Ye'll ripped up news and need advice, so you don't help you come a
run in just as fast as we can. Shooter's gonna help come. Ma
Dix is the Troubleshooter Show. No Tom Martine, Hi Tom Martino here,
Welcome to the show. Three zero three seven one three talk three oh three
seven one three eight two five five. Here to help you solve problems,
to answer questions, to take complaints, to make your life just a little
easier. What we need to do is simply help you. And all you
have to do is call today. I have Brendan Killing with me. We'll
talk to in a little while on UH made in the shade, on window
coverings and the window coverings business. And we always talk to different people about
different businesses to see how they're doing and what we can do to help you.
So welcome to the show. One in all this hour brought to you
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way lower than normal plumbing contractors. Three oh three eight six two five,
five, five four. Susie's turn about a security deposit and we're going to
talk to Susie. Susie, what is happening with you? Hello, Susie,
Hi Tom, thanks for taking my call. What's going on? I'm
helping my daughter draft a letter to her landlord to challenge security depositure. When
when did she move out? She moved out? Well, it was the
end of December, but it was up in January. At the end of
January December, but her lease was until January. Well, what is that?
She moved out? But when did she pay through? She paid through
to January to January? What thirty first? Well, in other words,
did she leave a month early or did she pay every dime? I need
to know that. Did she paid every dime? And then? Yes,
she paid it, but she left early? Well, she got moved for
her job. Okay, but technically, technically she was still rent. This
is important. There's a reason I'm asking. Technically the lease was up at
the end of January, it was mid January, Okay, mid Okay,
Let's say the lease was up mid fi January. She paid through mid January,
Yes she did. Okay, Then it's from that point forward that you
count the time the landlord has to get back to you with an explanation and
a refund. So how when did the land We'll give her an explanation in
a refund, but she wants to dispute. I understand when did the landlord
though? When did the landlord give the explanation? And the uh we got
the letters dated January eleventh? Okay, so they did everything correctly. In
fact, wait a minute, every kind of did it. They kind of
did it early. Okay, So good landlord. I'm not going to say
she was was And so what is she disputing specifically? Okay? So she
actually has videos and pictures time stamps when she moved in. He's charging her
for four sets of blinds because the cords were beyond repair. But in the
pictures and video you can see the girl had a cat, so there was
a little like cat bite and they were tied up, so she assumed she
tied them up for the cat. But she actually has video that she took
for her friends that you can see that in the picture. So when she
moved out though she didn't have Did she have a walk so? Did she
have a walk through when she moved in? No, she didn't have.
I mean he showed her the apartment. No, she didn't do a walk
through and a walkout. Well, it was a difference from the mini blind
though, so when she moved in apparently there was some cat bites when she
moved out. What No, the cords were all tied up like high and
nodded so that they wouldn't hang. Who tied them up? She think Susie
who tied them higher? Tenant? They were like that when she moved in
the prior she left. Did she leave them that way? Yes? And
now what Now they're saying that because they were tied up like that, they
need to be replaced. Yes, he's replacing four of them. And what
is the reason for replacing those? He says due to chords nodded beyond repair.
Okay, so first of all, we just happened to have Brendan Killian
with made in the shade. I can see where if you nodded them up
enough there'd be a pain in. They asked to get out. Well,
has she shown the landlord that actual video and what does he say? Yeah,
I mean, does he acknowledge they were like that when she moved in
the problem is what I'm worried about. She didn't acknowledge it to him.
But she has a video thorough She has a video and she has pictures.
Yeah. Does the video do the video on pictures identify when they were taken?
Yes? Okay, but the landlord is still insisting. And how much
of the bill is for that four hundred and forty dollars and fourteen cents for
how many? For how many shades? Four blinds? And the interesting party?
She said that about right, Brendan, Yeah, that's actually a pretty
good deal. That's I guess you had to do it. Yeah, the
whole time she lived there, she never used these blinds. They were over
he was just tied up. The windows either wide open, they said they
were. She didn't use them much, but this isn't Connecticut. She didn't
use them much, but she said they worked, so she didn't. She's
young young, Well, it changes that for sure, but the laws are
pretty much uniform. I want to know something, Susie. There's a few
things that you mentioned cat bites. What do you mean she said there was
like little cats cat scratch and it looked like bites where they saw her cat.
She was assuming they were from her cat. And where were these scratches?
She said, I'm a little like knobs that are on like where you
pull the cord up. That's why they looked like a little wood knobs.
Playing with them. Well, yeah, but hold on, they were tied
up by a previous tenant. How would they what mark they were? But
he said the cords are beyond repair. She was saying, you could see
how you could not untie them, Susie, they were so her husband moved
her in and he saw them when he moved in. Maybe he changed him
out because of the kitty scratches and bites on the cords. I don't know.
Did he specify moves you? You just okay, Susie, your daughter
has a cat? No, my daughter doesn't have a cat. It was
the prior tenant. They got it, okay, And he told her she
had a cat, and she got a letter saying, sorry, your cat
died from to the prior tenant. Get it. So she's disputing it because
they were my husband saw them when he helped her move. Yeah, I
agree, but that's four hundred dollars she's got how much? How much else
is she disputing? What else is she So she's acknowledging the chip town atop
or taper fell. I don't want to know what she's acknowledging. What is
she okay? What is she disputing? The only she the range lower drawer
to the stove is he's due to rust and pitying beyond repair. But when
she she was raised on the ocean in Connecticut. When she moved in,
the refrigerator broke and he replaced it, but it was rusted, and he
said that happens with the salt water. So she's like, I never used
the drawer. Well I can't. He can't blame her for rusting. That's
normal wear and tear. Exactly how did she rust the appliance? She didn't.
She's a professional, I mean she wasn't. Okay, So he's blaming
her because something in the apartment was rusted. There's no way, man's no
way. And how much of it is for rusting. That's only one hundred
and twenty dollars before it. That's a lot of money for rusting. How
is he proposing that or how is he suggesting that she made something rust He
didn't. He just he bullet points. Okay, what else point? I
think she has no points? Yeah, the last one, I just feel
I'm not sure if it's successful or not. So she's unsure whether it include
this. She had little Valko things you put up on the windows, and
they're a little small ones in that their heart. They're easy to get down.
So for like dark shades, it's just like a lot of light.
And so he's charging her fifty dollars to remove the adhesive residue from two bedroom
windows. How many windows? He says? Two? In here. I
wouldn't dispute that. Here's what I would do. Yeah, I would,
she was I would Okay, I would definitely go for the five hundred and
twenty bucks. That's bull crap. Well that's how we feel because he knows
she moved to Texas and she's not there, so we're just kind of yeah.
But unfortunately, to do something about it, you either get an attorney
or you're going to have to be there for small claim scores. No,
they give her a free trip for her work to go back to wrap up
listen, so she can schedule that. But I just wanted to know when,
so you don't think you should ask for receipts. And she wants to
send him a letter, well, then technically he doesn't have to give her
receipts. But okay, also, let me explain something. The four hundred
is not excessive for restringing four blinds according to our expert here and made in
the shape. Oh, I understand that. But she did he replace?
Hold on? Hold on, hold on? Did he replace the blinds or
restring them? What did he do, Susie? He said he replaced.
Replace. Then that's a good price. Man, It's probably cheaper to replace
them. It is. I mean, what I'm saying is is he's not
exaggerating. I don't care about receipts. That it doesn't matter. Actually,
if he got a price on new blinds and didn't replace them, you still
owe it. So if you destroyed them, so it doesn't matter that it's
a loss. It's not. People think, well, you prove that you
did that. You don't have to prove anything. All you have to do
is show that the blinds were irreparable in the same way when she moved in.
I still don't understand how she used the blinds. How did she use
them when they were tied up, because she had them kind of like all
tied in the middle, so you could pull them up and down, but
they were all nodded in the middle. I mean, if she didn't have
video, I think she would be in trouble. She made him shorter.
She made him shorter so the cat would mess with him. But you we
had before. I know. Well, if you think about, if you
think about an argument in front of the JUDGEO, all he's got to say
is they weren't tied up when you took this video. Your friends were there,
you already moved in, you tied them up. It's just going to
be a matter of credibility. But it's worth going to small claims court for
five hundred and twenty bucks. Yeah, I think so. And she's got
a free trip there, so it's no good. And that's what she has
to do. She has to go online. What county is it? You
know it's in mil for I can't remember what county, Okay, So she
goes online, she fills out the form, and some jurisdictions will allow first
class mail or registered mail, but most of the time you have to have
him served. You can hire somebody to do that and then show up.
I mean, you show up with the proof and just hope that John here's
probably going to be mediation demanded first. So that's one trip. And they're
telephonically mark they they since COVID, they do a lot of this telephonically,
so they might allow you to do a conference for settlement by phone. Yeah,
I'm going to call the county clerk and see if they could tell me
that. Okay, So, okay, that's what I needed to know.
So start there and please let us know what goes on, because this sounds
much like everything that happens with landlords. They take their best shot and then
they let the they let the tenant fight it out. Three oh three seven
one three talk three oh three seven one three eight two five five. Pro
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Go with a sure thing Denver's best roofer Excel roofing dot com. You
don't pay a cent to your content. Time for an insurance checkup free,
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insurance companies. Find out now three all three seven seven 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 Martine here three all three seven one three talks seven
one three eight two five fight. Hey, what did we do for that
woman who put three thousand dollars down on cabinet doors for a company out in
North Carolina, Cabinet Door World? Did we assign that to somebody? Because
I saw this dangling call that and we had some other complaints about the same
company. Can you check and see, Kachina what we did of that?
And peep? Meanwhile, people be aware of cabinet World. Okay, the
cabinet door World. I'm sorry. Cabinet door World seems to be a big
problem. Connie. What's going on with you? Connie? See, we're
always trying to stave off these ripoffs before you get hooked? Connie? What's
going on with you? You called? Did you call yesterday? I'm having
a problem with the Horizon. Uh. Several months ago, I decided I
was going to switch to the Horizon, so I went into their store on
what's with any bowl or yeah? Boths? I talked very grueful, where
were you you were going to switch to? Where? Connie? From Verizon
to what? No? I was going to switch to Z? Okay?
Got it? Okay? And what? Well? I hope this isn't confusing.
So what happened is he looked at my phone and he I was going
to upgrade to the Samsung twenty three whatever, but he looked at my phone.
He said he really liked the phone I had and talked to me a
little bit and I told him, well, I want to switch sue Verizon.
But he was in a hurry and so was I. So he told
me to call at and D get a transfer PIM and call him back.
And in the meantime he gave me a little card with a SIM card on
it. But I decided I wasn't going to switch, so I called him
back. It sounds like it's it's It sounds to me like you did switch.
It sounds to me like you opened an account if you got a SIM
card. No, I didn't, Okay, he opened the account. I
found that out later. Wait a minute, hold on, he opened the
account without any signature or authorization from you. That's right, So you didn't
sign anything on a little touchpad. Nope. Okay. So anyway, I
started getting bills from Horizon about two weeks later. Okay, So okay,
let's just get right to it. You asked if this was too confusing.
It's not. You went into a Verizon store to inquire about this, and
they started an account without your knowledge, without your signature, without your authorization.
So tell them that, tell them you never opened the account. I
would. I wouldn't even tell him I visited the store. I would simply
tell them I never opened the account. Then how do they know to bill
her? Wait? How that's what I want to know know to bill her?
How were you being billed? Just a regular invoice like at your address?
At your address, that's okay, But they didn't take payment just build
you. No, they just filled me. And I called them several times
that I kept getting bills. They acknowledged that this is the young man who's
created an account. But what they're trying to get me for is the SIM
card, and I blew it away. I never used it. They acknowledged
I would. Okay, So how are they trying to get you? You
say they're trying to get you? Yeah, they call they sent me to
a collection agency, all right, and tell them it's I would ignore it
until they take you to court, and I'd say I never First of all,
how they even prove you got a SIM card? I don't know.
Okay, you never did it, You never opened the account. You don't
recall a SIM card. You don't know what they're talking about. You never
used it. Tell them me, I don't see how a judgment you're gonna
owe the money. Connie. For the life of me, I don't understand
this part. County. You walked in there, you didn't open anything up,
but you gave them your address, your telephone number. You gave them
all the information to bill you. You took a SIM card card, but
you never opened up an account, and Verizon acknowledges that. Okay, okay,
and you, Connie, how do you know they acknowledge that because I've
talked to them on the phone. I've talked to them several times trying to
get this straightened out. So they have stopped sending you a bill finally,
Yeah, okay, if the SIM card is not being used, that SIM
card costs them about a penny. And that's right. I never they know
that I haven't used it. They checked how much are they charging you?
How much do they want to charge you for the SIM card? Well,
they want to charge me sixty five dollars. Okay, I would just ignore
it. That's what I would do, even though it's with a collection agency.
Yeah, I mean, was that going to go on my credit?
Is what I want to know. Well, they can attempt to do it,
but here's the deal. You can dispute it and say you never opened
an account. You have no idea deal what they're talking about. They'd have
to prove it. It will most likely go on your credit. Though I
had T mobiles say I never sent back some equipment no longer. What did
you do about it? Mark? I ended up suing them. Listen,
Connie, just small them out. You know, I'm just wondering if no,
I wouldn't go and pay. If it was me, you're asking me
what I would do. I would ignore it. If they tried or attempted
to ding my credit, I would bring down holy hell on them. You
call us back if that happens, I feel like doing that. I think,
I think that that's exactly what I want to do. How much is
it? What is the total? Oh it's only sixty five? Yeah,
I mean it with the interest, it's seventy seven and sixty nine. Just
hope there's no record of you open an account. But you said they already
acknowledged that. They have acknowledged. They even said that he created the account
because he thought I was going to be coming back in on Monday. Yeah,
he wanted to get his commission. I think, so okay, all
right, okay, so I would say, ignore it, call us back.
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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, your troubleshooter three oh
three seven one three talk three oh three seven one three eight two five five.
Now I want to go back to Jan from yesterday. She put down,
Uh, we didn't get to finish. She put down three grand at
cabinet door World, and this is in North Carolina. Did you say,
Jan, Yes? And they have never ever gotten back to you, never
got doors. Actually, my contractor was in touch with them through their website
chat and at that point they said we couldn't find the order. Well,
this was in April of twenty twenty three. When did he finally contact them?
I'm not sure that date. It was months after the order. How
did you pay? Told him, I paid with my VISA credit card.
Have you ever called Visa to see if you could just call it fraud?
Yes? Did they say it was too late? Long? Okay? But
the company told my contractor that they fired the person it was supposed to be
doing my order, and that they would be expediting the order. And then
after that there's no contact. They won't answer the phone or reply to any
emails. And do you know they're still open or not? I assume that
they are. Okay, I'm gonna have I'm gonna I see it right here
in Conover. They they look like they're they're still in business. They do
you realize with thirty two Google reviews they have a one star that's they have
one star. Yep. So I wouldn't hold too much hope out. But
what we can do is, I'm going to have Who's who do we have
on duty today? Let's get Deputy Dollar. Hey Dollar, it's pretty easy.
She paid three grand. She has the date Cabinet World, Cabinet Door
World. It looks like a little tiny tin building in the middle of nowhere.
What a piece of crap place this is? Did you do any research
before doing this? They have a one star review. They have thirty two
Google reviews, and do you know they're all one star, every one of
them, every single review. Wait a minute, hold on, I'm looking
at all thirty two. So far there's not one above a one star,
not one. Okay, they have a three star nice quality, but terrible
customer service. Doors we're two weeks late. That three star is the only
one they have. Otherwise they are all one star, all one star.
The worst customer service, the worst, the worst, the worst, the
worst, the worst, the worst, the worst. Okay, would you
call them dollar before the show's over, I'd like to hear what they have
to say. Yeah, I'll give them a call. Do you have an
order number? Jan? Yes, I do? Okay, you hold on.
No, No, we don't want it on the air right now.
It doesn't matter. So we're gonna do this. We're gonna do this,
Jan, all right, and terrible, just terrible. Real three seven one
three talks seven one three eight two five five Brandon, Real, quick question
for you on their shades. They want to replace their I think this is
a stupid question, but there is no stupid question. If you want to
text us five seven seven three nine. They have regular shades. Can they
convert them to cordless? Of course they can, right, I mean that's
a whole damn mechanism, right right, Yeah, you can't take corded and
convert them to cordless. I mean there's a spring in it everything. So
really, when you say cordless, they're just you grab them by the bottom
and up and down. Correct. But we're a real high windows. You
can't really do that right because you can't go up as high as you want
to. Maybe put them up or do you have little right rocks that yep,
you can either get an extension pole or you know, the easiest solution
is to automate them with a remote control. Okay, but yeah you could.
You can get extension poles that you can grab the handle and bring them
up and down as well. Okay, so what else is being made cordless?
Pretty much everything is going with bond blinds too. Everything, Well,
how would you open and close the Okay, with blinds, you have two
things. You retract the whole blind or you can just take the fins and
open and close them. Yeah, so that is like a wand tilt.
Okay, Okay, so it's a wand for Okay, a wand for that.
But if you want to open or close them, you just take the
bottom and do the same thing. Correct, And you can actually go cordless
on the lift system and then automate the tilt system. You can remote can
tell those, so you don't even have a wind these. I mean,
I've okay, in a house we have that's older, we have all those
wooded corded. They're not ugly, they're pretty, but what a pain in
the ass. The cords always come out from the little knaches. Oh my
god, they're terrible. Everything's going cordless. Get them redone. It's the
w Yeah, mark my god, the number of windows. I shutter the
thing. But I should have you come over and then at least look at
conversion. Is there any I mean, there's no value to those old pieces
of crap because you got to have the exact sizes and all that. Right.
Oh, anyway, so that's that's good to know though that you can't
convert, and obviously you can't. There would be more work involving converting than
replacing the whole dang thing, right, Yeah. That We've had customers ask
that if they can switch to motorized from Corlis, and you can, but
by the time you give buy the motor and the labor involved, it's more
expensive than to just buy a new one. And here's another thing I want
to ask. If you have these do you have real wood still, yes,
who would even see? That's another thing. But the composite materials,
why would you have that? Because isn't there maintenance? Do you have to
eventually finish them? They come finish. There's tons of differences, and they
last a long time ago. You're not walking on them, you know,
right right, And they are lighter than the composite ones. Must take the
sun must take a toll on those wooden uh varnish or whatever you constained shade.
We definitely sell more composite in Colorado with the amount of sunshine we get
here. Yeah, but they they're warrantied. If they fade, they'll replace
them anyway. Three O three seven one three eight two five five. That's
made in the shade. We got 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 all 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. Hi, I'm Tom Martino. You're a troubleshooter, Rochelle.
What's going on with you? Rochelle? How can we help you? Uh?
Yeah, I haven't bought a car. My car got stolen and totaled
at Christmas time. So I found a buick. I wanted to buy an
Autoation. When did you go there last night? Of Autoation super roof offa
By twenty five and a Wrappa hole. Okay, this was last night,
okay, And I've been talking to the salesperson and he was super guy on
the phone about the car, and he said, well, come in and
fill out the paperwork. So I went in and Rochelle, you went last
night and test drove it? You did not take it off the premises?
Did you like take it home afterwards? I mean as it's still there at
the dealer? Yeah, still there, But I didn't get a test drive
it. They wanted to make it pay five hundred dollars to test drive a
car? Now is that true? Nowadays? You can't well listen question unless
you paid money, Rachelle, if you wanted to take the car out for
a test drive on your own. They may want security of some kind if
they don't trust you. I don't know the answer to that, but I
think they were trying it. Sounds like they were trying to trick you into
some kind of a contract. You did not do it right. No,
No, And what car? What car are you looking at? What car
are you looking at? Oh? Well, they had a buy three goal
there for sale, and I'm known to go into dealerships to look for cars.
Okay. I want to ask you a few things because you are prime
to get ripped off. And I'm not saying automation will rip you off.
I'm just saying that you're rhymed to get ripped off because you know nothing about
buying cars. So here's what I want. I want to give you some
very easy tips. First and foremost, this Brewick Regal. How old was
it or is it? It's the twenty seventeen, okay, not terrible.
How many miles on it? One hundred and forty nine thousand? Okay,
don't buy it? Okay? Do you have a car now? No,
listen, I want you to wait a minute. That means she doesn't have
insurance, so when she went to test drive it, it probably was a
down payment of some sort or no, I'm sorry, not a down payment
of security. Okay, but I carry full cavery ten payents and my car
insurance through Geico on a car. I don't even shall anymore. Rochelle,
Right now, before you get into trouble, please do me a favor.
I want you to call Rodney at JFR Cars and just tell them you're unsophisticated,
you have some insurance money, you're looking for a used car. He
will not steer you wrong. I do not want you just going onto a
car lot. Listen, please don't do it, okay. I am so
happy you called before making a mistake. Were you calling? What were you
calling to ask about if that test drive five hundred dollars deposit was normal?
And right? Because it's not normal. No, it's not normal, all
right. So it's Rudney JFR, John Crank, Robert Carr, It's it's
JFR, which is yeah, okay, So if you want to, it's
Juliet JFR. Juliet Foxtrot Romeo. Okay, cars, now listen, get
that number for her, Katchina, please I don't have it right off the
top of my tie. Absolutely, we're going to give you the number.
Okay, three oh three seven to one, three h eight two five five
oh. I love when people call me ahead of time. It sounds like
she was headed for trouble. Not that now, believe me. It's not
just autnation. I'm saying anywhere. If you go and you're not prepared,
especially if you have insurance, money or something, you may not be making
the best choices. And she even said she had never been to a dealer
before to buy a car, and that really goes with everything when you are
looking at buying something. Educate yourself ahead of time. Absolutely positively educate yourself
ahead of time. So many people just go out and they try to educate
themselves while shopping. You can do that if you do it the right way,
but most people don't. They listen and they believe everything. So just
remember this if you are shopping for something, first, do a bunch of
research and look for what I call the thread of truth. 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. Pay 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 you need so you don't have come run anxious
stas as we can. Shooter's gonna help. Come man, this is the
Troubleshooter Show. No Tom Martinez. Hey, I'm Tom Martin. You know,
thank you for being here. We are trying to solve your problems any
way we can. And you know, sometimes it just, you know,
the timing's perfect. This woman who called us today about a car she was
looking at. I love when people call us right away and they need help
and they haven't made a mistake yet. She was having some you know,
hesitation, some thought and called us. She went and again she went to
a dealer. The dealer's not important. What's important is she wasn't prepared at
all. She had some insurance money, wanted to take a test drive.
They wanted five hundred bucks. That's not normal. However, nowadays, who
knows there might be requirements we don't know about because of how crazy the world
is. Maybe people I don't know. I mean I wouldn't let anyone take
a car and a test drive at all. Ever, you have to be
careful if you invite people to your house that they claim residency. God's sakes
anyway, three all three seven one three talk is our number seven one three
eight two five five If you want to give us a call. We have
open lines and we have Brendan with us from Made in the Shade. We've
been talking about some window coverings and the new technology and just to bring up
to date, no cords needed anymore. And then you have a lot of
stuff being battery operated and solar powered or combination of both. I very seldom
would they be hardwired, right unless you build a house that way. Our
home's built with hard wires now at the windows on purpose or not. Yes,
they are doing home two new homes right now, and so they they'll
call us and say what do we need and we let them know of voltage
and how to do it and where to put it in and we get the
pant the subpanel for them and then they are Yeah, so then the shade
will just come with the motor and pigtail and my installers connect so on a
window opening if you're building, if you're building a house or redoing a room
or a section of the house or an addition, as they say, where
would you where do you wire your twelve volte it's low voltage ray? Right?
Do do you wire it on the inside or on the outside up in
the corner? Where do you? So? Like just either side in the
upper left corner, upper right corner of that window opening, inside of the
opening, yep, And they'll just pop it out there like through the dry
wall or the trim or just a little tiny little string of wires so there's
no receptacle obviously or anything, but you just the two wires that you can
marry to yep, until my installer will connect them directly to the motor,
install them and then they all get home runs back to a panel and is
Wi Fi usually the way people do it or are they private Bluetooth or how
they do it? How do they do it? Usually? Well? You
remote control is these you know, okay? The remote the remote is just
direct remote, right direct remote, and you can put them all in one
but obviously peach individual. But then you can also pair that with a hub,
which is just a USB stick that goes in any USB in the house
for plug. And then you can have the app and you can do open
and close them on your phone literally from anywhere in the world. I mean
you could be an that's right and whatnot. And that's the thing. More
and more smart homes. It used to be such a pain and he has
to have a smartphone. I'm a smart house. You would literally have Cat
five carrying it right now, you do wireless, it doesn't matter. Yeah,
you can connect them to your Alexa or Siri also and just say Alexa
close the living room windows and then you have those yep, and Google Home
could do the same or whatever. Yeah, they can all be integrated.
See that's that's pretty cool. I mean that, and you can't can't.
You have what's called scenes, so yes, so you program scenes like the
end of the day, the middle of the day, a romantic scene,
kids playing scene, party scene, yeah, or as the sun you know
comes down or whatever. They'll just individually close. You can just set that
as a time of day. Some shades also like your outdoor roller shades.
They'll have light sensors and wind sensors so that if you're gone and you know
how we get gusts of wind in Colorado that can really hurt those. The
wind sensor will sense that if you forgot with awnings to right, and it'll
lift it off. Are awnings in your ballywick or not? Are they considered
window coverings? Yeah? We do outdoor awnings end roller shades. We don't.
We do mostly outdoor roller shades, but we do. We can do
as with awnings. Those little spinners I call them that. Those are those
wind sensors, right, so if or how do how does the sense win
it's just a little they don't have those, but it actually it's just a
little device that just picks up the wind, the wind speed, and it'll
automatically raise your shade just to preserve it. Yeah, because otherwise it could
be it could be end. Yeah. Now when you say outdoor shades,
those are decorative. You don't do the ones for golf courses to keep windows
from breaking. Dal well are so our outdoor solar roller shades. First of
all, their main function is to is to block the sun so you can
go out in the evening and enjoy your patty exactly. However, absolutely that
we do them on homes on golf courses. There's no way a golf balls
getting through there. I mean it is a thick like strong solar material.
Oh really yeah, But it's not like it's not aluminum or anything, right,
No, no, no, they're just it's it's a POLYI like fabric
like a solar screen. But is it's very strong? Is it taut or
is it yep? And so it comes down either on channels and is anchored
to the ground or on cable guide. And how did they hold up to
hall? Oh? They do really well. They're fine. They're usually under
like an overhang, you know, mounted, But no, they're fine.
Hail is fine on the fabric. Three oh three seven one three talk three
h three seven one three eight two five five. So as far as consumer
news goes, I have some stuff that I've been watching, And first of
all, I want to ask something. Do you think that the woman who
was who was charged in her son's shooting at the school? What do you
think about that? Mark? What do you think about that? I mean,
do you think that that mom it was Ethan? Did she buy the
gun. Probably, I see, I'm all by the gun. Was he
underage? Did she know he was gave the gun? Actually? Well,
I mean there's a lot of things do unpacked, and they said that that
she kind of knew he was having problems. But this is a big deal,
man, I mean, this is a really big deal. There.
They're basically saying that she's responsible. And if parents were held more respond for
kids' actions, boy, would that change things tremendously. I mean think about
that. So I really was thinking about you go all the way back to
Columbine, and I don't think there was any criminal charges, but there was
definitely civil lawsuits and their homeowners ended up paying out to everybody. So I
mean that's somewhat holding responsible. But the criminal aspect is somewhat new, you
know it is. And when you talk about liability, it gets really complicated
because there's a difference between negligence and liability. Yeah, but how old was
the kid? Do you have it in front of you? No, I
don't have the whole thing in front of me. I mean, you hand
a kid, you know, a shotgun or whatever, a pistol. I
don't even know what kind of gun it was, and the kid's fourteen and
not supposed to have it, and you allow them to keep it in their
room and take it outside and bring it to school and have any Yeah,
I think John is John Fuller up on his line right now? Is John
Fuller here? Thanks? Well? Yes, John, Yes, sir.
So we're talking about liability and that woman being tried for her for the school
shooting. You're you're aware of that obviously, right, I sure? Am?
Okay, let's talk about this parents and liability. You're you're a personal
injury attorney. You know a lot about liability. Is there a difference between
liability and negligence? Well, certainly. I mean liability is some personal responsibility
that that follows some action or inaction that you're responsible for, you know.
Negligence is more of a a an affirmative act that you know, and it
could be an omission as well. I guess that the two are very close,
but there are subtle differences that make them different. You know, for
example, you could be liable for something but it was unintentioned. It was
it was like an accident, It wasn't negligent on your part. Is that
yeah? And liability could easily follow a contract or something to where you're legally
responsible but didn't actually do anything wrong. Okay, And in this case,
they're saying she knew her son had problems and should never have been supplied a
gun. That's it, you know, period. And they're not making they're
not attempting to make her responsible for the consequences of the shooting per se,
but wholly separate crimes relating to her incompetence as a parent to a criminal.
You know, degree, Well, she didn't keep track of the gun for
one thing, right right, it was under lock and key with the combination
of zero zero zero zero. So can you think of cases printal? Can
parents be health simly liable? Then if they go to a neighbor's house and
they do damage? Have you have you heard of that? Or kids go
to a neighbor's house and do the parents behaved kids do something? Are are
you liable for your kids' actions? Is what I'm asking. I think there
are circumstances where you can you can be liable and and I think there's so
many shades of gray here that it's hard. But I'll give you a couple
of just quick examples. If you are part and parcel and that's what they're
getting at with this case of providing the instrumentality that that you know that was
used to create the damage, then yeah, you might you might share some
responsibility. No differently than if you gave the keys to a drunk leaving your
house and let them drive home when when they were knowingly intoxicated, you you
probably have some culpability under that circumstance. So, and that's what they're trying
to get at with this mom, is that she knew he was, you
know, in a a mental state that you know, where bad things could
happen, and then nonetheless provided him access to this gun. The question is
going to be what did she know and when? What did you know?
There's nobody that knows this kid better than the mom, and the fact that
he went and shot somebody is not, you know, one hundred percent foreseeable.
They're making it sound like it was an inevitability, but I don't know
that it is, because lots of kids threatened to do things that they never
ever actually do. So I don't know. That's a tough case, and
it's a slippery slope, and I'm not sure we want to go down it
by jailing parents for every you know, every action of children. But it's
a it's a case where you just intuitively want to hold everybody responsible for something
because kids lost their lives that day, you know. And on another note,
which is kind of similar, are we responsible for the actions of our
dogs, for example, or is it something we should have known? Well,
I think that's a newer should have known. I mean, in Colorado,
for instance, the fact that it's so hard to really you know,
wade through the whole negligence playing field with the dog. We have statutes that
define what, you know, what the acceptable conduct is. And that's another
way that the legislator. Legislators just say that, you know, we can't
figure it out. We don't trust juries. So it's interesting because in some
states dog bite cases are you know, are huge, and attorneys are clamoring
to get these cases, and others, like Colorado, I don't think I've
handled more than two dog bite cases in my entire career because statutorily, there's
just no real avenue for recovery absent it being just a horrific mauling from some
dog that had done it before. And I don't agree that that statute is
where the line should be drawn, but that is where it's drawn in Colorado.
All right, thank you, that's John Fuller. We got more coming
up. I'm Tom Martine three oh three seven one three talks seven one three
eight two five five. By the way, Genesis total ex for all of
your storm losses on one invoice, one point of contact Genesis. That's everything
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cent until you're content. Time for an insurance check up free, no obligation
comparison call Compass Insurance. Pay 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 Martine here three oh three seven on three seven one three eight
two five five. So Mark was talking off the air something that I think
is very important because we were talking about liability and parents and all of that.
Mark the point you were making. It's crazy, man. So that
very day, a teacher found something on his desk or something this kid that
shout up the classroom, and what it was was a picture of him killing
people. So she brings him to the principal's office. They call the parents
in, They have an impromptu meeting right there that day about him, and
they all decide, yeah, we're going to start looking for a counselor we're
going to start doing this and that. But then, without searching his backpack,
his locker or anything, the principal in the teacher cut him back to
class, and that's when he started blasting people. Now, if they're going
to hold the parents responsible, why the hell wouldn't the principle in this teacher
that found this letter, it didn't even search his backpack not be tried.
I totally agree creole three seven to one to three talk. I totally agree
that. Yeah. So no, I mean, but give me a reason.
Think about it. They're charging the mother, okay, And let me
tell you this. From what I'm reading, the mother didn't purchase the gun.
They purchased it on black Friday, a few days before the event,
and it was the father and the son. So I don't know what the
mother has to do with the gun, but whatever, she probably knew about
it. In fact, I know she knew about it. But that's one
thing. But why would they prosecute her? But let the dumb ass principle
and the dumb ass teacher get in no trouble whatsoever when they didn't even search
a backpack after finding that stuff, let the kid return to class. And
then he blasted people. Seriously, Tom, why, I'll tell you why,
because they protect their own That okay, enough said, I totally agreed.
I mean no disagreement. Now, Jan, he has a problem with
a storage unit. Jan, what's happening with you? Welcome to the show,
by the way, People, any problems, question or complaints, we'd
love to entertain and help if we can. And Jan, what's going on?
Yeah? Hi, Tom, Hey, I got a call from my
I got a call from my storage unit this morning that it had been broken
into, and apparently they did apprehend the suspects who had merchandise of mine.
They had ransacked my unit and the cops were called, and so they want
me to come over and I guess they have to do an inventory and maybe
file a police report whatever. But before I go over there, you know,
this is this is supposed to be a secure property. It's behind a
gated entrance where you need a code to get in, and it's inside of
building my units up on the second floor. I don't know how they got
in because I could, you know, I don't think I could get through
my own lock. And it was all under the premise of this is a
safe place to keep your merchandise. And so now I'm wondering, you know,
how liable are they for my damages. That's a very good question,
Jan, because we just had this discussion with our attorney. Now what you're
discussing, and you said it a couple times, this is supposed to be
secure. This was under the premise that it was secure, And you said
something else about being secure, meaning what you're trying to portray, and again
it may be accurate, is that they created what was called a bailment.
That creation of a bailment says basically, hey, Jan, you pay us
and we're going to keep your stuff safe. Now if you know it your
paper, what's that more? No, that's you know, that's not what
you signed in the agreement. What responsible? You took the words right out
of my mouth. That agreement is going to specifically. I believe this blaim
any bailment. Now you did you look at your paperwork? But Jan,
did they agree with you? Jan? You're right, this should have been
safe. We let you down. Here's the money. Yeah. No,
I haven't looked at the agreement. But this is good because when I go
over there, I'll ask them to pull up the agreement and show me the
section where it absolves them of any Failman. Well, actually, actually it's
just the opposite. To create a bailment, you would have to show them
where they take that responsibility. In the absence of an agreement, the default
would be they're not responsible unless they did something stupid. Okay, did you
just hear the discussion we had with John Fuller, attorney at law. That
discussion was what did they do wrong? In other words, did they contribute
to this break in? For example? The same thing happens really when your
car is in a shop and the shop is broken into. People are not
responsible for criminal activity unless they somehow contributed to it or were negligent about it.
For example, if they knew there was one door everyone always gets through.
Maybe they light it up and they reinforce it, or if they knew
they had a shady employee or some kind of problem. Jan. Just because
it now, listen, this is the most important sentence. Just because it
happened there doesn't make it their responsibility agreed. Okay, So what you need
to do is figure it out. And by the way, I'll bet you
that your agreement not only says we're not going to take responsibility for this stuff,
but that you should have insurance on it, which I do. Good
now, and what's wait a minute, then, what's the issue. That's
great? You're going to get reimbursed. Well I don't. I don't even
know what's gone yet, Mark, But oh, I guess I go over
there. But my question was more along the lines of, fine, yeah,
I get reimbursed. But you know it goes back to what I said
earlier. Well, you know you're portraying this as being a safe place to
keep Well, what do you mean, hold on, Jen, tell me
what you mean by that. Do they have in any advertisements safe crime free,
secure? Well, tell me what you mean you now this is the
fourth time, what do you mean they are portraying it as being secure.
What do you mean by that? You know, like, I'm sure they
say secure, but you know, well where what's the name of this place?
What's the name of it, pupe smart, Cube Smart, and where
is it? This location happens to be behind the walmart in you off a
rapa hole road in Inglewood exactly. Okay, Okay, I'm looking at them,
okay, and you should go to their website and you should read about
it. I do not see I do not see one word on this entire
website that says secure or safe. Not one. Now. Now, I'm
not saying it's not there. I don't see it. And I'm doing one
of these word searches, you know, of the site. Yep, behind
the scenes. I don't see it, not one. But it could be.
Again. I think that these people have been in the business a long
time. And I don't see safe. I don't see secure, I don't
see crime free. I don't see let's see cube smart or its facility offers
drive off access. These units are around the clock. Okay, here's what
it says. These units have around the clock video monitoring for your peace of
mind. They have access blah blah blah, set up a no commitment reservation.
So they say they have around the clock video access. Now who monitors
that? Were you given an app or something or do they monitor that or
what? That's the only thing that comes close to hold on state of the
art electronic gates, well lit clean. I don't know, man, I
just don't know. I'm looking at part of their contract to bottom says customer
agrees to idemnify defendant and hold CUE Smart harmless against any and all claims for
loss expanse, liability, injury damage arising out of virtually anything. I don't
think anyone would look at this website or the contract and say that they guaranteed
anything. And the fact that they say they have video monitoring, they're not
telling you that they're I think. But again, go there and see what
they offer. I don't think they're going to offer anything. Three oh three
seven to one three eight two five five. Remember Regen dot com, Denver
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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, your troubleshooter three three seven one three
talks seven one three eight two five five. Joey's got an issue with a
dentist. Joey, what's going on with you? I was going, uh
back in April of twenty two, I had two root canals and two crowns
at a dentis, and uh there was I used my HR card to pay
for it, and uh, they usually want a receipt whenever with anything that
has to do with dental. So I sent it to him when they asked
for it, and there was a discrepancy from the well who asked for it.
First of all, the HR you mean you mean the the banker?
Where where do you have it account? What's that? It's a health reimbursement
account. So it's like it's his employer generally, No, I get it.
But where do you keep the money with your employer? Uh, there's
a separate company that manages it. Okay, it's not Tom, it's not
an Hssay, it's an h r HR. Okay, okay, okay,
okay, I'm sorry, got it. So, So, anyway, they
want to see receipts to make sure the payments are accurate, right, right,
and uh so I sent it to him, and then they started asking
for a letter of medical necessity, which I had a problem getting that from
the Wait, you mean just so you didn't get root canals just for fun
and grins? Come on, are they kidding me? Well, yeah,
they asked for it, and it took me a while for the Dennis to
respond to get that to me. It came down to where I had a
week left before they were going to shut my cart off. I had to
pay that money out of pocket, and I was on the phone with the
HRAA and I asked them why they needed that, and they said that it
got flagged because there was a discrepancy between the what the insurance paid and what
the dentist said they paid. Wait wait, wait, what was the discrepancy?
Well, it took me a while to figure it out, but it's
the contracted amount is where the insurance is less and the dentist is more.
So there's like a seven hundred dollars discrepancy. But where did they come up
with their price? I don't know, So I called the insurance in.
I mean, aren't they going by your actual receipt of what you paid the
dentist or the insurance? Well, your your your h essay or your health
savings? Aren't they go ahead? They go by the if everything match is,
then there's no problem. But there since there was a discrepancy from what
the insurance says they paid, the insurance kind of says they paid more than
what the dentist is. Well, here's what I don't understand. If insurance
paid, why are you using your HSA it's not HSA. Well, whatever
it is, Mark, is it for your deductible? Is that what it's
for? It's generally an employer that reimburses. It's a re environment arrangement.
Mark. I understand that, but you don't reimburse the claim if insurance pays
it the chent and cover the entire amount. Okay, then that's what I
was asking. So your HSR is paying your part, right, got it?
Okay? So the insurance amount the Mount Insurance paid is less than the
dentist said they charge. The insurance is paying more than what the dentist said
they paid. It's the contracted amount. That's where there's a discrepancy. But
really, none of this right because all this did was created to get flagged.
That's what created the issue. It's got nothing to do with that,
is that right? Right? So I started asking them about the dentists because
I called the insurance. They said there, yes, there's a discrepancy.
There's nothing we could do. You have to talk to the dentist. So
I started showing them and the first time I went in there they said there
was one lady that said no, everything's fine. And then I went back
a few times and finally talked to the office manager and he said, yes,
there's a discrepancy. I'll get you. Well who's right and who's wrong?
Well I don't know. So that's the thing is, they never get
back to me. So every time I go there and call them, which
I've been doing for a year already. Did the time run out? No,
I don't really care about if either they stole the money or they if
it's not a big deal and they're just not explaining to me what the problem
is. Or you never got reimbursed because you never got reimbursed because it no,
not for the seven hundred dollars, And I don't even really care anymore.
I just want people to No, I would care about my seven hundred
dollars. In fact, you know what I would do if it If it
turns out that the dentist is the one holding this up, I'd sue him
for the seven hundred dollars. I would say, as a result of your
negligence, you you know you did not you cost me seven hundred bucks.
Right, So the dentist is saying they got paid how much they won't tell
them. No, So the contracted amount that the dentist is saying that they
charged is twenty three sixty two, and then the insurance is saying that it's
sixteen seventy six. Okay, because you know why I think that the dentist,
because your insurance is going by the approved amount. Your insurance doesn't simply
pay what the dentist bills. So there's always a discrepancy. There's always I
mean you have that with Medicare. With everything. You have the build amount
and the approved amount, right, okay, so there is no discrepancy.
Your insurance company is stupid. I mean those two amounts never I have never
seen those two amounts match. Ever, it was not a big deal.
I just wanted them to kind of explain it to me more and they which
they, Oh, okay, every respond to me. The dentist, doctors,
dentist, everyone always bills what they bill. The insurance does the approved
amount, and that's what they base it on. So and they pay the
approved amount. Problem too, is the the amount that the dentist says the
insurance paid is different from what the insurance says they paid. So the insurance
is more the insurance. So your dentist is underclaiming in come right. I
would I'll tell you what I would do. I would take my dentist to
small claims court for that money, saying they cost me that money by not
keeping accurate records. Did you pay him? Yeah? Because okay, as
soon as I got the letter of medical necessity, than the HR improved it,
so everything was fine. They approved it, but they didn't reimburse you.
Oh the dentists. You mean no, you'r HR didn't. You're you're
not out of pocket right? Uh? Well, the HR money is is
taken out of my wages and text god Joey, it's still my money.
I'm asking you. Did you come out of pocket? Yeah? He did,
Yes, I did. Okay, not from the HR. Oh the
HR raised his money, Tom, I get it. But that's what it's
supposed to do. It's supposed to do what it did. 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 checkup free no obligation comparison call
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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
Artino, your troubleshooter three O three seven one three talk seven one three eight
two five five. Joey, here's the bottom line. Now, I understand
you're not complaining that you did not get to use your HSR or HSA,
whatever your health savings. You're not You're not complaining about that. What you're
complaining about is that, during the process you discovered the dentist and the insurance
company do not agree on what's paid. Big deal, that's a nothing burger.
Who cares? Who cares? Who cares? 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 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 two zero sixteen twenty two.
You need so you don't have cass to care. The Shooter's gonna help coming
man. This is the Troubleshooter Show. No Tom Martino, Hi, Tom
Martino Here three all three seven one three talk seven one three eight two five
five what's going on in your life? Plenty of time for phone calls.
If you have a problem, question or complaint, give me a call now,
listen. Do you know right now more than thirty million people have unclaimed
money unclaimed money. Now, don't fall for those scams to say I'm a
money finder, you know, help me and I'll help you. But there
are that many people. One in seven people have unclaimed money and they don't
know about it, about it. They just don't know about it. And
there are state databases that carry this money and it's anything from a closed account
to a refunded insurance check to any kind of unclaimed stuff. But they say
it is an unbelievable problem trying to get people to know about it, and
you have to go and find it that. In general, they're called they're
held by a treasury of the state you're in. Money has to be sent
to them, and it's called they're called es sheet funds. So what happens
with a sheet funds, Well, the monies are deposited there and then you
have to go and search. There's an National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators.
But I'm not sure that is not a come on. But you can search
for unclaimed property by your name. You go to unclaimed well, one of
them is unclaimed dot org for example, and you can go down and search
your name. Uh. For example, if you're in Colorado, you click
on the map for Colorado and they have an escheat fund and what you do
is put your name in and you see if you're doing it. So I'm
gonna you can put your name in. I'm gonna put my name in and
you can see if you are in line for money. Have you ever done
this? Mark? Yeah, I think it was called the Great Coloradopayback dot
Com. I've definitely done it. I'm trying to remember what the website was
though, and I just did it. I just put in my name.
I went to. Uh. There's all kinds of places you can go,
and a lot of them are legit, and this one is searching its search.
All you got to do is search Great Colorado Payback and you'll see the
one. Right. I'm not on that one, but you're right. That's
a good that's a good site we've had in the past. Anyway, there
are people and this is what I don't understand that did not even know they
had a claim in an estate. You know, that's crazy. I'd like
to ask our state attorney about that. Maybe we should call one of them
for the heck of it. Let's call Dan McKenzie. I'd like to know
about it. You see, if McKenzie's around, and how would anyone not
know that they are entitled? And where does the money go? Does it
go to these as sheet funds? Because oh, by the way, I
search and guess what it says here that I don't have any money coming?
Okay, dog gone it? I thought maybe I did. Have you ever
found money? One time I had moneys? One time I had money from
an FAHA loan I had years and years ago where I had prepaid private mortgage
assurance or something. And when I refinanced, what I did not realize is
that you actually get a refund of that. Did you know that you get
so? And and that refund was there for me. It was a few
hundred bucks and I had never known about it. So I thought that was
pretty cool. So we have Brendan. I have some text here for window
coverings here and there. One wants to know about window coverings when it comes
to solar. Now listen to what they mean by this. Are there any
window coverings that capture solar for the house hold on a sec go ahead?
Have you heard of those? I don't know of any. Now there are
used to used to be windows, but I'm not sure are those windows even
still around though. That's the thing. There were windows that you could buy
that would be able to capture solar and feed into your grid. Right,
And that's another thing I'd like to know about because I think they they were
like a flash in the pan, and I think they went away. But
okay, someone else wants to know. On the battery operated ones, can't
they be solar operated? Do you have to have do you ever have to
replace batteries? Yeah? So they would be on a rechargeable battery that you
would also connect a solar panel to, and that solar panel pretty much keeps
them charged year round. Maybe every two or three years. You might have
to put like a good charge into them and then for a couple few hours
and then you're done for another couple three years. And you know, of
course, it has to be south facing. It can't be on the north
side of your house under a tree in the shade or something, it's not
going to function. So basically it extends a long time the law. Yeah,
and of course also depending on if you're putting them up and down constantly
every day or you you know, you more or less leave him up or
down. Chris, what about finding money? Did you find money? I
found money several times. Once I had overpaid a credit card and they wound
up sending money to Colorado State. And then long many years ago and I
lived in Missouri, I found money three times there. But my comment specifically
was, if you have a deceased relative, like a parent, you can
also check for their stuff. And as long as you get copies of the
death certificates and so I off that you are the beneficiary, they will send
you their checks. Have you ever had that happen? My brother did for
my grandfather. He's older than me. He was the oldest living relative.
So for my grandfather back in New York, he wound up getting his money.
How much at the time it was probably just a couple of hundred dollars,
but I know all total from me, I've gotten like wiber fourteen or
fifteen hundred dollars from Colorado and Missouri Okay, thank you, Chris. I
want to talk to Dan mackenzie. He's an attorney at law. He does
the state planning and I'll give out his contact, but he does wills and
trust and helps you face probate or avoid probate. Hey, Dan, I
wanted to ask you something. Have you ever heard of money from an estate
going into the escheet funds because they can't find the air or do the other
heirs get to split it? How does it work? Usually the other heirs
would get to split it. A lot of wills and trusts and other documents
will say they either if someone can't be found or they don't have any decendants,
then the other the other air split up pro rata. But it could
It certainly could. That could be a source of funds and the endplant of
funds because if it's not mentioned what to do with it? Does the estate
have a choice. If there was one thousand dollars set aside for Johnny and
Johnny can't be found, they can't justmatically take it, can they? Yeah,
that is a problem. Yeah, if he can't be found and they
don't really know, Like, yes, I think that that really Yeah,
you could end up in a situation of having to turn it over to the
un claim fund. And did you hear what that other guy said too,
that if you can show you're an heir to people in an unclaimed fund and
there's a death certificate, you can you can claim that way. Have you
ever heard of that? Oh? Yeah, yeah, we've we've engaged in
that process and they do. They're pretty rigorous about it, as you can
imagine. They want to make sure that you really are the right person and
you have a right to it, and that the person you know that let
left documents and is deceased in all that, so you know, there is
a process. So if anyone has any relatives and they search the sheet funds,
the Colorado Payback or whatever state you're in, and they find there's money
and that person's deceased, there is an outside possibility they could be in line
for that money that was left. Yeah. I just found two hundred and
fifty bucks for yourself. Yeah, it was from Colorado Carcare my good Years
and it was from the Workman's comp I must have overpaid to Pinnacle. Pinnacle
transfer it over there, So I just submitted to claim. Hopefully I get
it. That's pretty cool. Yeah, everyone should do that search every once
in a while because we I mean, it's part of our process. In
the probate process. We do an unclaimed property search for the person who passed
away, and we get a lot of hits. I mean, it comes
up a lot, no fooling. That is pretty cool. Hey, Dan,
does it sit there forever or just the state eventually snag it? You
know, I don't remember how that goes, but it's there for quite a
while, so yeah, I don't know went it eventually? It must go
away eventually, Okay. I have just did this on the Colorado payback and
I have from Sentry Insurance, AIG Property Casualty, Western Union Financial Services,
Optimum, and some others. I have a total of six thousand dollars.
I can't believe it. Now, where did this money come from? It'll
say, OK, well, it says it just says what it is.
It just says it's from insurance. Two insurances. I had Century, I
had AIG Property Casualty. What is Western Union for APO that used to be
a sponsor of ours? They owe you money? No, that's a city?
Oh yeah, what the hell's that? What city is APO? That's
weird? Man? Anyway. Three oh three seven one three, eight two
five five. We have more coming up on the Troubleshooter Show, and that's
Dan mackenzie. By the way, if you ever need to get in touch
with them eight three three COO Plans eight three three COO Plans or co Plans
dot co. Go with a sure thing Denver's Best Roofer Sell 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 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. Hi Tom Martino here three oh three seven one three
talk seven one three eight two five five. Welcome to the show. So
did you know that TikTok failed to come to an agreement with UMG Universal Music
Group And that is a giant place that gave royalties or licensed them to use
music. And now most all music is now removed from TikTok, not allowed
to be used in your pictures or I mean in your tiktoks, so in
your VIDs. So basically their license anything that was licensed through UMG is being
taken off of TikTok and you cannot use it. By the way mark,
we often get a UMG copyright notice. Did you know that when when Shannon
and Dragon let the use it yep play a little too where they use a
song that for some reason umgesus we're not supposed to use and they say they
own apparently more music than anyone in the world. So basically they're in negotiations.
No negotiations broke down, but right now they say TikTok has to let
them use it, has to come up with an agreement or they're going to
be totally screwed. Because music is part of ninety five percent of all videos.
So what happens to the videos that were up already that had music on
them. Do they get to stay up or do they have to be taken
down? That's what I don't know. And another thing, did you know
that they're going after tribute bands now to pay fees? Did you know that
if you want to use music. You have to actually pay fees if you
play for pay? What do you think of all the tribute bands? What
do you think the number one tribute band is today? What do you think
for what band? The number one tribute band? Brendan any idea? The
number one a tribute band? Oh man, I don't know. Bohemian Queen
Queen. Well it's Bohemian, you know, because it's it's tributed. But
that's the number one selling as far as tribute bands, and they're supposedly incredible.
But Adam Lambert, oddly enough, is not the one in that band.
Remember he was this He was the sensation on American Idol that went to
the real queen. But anyway, this is a tribute ban the number two
you would think these of course these are come on anybody you want to think
about it? The best of Journey or actually it's not Journey, but the
name is Escape taken from a song. But that is a Journey tribute band
is number two. There's a big Zeppelin one and a big like Number three
is the Beatles tribute band called called Britain's Finest. Now I've heard of nineteen
sixty four. I saw those guys at Red Rocks. But this is Britain's
finest. It's called and number four is Britt Floyd. Yeah, Britt Floyd.
That's it for Pink Floyd. And I hear they're amazing. Mark.
Have you ever heard a tribute band? Of course you have. I mean
have you actually gone to one of their concerts? You know, we had
this is a very weird story. We had someone, in fact, he
might still be doing it that was on this actually on the referral list,
and he was a sponsor of the show and he had a tribute band.
He might still have it for you too. Oh nice, And I went
to see him. I mean, they drew big crowds. His name is
Ted Gravelin. It was Gravelin and do you know I believe Ted Gravelin also
did Mark before Garrett took it over. He did eight eight eight heating,
right, and I do believe so. And then he sold it to Garrett,
and I understand Ted is still doing his tribute stuff. That's a weird
one. But that was a local I say, local Colorado band that did
a tribute to you too. Anyway, So led Zeppelin's tribute band is called
Zeppela say they always have, and then Mark, you'd love this one iron
Maidens. Oh I'm not a big Iron Maiden fan. No oh okay,
oh no, no, you like what's her name? Metallica? That's exactly
right. And then this one I'd be oh abba abba or whatever that they
have an abba and the number eight is Cuban Siss, which is a tribute
to Grateful Dead. Now that's got to be hard to do because you ever
had structured But what's that Mark? In Castle Rock last summer, so not
many months ago, they have a beer fest once a year and they brought
in this band called that Arena Rock Show. So they come out there like
poison. Then they run back and change clothes. Then their Kiss, then
their Bond Jovi, then their def Leopard. They did an amazing job of
all the wow. Wow anyway, uh there is one to uh yeah.
So anyway, so tribute bands seem to be a big thing these days,
and you can actually you can actually hire them for private gigs because they are
more affordable than, of course, really big bands. Three oh three seven
to one three talk seven one three eight two five five. I got one
quick question about window coverings that just came in and this is about are there
insulating qualities to any can you get if you have a cold room, can
you get window coverings that have insulating Brendan? Yeah, so shutters are your
most insulating, but right up there with wait, wait, how could shutters
be just the thickness of the wood and they really yep, yep, they
do a really good job. But cell shades, which are honeycomb shades as
most people know them. Those remember those ugly things they used to call room
warmers. They're the ugliest things in the world. They look like, for
lack of a better word, folding kind of uh, quilt. Have you
do you never saw those come on? No, Like they they're like they're
like, I don't know, like cloth, like a big and then and
you they would fold up. They were almost like, I don't know what
they have Roman shades that that are they're fabric and they pull up and collect.
That's more of a decorator. Yeah, well they I thought they were
called room warmers, and boy were they ugly. They had like they were
like quilts for lack of a better word, and you pull this cord and
they just fold up like an accordion. Yeah, it's that sounds similar to
a Roman, but Roman shades are quite pretty anyway. Three O 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. 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,
you're troubleshooter three all three seven one three talk seven one three eight two five
five. So I have Annie who wants to talk about shades or a question
on shades. Go ahead, Annie, what's going on? Hi? I
have I'm wondering about the size of the cell on those cell shades, Like
I have three eight inch double cell, but if you have let's say,
has inch, is the size of the space of the cells more insulating as
they get as the cells get bigger? Does that make sense? Yeah?
Yes, I know what you're asking, I would have what does it?
It is a double cell, which is good. They're front and back yeh,
which is the cells are just air spaces, right they are so like
that air pocket kind of is like an insulating factor, doesn't it Does it
actually insulate or just cut down on drafts? It actually insulates. It does
have an R value. It's not like the insulation in your wall, but
it does have a low R value. And so what are you saying?
The more chambers the better? Yeah? And double cells are the best.
Absolutely, yeah, three quarters the three quarter double cell will give you more
than your three a's as will it happen. So the more cell, the
bigger the cell, the better. The more double cell is better. Double
the cell. They don't have triple cell, right they double? Okay,
okay you have Do you notice the insulating quality? Oh yeah, oh yeah
I do, and I do they let me ask you do they insulate both
against the cold and the heat. Yes, well oh either one? I
mean yes, so it helps your air. They regulate your your home temperature
for sure. Really well yeah, I noticed when I pull the shades up
if it's cold out, you know, and I put my hand up against
the shade, I'm not feeling the coldness. Well, that's cool, thank
you. Annie. Listen, what about tinting? Does anyone do windows anymore
in homes? Do you? Guys? Don't do it to you? We
don't. I've seen I've never I've never seen a window tention. Well,
first of all, I've never seen any window tinting that holds up. Yeah,
mostly in commercial spaces. Is where the tinting is and does it?
Does it? It's a film so it can actually scratch. We still obviously
so. But they they work, They really work, but they don't necessarily
last long. And do you usually put them on the inside or the outside?
Our commercial ones, I believe were on the inside. They would have
to be because the weather could just take a toll on them. Yeah.
All right, So someone else heard John Fuller's commercial earlier and texted me.
By the way, you can always text at five seven seven three nine.
They wanted to know about gap insurance. He mentioned gap insurance because people get
in an accident and they expect the or the other insurance or their insurance or
their collision whatever they have to pay off their loan. Here's what's really important
to know. Gap insurance does cover gap between what you paid, you know,
and that loan if the loan is more than it should be for that
car, but not unlimited. Most gap policies will only go to one hundred
twenty five percent of value. So keep that in mind. There are people,
by the way, that are way more upside down on a car than
one hundred and twenty five percent, and that's because they got involved in that
negative equity snowball. Now, negative equity snowball, what is that? Well,
it's the number one reason young people have terrible credit and many young people
go bankrupt. You start out with a car, and you paid a little
too much for it. You don't keep it, you don't pay it off,
you didn't pay cash for it, you don't keep it. So now
you owe let's say sixteen thousand dollars and it's worth ten. You literally have
negative equity of six thousand. If you kept it and paid it off,
that negative goes away. Obviously you have to nurture the car and keep it
and keep it well, but you don't. So now you trade it in.
Not only now are you trading it in on a car and probably paying
a little too much on that car as well. But now you're taking the
negative from that six grand and putting it into your new loan. So now
you're doubly in bad shape because as soon as you drive off the lot with
the next car, let's say you're eight thousand dollars under six plus two,
and then that gets even worse. It can get up to nine or ten.
We've had this happen where kids will be ten thousand dollars under and still
did not learn a lesson, so now they're trading it in on another car,
and that car now puts them at twelve or fifteen. We've had people
who owe who owe nineteen twenty twenty five, twenty six pran on old pieces
of garbage. If you get into an accident, there's not a gap policy
in the world that is going to pay for that. Why because it is
more than one hundred and twenty five percent of value and it doesn't ensure against
stupid purchasing. Gabe, you have a comment on gap insurance. Go ahead,
Gabe, three h three cents, Yes, call, I want to
my credit you he is, and refinance on car. And now lady is
telling me that a gap insurance is coming to an end. Nobody for an
honor that stuff. Well, you know what it might be. I don't.
I've not heard that. Okay, but it might be. And again,
Gap insurance, it may not come to an end, but it's going
to be quite limited. In fact, I'd like to get Compass on in
the next if you could, because I've had since I talked about this,
i had another text on it about Gap saying that their gap didn't didn't cover
anything because the car had gone down so much in value. That's a good
one too, so Gabe, thank you. I'm not sure about that,
but we'll ask Compass insurance group coming up if they cover or excuse me,
if they if you can still buy Gap insurance. And remember GAP is only
the one that was around one hundred and twenty five percent loan to value,
so it has to be only one hundred and twenty five percent more. It's
not going to go unlimited for people who got caught in the negative snowball.
Keep that in mind. Three zero three seven one three talks seven one three
eight two five five. Frank derand the real Estate Man dot com will get
you the price you want on buying or selling real estate. He is a
negotiating expert he has the track record to prove it, and in fact,
that's one of the things he does. He'll share it all with you with
your consultation, which is no obligation. He'll go over everything he sold,
how he sold it, what he's gotten for it, the bidding wars.
He's an open book. Three oh three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.
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. 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. Hi, Tom Martino, your troubleshooter three o three seven
one three seven three two five to five. So you got to take off
Brendan, so we'll be saying goodbye to you Denver Shades dot co. And
uh, what is the busy season? When it comes to window coverings.
Is it now? Is it summer? Is it year round? What is
there a busy season for window covering? I would say when we start getting
close to March and the spring, and when is the best time for sales?
Every industry has its best time for sales. What about window covers?
Uh, when kids are not in school, like or you know when like
summertime. Yeah, exactly when the summer comes, it's it slows down right
towards the end when kids are about to go back to school because parents are
getting that last vacation and so you can get their free holiday. Is good.
Yeah, and then springtime is really good because that's when they do a
lot of promotions like free cordless left and so you have promotions coming up.
Okay, Denver Shades dot Co. You can find out more Denver Shades dot
Co. All right, thank you, thank you. Three three seven one
three talk seven one three eight two five to five. Now here's a word
on payment methods. In this email, a guy says that he went online
and paid a bill for his daughter and filled out his credit card. That
was three years ago. Now listen to this. So three years ago,
he goes online and pays a bill for his daughter on one of the satellite
services, and three years later she is seriously delinquent on I think it's direct
TV bill. They went into the account and since her payment method had expired,
they went to his payment method that he had paid. It was still
on there and it wasn't the default payment method, but it was never removed,
and they used his information to make her current payment that was behind,
well not a current payment, but her payment that had lapsed. Right,
So he all of a sudden sees on his credit card there's like four hundred
and thirty bucks paid. He says, wait a minute, I paid for
her three years ago. What's this? He calls up and they say,
by the way, when you went in there, there was a disclaimer that
says when you enter payment information, it can be used for any payment,
and it can be used for any payment in the past or in the future,
and especially if no other payment method is available. So when the daughter's
credit card went bad or not bad but expired, or she got a new
one or something, you know how it changes. It changes the code or
maybe the expiration date, whatever it was, they went in and used his
payment method. So now here's what I want to tell you this is what
we need to learn. If you are making payments online for anything and there
are multiple payment methods on there, make sure you remove the methods you do
not want used, especially if you're paying for someone else, because if you
pay for someone else, you are opening the door to be charged in the
future, and that is a bad deal because you could end up like he
did with a bill for like four hundred some bucks. So what he had
to do was go protest it with his cards that I didn't authorize it,
and now it's in dispute, but kind of he did authorize it when he'd
entered it. And that's what you have to understand. When you enter a
payment method, you're authorizing it right then. Sometimes even now, they don't
do this all the time, but sometimes they'll put through a small charge and
a credit to make sure it's working, or they'll authenticate the card. But
once it's authenticated and it's a payment method, even if it's not the default
payment method, it could be used against you in the future. Here's another
thing, and I can get a little more into it. But to prevent
flooding, this person never dreamed that they would have a flood because they were
simply going to change out something where they needed to turn off their water.
It was a faucet. They were going to do it themselves, a really
easy job, and we're just going to turn off the water. And they
didn't have a turnoff valve at the faucet, so they're going to put one
of those in. At the same time, when he went to turn off
his water, the valve broke because it was an older home and the valve
had never been exercised. Now you might think, what the hell is he
talking about. Well, I'm going to tell you something. This is this
is valuable information that can save you a crap load of money. If you
have valves in your home that have not been used or as they say,
exercised in years, they could be corroded, they could be stiff, they
could be on their last leg and you don't even know it. So do
yourself a favor and I'm going to save a ton of people some trouble right
now. First of all, on the main water valve, go with a
sure thing Denver's Best roofer excelroofing 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 all 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 A three nine two zero sixteen twenty two ripped
up new need advice? Who you don't have? You come running just as
fast as you can. Shooter's gonna help coming. Man Dix is the Troubleshooter
Show. No Tom Martino, Hi, I'm Tom Martino. If you have
been lied to, cheated, or ripped off and need some help, give
us a call at three oh three seven one three talk three oh three seven
one three eight two five five here to help you solve problems, to answer
questions, and to take complaints. So all you have to do is call.
And the important thing is not to wait too long. And in fact,
if I had to sum up why consumer complaints don't get resolved, there
are some very common factors. I'm gonna quiz Mark, what do you think
the most common reason they pay money upfront? Man? Oh? No,
no, not the most common I'm talking about, why do you think when
somebody complains? I'm just curious if you if you've cataloged it, I know
you know it. But when people call us, what's what do you think
the reason is their complaints aren't heard? What do you think? I mean,
there's no right answer. What do you think I'm not understanding the question.
Okay, people often complain to us because they have nowhere else to go.
They sat called everyone and I did this, I did that, and
no one's listening. So I'm gonna tell you the number one what's that mark?
Lack of communication? Oh yeah, well, okay, that that could
be summed up that way. And here's the bottom line. Here's what I
have found. And this is like years and years, like forty five years.
Here's what's happening. People don't know what their complaint is. Many times
they don't ask for a resolution, they don't even they don't capsualize it.
Now, this is really important. On the radio show, I don't care,
even though I joke about people going on and on and on, and
people talk to me about you know, why do you interrupt? And you
know people want to tell a story, right, I don't mind that on
radio. It's entertaining. You call with a problem, and you want to
tell me from the beginning, Well, you know what, I got an
accident, I needed a car, I did this, I did that.
Here's the thing, what a lot of people don't understand is when you call
a company, or an employee of a company, or a spokesperson for a
company, or the attorney for a company, when you are calling with a
complaint, they don't want to hear the story. They don't want to hear
from the time I walked in the place I knew there was something wrong,
they don't want to hear it. And many times people don't respond to you
because they don't know what to respond to. It's honest to God, that's
simple. So what Mark calls a lack of communication is your lack of knowing
how to tell him your problem without all the other stuff, all the other
nonsense. There's no reason when you complain to give them all the background.
You go right to the problem and what you want to satisfy it. You
know, after several attempts to my refrigerator, ice maker is still not making
ice properly. I truly want a new unit. I think I deserve it.
You know what that problem right there is for some people a thirty minute
story. I had a guy get in touch with me on Instagram and say
he had a story, but he wouldn't come on the show unless I gave
him an hour, And I said, sir, I guarantee you there is
no problem in the universe that would take one hour to explain. Ever,
now think about it. One hour. I mean that he meant an hour
sixty minutes of talking would never happen. So when you complain and don't put
it in a sentence, people tune you out. It's not that they don't
want to help you. And another thing, you complain about things that were
in the past that can't be remedied, and people are overwhelmed. Do I
go back and try to fix the past? Do I try to fix the
future? Do I figure out what's wrong? Now? What do I do?
And you don't make it any easier for them because you're not putting a
handle on it. You've got to crystallize and summarize the problem, put a
handle on it that they can hold and do something about. It's that simple.
So when people say, well I called everybody, nobody knew what to
do. Another thing that when it comes to attorneys, I can't When people
say I can't find an attorney to take the case, what's that code for?
What is that code for? Nobody goes for I don't have a case,
because any attorney will take a good case. It's presented to them any
attorney. Now, if you want an attorney on contingency, that's a different
story. They want to make sure that in their award eventually there's going to
be enough money for their share, enough money to pay for all the time
that they're putting in, the expert witnesses and all the evidence they have to
gather. Now we are uh oh. We had a call in to Compass.
They're not there right now. I really wanted to talk to them about
gap insurance. Somebody said gap insurance is going away. There's no one available,
Kelly. They said, no one at Compass, no one. Everybody
is on a training seminar today. Oh okay, all right, then maybe
we talk about it tomorrow. Because somebody said gap insurance is going away.
I've never heard of that. And by the way, if you're just tuning
in, gap insurance is something that pays, I can definitely get them tomorrow.
They said they were available. Then if you want me to set it
up. If you're in an accident and there's not enough to pay off the
loan gap, insurance pays the difference, not all the time, it just
goes to a certain amount, like one hundred and twenty five percent. So
if you have a problem with complaining, many times it's because they don't know
what to complain about. Now here's another thing that came up in this email.
This is a good one. And how many times have we heard this.
Somebody ordered something and they had a company that was going to ship it.
So here's a quiz. You have the company you bought it from and
the company shipping it, and then you don't get it or it's damaged.
The company that sold it to you said, it's not our problem because it's
not ours, it's yours. You bought it the shipper. Once the shipper
took it, it belongs to you, and you say, wait a minute,
it doesn't belong to me yet. It doesn't belong to me until I
get it. So when does it belong to you? Does it belong to
you when the shipper takes it from the warehouse or it takes it from the
retailer. Whoever, is it yours? Is it now your responsibility for your
insurance and you to take over or do they not get off the hook?
Do they still own it until it's at your door? What do you think?
Like with Amazon, it's pretty easy with Amazon, that package becomes yours
when it's delivered with other people. If you bought a car, for example,
is that car yours when a transporter picks it up. Yeah, you
should have it insured with a car and that transporter picks it up. That
transporter is working for you. If they're transporting it to you and it gets
to you and you need to sign for it there, then it doesn't belong
to you until it gets to you. It's a fine line, but you
better well know because your insurance, your shipper's insurance or whatever may not cover
you when you think you're covered. In this case, a person, I'm
trying to find the email. A person bought something. It was a piece
of equipment, industrial equipment, and they were buying it from this supplier.
This supplier said, you paid for it. We sent you the paperwork,
so you have the ownership documents. The shipper came who by the way the
seller arranged for. But they claimed the shipper is working for you, so
that is yours right there in North Carolina where you bought it. It doesn't
have to get to Denver to be yours. Anything that happens after it's given
to you, that is your problem. But then what if it wasn't operating
properly or there's something wrong with it. They also claim you had a right
to inspect it, but when not when you get it in Denver? They
claim since you owned it where they sold it and your shipper came, that
is where it should have been inspected. So make sure, man, I'm
telling you more and more people are doing these remote buying and selling. You
better make damn well sure you know when you own it. That's critical when
you own it, because you need to inspect it before you own it,
and if anything happens before you own it, it's their responsibility. Now,
there are times you own it here, there are times you own it there.
I'm Tom Martinez three oh three seven to one three talks 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. Time for an insurance
check up free no obligate 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. I'm Tom Martino here three oh three seven one three
talk three oh three seven one three eight two five five. I want to
talk to Jarison Art right now. Hanson at Jaris Are you there, sir?
I am Tom. Let's talk. I'm doing good. I want to
talk about the retirement summit, specifically because I did it. I did have
some questions and people always do now when we talk about creating uh income,
When we talk about creating income, so many people are talking about creating income,
and I just want to I want to straight out ask our annuities.
When is that code where for annuities? Whenever people, and I don't mean
just you guys, but everyone in the industry, when you talk about creating
income and retirement, is that a code word for annuities a lot of time.
It will it is Tom. I'm not saying that's the only answer for
people to generate income, but it's pretty popular one. And I'll tell you
this, I don't know how many of your listeners have dent to retirement planning
or annuity seminars in the past, but most of those seminars that people go
to, that's the only thing they're gonna hear. They're gonna hear their sales
pitch for annuities and that the annuity is a tool, but it's got to
be considered in context of an entire retirement plan. And if you can do
it that way, then you can use it properly if it's appropriate, and
if it's not, then there might be some other tools that we would use
instead. And so that's what the summit's going to be about, is is
helping people understand beyond just the products that might be available, how do you
integrate it into an overall plan that's really going to make a difference for somebody
long term. A big time topic that a lot of people are discussing nowadays
is converting money that's already qualified. And this is what I don't understand is
taking money that's qualified and turning it to a a wroth, so you actually
pay tax on it and then put it into a wroth. How does that
work? Yeah, in order to do a roth conversion, you pay tax
as it comes out of the qualified plan. So and yeah, then it
becomes tax free growth or tax free. And if you want to convert it
to some cause, is that because people are anticipating they don't want to pay
taxes in the future. Is that what they're trying to do precisely? Yep.
If I, if I, if I've got a big retirement account balance,
and I know that at age seventy three or seventy five, depending on
when I'm born, I'm going to have to start making withdraws from that scene
by force because the IRS has requirementum distribution rules. I might want to go
get some money out of that account now to forestall the giant TAXI I'm going
to have later on. If I've got some time, I can go move
it out, put into a roth or something else. When you take required
minimum distributions, And for those listening, that's a really important thing eventually,
even if you don't want to use it, even if you have social security
and you want to save that if you have a certain amount of money,
not a certain if you have money in retirement at all, at seventy two
or seventy three, you're going to have to start taking some out. And
then when you take it out, you're going to pay taxes, not penalties,
but taxes. Now, if you have a WROTH, is that included
in the minimum distribution? Nope? Nope. Roth is exempt from the minimum
distribution requirement. So you can just let that thing sit and grow and withdraw
we need to. So if you want to bite the bullet on a certain
amount of money now and gradually each year convert it, could you end up
with very little to worry about in the future. I mean, if you're
anticipating and like everyone does, tax rates, you're just going to keep going
up and up and up. Is that why people are doing the conversions now?
Yes? Absolutely, If if if you think that you're going to have
a tax issue later on, particularly in regards to the like the the federal
deficit and death that's going on right now, Like Congress can't keep the way
that things are going on like this forever, and it's inevitable that somehow they're
going to figure out a way that they're going to have to raise revenue for
the government, which means taxes. So if you think the taxes are going
to go up or even stay the same, it may make sense to go
get some of that out of the out of the IRA or out of the
four O one K ahead of time so we can have a lower tax bill
later on. And that's one of the things that we can help folks do.
We'll talk about this a little bit at our at our Retirement Freedom Summit
on Thursday, but we can talk about how to plan those so that you
don't cost too much tax. Now, let's get you, you know,
some of that income out and spread it out over time so you got your
pain a little bit each year rather than a huge, big chunk all at
once, or a big tax bill later on if you just ignore it.
But isn't always the assumption in the in the old days, the assumption was
always that as you get older, you're being making less, so that's why
you don't mind paying tax. Then theoretically, yeah, that is the assumption.
Here's the problem, though, if you've been a relatively successful individual and
you've got a you know, I've ran into lots and lots of clients of
ours. You have a million, two million dollars in an ir or of
four lan K account that's going to generate thirty forty fifty sixty thousand dollars of
income per year that's taxable when you're retired. And you take that and add
it on top of other forms of income, you have, all of a
sudden you're in a really high tax bracket, even though you don't need that
much to live on. So it's the income streams that determine your tax brack
and not what your living expenses are, which might be lower. The chances
are if you've been a successful person, you're in a pretty high income high
tax. Another thing I think people don't understand, and I want to get
this clear survivor benefits. A husband thinks, well, my wife will gets
survivor benefits or the husband things they'll get survivor Can you, and I know
you're going to go over this extensively, but can you explain in a nutshell
survivor benefits and how to use them? Yeah? Tom, are you talking
about survivor benefits with Social Security? Yes? Thank yeah? Yeah? So
yeah, so with social Security, the way the survivor benefits. Work is,
if you've got a husband and a wife who are both collecting Social Security,
chances are one of those is going to be higher than the other.
And I don't know which one it is. Let's just say it's the wife
that's higher than the husbands. How about that, right? Right? Whatever,
as soon as either one of the spouses passes away, the lower of
the two benefits goes away, and the higher benefits stays with the surviving spouse.
So regardless of who's is, who's the bigger benefit stays, the lower
ones wiped out. Surviving spouse has one social Security benefit coming in whichever's higher.
The other one doesn't exist anymore. Okay, so that's the way it's
And also again social Security goes to your highest earning years or your most recent
People are confused about that. Yep, it goes to your highest earning years.
And what social Security does is they take they take your entire earnings history
ever since you started working, and they index it all according to inflation,
so it's equal on equal footing according to today's dollars. And then they'll take
thirty five highest from that list. So you know, maybe you only made
twenty thousand dollars in nineteen seventy, but that could be the equivalent of it
not making this up, but it equivalent of a sixty thousand a day.
So if that's one of your thirty five highest years, they're going to use
that year. It doesn't have to be sequential. And if you've only worked
let's say twenty five years, not thirty five years, then there's going to
be twenty five years worth of earnings plus ten zeros that go into that calculator.
Oh so that's why people get dinged a lot when they retired early.
Yep, sometimes it is if they don't have enough, you know, years
of earnings. It takes thirty five and once you get once you it's thirty
five. The only way you can increase is if you have a year where
you earn more than your lowest of the thirty five. Yeah. I mean,
if you made a boatload of money and then took some years off,
that's different. But if you average out normal salary and you didn't work a
lot, you have a big problem. And I mean that's just the way
it is. There is no such thing as income for people that didn't work.
I mean, what happens to people that didn't work enough for social security?
Do they just have to suffer through it? Yeah? Yep, Okay,
we try and see if there's other things we can do to help them
out, but usually it's just a matter of going and finding a job,
getting some more socicurity built up. One other thing I've always talked about,
and this is important for retirement, because there's no magic in retirement. Okay,
if you have a high burn rate, so to speak, you may
have to cut back on spending. I mean, people want to know I
can't make the same amount of money, so what can I look forward to?
I mean, what do people usually do in retirement? Fifty percent of
their income? Percent of their income? What do they normally do? I
mean, if you look at the average person, an average person, I'll
tell you this, an average person that we meet with. Give me do
it right? Yeah? If you do it right? Yeah, we're talking
people that have that have spent you know, a lot of years working,
have earned reasonably good salaries, and maybe have half a million to two or
three or more million dollars saved up. The average person in that range usually
spends somewhere in the This is going to be a wide range, Tom,
but somewhere between six and twelve thousand dollars a month, okay, right,
depending on depending on standard of living, what kind of place they live,
if they still have a mortgage when they retire, which some do, so
you know, that's that's pretty average, and if someone's had an income stream
to produce that kind of assets, and more often than not, social Security
will make up a lot of that. What our job then is going to
be is to say, okay, mister and missus Smith, we can cover
your your income. Let's say you want eight thousand a month, and we
can get you five thousand out social Security. Where are we going to go
get the other three? Doesn't annuity make sense in that situation? Or not?
Should we go find some market based accounts that can throw off in come
to fill that gap? And that's where we come in, and we help
consult with folks to figure out whether they want any of that three thousand guaranteed
or if they're okay with some market risk, and depending on the answers to
a series of questions and conversations that we'll have, will help them figure out
how to fill the gap, how to preserve as much as they can for
the future and just do it in a tax efficient way where they can be
comfortable during retirement without having to worry about where the money is going to come
from. All right, I appreciate it. Jaris. I have to let
you go, and I just want to put a shout out here so you
still have the invitation up at rpcenter dot com for people to get details,
and it's in thwort in this Thursday. It really is. I said this
before. This is not a sales job and you're not going to be preached
to. There's not a lot of long lectures. We will go through the
basics and ask for questions. Y thank you Tom. All right, so
that's hard to rpcenter dot com. This Thursday at six o'clock we got 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 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 oh three nine two zero
sixteen twenty two. I'm Tom Martino three oh three seven one three talk hey
seven one three eight two five five listen. YELP is finally doing something I
think is a great idea. So they're analyzing their reviews right now. Did
you hear about this? They're analyzing and if there are positive reviews more than
a certain number, they have an algorithm. Everyone has an algorithm, right
But they're using AI to do this. If they see positive reviews coming from
similar ips, they are flagging it and making a warning to people about fake
reviews. I think that's great. There are so many problems with fake reviews
right now. So they are doing this, and then they're going to have
a special website listing companies that are caught making fake reviews. Now, wouldn't
you think Mark? As far as the IP technology, wouldn't you think it
would be easy to rotate ips each time you write one. I mean,
can't you do that even from a single computer in a house somewhere if you
connected, if you connect to a VPN every time to a different IP,
sure, but you'd have to Literally, you couldn't program a computer if I
couldn't, but I'm sure someone could with no problem at all. But imagine
that if you could program it, so every time you know, hit a
new review, it changes the vpn IP. That would be That would be
good anyway. Colorado is taking the first significant step on the Consumer Protection Act,
and it's the Consumer Protection Act basically governs any kind of deception or fraud
or something in general terms. And by the way, what they're trying to
do, they say, is make it stronger. Representative Mike Wiseman from Aurora
says he's trying to fix it because the law says that you have to in
order to prevail in court, you have to show significant public harm or public
impact or you can't even get to court. And he says that means that
a lot of businesses get to rip people off but don't rise to the level
of significant public harm or public impact, then therefore get away with it under
the Consumer Protection Act. So the new Consumer Protection Act he's proposing, or
the Amendment to the Consumer Protection Act, says it says the elimination of a
judicially created requirement that a significant number of consumers be harmed before remedies are available.
So they're what they're trying. And I think this is a great idea.
And this is from a Democrat, Mike Wiseman. What he's saying is
the number of people is not that important, and the public impact, if
you can show that it's deceptive anyway, what difference does it make how many
people it rips off if it's deceptive, if you can get rid of it,
if you can sue under the under the Deceptive Trade Practice Act, then
you avoid people from getting hurt. You know, in other words, it's
going to be bad whether it hurts a lot of people or not, in
hopes that you prevent it from hurting a lot of people. I think that's
a great idea, by the way, So the bottom line is that is
going that. By the way, that bill, if you're interested in it,
I think it's HB twenty four ten fourteen, and I think it's a
great idea. Finally, are I mean, I can't stand some of the
laws we're coming up with, but this one for consumer protection is good.
It's taking away that that public impact requirement, which is usually interpreted as a
large number of consumers or you know, so that's good, and so they're
trying to do away with that three oh three seven to one three talks seven
one three, eight two five five. By the way, have you heard
of the new diets that are sweeping the country. Do you know that there
is, honest to god, a baby food diet right now where adults are
eating baby food and in hopes of losing weight, they're becoming malnourished. But
this is the latest thing on TikTok baby food diet. Obviously, no need
to do it, it's stupid. You know, a simple a simple low
carb diet, reduced calorie diet can do it. Or of course you can
do the new you know. The problem with the weight loss hormones that they're
using right now, like semaglue, tide. It works. The problem with
those is a lot of people aren't learning their new diet habits, so they
go back to gain. They go back to gaining the weight when they stop.
Marlene was from last Tuesday, and oh I remember this. This was
a pain in the butt man, this problem. And you know what,
Marlene, hold on, let me take this quick break. I'll come right
back to you. It's about your twenty thirteen Chevy Malibu, and it was
with big O' tires, and then Davidson Automotive. Well's come right back to
it. 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.
Pay 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. Hi Tom
Martino here three three seven to one to three talk Marlene. So, Marlene,
I looked at your call. I got it here and base. I
want to summarize it for people listening. You said, Davidson Motors basically messed
up your car. They did work on a chiming chain, and then you
say, then you say afterwards the car had problems with the engine, and
you believe broken screws came off during the timing chain replacement and fell into the
engine. Kevin Calkins said, he doesn't know how. I told you to
take it over to him for a second opinion, and how I don't know
how you would show anything that fell off and it was inside the engine,
but that's how we left it that. We're not sure how they messed it
up. Kevin said, if a stud was broken off on the generator or
alternator, it would not have fallen in to that area. So what happened
since then? Marlene? I have sent you a picture describing I don't know
if you got it. I had emailed Kelly. Did you Did you send
me her additional information? I don't see the picture now? What did you
send us, Marlene? It was a picture of where Big O'd was,
describing the engine and what they've seen and what they found. The thing is,
I took it back to Davidson's because they said that they would look at
it, and I was just assuming that maybe you know, they're gonna do
right. So what did they say when they looked at it. They told
me that it had nothing to do with it that screwed popped up and it
didn't have anything to do with the work that they did. But I don't
even know how to get around this. These people from me standing up there
yesterday. For the couple of hours that I was up there, there were
so many people pulling up complaining I these people need to be shut down.
They want me to pay eight hundred dollars. I went threw PaperWorks, Marlene.
Marlene, I just need to ask you something. Is it possible that
they did not break off screws into your engine? Still we have the Here's
what I need to know. Why does Big O assume there are screws inside
or studs inside your engine because they were able to look at it they went
in because I went their initial O. How did they did they actually see
the studs inside your engine? They've seen the broke one where it was okay,
see this is okay, Marlene. We tried calling Big OH to get
them on the phone, and wasn't it true they wouldn't come Come on?
Right? Is that right, Kelly? They didn't they hang up on us.
No, it wasn't that the person not she was working with was no
longer available? Well could we? Okay? So so Marlene, we have
nothing to go on at all. You're telling us and and and Kevin Caulkin,
who listened to your story, said it's virtually impossible to show that screws
went inside your engine, and so so we we don't know what you're talking
about. We need to talk to someone at Big OH. If we can't
talk to someone at Big OH, you need to take it to another expert
that will talk to us. I'm sorry, that's the only thing we can
do. Three oh three Martino three oh three six two seven eight four six six