, she called me back last night and said they agreed to pay for it. My car's fixed and thank you. Wow, Wow, geez, just from that, just from that question. You know, it's amazing sometimes how a little empowerment to a consumer telling him how to how to fight a battle can help, honest to gosh, Tom, So let me ask you some chopper. Have you yes, sir?

Have you ever taken part in the census? Yes? And I was paying a little bit of attention to what you were saying, and yes, they do handle leaflets and stuff like that. Later, but did you But have you ever answered the questions or do you resist? No? I'm just someone to stop paranoid. I guess when you flew the black helicopter, you just don't worry about things like that. I don't know, I kind of I don't know, and I just don't get it. I don't get it get

shook up about that kind of stuff. And it is a little paranoia. But man, it's amazing how many people are now texting me. They just can't stand the senses and they're saying like, and I'm talking about from all walks of life, they just don't trust it. Jennifer is another comment? Go ahead, Jennifer, what do you have to say about it? Yeah? Tom, Remember we should keep in mind that the purpose of the Census Bureau is to enumerate the population. Yes, he knows this, and that's

it. They have no more authority than that. And that's why whenever I get a census form or the community census, I just trash it. I pay no attention. If they come to the door, I tell them how many people are there, and that's it. And they go, well, if you don't tell us, we can we can prosecute you. And I tell them, bring it, bring it. You know what, hey, you know you don't realize that in some cases it helps. Look what happened

to Colorado. We've got an extra seat in the House of Representatives because our population went up. You personal problem to me, Well, what he's saying is it can benefit us, is what he's saying. Also, if you think about it, I mean it can, it really can. In fact, that's the only way they know how to a lot representatives and things is by population. I've had them send me the community form and I nailed it back to them on their address in Evans on Evans and South Tender there and

in about a week they said it back to me set act. I trashed it and they never bothered me again. I wonder if anyone listen to this. They say here that there are people who have been fined five hundred dollars for false answers and if they don't pay, they go to jail. Right, false answers because they signed the form under penalty of perjuries, who volunteered

into it. It says here the sentencing some of them have gone to find Listen to this for refusing to answer census There have been people who have been fined as much as five thousand dollars, and it says prosecutions are handled by the US Justice Department, and there have been a handful of prosecutions in history, but none listen to this, none occurring since nineteen seventy, not one. Because they can't do it. They can't legally do it. They are

not authorized under the Constitution to do it. It's an empty threat. Like I say, if you sign your name, are the penalty of perjury, then they got you. If you don't do anything, they have nothing. Well, so far, the what you're saying rings true because they haven't actually prosecuted since nineteen seventy and that even includes a guy that gave false answers. But anyway. I imagine though, I imagine that if Trump did it wrong,

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seven to one three talk seven one three eight two five five. Some actual questions from the US Census, not necessarily in every one of them, but in some of them. Were you sick enough today that you could not attend to your ordinary duties? And if so, what was your sickness? Here's another one. If you are a polygamist, are your wives related? How about this one? Do you have a basement? All right? How about this one? How many TVs do you own? Do you ever enter your

home through a front door or an actious me? Do you enter your home through a front door? Or do you enter your home through someone else's living quarters? Do you own a radio? Now? Okay? Are you in a house, an apartment, or a mobile home? Do you own do you have a mortgage? Do you own outright? What is your telephone number? Well, that's not unusual. What about this sexual orientation? Yes? Now, according to this they do not ask about sexual habits, just orientation

and how you identify as far as gender. Now it used to be just male or female, but now they ask what were you assigned at birth? What are you now? And some other questions. So the surveys change over the years. They have different questions and different demographic issues they want to deal with. They say it's for doling out support, government funding, for taxation,

for voting right, you know, representatives and all of that. So it's probably and as I said, it's the number one reason people complain about the government now that they complain a lot. Taxes is another one, all kinds of things, but the census is universally the most complained about government thing there is. Now, by the way, let me give this dinger for that previous thing we had with Shopper who gave that woman advice on having paid for and it worked. And Brian, you want to give a shout out?

Go ahead, Brian, what's going on with you? Brian? Hi? Tom Heyns want to let you know I used the troubleshooter, Liz, I've been. I've been using it, uh since I went with Compass Insurance. I used Matt from Paragon when I had a hailstorm up here in Long Month in twenty three. Did a great job, and he turned me on to Genesis Total Exteriors. Thank god we got rid of my vinyl sighting. We recited it with hardyboard and I couldn't be happier. My b me.

I gosh, man, you're you're a walking billboard. That's great. I'm glad you had such good experiences. I recommend it to anybody. If you don't want to have any headaches, I would use the troublesoon or less. Thank you, man, I really, no, seriously, thank you for telling us. That'ssreferralius dot com. Of course he's talking about and we really, we really do stand behind the people. We love them, and uh we monitor them and it's really good. All right. Now let's go back

to some questions I have by text. Let me just continue this. I got to refresh it and hold on. Don't forget FDR use the Census to identify Japanese Americans and inn intern them. That's something. Now I have questions if surveys are mandated. Let's see, no one has been fined since nineteen seven. That's right, I brought that out. No one's been fined since the seventies, since nineteen seventy three. With people's distrust and hatred of the

federal government, they probably will never find them again. And then it says here, if a census or jury duty notice isn't sent via certified mail, how does the government know you received it? Oh, that's a good question, John. Do you know how jurys are? Jury notices are sent down. They're sent out regular mail, aren't they They are? They are, Yeah, and they rely upon people to actually obey them, you know, call in, do their thing, do their civic duty. But I have

been told by people that it's not since certified. They throw it right in the trash and never give it another moment's thought, which is sad but truth. Hey, John, is it true that once you mail something first classes insidered as being delivered? Well, there is a legal concept that you know, a three day rule that for time computation. But no, a first class mail, I don't think gives you a certification or presumption of delivery.

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one seventy one hundred. Hi Tom Martino, your troubleshooter three O three seven to one three talk seven one three eight two five five So uh man. People don't like the Census, I'll tell you that. By the way, if you had to pick from the census the best, they have all kinds of information. What's the best house for the excuse me? The best state? Not the best, but the one with the most and the friendliest attitude and the most per capita tiny houses? What state? If you had to

guess one, John, what would you say? Texas? Let's see, Texas is number nine, not bad, not bad. One is Vermont. Huh yeah, you know for tiny houses. Number two is Kentucky, and then Arkansas, and then Maine, Minnesota, Montana, Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Colorado Where are we. Colorado is number wow, where the hell number thirty five in the top fifty, probably though, because we're buying a ton of those things for homeless people. Tiny houses, by the way,

are not all cheap, by the way, they're not. They're starting to make some more luxurious ones for seniors that have money that want to retire, some of them going to Texas and getting their tiny house. Although Texas, where does Texas rank here? Number nine? Okay, that's what you say, number nine. But there's a few manufacturers down there. I think that was why I was led to believe. And these are not mobile homes. You understand that they're tiny homes and they're there now. Some of them are

pre fab obviously, but they're not mobile homes. They literally get put on a slab or a foundation and they're they might be built off site. And some of them are quite cute, you know. But when you think about it, they say this might be the trend for a lot of young people today, tiny houses. I don't know if I like that or not. What do you think? Okay? I was just looking at something else and happen to notice this trend. And right now the number one searched thing is

Jennifer Aniston. Apparently she had a lot to say about jd Vance. Why the hell anybody cares? I don't know. The next one was this Washington d C. Attack on this woman. God was how ruthless This single mom was attacked by a group of teenagers in Washington, d C. I don't know if you've heard about it, but that was search number two after Jennifer Aniston, and she says the teens literally were giddy, they were enjoying it

so much, just beating the hell out of her. I mean, sometimes it's hard to believe that this is going on park Fire's next Jasper Fire. A lot of people are doing that. Yesterday, of course, it was the speech that Biden gave from the White House, and then it was net and Yahoo and all of that you would expect. However, Harris doesn't appear in the top twenty five searches. What is that tell you? Since you in that crazy have you have you seen all the crazy stuff that's that's out

there about Biden's speech? I mean there are people that are dissecting that thing like crazy. I mean, yeah, zoomed in on his Dodger to say that the watch had the wrong time and all this weird crazy stuff. It's just I don't know how people have that much time on their hands, you know. Anyway, I don't know either, And I do think he's kind of being picked on now, I mean he really is. I mean, you know, but but the guy won't lay off. I mean, I

swear to God. Every single speech he makes he warns us about dictators and kings and our democracy. You know, people sometimes when they get old, they just have a little talk track in their mind and and they just say the same stuff over. Those are the talking points they got, you know. We I mean, apparently America is going away if Democrats don't win. But anyway, I just thought i'd let you know that. But it's gonna go and we're gonna have a dictator, so I think that. Wow.

Anyway, I'm Tom Martino. Welcome to the show. I want you to tune into UH referrals dot com for help Information Referrals and then call three oh three Martino to get in line for a show. Seriously, three oh three six two seven eight four six six for help and you can call it anytime and then we'll get you on the next show. Guess three oh three Martino, Thanks John for being here. Save all your problems for me right now. Follow Tom Martino at Real Tom Martino, and stay connected with all of

us at six thirty k kayhow dot com and on the iHeartRadio app. This is Denver's talkstation, six thirty k howse