hey everybody how's it going after my
most recent contractor experience i can
honestly say that i have a great level
of sympathy for people who pay a
professional based on a referral who
doesn't get the job that they pay for
which is precisely why i have a great
amount of sympathy for members of the
consumer technology association you paid
to be a part of an organization that
would lobby on behalf of your interests
and if the testimony that we heard from
charlie brown
is
any indication it doesn't seem like you
got what you paid for now with the
contractor that i hired it doesn't seem
like i'm able to get money back because
the same day that he failed in his
filing for bankruptcy it seems to be the
same day that his home mysteriously went
on fire and from what i hear from people
who have attempted to
go the legal route in the past they were
not able to collect any money however
lobbyists tend to have quite a bit of
money so i think that if the people who
are members of the consumer technology
association filed the charge back they'd
actually be able to get their money back
the thing is when you call up visa or
mastercard and you say hey i'd like my
money back because i didn't get the
service i asked for they're going to ask
for evidence and it can be a
time-consuming process to create that
evidence so i thought hey let me do you
a favor since i feel bad for how you
were treated and give you some of that
evidence for you let's take a look at
the testimony that he provided let's
take a look at how he presented himself
let's take a look at alternative ways
that your interests could have been
presented to the senators that were
asking questions that he was completely
unable to present himself or answer and
uh
go let's go from there good morning mr
chair and members of the committee i am
charlie brown i'm here today on behalf
of the consumer technology
association
uh we are opposed to senate bill 5799 i
uh uh we believe that uh senate bill
5799 is uh
uh
in
lithium-ion batteries and the potential
uh
dangerous dangers dangers uh uh uh uh
robust uh summer uh companies uh uh uh
we absolutely oppose this um we do look
forward to having more robust
conversations about this uh we would
like to have more robust conversations i
believe that we get to have that
opportunity uh as with some of the
conversations that a number of us have
had uh earlier this week uh do i own
this phone i mean it sounds like when i
buy it
my intention my understanding was i buy
i pay you money it's now mine but it
sounds like there's some lasting
commitment where am i renting it from
the company like why why do i have some
obligation back to you if i go buy a
pencil at office depot they don't like
come tell me how i can use my pencil or
where i can take my pencil i get to do
whatever i want with it why is it
different especially because my iphone
costs a little bit more than a pencil at
office depot does
it
how is this relationship different than
when i buy other products in the
marketplace senator clearly there are a
lot of issues that we need to walk
through
um
what i will say is that that super
computer that's in your pocket
which you cut say is an iphone
repaired that phone and do it under
warranty so that you can still feel
confident that what you're getting back
is a phone that does not have tick tock
put on to it uh uh uh there are some
this this i i absolutely should be
educating our future uh students to
create the cobblers of the future
consumer electronics show down in las
vegas this year and what's coming your
way is really quite uh
amazing uh we're a leader in this state
for this conversation we need to have a
serious
discussion about how we go forward on
this and i know we're going to have that
opportunity no but really let's see how
he answers this question when the
senator asks it senator clearly there
are a lot of issues that we need to walk
through
um
what i will say is that that super
computer that's in your pocket
which you cut say is an iphone
there's a warranty that goes along with
that and there's an authorized network
of people that are
that we have vetted who know how to uh
repair that phone and do it under
warranty so that you can still feel
confident that what you're getting back
is a phone that does not have tick tock
put on to it doesn't raise some of the
data privacy questions that i think this
very committee is uh wrestling with
right now and things that i think that
when you get that back you should feel
assured that you're not going to
have some kind of a compromise in that
particular device that's in your pocket
so there are some this this i i abso
absolutely actually agree with senator
rolfes and that we should be educating
our future uh students to create the
cobblers of the future which is digital
technology i happen to have an
opportunity to be at the consumer
electronics show down in las vegas this
year and what's coming your way is
really quite uh
amazing and i think that we should all
uh be spending more time and educating
more of our students in computer
technology i think i'd be done in the
middle school so we can capture all the
students early on i think that we ought
to be pushing that in this state we're a
leader in this state for this
conversation we need to have a serious
discussion about how we go forward on
this and i know we're going to have that
opportunity now let's see how that could
have been handled if you had hired a
properly educated lobbyist who took even
20 seconds to look into the issue
senator absolutely when you purchase
that phone you own it you don't have any
obligations to us whether you're within
warranty or out of warranty you can
either take your phone to us the
authorized repair center you can take it
to a third party repair center or you
can fix it yourself if you have an issue
with your screen you can go to
mobilecentrics.com and buy either a
screen for your phone a battery for your
phone a power button cable for your
phone and you can even buy the
screwdrivers to fix it yourself now i
understand that in some cases there can
be frustration because in certain areas
we do use proprietary screws however the
reason we use them is because in certain
areas it's really small screws and in
our experience we found that when we use
phillips which is just that little cross
they strip much easier which is why we
use those pentalobe ones which have more
pieces to grab the screw so it's less
likely to strip however you can go to a
website like casey toolco and companies
like weha will sell you a screwdriver
for five to seven dollars or if you want
to go with the cheapo one that's not as
good sometimes they even come for free
when you buy a repair kit on ebay now
do we have the best systems in place
when it comes to more advanced repairs
in helping the customer like logic board
repairs or data recovery
no and we are working on that those are
admittedly difficult issues for any
company because logic board repairs are
not basic it is hard to get a supply
system put together due to how complex
it is and i'm more than happy to speak
with you later so that we can try and
develop a better system to serve our
customers and to ensure that you feel
that we're serving our customers and
your constituents properly i'm more than
happy to meet but at the moment you do
have those different manners of working
on your phone we're not going to stop
you from purchasing from any of those
companies to work on your phone if you
want to go to a site like mobile
centrics it's not like you're wiring
money to some rando in china this is
something you could do with a credit
card and feel secure in your purchase so
yes you indeed own your phone when you
purchase it senator and we're not trying
to take that right away from you
this is what he could have said
if he was using his brain now obviously
it's a somewhat disingenuous answer
because yes those screws are more
difficult to strip but you could have
also used torques for it yes there are
certain parts that are made more
difficult yes they do things like
program specific features to they say
they've been serializing specific
features to that specific screen so even
if you buy a good aftermarket certain
things will never gonna work again and
there are a lot of parts where you're
not able to buy aftermarket at all
because they don't exist they do a lot
to make it purposely difficult to repair
the board of the phone like purposely no
schematic no board views uh having those
types of exclusivity agreements when it
comes to certain ships like power
management ics which makes it really
difficult to find them you got to get
them off donor boards and all this other
crap but it would have been a good
surface level answer and even though
it's obviously somewhat disingenuous and
missing the total scope of our
complaints he would have addressed a
teeny tiny album yeah like mobile
centric doesn't sell everything else so
they if i want a laptop screen can i buy
it no if i want many other parts to
apple products can i buy it no are there
many other
devices out there that they don't cover
of course but it would have covered it
would have at least made it seem like
i'm responding to the basic complaint
that is being proposed and i would have
directly answered the senator's quest
question rather than uh um super
computer in your pocket uh um children
uh um education uh um uh they're gonna
put tick tock on your phone no no like
the answer that he gave not only was it
a answer but he he kind of came
like he he sounded like he was lying
like he had this look on his face if
you're an experienced lobbyist and you
look like you're in your 50s and you
have a lobbying firm don't you have any
experience that when you're speaking in
front of a legislative body you don't
look like a drug addict that uh um is
afraid that he's uh not gonna get his
fix or like some gambler that's just bet
his that just bet his house and his kids
college fund on on a blackjack game like
just
it it fun it bothers me when people are
that bad at their job and that was what
i got from watching this testimony but
i'm kind of curious what you all think
so um i will be uploading the rest of
the series the rest of the videos from
this legislative hearing as well as the
main legislative hearing and i look
forward to reading your comments thank
you very much and have a good day and as
always i hope you learned something