industry today. What’s more, in the Dreyfuss film it was implied that the product might have been unwanted by the homeowner but at least it had value for the money paid.
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In today’s home improvement industry the product may not only be unwanted by the homeowner but may also be shoddy and overpriced. In today’s home improvement industry, the products are often overpriced by a factor of three.
The darker tragedy is that the homeowner may have only purchased the product because they were lonely and the salesman was nice to them.
In far more cases than you might imagine, the homeowner was never even shown the product they bought and was never told about it before they signed the contract to buy it.
To clean up this mess there is no alternative but to restrict the methods used by these predators. And these restrictions have to be backed with criminal prosecution, treble damages, and serious jail time.
This will not come about through simple “do gooder” legislation. Most states have no control of this massive juggernaught. Too much money goes from contractor to politician. The only way to change the situation is to take action against the most prominent companies perpetrating and perpetuating these egregious practices. We have to send people to jail.
All of these home improvement sales are big enough to justify felony charges. Because the salesman, his boss, the company, the supplier, and even the lender cooperate to victimize the consumer, these matters also can come under RICO. A RICO conviction turns a four year term in an honor camp into 20 years in the penitentiary.
Action should also be taken against their suppliers who know full well what methods and tactics are being used to move these products into the homes of America. Some suppliers even train the salesmen on how to do it. Lastly, action should be taken against the financial institutions which grease this Fraud Machine with cash and foreclose on the victims homes when everything turns sour.
The manufacturer and vendor lists for these scam artists are a “Who’s Who” of American Industry.
And don’t think that the finance companies don’t know exactly what is going on. They do. It is virtually impossible for them not to know. Every once in a while they actually
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