The Troubleshooter 8-22-24

Yeah, ripped, you need advice so you don't have the.

Come running just as fast as you can.

Shooter's gonna help come.

Man, This is the Troubleshooter Show.

Now.

Tom Martino, Hi.

Tom Martino here, welcome to the show. A good friend for many years and the owner of Fixed at twenty four to seven in the house, George Donaldson. Normally he sends underlings just kidding. He's it's a good guy, George. You lost weight. I don't want to bring that up, but you did it looked great, man. And uh and I'm not gonna ask how because everybody's got their own secrets. And I know Oprah got in trouble talking about it. But anyway, I.

Lost weight too, and I'm trying to just do what's right. And then here's the deal.

H Matt wants to talk about emissions. I want to talk about I want to talk about Oh wait, did he go away?

Is he gone? That guy that wanted to talk he did?

Okay, never mind, then call back, bro if you want to do it, because I'll be happy to help you.

I want to talk about greedflation. Now. I don't believe truly that it's.

There to the extent that the Democrats are saying. And again I'm not saying democrat versus Republican. I truly am not. I'm talking about inflation. I got an email saying, Tom, why do you doubt greedflation? Isn't that one of the reasons and the reason I'm talking to George about this.

He owns fix at twenty four to seven.

He's also just an entrepreneur for many years and has started many companies, and he sees the supply chain, he sees the retail consumer, he sees the end between the workers working their asses off to make a living with him. He sees it all right from every level. And he started as an electrician. So here's the bottom line. There is something going on, and I hope people recognize this for a discussion about society and not politics. I have my certain people that email me all the time that say.

Ah, you're just trying to push an agenda. I'm not trying to push anything. I swear to God.

Anybody who knows me knows I'm not trying to push an agenda. I am truly trying to make people aware of things in the marketplace.

And by the way, if you do have.

Questions going into the shoulder season, and we'll talk about what that is for a plumbing, heating, cooling, electric and trains.

George is here, of course, he's here for that too.

But as a businessman, we're told now and again, the playbook for any politician, and I mean any politician, whether you're conservative, whether you're liberal, whether you're progressive, whether you're communist, socialist, I don't care what you are capitalists, The playbook in politics is to make division.

It is, no matter who you are.

Don't you agree, Okay, they're doing a good job of that, But don't you think everyone doesn't I mean truly, I mean point out differences and divisions saying they're coming for you.

I mean, I think it's gotten. I mean, has it not?

Has gotten so much more extreme in the last five ten years than it ever was. I mean, look, the reason why good politicians won't run, now, good people won't run is because you can guarantee. Look, everybody, I don't care who you are, has some sort of past. Of course, right you and your family through the mud? Yeah, who wants that? But is Mark signed on?

He's not? Okay?

When he okay, here's the deal, And I got a smart audience. So I want you to chime in, and you can call in. And I'm not turning in this to a political forum.

Here's what I'm asking. Are you tired of it? Or is it real?

Do?

For example, here are the latest divisions, those who have, those who have not, and the greedy.

Bastards in business?

I should I should coin that greedy bastards in business gb ib and uh that charge too much? Is that the case? Is that what's happening? Or was it over government? Is it government spending or is it a little bit of both? Do people look at a situation and take advantage of it? So Mark Shimansky's on, I want to I want to bring him up. Is he there right now or not? Is he on yet?

Mark? Mark is with.

Genesis Total Exteriors. I love Mark, honest to God. We we go so far back, and in home improvements you need people you can trust.

Mark.

Do you see suppliers do you feel that are raising prices for no reason? Or do you see a reason. What I'm asking is, we know there is inflation, but have you noticed maybe people taking advantage of it in your business?

I think so. I think anytime manufacturers have an opportunity to raise things because of a certain situation.

They do.

And then it's like, you know, let's let's say oil, you know, let's ask all shingles. Petroleum is a big part of asphalt chandles.

Also we get a.

Price hike because of fuel costs or you.

Know, yeah, but won't they tell you markets because their cost went up, right or are they just making that up?

But then all of a sudden, let's say, petroleum comes back down, and do they give us a credit back? Nope, okay they had them ever come back down?

Okay, so you get surcharged, you pay more, But it doesn't seem to reverse itself.

It's it seeks a new level.

Do you find that George in suppliers for hvas, you know it's so true.

We actually tell people like so this time around it was it was you know, the supply chain issues and which we predicted before it even happened, right right shortage, so it made sense, like the blight demand it took it up. I've never ever ever seen it come back down. So in the last twenty five years being in this business, whatever causes it to go up, it never comes back down.

Right?

And not only is it? And that's what that's what Mark is saying. He's saying and I'm agreeing, So Mark, are they then? So when things go back to normal, why are the prices still up there?

And then again, here's what I want to ask you straight up, Mark, have you ever raised your This is a loaded question, and I don't you know you don't have the answer. But if you ever raise your prices simply because you want to make a little more profit and put money away, or is it always in direct response to your expenses? Keep What I'm asking is keeping the same margin.

Right, you try to keep the same margin. I mean, we have we have our goal share that you know, where people are out you know, doing estimates and statute. This is what we need to make because we have our costs that keep going up to and you know our own office, I mean, insurance has gone crazy.

I know, I know, all right, so I'll say we.

Have to charge more I mean, And then also, Mark, you you have to fight with insurance more than ever, don't you because you do a lot of insurance repairs, and.

Not only that insurance, but also our own insurance are no, I know that.

Yeah, you're how much is your like, like, your liability how much is your liability insurance gone up for for someone like you in that business?

I mean.

Twelve percent in one year?

In one year?

Wow, George? What about you guys?

Yeah, I mean about the same. So I mean, well, I mean we I think you know, we actually have five branches in different markets, so we have leverage to where we can adap where that pricing back.

Down and fight back on it.

And when we acquire other companies, we see that their prices are a lot higher than ours, so we do fight back on it to keep our costs down. But I mean, it's just a fact. Like when fuel, equipment, material, everything that you have a cost of in your business goes up, you have no but is it too?

Here's what I'm asking because I get emails and I know that people who email me know who they are that say here's what they say. They say, No, it's more than maintaining a margin. They're increasing their margin because they know they can get away with it.

Some companies are like we just okay, we were, you know, just not too long ago speaking about one.

But it no, but they've been doing that. They've been doing that forever. There are some companies.

There are some companies, and I know I know that Mark Shimanskill knows this too with Genesis. There are some you know, Mark, that they don't care if they ever get the customer again. They just get everything they can. I mean, they just knocked The expression is they knock their heads off. But not many do that, right, Mark? Do you find that in home improvements? Haven't you seen people?

I think yeah, I think in general, I mean, to me, repeat this is huge.

I mean I've been.

Doing this for twenty five years. Having repeat customers is so important.

Of course it is, Yes, it is. It's very important, makes.

Things go so much luder. So everybody felt they retreated fairly with us the first time or the second or third time. Yeah, they're coming back to it.

Yeah.

You know, pricing is always been tricky, and I didn't mean for this to be a pricing discussion.

I think it's a discussion about inflation.

Kamala Harris wants the nation to believe that prices have gone off.

Let's just say it like it is because.

There's greed and they're taking advantage of the perception of inflation, and I just don't see that as prevalent. I think it does happen, but that's not the major reason. That's my thought, not as a political person, but as an economic or finance person. What about you, what do how do you feel about that whole topic? Mark Schmansky Genesis.

Yeah, I think just the whole economy. I don't think that there's coliborate greed out there right now, and I certainly don't want to see a price freezes and things like that that that's proven over centuries that that just does not work.

No, it doesn't, it doesn't.

However, there are things I do believe there reason why It resonates with people because people don't want to pay a lot of money, so they think, yeah.

You should.

Do you know that supermarket margins have actually gone down, have actually gone down, not up their actual margins supermarkets, And she wants to target food prices.

I mean it's but look, I mean, so what you just said. People want to believe that, Oh that makes sense. Yeah, but they don't understand the true cause and effect. A lot of people don't. Now, yeah, oh she's gonna do that. Well, here's what's really gonna happen. The farmer who sells eggs, it's not gonna be worth it for them to anymore, so many of them won't. The stores are gonna have shortages and no I know, and that's gonna be a

Hang on, we got more coming up.

Mark standby for your promotion because it's a great one. We have more coming up on the Troubleshooter Show. Go with a Sure Things best roofer Excel Roofing dot com.

You don't pay a cent until you're content.

Time for an insurance check up free, no obligation comparison call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now three all three seven seven to one.

Help.

You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance three all three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.

Hi Tom Martino here, Welcome to the show.

Three O three seven one three talks seven one three eight two five five. Now, we got a lot of leftover stuff. Ourfloons were slammed yesterday wall to wall, and I'm happy I'm getting a little more time to talk.

But if you get a call in, we will take you right away.

Three oh three seven one three Talks seven one three eight two fivey five. I want to tell talk about water Pros as well. They have a special that's second to none, It's unbelievable, and that is thirty one ninety five for a complete water system. Now let me explain this to you. He was selling just the softening part for thirty four and thirty four hundred, and you know, it's still cheaper than a lot of people, but he was selling that then.

And then the.

Filtration for the triple filter reverse osmosis for fourteen hundred, still cheap, but he put them both together. Now for thirty one ninety five until labor Day only three ozho three eighty six two five five five four. Now let's continue here, fix it twenty four sevens in the house, fixmihome dot com. And we're going into what we call the shoulder season. I want to talk about that coming up and what it means, because every year I preach, don't get ripped off, don't get ripped off, don't react

Yeah, So we're going out fixing systems that didn't get the cleaning done from.

Us right, or they didn't notice the small problem when it was small.

Yeah, which which will if there is a small problem, we'll find out when we're doing a cleaning too. But I mean, so, yeah, you getting all that taken care of. And then what our biggest complaint, tom Our number one complaint is when they call us when it's super hot, super cold and there's no heat or nowhere, saying, hey, they won't come do this cleaning.

Oh yeah they yeah, they said.

Wait, wait wait, I thought for thirty nine bucks they come and they'll do an extreme clean and check and everything. And I said, yeah, but they got like two weeks booked.

Out here for no heat.

I mean, it's it is, It is ridiculous, But you know what, it's human nature. I swear to you everyone in the world. They don't do preventive maintenance. They don't do preventive dentistry, they don't do proactive health.

They don't do stuff.

For their home. You shop when you don't need it. Even with attorneys, I've told you this before. I'm serious. No one ever believes they're going to need an attorney any kind. Keep a list of attorneys that you've heard about that you trust. Right now, even when I move into a city, well this has been many years since I moved into a city, but I would always.

Get a list. That's how referralsts started.

But it was get a list of reliable people that I can call on so I don't have to think about it under pressure. And that's why I borned. I founded the referral list. But anyway, let's go back to a couple of things. When it comes to this so called greed. I wanted to talk about supermarkets. A supermarket, who are they're being targeted? Supermarkets have the same or no less of a margin than they had. They have a one point one point let's see, one point six percent.

That's what their profit margin is. Right now.

When you start messing with this, you are going to have, as George said, shortages because suppliers are not going to do.

It, and people are not going to They're not going.

To make less if it's below what they need. I'm not telling you that. I'm not telling you that they need more or need less. I'm just saying it's a fact of life. Now here's the thing with let's say fast service restaurants. Everyone was crying that these people need to make a decent wage, and I believe they everyone should make a decent wage.

But decent wage doesn't always make a career wage. They're different.

Some jobs are meant to be entry level, they're not meant to submit to support a family for or they're just not meant to.

That was not how the economy was structured. It was structured to have people who do entry level, then they move up or move out.

Then you have people that do other kinds of work. And the economy works with different levels of income and outcome. When I say income opportunity an outcome, you don't have equal outcome ever, because it wasn't meant to be that way. You move up, move out, or move on, or if you stay there, recognize it's an auxiliary job. It's not necessarily a career to support your entire family.

And I'm going to give you a novel idea.

Sometimes you can actually decide not to start a family until you can afford it. You can actually put off any kind of goal, cars, houses, all of that. It is just a fact of life. But we get now people who are ringing up groceries or.

Serving fast food.

And I'm not saying that passing food over a scanner and boxes of cereal over a scanner is not a great job to have and they're not doing a valuable service. But let's face it, people, some of them are making twenty five and thirty five dollars an hour, sometimes more, and fast service people are now making what plumbers used to make.

So here's the bottom line. Then you complain.

About the prices, so you have you have the same administration who argued people weren't making enough to now saying yeah, now they're all making more, but now you're charging too much. I swear to you it's all math. That has nothing to do with politics. It's math. You can't mess with it. But I'm going to tell you one of the main reasons people distrust business. I'll tell you one of the

Pree enterprise. They say they want it, but a lot of them really don't want it. And I'm going to tell you what I mean by that.

If truly there was competition, if you could call and get a relative price for.

Something, and get an idea of the price.

Range, or see published prices somewhere on different things. If you could, you could make decisions based on price. But people don't do that because they want to sell you. And here is the biggest problem. It happens with cars. It happens with any kind of thing you can buy. I don't care where you buy, what you buy. When you buy. Their idea is to price it and for you to close the deal before you shop around.

It's just a fact of life. Why. Because they can't.

Afford to advertise, gather leads, go to someone's house, or have someone walk in the dealership, or do that. They can't afford to do that over and over and over without closing.

They have to close a deal. It's just math. It's life. If you're in business, you know what I mean.

If you're a small contractor going down to a house and you want to do windows for them, or you want to do a deck for them, or you want to finish a basement, or you just want to do a countertop, whatever you want to do, you want to get that deal, don't you. You don't really want them shopping after you leave. You don't want I'll call you back. You don't want it, no one does, so your goal is to try to close it as.

Soon as possible. And here's the issue I have.

When some people do that and give the illusion that you're not going to get a better deal anywhere, you may as well go with us. I say the illusion. I don't mind if people brag about themselves and try to close a deal.

But here's the biggest problem you sometimes have, and it's a fact of life. People who pay way more than a fair price. Here. I've always said, I don't control pricing.

I don't have I really don't control it, and I don't ever want to control it as far as my people on the referral list or anybody I advertise for. However, there is a such thing as going crazy. I mean, we've seen it. We've seen people pay outrageous amounts. There was a company that I remember charging a woman ten thousand dollars for a toilet installation. It wasn't fancy, it was a toilet installation. That same company, look at is famous.

I don't the model is, what's the advertise A ton? Yes, advertise a ton, go ahead. They don't care to keep their clients. I mean they'll keep still keeping, they just keep doing new ones. Attrition.

It's just it.

And I've said this for so long. That's not sustainable in my mind. I mean at some point that can't be sustainable. I mean you got to clients, right, So there is a point where that's not sustainable, right.

You got to have repeat? Yeah, it's critical. Kyle. What's going on with you?

Kyle?

Hey, guys, can you hear me?

Yes, sir? What's going on? Man?

Awesome? Hey, I don't you know. I'm kind of shocked. I'm ending up on here. But I got a bit of a story to share.

It.

It's not a front range story. It's a San Luis value story, I guess.

Okay, And what does it have to do with Yeah, it.

Has to do with a certified RAM dealership.

Oh okay, well we handle that all the time. So is this a truck you bought.

It it's a truck I bought on the Western Slope, Colorado directly. I had like use truck, but I had forty thousand miles.

What's the name of the what's the name of the dealer?

So the.

Dealer that I'm having the issue with is town and country Alamoso.

Okay, hang on and we'll figure out what the hell's going on with you and see if we can solve it.

Coming up, I'm Tom Martino.

Go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel Roofing dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content. Time for an insurance checkup free, no obligation. In comparison, call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out out now three all three seven seven to one help. You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance three

Kyle, though, Kyle, let me just back up a bit.

You bought a used certified truck forty thousand miles from which dealer?

It's not the dealer you're having trouble with, is that right?

That's correct?

Yeah, then I don't need to know that.

So you bought it, you bought it from a dealer. Then how did you go from? How did you get involved with Town and Country?

So just our family moved over to this area here in the past year.

Or so, and Town and Country is located actually, and did you say in Alamosa?

That's correct?

Okay?

And what happened you took it to? Why did you take it to Town and Country and Alamosa?

What was the problem?

Yeah, just some general engine health CONCERNSKY coming up on the end of that warranty, okay. And so if a fuel pump was advised to be replaced.

Okay, So what went wrong?

I found out here a couple of weeks ago that an after market fuel pump was put in which was never was never on my radar. I was not under my consent.

What year truck do you have.

It's a little bit older to twenty fifteen.

Okay, there's nothing wrong with aftermarket parts. I mean, unless they told you you were getting a genuine OEM and you didn't get it.

Yeah, So that was my impression. Right, You think you take your your truck QA dealership and you're gonna get OEM.

Parts most of the time, you do if it's if it's the same dealership. Was this a RAM dealership?

It is, yep?

Okay. And what was the consequence of not having the the oees?

Yeah, so this was back in May. That fuel pump lasted about two weeks, just under one thousand miles and stopped working. I left town.

Well, was it under warranty? Did they warranty the repair?

Yeah, we warranted the repair. Did it at a different dealership and that took two days?

And wait a minute, here, here's what I'm asking days. Hold on, So the fuel pump that was done by Town and Country lasted two weeks?

Is that right?

Yes, sir, probably just under a thousand miles.

And then did Town and Country pay for you to go somewhere else?

No?

It did not. Then you said you warranted it? I mean did was it under warranty from Town and Country?

And so the AutoZone part that was put inside I was I was made aware that an audio.

I just need to know this when you're I just want to know this. When the Town and Country fuel pump failed, did they redo it for you or pay you? Or was it under warranty?

They did not redo it for me.

So you had to pay a second time two weeks later.

And it ended up getting covered by the part's warranty.

But okay, got it. I got it.

So the part, so you dealership, that's okay.

So the second dealership got the part warrantined and you only had to.

Pay for the labor. Is that right?

That's correct.

That's normal, okay, whether it's whether it was OEM or whether it's aftermarket.

If the parts warrantyed, the labor isn't.

So then the second one they replaced it with was the same brand and it failed after a day.

Yeah, it was two days. I drove from here out to the front range kind of in your neck of the woods.

Do you know what the do you know what the brand of that fuel pump is?

Or do you know what it is?

All I know is that I have a part number somewhere is okay?

Never mind, that's okay. So this apparently these pumps suck.

You said it, not me.

Now the second pump failed, are they going to warrant you it again?

So I'm not interested in warranting it through AutoZone. I would like part which is what should have been done in the first.

Yeah, but now it's going to be too hard to go back to town and country and say you should have get it and now I want it, especially after they get it once under warranty. But a very simple question, are they willing I'm not saying you do it? But are they willing to replace it a second time?

Sure, they'll replace it a second time.

All right, hold on one second. I've got to take this break. I know your frustration. I feel you, I really do. I'll talk to you about it. What I think you should do? Coming up on the Troubleshooter Show, Go with a sure Thing Denver's Best Roofer Excel Roofing dot com.

You don't pay a cent until you're content.

Time for an insurance checkup free, no obligation in comparison call Compass insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies.

Find out now three oh three seven to seven to one help.

You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate man dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance three oh three nine two zero sixteen twenty two. Hine Tom Martino here three O threes seven one three talk seven one three two five five. We're getting an expert on to talk to Kyle. We're gonna figure out what the hell's going on with this fuel pumping. Maybe it's not a fuel pump problem. Maybe it I mean, or it could be, but we're gonna

Hey Jennifer, what's going on?

I so this is I guess like a last resource is to reach out to someone suggested. It's an apartment complex, the walls are thin, and my neighbors upstairs just they're.

Doing this purposely.

It's just making noises late at night.

Sure, so they're dragon Okay, so this is this is this is above.

You right right now? And are they doing this every night?

Almost every night, I'm losing a lot of sleep.

Yeah, are they?

Are they making noise on purpose to bug you? Or is it that they have a lot of activity?

No that Nope, it's between They start at nine and the last line. I had to call this security service twice till midnight. They kept doing this because they wouldn't stop.

Now, what do you want? What would be their motivation?

Because they're retaliatory because I reached out already before, because they have a kid that goes that runs back and forth and I can hear them.

And so do you do you really believe they just want to drive you crazy or get rid of you or what?

Yeah, they do, they just they're just being rude.

How long has this been going on?

So January?

Really?

And did it happen all of a sudden or was that after you had complained about the kid?

After I complained?

Okay? And ever since then, every night they'll make noise. It seems like a.

Lot of effort that they would have to that that you know that they remember to starting at nine to start making noise to bother you?

You know?

Yeah, it does well.

They smoke all their cigarette butts they throw over into my area and into my doorway area. I've reached out to.

The office several times.

They've been apparanting.

Okay, so the management company, what does the management company say?

Do they do? They acknowledge there's a problem.

Yeah, then when I complain, I go, what are you going to do? And they just say, well, we'll reach out to them again. My security goes over there at midnight.

You know.

They all they do them is just stop doing it and they leave. They don't do anything else.

Now after security visits, does it stop?

No, didn't last night.

And okay, have you ever had anyone witness the noise?

It's hard because I've got four neighbors. There're the only ones that are on top of me, so I don't hear any of my other other neighbors and will only them above.

So the other neighbors are alongside you, Yes, there's only one above you.

Are there neighbors above the other neighbors?

Yes, okay, And they never have complaints with their I'm just wondering if it's a building problem. I'm like, your other neighbors don't hear noise coming from upstairs and their places?

Yeah, probably a building problem. But when I call security and let them know when even maybe.

Even I acknowledge it. I said, Hey, I've got.

A twelve hours shift tomorrow.

No, I get it. But here's what I'm getting at.

If it's a noisy building, in other words, it's not built great or what I mean? Was this originally built with separate apartments?

I don't think so.

I don't hear my other neighbors just down there upstairs.

I guess what I'm asking Is this a house that was converted to apartments or was it built as an apartment?

All right, hold on, all.

Right, hold on, I got some ideas coming up on the Troubleshooter Show. Plus we'll get an expert for Kyle and his twenty fifteen more on this plus fix at twenty four to seven, and they're special coming into the shoulder season. Go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel Roofing dot com.

You don't pay a cent until you're content.

Time for an insurance check up free no obligation comparison call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies.

Find out now three oh three seven seven to one. Help.

You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance three oh three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.

Yeah, Ripped.

News needed that so you don't have.

Runiousness as we can.

Shooter's gonna help come.

This is the Troubleshooters. No Tom Martino, Hi.

Tom Martino, your Troubleshooter.

Three oh three seven one three talk three oh three seven one three A two five five. This hour brought to you by Excel Roofing dot com.

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We got a number of people.

I have Griffin Ash, one of our experts in with Action Automotive in Colorado Springs, and uh, we called him. He does a great job in the Springs, and I know Kyle's and Alamosa are down in that area, but still we need an expert opinion, I Griffin, I can't think for the life of me now, Kyle, Kyle, I think is determined to prove it's because it's an aftermarket

So this tells me, I mean, maybe I'm I don't know. I just don't think things like that happen. I mean, can you have two out of the box bad units? What do you think, Griffin?

What could cause this other than the fuel pump being bad?

Oh?

And first of all, Tom, how are you doing?

I'm doing good? And thank you for asking you, sir.

Definite problem. Yeah, so you want it is possible, so you have bad parts, But you've got to remember this is controlled by a fuel pump control module, and if the fuel pump control module is failing, it's not going

You know, I'm going to tell you, Griffin, you're you're always I swear when I mean this sincerely. You really shed light on every question we give you that no one else brings up. And I never even thought of the control module, Kyle. Did they check the trol module?

Yes? They did, Yes, And so I've paid for three different inspections, two at two different dealerships other than Alamosa, and one at just a third party.

You know, just what did they say about the fuel what did they say about the control module?

So no issues have popped up with the control module. I know that on some of the aftermarket parts though you have to you have to manually attend to those where the OEM part that just comes standard. It's like one unit, Is that true?

Is that true? Griffin?

But so hold on, we're talking about two different things.

So when he says one unit, you'll have the the fuel pump will come as a it's a fuel pump module and it comes with a sending unit and a pump. But that's sending unit in pump module is controlled by the fuel pump control module, which is mounted kind of a long.

Support across support of.

The frame in the rear of those ramps.

And what you want to do.

Is so you actually have you you actually have two controllers. You have one uh, fuel pump controller going to the controller.

To the pump.

No, no, it's it's like this you have like you have your computer, like your main computer ECM.

Right.

Then that's the signal to the fuel pump control module and that fuel pump control module. It sent a power and ground signal to all the fuel pump, the fuel pump is the fuel pump module is it's just it's just the collection of the sending units and the pump.

It's real case. I got it, I got it.

So what what they want to do is is when it's acting up, you want to make sure, hey, is the fuel pump itself getting power in ground from the fuel pump control module and they they can set up a wiring setup to check that. And if it is getting power and ground when it's acting up, that would point to a bad fuel pump. And now they could just have something simple like a bad ground that could cost plenty of intermittent faults and they need to check the basics first.

It see, it sounds to me more like that than two pumps would fail that quickly. It sounds like it could be a faulty ground.

I mean, because you know, grounds can last two weeks or two days or two minutes. Kyle, Kyle, you, I truly believe that this is my feeling that you're your hell bent on thinking the AutoZone fuel pumps sucks.

And I'm not quick to say that.

Some parts are just supposed to be ohem. That's how I've been advised by well.

You know, Kyle, you're too You know what, Kyle, that is where we disagree.

OEM doesn't mean better, I'm sorry, means that.

It's It does mean that it's under warranty by the by the manufacturer. And so that's where I'm struggling. I'm having to pay each time to have this work done.

Now, hold on, hold on the OEM, the the warranty or the AutoZone warranty. What's the difference If they're both warrantied, I can cigue it kids.

I RAM dealership and they will look at it at no charge to me.

Okay, So hold on, can you hear me, Tom, Yes, sir, okay, check this out. So, yeah, OEM is nice and I like it for a lot of things. But you got to remember that companies like Delphi and Denzo are the suppliers to the manufacturer for a lot of these pumps, and like a Delphi pump from AutoZone comes with a lifetime guarantee. No, it does not cover more of you know, labor. But if he had it done at a shop, those shops typically offer a twelve thousand mile one year warranty.

Yeah, I know, but it's a in his butt. Now, Kyle, you've had to pay for labor each time.

And four toes and what across the entire state of Colorado. My truck's been from Western Slopes to Front Range and everywhere in between.

It okay, now hold on, hold on, Kyle. One other thing though, I want to ask he I want to tell you he uh, he wants to go back Griffin to the original dealer that put in the aftermarket part. And I think it's too late because it's already been replaced once in a warranty. And your argument, Kyle, is that when you took it to a dealer, you automatically assumed it would be an OEM part, right, No, I asked for an OEM part.

I found out, Well, hold on, I didn't know that.

So you specifically have an invoice that talks about an OEM part that we can go to that dealer and say you breached this contract.

Yeah, yeah, okay, good good.

Send me send me the okay that then then that enough said we have enough, send me the original invoice where they promised an OEM part, and then documentation that they didn't do it. Just show me the AutoZone part. These guys are liars and cheaters. I didn't realize that they promised you an OEM part. I thought that they just did the repair and you found out that it was not an OEM.

But if you if they promised you, okay, if they promised you on your invoice an OEM part with the part number, I need it and I'll use it to fight these guys. So send it in to me three oh three and thank you.

By the way, Griffin at Action Auto Service dot Com. It's Action Auto Services dot Com seven to one nine six three three zero zero zero eight. Good guy down in the Springs. We have a lot more to talk about on the Troubleshooter Show. And I want to remind you about John Fuller Fuller Law. If you need a personal injury attorney to find out what's up?

What are your rights?

It's three oh three, five nine seven forty five hundred look for John Fuller. Go with a sure thing Denver's best roofer Excel Roofing dot com.

You don't pay a cent until you're content.

Time for an insurance check up, free no obligation comparison call Compass insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies.

Find out now three oh three seven seven to one.

Help You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate man dot Com to list your home with Remax Alliance three oh three nine two zero sixteen twenty two. Hi Tom Martino, You're a troubleshooter. Three oh three seven one three talks seven one three eight two five to five. Some of my texters are doubting he's gonna send me a contract that says OE, but I don't know. I mean sometimes on invoices they put that down.

They do so, and he swears he has it.

He has something promising an OEM part, then he should get an OEM part. So I'm gonna wait until I get that from email. Now I'm going to go back to Jennifer. She's saying neighbors are making noise just to buger. That is a hard accusation to prove, and sometimes I hate saying this, but man, it just comes down to who has the stronger will. If you stop complaining and just suck it up, will they eventually stop. I find it hard to believe that at nine o'clock at night,

I don't know. I mean, I.

Guess it could happen, But I think what you're gonna find is if it's not a building problem, well, if it is a building problem, there's nothing you can do about it. There are some buildings and apartments made just so poorly you can hear everything, everything transfers through the walls. And then there are some where you do have crazy neighbors. But Jennifer, sometimes you just have to move. I hate telling you that, but.

I do plan on moving. But the problem is I have a couple more months left. So if you want to break a lease, you have to pay over a thousand dollars.

No, no, I'm not asking you to break a lease. But do you really believe though? This is the part I need to know. Are they just noisy neighbors or are they doing this.

Solitory very Talu story of the adult guy. I came home one time in the morning. After I asked him to keep it down, he came up the stairs starts stomping on my ceiling on purpose, so they know I can hear the noise, and they do it even not nine o'clock, it's midnight, it's ten o'clock. It's past the quiet.

Have you ever recorded noise?

I've tried. It doesn't come on a cell phone.

You have to buy us no.

I know what you mean. It's hard. It's hard to get it to come.

Jennifer, this is BO.

I have a suggestion, Yeah, what Bow, What do you got?

What I would do instead of fooling around with the building security, just call the uh local police department every time there's a noise and that'll step up the enforcement for them to quit.

I'll try that.

They did get hold on, Bo.

Do you think the police would actually come for a noise complaint.

I when I lived in an apartment in Denver, I called the police and noise is an issue. They can issue a ticket for loud noise, and if they get a uniform officer knocking on the door, I think they would they would assist in them attenuating the noise.

Security is not doing anything good. Security doesn't do anything. They just say okay and then they leave, So that's not doing anything for them.

I think someone else said, listen, I just got this text. By the way, you can text me in two ways five seven seven three nine or my Google voice number which comes right to my cell phone seven four seven nine fifty eighty. Somebody says, Tom, there are neighbors like that. I believe are one.

And uh wow, I mean, you know, I just.

Smoking and all the figger butts are coming down by my doorway after I swept.

Is it a no smoking building?

They can't smoke in size, so they have to smoke outside.

What I'm asking?

Okay, now, I know you say you call security, but have you ever talked to the management?

I have.

I sent them all. I sent them emails and went in.

Personal gain and what do they say, reach out?

We'll reach out to them again.

Hey bo, let's call them, you bou for the hell of it. Let's just call management and at least add some some horsepower to her complaint. You know, that's what we can do, Jennifer, And hope it means something.

Let's do that. I will.

That's that's a good suggestion.

Yeah, let's do afternoon. Yeah, we're going to call for you, Jennifer.

I'm assigning this to bow here and Mark, oh, thank you, and and we'll stay in touch with you.

Okay. So what's going on with you? Mark? Yes, sir?

Can you hear me?

Good? Yes, sir?

Tina as an older jeep, and I had like the death wobble and the trend.

And so oh yeah, God is that a terrible thing?

And I tell it was tires, I said, tires on their older.

What they say that death wobble they say comes from the steering dampener or you have to install one. In fact, let's get Griffin back on real quick. So uh if you can, okay, Kachina, what were you going to tell me about it?

Though?

Are you having? Is this is for a friend of yours? Right, Mark?

Yeah?

And so what's what's the issue that we can help you with? Did he did tell me about it? Is it a new jeep? Or used? How old is the jeep?

It's in the eighty nine okay. And she had paid this guy that goes over here to the place where we go to the bar. Yeah, give him fifty and he's sots to tune it up, fix the front end and something else on it.

But fifteen was he supposed to fix the death thing? Yeah? The wobble.

It fit ball joints and she had the tyrone ends already. Yeah, so fit them in. He fits them in, got the death wobble stop.

But so he did Wait a minute, Wait a minute, he did get the death wobble stopped?

Yeah.

Oh it stalls at every stop sign.

Okay, so that's well that that sounds like a simple problem.

Man.

But the guy, I'm amazed. So the guy did do the work. Her main complaint now is it stalls all the time?

Yeah, well he's supposed pitt a new battery. Didn't do that.

Well wait a minute, so wait a minute. Did she pay for a new battery?

She give him fifteen hundred bucks to get started on it.

No, But what I mean is, does she have Here's what I'm asking again, does she have an invoice that outlines a new battery?

No?

Contract that was signed?

Okay, that's the problem.

So he can say we why didn't include a battery because that wasn't part of it.

Right, it will take her to court and take the jeep from her and sell it.

Well, did he put a lean on it? Yet?

He's going to threatening her on the phone and she has text so you threatened her and I said, take that over to the serfs office M's County.

And no, wait a minute, Wait a minute, Mark, there's a long way between failure to pay and getting her car repossessed. That I think he's trying to intimidate her. But what is the main issue right now? Does he say she owes him more? Hold on, Mark, Mark? Does this mechanic claim your friend owes more money?

Yes? Okay? How much more money does this mechanic believe?

A nign un.

There's no contract though, now you're on. Well, if there's no contract, how is he going? I don't know anything. That's what I want to know.

How is he basing the additional How is he basing the additional nine hundred bucks?

He has no receipts that he will give her that he has Okay, I mean.

Hold on, hey Griffin, I want to ask you something real quick. Griffin again with Action Automotive Services dot Com. Hey Griffin, real quick, I want to know in a nineteen eighty nine jeep, she paid a mechanic to do a tune up and other repairs. He got rid of the death wobble by replacing the ball joints. But now he says every time she comes to a stop sign or a halt, it stalls.

So what does she have to do? Mark?

She has to turn it back on and it runs until she stops again. Well, yeah, it sounds like an idol problem. What do you think, Griffin?

Yeah, yeah, it could be.

It could be any number of things.

Is it carburetor or fuel injected that year?

I believe it's carbureted.

Yes, it could be a.

Whole litany of things.

I'd have to look at it to get Okay, all right, but listen, I just wondered if something barks at you from that year eighty nine jeep and Griffin, have you heard of the death wobble on those jeeps?

Yeah, it's it's real common, and it's it's usually fixed by, you know, loose front end parts such as ball joints or most Okay, I've seen the steering stabilizer shock.

Is That's what I was thinking. That's what I was thinking.

Okay, And by the way, thank you, Griffin. I appreciate it.

That's action automotive.

Have you tried putting a neutral.

Reminded people that I'm the best looking technician.

Yeah, that's right.

I forgot to remind you of that, But I want to ask you something because I saw your website both ways. It's Action Automotive Service dot com.

Is that right?

Yeah, it's Action Automotive Service dot Com.

Okay, that's service a singular. Thank you very much, Griffin. We appreciate it. Uh, Doc, what were you asking?

What happens if he puts it in neutral when he comes to a light.

I don't know if they've tried that. Did they try to try that?

Yeah?

They got to keep your foot on the guests.

But yeah, that sounds like a simple idle problem to me, but I might be wrong.

Hey, Mark, real quick, what is your friend's first name?

Her name is Melissa.

You know what I'm going to have Deputy Doc just call over to the mechanic just to see, you know how how he's going to justify an additional eight hundred dollars in repairs under the Auto Repair Act. Listen to this, Mark, and this is what Deputy Doc's going to tell him. Under the Auto Repair Act, they must give a written estimate for anything.

I mean, first they have to give the original estimate.

Then they have to give any increase in price above that above ten percent, they have to get a specific authorization. This guy sounds all wet to me, So just hang on mar Let's doc. Let's just call over there and just see where he's justifying this. You've got three three three all three seven to one three talk seven one three eight two five five. Keith, what's going on? I know I have to take a break. Let me just get started here dragon, Keith, what's happening.

I am considering putting in a whole house fan. I've heard you advertised to talk about this. Quiet cool and im I'd like to get the information on what I should about how much I should pay.

Okay, I'm going to tell you.

I'm going to tell you that the entire industry now Qccolorado dot.

Com puts in whole house fans.

But because this is a consumer call and it's not a commercial, I want to tell you that he's not the exclusive dealer of whole house fans.

In fact, do you guys do him, George, do you do them at all? We do him?

We don't do him that often now, but there are so that's not a big part of your business. No, but there are some HVAC companies that do them. But they say the same thing. It's not a major part. There's nothing wrong with getting QC Colorado. They're great people and that's their specialty. But there's a few cautions I want to give you before you do it, because I found out some stuff and it's not their fault, but there are things you need to know before you do it.

Hi, and I'm Margina. You're troubling Peter Frail three seven or three Talk Keith.

You're asking a very good question on Whole House Fans Now again, quite cool, Whole House Fan, that's the brand I love it. It's a big, powerful fan. They have a different sizes and the remote mount in the attic. If you go up in your attic, you'll see that between the peaks there they have some sometimes that use strapping and what and it suspends. It suspends the fan up there with a duct going down to the ceiling into it and attract it great. And then what happens

Now that will in and of itself, balance the temperatures in your home.

Now, it's important that you have various levels on your home. One level it won't work. If you have two levels, it can work. Three levels are better when you have something that's underground or walkout basement or something because it's cooler. But the idea is just strategically open windows in areas where it's cooler so the air will circulate through your home. Here's the big problem. And again I think QC. I think they should consult people about it, but they're not

Then they call and say, Tom, I've.

Just bought a brand new area sea and it's still hot upstairs and you go there and find the attic is one hundred and sixty degrees. Well, no AC will overcome that because attics need to be ventilated, and it also helps within the heating season.

So what's the solution.

The solution is, if you put a whole house fan in but your attic is choked, the whole house fan is going to be choked and it's not going to work as efficiently. Now, it's going to force air out of the attic, but it's not the proper.

Way to do it.

The proper way make sure your attic is properly ventilated. Now, I'm not telling you everyone who buys a whole house fan has to go through and redo their attic, but unfortunately a lot of the attics are not well ventilated. You have to have a certain number of soft events and a certain number of roof fens, and sometimes even an attic fan on the roof to pull out hot air. Now, that doesn't mean you all need attic fans. And that's not the whole house fan. That's an attic fan. It's

Had no one really living there all night.

Okay, my daughter moved in and she said it was dreadful. And I started looking at it, and I had never monitored the temperature at night up there. It was cooler because of the whole house fan, but it wasn't perfect. And then when Henry went up in my attic, he says, Tom, this attic, I can fry some eggs up here, let's cook pizza. I mean, because it was terrible. So what we did. He came here just the other day and opened up the attic with giant vents and two giant

In a nutshell.

I just want to be transparent here because they're not miracle workers.

Well, yeah, I know there's some event laking you have to have for the air to keep moving, and but if I have the proper venting, of course, what what would it? What should I expect to pay just for these?

I don't know the recent pricing. I think for my big one I paid twenty two.

To twenty three hundred.

Okay, that's how I played last week, Tom, What did you pay John three?

Twenty two or twenty three hundred? Now?

Doc, the jury's still out with Doc because he only has two stories. And Doc, did you did did you play with.

The windows and stuff? And how are you doing with it?

Yeah, I'll let you know after today, Tom.

Okay, anyway, Doc had one put in, so it's going to be about two grand a little more.

Yeah.

Well my house is a ramp style and I've.

Got well hold on about do you have a basement? Yes?

Okay? You have windows in the bay. Do you have windows in the basement?

Yes?

Okay? It does it stay cool in that basement?

Has because I have your condition, it's always told down there, good good?

Yeah, so so I would.

And it's about about forty two hundred square feet total up and down. I guess you consider both when you're when you're installing a whole house fan.

That's right, that's right.

Yeah, But I think I should be so should be you know, somewhere around twenty three hundred dollars year.

I think, Yeah, that's that's what I'm thinking, Benny.

Yeah, and just make sure the addict is properly vented anyway. And by the way, properly vented attic is not just going to help with cooling your home, but you know your roof will last longer if you have an asphalt roof where you've have top, plywood deck all of that.

Yeah, I know, Tom, you know I have a thermometer up in my attic.

Yeah.

And when on these hot days one hundred and twenty five degrees, Yeah, it's too hot.

That's what it is up there.

Yeah, jeez. I hope that helped.

I hope help three three seven one three talk seven one three eight two five five Go with a sure thing Denver's best roofer Excel Roofing dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content, wait time for an insurance check up free, no obligation. In comparison, call Compass insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now three all three seven seven to

Dave has a comment on Whole House fans.

Dave, go ahead, sir, Yeah, Tom, I've had in mind for about four years and it's awesome. My life was initially pretty skeptical about getting it, and once she started seeing the electric bills and everything else, she was like, Oh, this is this is great.

So yeah, that's desit about it.

I tell them to go for it.

Now, do you have a walkout basement or a basement?

I do have a basement, but I don't I don't do what they suggest by opening the basement windows. I actually just open one on the first floor really and just let it suck out.

Yeah wow.

And it works pretty well just that way, especially once the temperature drops in the evening and we vent the entire house, and then I do it in the morning as well, just to exactly the temperature down, and then we close up the house and it's pleasant mostly.

Now another good thing, and I talk about this, but not that much in commercials. When you know, people leave their air conditioning on during the day so when they get home it doesn't take forever to cool down, so they keep it on at least while they're at work and stuff. And sometimes there's an empty house being cooled, not necessarily cool the same as if you're home, but

I don't know if you've ever done that.

Well, mine's actually I thought it was funny you were talking about Excel roofing because I actually had my roof replaced for a hailstorm by.

Them, and I told him I.

Had an attic fan up there, not an addict fan, a whole house fan, and the guy that came out said, yeah, no problem, we'll look at that for your ventilation. And they did a great job, and good actually works better now than he used to.

Exactly that, because if the roof is not I'm telling you, you know, I think there should.

Be a company that does just addic ventilation. And Excel does it of course, so I shouldn't say that they do it. Of course their main thing is roofing, right, But I think that if a company specialized in attic ventilation, that would be the shiznts. In fact, if I was the quiet, cool guy, I would do both. I would old people with both. Now that doesn't mean I'd slam everybody with an attic ventilation system just because I'm putting in a whole house fan, but I certainly would make

You don't want to be caught without Yeah, look, we don't want to.

We don't want to give you an expectation if we're replacing your system and have a complaint afterward or Yeah, so we're going to always ask you if you having problem.

Series gets hot and look into watch.

Now coming up, we're going to talk about a special for the shoulder season.

To be proactive and save money.

Go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel roofing dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content. Time for an insurance check up free, no obligation. Comparison call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now three oh three seven to seven to one help. You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance. Three oh three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.

Yeah, ripped up.

News you needed by, so you don't have come.

Come running just as fast as we can.

Shooter's gonna help come.

Man Dix is the Troubleshooter Show. No Tom Martino, Hi, Tom Martino.

Here, Welcome to the show. After a very.

Busy morning, we have open lines if we want to get through three oh three seven to one three talk seven one three eight two five five. I want to go over some text and stuff.

At first. I want to talk to George H.

Donaldson, owner of fix At twenty four to seven and my friend for many years. We're talking about the shoulder season. What they mean by a shoulder season.

Basically, it's not it hasn't come to a head yet, and.

It's really not really hot, it's not really cold. This happens in the spring. It happens in the fall, and people have a breather. They don't use too much air, they don't use too much heat. It's really a very nice season. But it's the time to get things done. If you don't, you're going to regret it. That is, if you have a problem. Now, there are a lot of people don't have problems. They have newer systems, blah blah blah blah. Even those should be checked out from

So they're always working.

Yeah, the blower motor is what's pushing the air through your house, right, And so the only difference is when it's in heating mode, there's a heat there's a heating component that fires up and it's pushing heat to your home. And so, like you just said, all of the air runs to your home within two minutes, by the way,

A year, by the way.

What happens is it can create an imbalance which breaks seals, leaks oil seas is done. And in fact, we've had cases, George and I know specifically cases where people were told they need a whole new furnace and you guys were able to do the blower motor.

Yeah, I mean a lot of times it's just a component, So you should never By the way, I'll tell people it's probably best to replace components if they go out, and if they won't go out, by the way, within ten years, if you keep it cleaned every year, they will not. That thing will last longer and be more efficient.

But it's even more like ten or fifteen, right.

Yeah, But there's companies that will tell you need to replace your system and it's only six seven years old, and I would tell you that is not accurate. That is not the best thing to do. Now if it is eleven, twelve, fifteen years old from just efficiency purposes and it's out of warranty. In that case, it probably depending on what the component is you want to replace this that you need to replace it may or may

Okay, you should not replace it.

Now, what about the ones you're putting in now that are efficient and good new technology? How long are they projected to last? The newer systems now twenty years.

Yeah. I mean so they're all under warranty for ten.

But you know, technology is always changing, so I would project that they're going to be longer. They still say ten, but it could be fifteen, twenty, but tom it could be. It really comes down to how do you take care of it? Do you get it cleaned?

Every year?

A lot of these companies say we're going to come tune it up. As you know, they don't tune up anything. They don't see anything.

First of all, when they say tune up, very little of it's tune up. Most of it truly is cleaning most of it. Let's be honest, there's very little to tune. But let's talk about that.

Okay.

I know you clean, you truly do okay, and you don't just vacuum the cabinet. I mean I've seen you take that the fins out and literally decrease them and clean them.

Now, I want to know this. What is involved in tuning? When we talk about tuning, what the frick do you tune?

I mean, there is a tune like you make sure the burners are in line, like you know, there's here's a can.

You adjust the air mixture like with a with a car. I mean the flame air coming in you can't.

Yeah, yeah, I mean you make sure the whole thing is working efficiently and working in it all works in sync. And so you want to make sure it's all working in sync and correctly. Otherwise and even one thing, you just the motor, gets out of balance, you want to make sure all of that is is working well because that is what causes breakdowns. You know, we guarantee, because we know we clean it, that your system will not break down this season. So like this last summer, this

All these calls we ran this summer.

Where people who didn't get their system cleaned, and many, by the way, we're other companies. You don't who did a tune up? Yeah, but they didn't. They're like, no I got it done.

No you didn't.

We can.

Now here's the other thing. You don't have to do it winter and summer, right, you know you should do it winter and summer. The cleaning.

The cleaning. We do it twice years. Like if you're a member of ours, we come out in the in the spring and the fall. Because because again what we just said that that is happening.

That's true.

Though, that's true either ac or your furnace, especially if you can do it for thirty nine. Because if you can do it for thirty nine, that's not a whole lot of money to keep it.

We can't do it. We don't. Look, we don't.

We lose money out thirty We do it for thirty nine for new client one time.

I'll never give you that price.

A seton came all right, now, if you're a member of ours, it's one thirty nine, you're right, but you also get plumbing, electric and well it's.

Not one one if you're a member. If you're a member, it's free. It's part of it.

If you're I'm talking about our membership is nineteen dollars a month or whatever that comes right, two forty I guess this is what it is.

But that's everything.

Well, so two you get four visits, you get the electrician out, you get the uh the.

So you know it's about sixty dollars a visit.

Right if you're a member, But if you're not a member, it's one thirty nine is what I meant to say.

Now I get it, But so we'll only give that.

The only reason why we give people that price is what we're talking about here. People don't know so and when they see it, they understand. We just want you to see and understand what you and me just talk.

So you're saying, if you get them out for if you go out to a house for thirty nine, there's a good chance they're gonna call you back if there's a problem, or there's.

A good chance they're gonna become a member. So it'll see what we want.

But if they don't, they're gonna pay one thirty nine the next time, because if they see it's worth it, it's worth it for other companies will charge you one thousand dollars and call that or rejuvenation.

I'm serious.

No, I know it, I know it. I've seen it. They it's they're like three forty nine. But okay, bottom line though, the equipment is getting more expensive.

Right, Well, Tom, here's I don't know if you know this, but January first, we have no choice.

So we were just talking about prices.

What happens general, we're refrigerating now changes, So it changed from R twenty two to four ten A. At that time it was against the law like that the manufacturer cannot produce that equipment, cannot sell it to me as a as a contractor, I cannot legally install it. It is against the law. You mean the old equipment, the old equipment. And now that's changed it again. So what happens is going from four ten A to five to ten.

Oh, I want to talk about that coming up.

So you're telling me that come January, you cannot get these old systems installed.

Well, the system and they're good systems, Like if you've bollwed.

No, I know, no, I know what you're saying. The government is upping the standard. Is it going to be more efficient, is it going to be better or is it just going to be cleaner?

Better for the environment? Okay, God, what it is? So if you put in a system now you could save you can save a lot thousands, Why it's gonna go up that much the whole market? All right, we're going to talk about that, my control, We're going to.

Talk about that. I'm tell Martino. By the way, Denver Region dot com. George, I don't know he'd be honest. I had it done on my hair. You don't have to say anything. No, seriously, I did.

I did.

I mean it was really thin, and I can tell I'm getting some new growth. And I'm not telling you. You know, you need to go there for hair. But they do stem cell therapy for joints, and they do weight loss supplements that are compounded.

You save a ton of money. Denverregen dot com. I need to do that.

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Help.

You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance three all three nine to zero sixteen twenty two. Tom Martino your troubleshooter, So listen, let me just I want to go to the phones.

But quickly.

With all this talk of the cleaning for the shoulder season, We're going to offer a special. Now, there's going to be This special at thirty nine Bucks is truly special. And if you don't have it done, you're not going to get it done, okay, and you're not going you don't wait.

For your first cold snap. Please, I am.

I want you to record this show and say, God, I should have listened because some of you, not all of you, but some of you are going to face really big problems when the cold snap. So thirty nine Bucks is the normal, special special thirty nine Bucks. But I'm going to ask George for today, just for today. Let's say, can we go into an end of business today or you tell me the rest of the week. You tell me, let's do something even better than that.

Yeah, you know what we'll do twenty nine dollars get your for today. This is the best time to do it after summer, especially this hot summer where your bonus is dirty.

As I know from the summer, I know it. Get the last thing you're thinking about, it's in your furnace check. Yeah, so as soon as you turn furness on when it does be cold.

So if they get it cleaned and all that it's going to be perfect ready going into fall and winters.

So so let's can we do twenty nine for how long? Twenty nine? They just got a book it today before? Okay, business today, you got a book.

It doesn't have to be done today. Obviously it won't be, but you book it. It'll be twenty nine bucks. Okay, fixmihome dot com seven two zero five two six thirty nine thirty nine twenty nine. I swear to god, I went for coffee with my wife and I and a friend and it was twenty nine. It was twenty seven bucks or something. I mean, twenty nine dollars is going to be an incredible deal. A seven to zero five

After that, everyone can afford twenty nine bucks. I don't hear. We guarantee it will not break down till this winter.

Guarantee kay seven to zero five two six thirty nine thirty nine. I want to go to a John who wants to talk it a visa card? What's going on?

With your visa card.

John, Hey Tom, thank you, Hey man, my call.

Hey.

I kind of got involved in a scam back in June, yes a you know, or it was a somebody was calling and said they had a we had won a prize with the publisher's.

Clearing house, okay, and what happened?

This went on, and this went on for three or four days, and they.

Finally said, oh, by the way, we need you to get a visa gift card. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, And I did that time.

And it's not big bucks, so I'm not too.

Worried about it.

How much is four hundred and twenty six dollars.

And they say I currently have one hundred and.

Forty five ballance. But what's confused me? And when I two days after I got the card, I called them. I asked them to cancel the cards, them to put a whole lot.

So hold on, but I want to take I want to get this straight to help people listening right now, because if it happened to you, it's going to happen to others.

First, you're told you won an.

Award, and what were why were you going out to get this credit card? This prepaid credit card? What was the reason they gave you for doing that.

Their package included a brochure that said, hey, because they're working it through and have to work through a federal agency, the card is for the federal agency. Okay, what do you.

Mean for the federal agency? You mean to pay the taxes?

No, it wasn't paying tax and there's just a I basically get an approval for them to proceed with the boarding.

The price. Well, it makes no sense, but I get it. I get it. They just had to give you an excuse.

So they said, you were told was this a phone call or mail?

No, it happened to be a phone call.

Okay.

Right, so you're told, hey, man, you won the publisher's clearing house, but we first need you to go buy a prepaid credit card.

Is that correct?

That is correct, sir?

Okay, Then what did you do? You bought one? And what did you do?

Yeah?

And then I called them back and I gave them the information on the card.

Right, that's right, that's how it works, okay.

And then I sat down. Within less than twenty four.

Hours, I called the visa card and I said, I want you to put a hold on that card.

Now, why why did you want to put a hold on it.

Because I suspected maybe there there was some fall play going on. Oh good, I know, and I know I know I did not use the card, all.

Right, So you you called up and said I want to stop this.

I have a bad feeling about it. And what happened?

Then they actually put a whole on the card and told me it would take six eights and ninety days to get it resolved because I put in agency.

Who did you call to put a hold on it?

The visa people?

Okay? And it wasn't the scammers. It was the real visa people.

Yes, sir, it was the real visa people. I've had numerous phone calls with them.

Okay, So tell me where does it stand now? And why are you calling?

Well, it's the reason I'm calling is I just need some advice.

And what are you trying to accomplish?

You're trying to save the four hundred bucks right that instead of squandering it.

Yeah, in a nutshell, that's true. However, let me let me make you aware of something. Uh, the card was for four hundred and twenty six dollars.

No sense.

There's a balance on the card right.

Now of one and forty six dollars and eighty three cents.

So somebody already, somebody already spent it.

Oh yeah, and the month they spent is onenty fourteen.

No, wait a minute, Wait a minute, Wait a minute, hold on, hold on.

With a prepaid card, you can't spend more that's than that's on there. I mean, if it was a four hundred dollars card, they can't spend more than four hundred dollars.

Tom, I'm looking at it, and I understand what you just told me, and that was my understanding. And also and what's really confused me and says, Okay, you're telling me you spent more on the card than it was authorized, or you accepted the transactions. You're also telling me I have a balance, and them two numbers together far exceed the Are.

They saying you have a credit balance or you have a debit balance?

No, I have a balance?

Well what does that mean? You have a balance? Does it mean you have a balance you owe or a balance that's a credit.

No, it's a balance that is a credit.

Okay, well then it's then it's impossible that you could have charged one thousand dollars on a four hundred dollars card and have a one hundred dollars balance to you, it's it's all of this is impossible. So I don't even think you were talking to the right Visa people, to be honest with you.

Well, I've called them and I talked to the customer service.

Where'd you get the number to call them? Where'd you get the number?

It's on the back of the card?

Oh okay, all right, then it probably was. Listen, John, why are you calling today? What can we help you with? Because it sounds like you're in deep. What I would do is cut off all communication, rip up the card, and consider the four hundred dollars gone.

That's why I called. I was looking for your advice.

Well, that's my hold on. That's my advice. That's not saying.

But what I don't understand is if you put a before by the time you put a hold on the card, three hundred of it was already spent.

Is that right?

Oh?

More than that?

Well? How can it be more? If it was a four card.

Tom, I don't know that. That's why I'm calling you, because.

Okays, did the visa people offer you a statement?

The only thing Visa has had told me is that they they uh disallowed the my dispute transaction?

Then tell me why or give me any kate John, John, listen John, as part of that card, is there a place you can go and look at the charges that were made?

Is there online access?

Yeah?

Did you?

Did you sign on and look at the charges?

I did?

And okay where were the charges? Where were the charges made?

Oh?

My own mind?

Uh, I want to say a lot of them were made.

I got it.

I thought I had that in front of me with because which is roughly John?

Where were they made all over the country?

Or yeah, quite a few of them were made in Brooklyn, New York.

Yeah?

Okay, So where does this stand right now? Is anyone trying to get money from you?

Nobody's trying to get money from me.

I am trying to get the visa guys to explain me why they disallowed my transaction?

What transaction did they disallow?

Well?

I disputed the money that I was to charge John on the card.

John.

Now I understand you're saying because you went you did it too late, You did it too late, You authorized the card, you gave them the number, then you called back and changed your mind, and in between they charged up a thousand bucks. So that's why, John, you made a mistake. You fell for a scam. May I ask how old you are?

Yes, sir, sony eight years old.

Okay, well you sound pretty spry. I mean you knew something was up, John, you just can't. There's not much we can do about it. But I'm glad you told us so other people will be aware of it.

John, why don't you use one hundred and thirty six dollars and then you've only lost that I.

Use, he can't use.

If he does that, they're going to pop him for the rest of the money that was charged on that. If he ever acknowledges that he has any part of it and puts a signature to it, he's done. If he makes a withdrawal of that one hundred and thirty bucks, he's over. They'll come after him for the entire balance.

I think. Let me go ahead, John, make it quick. Go ahead, sir.

The card is on hold and there is a balance of one hundred and forty five, and their.

Position is, once it.

Gets resolved, we'll give you a new card with one hundred and forty five, all right?

If they do that, fine, If they don't find I would just leave it alone at this point. My theory is if you acknowledge one of the things, you acknowledge all of the things.

I'm Tom Martino, we have more coming up.

Go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel Roofing dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content. Time for an insurance check up free, no obligation. In comparison, call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now three oh three seven seven to one help. You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance three oh

Five to five.

So, George, so we're going to do twenty nine bucks. You got to book it today. What time do you stop taking calls for that? I would call it four five. Let's just say by till five o'clock. Okay, I have to book by five o'clock. You got to book it, and that mean it can be done anytime in the future. Twenty nine bucks for the full extreme clean and tune and the only people that really do the extreme clean. Okay, And the twenty nine is a steal because even thirty

Talking about like if you if your system is ten years plus, you you should consider getting it replaced before.

The end of the year with the new efficiency ones.

Yeah, yeah, it's it's not really the efficiency is going to be the same. It's just it's it's the refrigerant that's changing. Oh okay, And so because those lights, no, I.

Didn't mean, I didn't mean in the future. I meant if you have a ten.

Year old old one, you can get a better efficiency one now.

Yeah, but this is you're buying today versus January is virtually the same quality, same efficiency.

The only difference is prices are.

And the prices are going to be way way high, thousands higher. I'm telling you, we have no choice. Like that's the whole industry and so now, like, I mean, if that's you, like, now's.

The time and you're going to do a special.

Yeah, we'll do fifteen hundred off if you whatever.

You want or need a replacement, fifteen hundred off any.

Replacement and doesn't cost you anything at all to get the find out at that price. Yeah.

So that's seventeen zero five two six thirty nine thirty nine.

Okay, Margaret, you need an assist, You need some assistance. I'm not sure with what market? What's going on?

Well it sounds easy, but it's old. I need to buy a tell or have a television shit repaired, and I don't know where to go.

Okay, what kind of TV?

You tried a couple people.

And they all kind of TV? Margaret? Margaret, Yeah, what kind of TV do you have? Dear?

It's a Samsung?

Is it an Led? The new one? New kind flat screens?

Yeah?

How old is it? How old is it?

I'm thinking maybe two two and a half years.

Wait a minute, what the hell's wrong with it if it's only two and a half years old?

Well, first the sound went out? What and now everything's gone?

What?

That doesn't sound? So where did you buy this year? A couple of years ago.

I bought it best Buy and that's not going to work out. I'm not a member, they're any longer and so forth.

So well, best Buy, doesn't I remember to.

Get somebody to fix it? Can they fix the flax?

How much? Can you remember what you paid for it? Because the Dane think? What size is it?

Wait about I think I paid like in the high force.

I know, I don't know anybody who can fix anything for less than half of that. I mean, what I'm saying is they're damn near talk. They're damn near disposable.

Yeah, okay, but.

Hold on, Margaret, not really surprised, Margaret. Do you know what size it is?

Yeah?

It's forty inches?

Damn. I just like this one behind me, this son here, let's see. Is it off right now? What the hell? Why is it off? Anyway? This one behind me, we're just talking about it. If it's off, I might have turned it off by mistake. But anyway, the one behind me here, I've had for so many years. I don't know what would go wrong with it in a couple of years. Did you have any voltage spikes?

No?

Tell me what makes that is the.

One that's so old Samsung. I love Samsung. No, no, I'm serious.

I mean I've never heard of a Samsung going out in a couple of years, unless that had a voltage spike.

Let me let me just see. Hold on, I had the name of a.

Guy one time. Let me see if I still have it. I had the name of a guy that.

Fixed mine once. I did have him come out, not for this one, but for another one for a for a TV repair, and it was it was weird. He fixed it, it was amazing and it just worked. I gotta find him and this might be him. Hold on, Nope, Nope, I can't. I had a guy that did, actually he what was wrong with mine.

It was something really simple with the eye for the remote or something.

It wasn't coming on or off. But I can't. I can't really tell you.

It's almost it's almost worth just buying a brand new one.

I'm not saying.

That she could go she could go to Costco and buy like a fifty inch for like three hundred bucks.

I know it. Yeah, I would say this one, you know, it's really oh oh wait wait, I thought you said best Buy, but you said Costco. Listen, and you're not a member of Costco is what you meant, right.

I'm not now, but I mean I could always join up, but I don't know if it'd be worth it. Just get this done. It's say, well, they're.

Going to best Buy, they have pretty similar deals.

Yeah, I've been tying the best by that who I usually go to.

Listen.

I'm not going to keep you, Tom, I just okay, thank you very much for calling.

I'm sorry, I just didn't have any good advice on that.

Now, Larry.

Larry wants to a question on voting, which is a weird question.

What's going on, Larry?

Hi?

Tom, Hey, I just had a question about what I might do about I'm continuous about the one man, one vote concept. When the local sheriff here in Kansas, in the county i'm in, has decided during the Republican primary. You know, everybody that is not registered Republican is not allowed to vote for coming sheriff.

I don't understand that.

Oh wait a minute, because he's only running in the primary. No one's opposing him.

Well, yeah, there was three three public and running in the primary, but that decided.

It seems to me.

No, I get what you're saying.

No, I get what you're saying, hold on a second, that this is something I've.

Long wondered about.

If you can hang on, Larry, I'm Tom Martino. We have more coming up on the Troubleshooter Show. Go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel Roofing dot com.

You don't pay a.

Cent until you're content, wait time for an insurance check up free, no obligation. In comparison, call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now three all three seven seven to one help. You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance three all three nine two zero sixteen twenty two. Hi Tom Martino here three O three

Also, there's a pre authorization on these visa cards.

This guy called in and said he was caught up in a scam where he had to buy a prepaid visa card that ended up chart that what it ended up doing is owing more than he had authorized. He had a four hundred dollars prepaid card. Somebody said that there's a pre authorization on there that.

Allows you to.

That they might take more money from your bank to prepay for other charges. You got to make sure you didn't put any bank account information in there, sir, or that could be continually taking money out of your bank. That's very important. Let's go back to the phones, and has a question. He's in Kansas and says he thinks it's unfair that with the Sheriff's department there were only three Republicans.

Running, no Democrats.

Therefore it was only decided in the primary, and there was in the general election. It's automatic now, Larry, technically that's correct, but there were there were I don't know what to tell you about that. I mean, if that's the system and there were no Democrats to run, what difference would it make if you could have voted?

What?

What do you mean?

You mean you can't vote for a Republican because I'm registered I'm not registered Democrat.

You can you can vote for a Republican you can. Here's what what I mean. Here's what I'm saying. Just because there's a primary that did not decide it, they still have to have they still have to go through the general election, even if they're unopposed.

It was decided in the primary. Our new sheriff has been decided.

And well, well I know it's decided, Hey Dragon, help you of them wrong? But if you're unopposed, don't you still go through the general election?

Yeah, because that's that's what happened to Biden here, because he was unopposed for the Democrat.

Party and then he got he got the nomination. No, no, but the general election.

Let's say let's say that that there was no Democrat running for an office or no Republican, they still have to go through a general election, right, Yeah, I mean because there's also the possibility.

Of writing ballots. Larry, Sure, I need to look up.

I need to look up the race you're talking about, because I've I've heard of people being unopposed where the primary in essence chooses the candidate, and because the candidate is unopposed, they they kind of automatically win the general election.

But there but but.

They do go through the general election where people can either vote for them or not.

They're not in Kansas, they're not allow it's not going to be there's there's not going to be a sheriff on the November ballot.

Really from correct, That's okay.

Right, that's about it.

It was determined only by the elite jew that are redistered Republican.

I get exactly what you're saying. I get what you're saying. But then I'm going to ask you again.

Let's say that is true, what would you have preferred it to be?

Well, it seems to me that it makes sense that they should have voted for two and then those two people should have went to the November election, should have been But if they're both, everybody to choose from them.

But if they're both Republicans, that's not the way it works. Each party puts up a candidate or a number of candidates. The winner of that then goes to the general election. I've never heard of it. What county is this for?

What sheriff Pratt County pr Att?

Correct?

Okay, I'm gonna look it up because I I just never heard of such a thing.

I thought, even when you're.

Unopposed, you go through a general election, and I'm asking God, I want to know if my YouTube warns know that or not. By the way, three oh three seven one three talk seven one three eight two five on, hold on and I'll get an answer for that.

Then Brenda wants.

To talk about security deposits, all of that coming up on the Troubleshooter Show.

I'm here to help you. All you have to do is call three oh.

Three Martino as well three oh three six two seven eight four six ' six and you can call that twenty four to seven, leave a message and we will call you back.

That's three oh three Martino. More coming up.

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Leave time for an insurance check up free no obligation comparison call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now three oh three seven seven to one help. You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance three all three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.

Yeah, Ripped of.

News needs who you don't have?

Come run anxious as can?

Shooter's gonna help?

Come man.

Six is the Troubleshooter Show. No, Tom Martino, Hi.

Tom Martino, You're troubleshooter three all three seven one three talk three h three seven one three eight two five five.

This hour brought to you by John Fuller Fuller Law.

Get a price on your personal injury and personal attention and immediate information John Fuller And it's uh personal injury COO dot com.

Hey, what is going on right now?

You need to know about security deposits, So let's talk about that, Brenda, what's happening?

Hi Brandon, I rented a house with a three thousand dollars deposit. It wasn't returned within the sixty days, so I know I can super treble damages.

Yeah.

I did eventually get the refund from them, but it wasn't obviously trouble trouble damages worth If I cash the check, can I steal?

Let's talk about that.

How long after the sixty days did you get it?

It was probably two weeks.

Okay, here's what I'm going to tell you, Brenda. The treble damages are usually awarded after sixty days when a tenant writes to the landlord or management company and says, according to state law, you owe me this, and if you don't do it within so many days, I'm going to sue for trouble damages. Now here's the problem. You didn't go through the process and it was two weeks late. You could possibly if it was egregious and months later

But I want to.

I'm looking up some court precedent on this because I kept some and I can let you know, but it'll take me a minute to look it up. And when I look into when I look into the law books for precedents, if you hold on, I'll do that after it'll take a few minutes.

You can even listen if you want, and you don't have to hang on. That's up to you. But I will do it, okay.

And what we're asking about is do you have to go through that process of warning or is it the mere fact that sixty days have expired gives you treble damages.

I'll ask I'll look that up.

And by the way, Core precedent is previous law based on previous cases. All right, a couple of cool things here. Now, somebody said that they want to know why I.

Detest Where is it I'm looking for? Oh yeah, why I don't like.

Trading cars in on a lease And they want to know why.

Okay, I want to talk about that.

When you lease a car, there are many things done that resemble a purchase, but they're not. And for example, there's not a true interest rate. It's called a lease factor, and what that means is they just add money to your monthly payment. And there's also something called an acquisition cost, which is a purchase. So here's what happens. A leasing company like ABC Leasing. They'll buy a car. That's called the acquisition cost.

That car then is leased to you, but it's owned by ABC Leasing. You pay ABC Leasing a monthly fee to lease the car. That fee is based.

On the amount of use you will do on it. So ABC Leasing went out and bought the apple. Okay, that's the car. And they might have bought the apple from a dealership, it doesn't matter.

They bought the apple.

Now you take that apple and you say to ABC Leasing, over the next three years, I'm only going to.

Eat half of it.

At the end of that three years, I'm going to give back the other half.

Then the payment is based on that.

That is how a lease works. The problem comes in with a trade. If you trade in a car and it has any negative equity whatsoever, the entire reason for leasing goes out the window. The benefit of lower payments and the benefit of paying for only what you use of the car goes out the window. And you're also paying for the previous car. It's a bad idea. It's better to sell that car. It's better to pay off

That's pretty damn good. It's a nice car.

But what you don't realize is if you truly bought down the acquisition cost. That payment could have been two hundred and eighty or two hundred and ninety. So a lot of people don't understand the workings of a lease and therefore end up getting screwed. I hope that answers it now on some other issues, because it's really important.

We were talking about price controls.

There is no secret that the Democrats are now talking about price controls, and what they feel is that they're doing that to combat greedflation, meaning the part of the rising prices, they say, is attributed to corporate greed. But if you look at the actual economic figures, the truth of the matter is corporate profits.

Have gone down in general.

Now, I know that there are a lot of rich corporations and all of that crap, but they've gone down. And grocery stores, which she was targeting, they specifically have gone down and their entire profit margin is just one point six percent. Now, I'd like to know what you think about price controls. I've had some people in business tell me that the way they fight price controls is simply the manufacturers will not produce enough and people are going to run into shortages.

Okay, now, in twenty twenty.

Three, the profit margin hit one point six for supermarkets, the lowest ever.

Corporations.

They went down as far as their actual corporate profits. They're still making a lot of money, but their profits margin went down.

Now, the only thing that can truly.

Make aggregate prices rise if you look at an economic model, is the destruction of purchasing power through increased currency without anything backing it. You can't just increase the money supply without any power behind it. That comes from government spending and printing money.

It just if you think about it, that's.

The only thing that can truly raise prices across a number of sectors. There's no way that dozens of sectors of businesses can get together and orchestrate this increase.

Now, is their corporate greed.

Probably some people take advantage of it, some individuals, some small businesses, but in general that's not the case. If corporations, what if they truly were the cause of.

Inflation and price controls or the.

Sole then basically Argentina would have enjoyed the lowest inflation in the world because that's where price controls were the strictest in recent history. So I'm just going to say that also, there have been proposals to forgive debt that is akin to increasing the money supply. Again, I don't think that people understand fully the economic impact of messing with the economy as far as supplying demand and free market.

The one thing we can do is make sure it is a free market.

And that's what a judge did when he ruled that Google has to be broken up.

I don't know if you've heard of that, but that.

Is a major, major news that I haven't heard anyone talking about. This is gonna be bigger than any breakup in history, including the telephone. It's gonna be the biggest breakup since the phone company.

And it will come.

So Google is being broken up it and I'm telling you it's major, especially for any any business, not just.

Giant business and tech businesses. But if you have a small business and you pay pay per clicks, and you and you go on a bidding war for that and you're spending money out the nose with Google, that's all gonna change. We'll talk about that and more coming up. Get your calls in at.

Three oh three seven one three talk three oh three seven one three eight, two five five Go with a sure thing Denver's best roofer Excel Roofing dot com.

You don't pay a cent until you're content.

Please time for an insurance check up free, no obligation. In comparison, call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now three all three seven seven to one.

Help.

You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance three all three nine to zero, sixteen twenty two. Okay, I did look up court precedence, and I did look up I know she called in about it. She wanted to know on uh, what would happen with the security deposit if.

It was withheld for sixty days plus two weeks. So the law says that landlords must return a security deposit in thirty days unless extended to sixty days by written lease, but under no circumstances, and a landlord withhold the security deposit for more than sixty days without a detailed explanation, well, excuse me. The detailed explanation has to come within the sixty days of what they're withholding and why. So in other word, sixty days is the limit either for the

In court precedence and past cases, it's not crystal clear that sixty day limit is required before you can write a demand for the deposit. Then you write a demand, and if you don't get the deposit in a timely fashion, you can sue for treble damages.

That's after the sixty days.

But what if it comes while you're considering the demand letter.

So sixty days expires.

And you find out that you're entitled to treble damages, and you're about to write a letter to the landlord, and two or three weeks later.

The deposit shows up.

In that case, if the landlord can explain why it was withheld more than sixty days, the courts may not award you treble damages, especially because they were never warned.

Now, what if.

The landlord had no good reason to withhold it and was just acting like a jerk. It could be that the courts would allow treble damages, but it's not guaranteed, so you see the secret here, not the secret, but the strategy here is for the tenant to act immediately after sixty days to demand it.

Or pay treble damages.

So that's what's weird, is is that after sixty days you don't even get treble damages unless you don't give the deposit back.

They see what I'm saying.

So it's sixty days technically, but you don't automatically get treble damages after sixty days. You still have to demand it. And that's where it gets weird because if you didn't get a chance to demand it and they sent it, it's a presumption that they would have sent it upon demand. I hope that makes sense, Josh. What's on your mind today? Hello, Josh, I'm Tom Martinez.

What's happening here?

Well, I'm in a situation with Social Security that they pretty much put me in a checkmate move.

Okay, tell me what's going on. Start from the beginning. What happened, Josh?

Well, I have two conditions. One is called Charco Merry tooth disorder. It's a disorder that basically attacks the bones and ligaments in your feet.

Okay, so you have two metal. I don't have to know them specifically, but are they considered dehabilitating.

Yes.

The other one is uh is in stage renal disease stage five. Now Josh on home dialysis.

Okay, Josh, Now you're on two medical ok you have two medical conditions that render you disabled.

Right.

They are qualifiers in the Blue Book for disability. Yes, okay, especially if they're coexisting.

Okay, Now here's what I want to know. Have you ever been on Social Security disability?

No?

So you are applying for Social Security disability?

Yes?

And you got Did you get turned down? How many times the first time? Only?

No?

I'm on my appeal.

Now I understand. I'm asking this though on your first appeal or your I need to know how many times were you turned down?

Twice?

Okay? So you went through the appealed process once?

Already correct, Now I'm in a judication process.

I got it. So, Josh, you applied for disability, you were rejected. Yes, you appealed it, you were rejected, and now you're on your third round.

Yes?

Do you have an attorney representing you?

I've been turned down by five different law firms because of what had happened in my situation.

Okay, Now, Josh, I just want to explain this.

I want to explain this to people with social security disability. Law firms usually work on what's called a contingency basis. That means that retroactive from the date you applied, you will be paid in full if you win, and they will take a small portion of what you win. Now, having said that, there is a reason in my mind that five law firms would turn you down, and that reason is usually they don't believe you have a good case.

Well, since they declared my disability date different than the dates I applied, they took away my back pay, so there's no incentive for their say.

Oh, there's no incentive for an attorney to take it because there's no lump sum.

Well, there's two reasons why they won't take it. Second reason is because they declared me medically disabled, but they also declared me financially ineligible.

Well, I've never heard of say medically no.

Haven't me neither. And here's the ironic part is, I worked pretty much most of my life as a social worker as a systems navigator, so I speak the language and everything, and they got.

Can I ask you something, Josh, When you say you were rendered disabled, you said, they declared you disabled after your application date. Why is that? Why is that?

Well, that's what I'd have to go to court to find out. But the reason why they But I turned in my application in October of twenty twenty three. They declared me medically disabled in April of twenty twenty four.

Why and why?

I mean that took away some of the retro didn't take away all of it.

I have some I have inter stated renal disease and that's uh. But they didn't have my medical records by that time. So since then, I've turned in lots of records with my other condition.

All right, all right, okay, guys, Josh.

Reason one, you're saying, they declared they declared you disabled later than your application date. But then second thing, I don't understand they declared you disabled, but financially ineligible for disability.

I've never heard of that, so I sold, well, well.

Hold on, I'm asking you, Josh, hold on, I'm asking you to explain.

It to me.

Not whether you agree with it, but what is their reasoning that you are financially ineligible for disability?

They say that I have fifty nine thousand dollars in cash that I'm stall somewhere.

Okay, I get it now, I totally get it. Yeah, that you have to spend It's called spending down. You have to spend down your money before they kick in. So where do they get the idea you had in October?

When I applied, I had, I had nothing.

The money that you had was it in the bank.

We went back four years ago. So here's what they told me I have to do.

It's called the federal look back. Here's what I need to know.

Yes, they declared you had fifty nine dollars fifty nine thousand dollars in surplus funds with the federal look back.

Is that right?

That's correct? Now told me to remedy it in court. I need to have every cash withdrawal that I've made, an ATM from twenty and a receipt showing what I purchased with that cat.

That's right, that's right. They want to see that you spent it.

I can't do that. Yeah, and I I don't have a seats for cash.

That I No one does. No one does.

I told him, I said, Josh, Josh, I have to tell you, Josh, I have to tell you.

In all the years I've been doing this and handling every case you can think about. This is the first time I've ever heard of them being such a stickler. Usually general explanations of a spend down is accepted. A general explanation is accepted. I don't understand. In fact, we've had people that declared that they lost it gambling, but I have.

So That's where I'm at.

And hold on, hold on, I know what I have to do.

We need to get an attorney on for social security disability.

And there is someone I use often.

He's not on the referral list, but he knows his social security disability game. I don't know if you've ever gone on to him. Pete McGuire, did you, Josh?

No, sir, Hey Josh.

But how old are you?

Why does that matter?

Well, look, because once you're sixty seven with regular social security, the amount of money you have doesn't count.

You could have twenty three million dollars in a bank.

And if you're sixty seven, your social security is not affected by it.

And I hate to interrupt, but I also am still fighting for my SSD I and in the appeal process because I believe I have more work credits than they have.

Yeah, I'm not going to get into that right this minute.

But that that would change. They wouldn't have to look back if I had SSDI.

How old are you, Josh.

I'm fifty one.

Okay, hold on a second, Okay, Josh, hold on, we got more coming. Retta go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel Roofing dot com.

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Nine.

Tom Martino, you're a troubleshooter three oh three seven to one three talks seven one three each two five five. Hey.

Before going back to Josh, before that, I want to ask Jim what his comment is on renting.

Go ahead, Jim.

Yeah.

One of the things that I've had tenants try to do to me say they never got the letter. Ah, I've been able. I've been able to show that it's by proof of mailing that I've mailed it the way within the sixty days you know, certified mail. Yeah, and that you know, so there's they're not above from defrauding the landlord by saying they never got that. I know, I know, and so I've I've learned. I was I was taught a lesson a long time ago, and I've learned from that.

Jim, thank you. That's a very good that's a very good topic.

Also, I think people should text and email as well. Again, I believe the laws is notification. I'm not sure if the law specifies the mail. Okay, So Josh with the Social Security again, I looked up past court hearings and I'm trying to get our expert on. Pete McGuire, attorney at law Kachina. I think you did call. He's not around right now.

I left him a message, Tom, Okay, if.

We can, we'll get him back on. But I want to just give you a preview of what I found. That when you are looking for this disability insurance from Social Security, you must have receipts. This is what they say, and invoices or bank statements that can back up the withdrawals or contracts for payment of something, or receipts or bills of sale, letters of communication, texts, emails. The look back period they say is three years, not four. And that's about it.

In general, it's not unusual to ask for this documentation, but.

We'll ask our attorney about it. The next thing I want to ask you, though, is.

You I have some of that documentation, good, just don't have all of it. I have all my bank records everything.

Well, how much how much do they say you're keeping if you have some of the records?

Like?

How much? You can't they?

I won't know till I go to court.

No, No, what I mean is this the original amount they said you had that you had to show is how much? Fifty nine yep?

And they won't tell me how they came up with that number.

So they came up with fifty nine thousand in excess funds that you have to show you spent down. Gret Did you have fifty nine grand in your bank?

No?

Well at one time, yeah, four years ago.

Okay, they can only go back. They can only go back thirty six months.

Yep.

So I sold a house when when November of twenty twenty.

Okay, so then from the time you applied it was only three years. Yeah, they can look back at that, sure, and what were you what were your everything? What was your profit?

When it was all said and done, after I split it with in the divorce, I ended up with like eighty thousand dollars.

Okay, Now that eighty grand is going to be a subject of inquiry.

So how do you you're lucky they went from eighty down to fifty nine? How did they do that?

Well, because they just want to know the cash that I pulled out of the ATM. That's all they want is the cash I pulled out of the ATM. And then they want receipts for everything I paid.

Oh the cash, you.

Mean they don't care about the What about the other money? Where'd the other money go?

Well, I mean living expenses.

Okay, that's what I mean. Okay, So they don't.

So what they're saying is, we know you had eighty grand, but you took fifty nine thousand in cash that we have to have accounted for.

Yeah, and I don't know how they came up with that figure, neither do I.

I have no idea did they give you a hint how they came up with it.

When I talked to mister well, a person from the regional office, they said, you put it in a computer and that's that. And then he called me a medicaid fraud. So that's why I'm not kidding my.

Benefits Medicaid fraud or Medicare.

I'm sorry called me a medicaid fraud because I'm also on medicaid.

How did you get okay?

Well, Medicaid is not predicated on equity. It's predicated on income. You can be on Medicaid and have a lot of artwork and all kinds of stuff. You could have cars, I mean, you can have a house.

Medicaid only is concerned now since Obamacare with income, so Medicaid is well, then you're not a medicaid fraud.

It doesn't matter. There are a lot of rich people on medicaid because they don't have income, but they have property and they have other things.

Yeah, and I have nothing in my name except for a truck with twenty five hundred bucks.

And again it wouldn't matter with medicaid. With Medicaid, all that matters is income. But I'm concerned about the other stuff.

They're talking about some fifty nine thousand cash and they won't tell you how they got to that. I'm telling you that it sounds like they're I don't know what is going on, but what we're going to do is mark this, you know, let's mark this pending Kachina and let's try to get Peede on tomorrow maybe to.

Talk about it.

All right, let's try three oh three seven one three talks. Sandra, Oh, I got to take a break, Sander, I'll come right back to Okay, dere's just hang on this.

Uh.

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A car?

My daughter's car transmission died, so just looking to see if they put it out there to see if anybody has a reasonable priced car.

Now, listen, what let me ask you something about your daughter? Does she work?

Yep, she works, she works. He's just doesn't have a lot of money because you got this car a couple of years ago and then it's been really pretty good for her and then it decided the transmission went out.

So well, let's let okay a few other questions. Do you know how much it's gonna cost to fix it. Might be better to fix it then to get another car.

We've been looking through it. It's a two thousand and three Kia. And from what we talked to Shardan Auto Tech and a couple other places, a transmission place there, it's too old. They can't get the part.

Ah, okay, So then that's where we're okay. I have another question or so how many miles on it?

Oh?

God?

I think it's one one fifty maybe something like.

That, okay? And can she afford any kind of a payment at all?

Maybe a slight one?

And does she have good credit or bad credit?

I think it's pretty good. She's, you know, been in an apartment off and on, so I think she would be able to do something. I just can't ford a lot. She's gonna try.

I'll tell you what a kachina. Let's get her on tomorrow for car day. Okay, tomorrow's car day.

We'll have her up.

See if our car experts have any ideas or any old cars.

I'm Tom Martinez.

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