What's On Your Mind? Charity Telemarketers, 30-Day Returns, CARFAX

Nearly every state has a law enforcement organization that raises money through telemarketing operations. Callers are told they are supporting local police officers and are offered a decal to place on the cars, presumably to show any officer who might pull them over for a traffic violation that they are supportive. But we've been told that local police organizations do not engage in telemarketing and have never encouraged consumers to donate to these groups.

"We get called each year to pledge money to the Garden State Law Enforcement Officers Association (GSLEOA)," Kathleen, of Long Branch, N.J., told ConsumerAffairs.com. "According to New Jersey law, no police agency may call citizens to solicit money for any purpose. Yet call they do, and then send us a letter to "pay up" on our pledge."

If that's the case, Kathleen needs to simply hang up the next time they call and not make a pledge. For what it's worth, the New Jersey news website NorthJersey.com reported last August that Clifton, N.J. police launched an investigation of GSLEOA after a local doctor complained of aggressive tactics. Clifton Police Detective Capt. Robert Rowan told the website he had never heard of the group.

The gift that never even gets started

The next time you are making out a holiday gift list, you might not want to include software, or technology that has limited return potential. John, of Stafford, Va., said he received a Roxio Easy LP to MP3 converter for Christmas. By the time he opened it and tried to set it up, 30 days had elapsed from the time it was purchased at Best Buy.

“After several weekends attempting to get the product to work, I determined the hardware in the unit was defective," John told ConsumerAffairs.com. "I contacted customer support via email since they charge for phone support. After several weeks of back and forth, I was told that they do not honor refunds or replacements over 30 days from purchase."

John thinks it's ridiculous that a consumer has only 30 days to figure out if a piece of software works, but that appears to be the policy. Best to keep that in mind when shopping for gifts that might not be opened right away.

Laptop heartburn

Anthony, of Staten Island, N.Y., tells us he has had nothing but trouble with his Lenovo small business laptop.

"In the first two cases, drivers failed," he told ConsumerAffairs.com. "The third problem was serious enough that the company sent me a T400 replacement laptop. Now, my hard drive is failing.”

According to Anthony, he should have 87 days remaining on his warranty, but says when he called the company, he was told he was not in the system.

This doesn't sound like it's going to end well for Anthony. At best he will probably only be offered a refurbished unit, once he can prove he is covered by warranty. If might be time to start shopping for a new laptop. Some careful research, reading consumer reviews, should yield better results.

Just the FAX

We've seen complaints in the past that CARFAX failed to list damage to a used car that someone purchased. But Arin, of Freedom, Calif., complains that CARFAX listed damage information about his car that wasn't accurate.

"I attempted to trade in my '05 Civic hybrid at my local Honda dealership," Arin told ConsumerAffairs.com. "When they ran the CARFAX report it shows "Structural Frame Damage" and they offered me less than 50 percent of the value of my car.”

Arin said he has reported one accident since owning the car. His car was barely moving in heavy traffic when a deer jumped into the roadway and ran into a fender.

"There was a small dent, the deer ran away, no other vehicles were involved, no police report was filed," he said. "I informed my insurance company and the damage was repaired. Both my insurance company and the body shop insist they did not report this accident to CARFAX, let alone describe it as having caused structural frame damage. I can't figure out where else CARFAX could have gotten the information and they refuse to disclose the source."

Since thousands of dollars are involved, Arin might want to hire an independent mechanic to inspect the car's frame to verify there is no damage, though we aren't sure even that would succeed in having the item removed from the report.

Arin's story reminds us that a car dealer once told us that new cars often are damaged when they are being unloaded from the truck from the factory, with their new owners never learning about the damage. But we can't imagine a dealer would report such an incident to CARFAX.