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Show Consumer protection laws would prevent breach of warranty j-L-yBusiness Computer ';7vr if U4.JBI )Ji-.;i tLIII1 In the next few months, we'll all be rooting for passage of the first bill in the United States designed specifically to protect computer buyers. Los Angeles Assemblywoman Assembly-woman Gloria Molina is now introducing it in the California legislature. If Assembly Bill 1507 passes, it will write into law the important warranties that we were the first to advocate, right here in this column. It will protect customers from false claims and breach of warranty. We're proud to have had a hand in its drafting. It all started when Molina bought an Apple Lisa on a retailer's promise that it would do all her campaign mailing. The retailer never got it to work. After lots of phone calls to Apple headquarters, they finally fixed it by replacing the $10,000 computer's insides with the insides of a $3,000 Macintosh. Needless to say, Molina was less than thrilled. That's when a constituent forwarded to her our "Sellers' Code of Ethics" column as it had run in program author, uhc .la!H-s the retailer ... This consumer runaround is likely to get worse in the next year or two. The industry was overcrowded hundreds hun-dreds of computer companies, thousands thous-ands of program makers. A shakeout lias starK!.. the tw w- predict more than a year ago. When big companies like Exxon abandons computer lines, they arrange for alternate sources of service. But smaller companies just vanish, leaving behind unfilled warranties. Users should not have to become computer technicians to understand what they're getting for their money. Manufacturers and sellers should tell buyers in plain English what a purchase will and won't do. Then if the products don't perform .as promised, a full refund is in order. This is what Bill 1507 hopes to guarantee the buyer. It also protects the retailer, requiring reimbursement reimburse-ment from makers who are at fault. You can help get this first bill passed in several ways: If you have a horror story of your own that will help the California legislature act, write to Assemblywoman Gloria Molina (5261 E. Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, Calif. 90022 ) . If you weren't burned, but you're still for this consumer protection bill, send her a postcard saying so. In California, tell your own legislator you support Assembly Bill 1507. Outside California, ask your state legislator to introduce similar legislation. Molina is mighty brave. She's bucking the tide in a state that bends over backwards to coddle computer makers. Let's all support her bravery! The authors answer questions and send a checklist of available back issues. Send a stamped, self-addressed self-addressed envelope. A new 4,000-word 4,000-word special report, "Educational Programs for Children," gives details on price and performance of computer-age products for children. For your copy, send $3 for Report FP01, in care of the Park Record, P.O. Box 3688, Park City, UT 84060. Make checks payable to Newspaperbooks. (c) 1985 PK Associates, Inc. The Sacramento Bee. We'd drafted that code, with support from conscientious members of the computer industry, because too many of our readers had been burned like Molina. Seeing the column, she realized that she wasn't alone. More than that, the California legislator realized that she was uniquely able to make some changes. She phoned and asked if we could help her draft the bill. Our offices both dug in and researched all the computer laws of the land and came up with an interesting finding: Although states have passed plenty of computer bills, there's not one computer buyer protection law in the United States. Many states have passed tax-incentive tax-incentive bills to woo high-tech companies into their territory. You and I foot the taxes for companies that don't survive more than a few years. Then there's the double tax break computer makers get in some states for donating computers to schools. We question this for two reasons : ( 1 ) Donated computers are frequently obsolete models and (2) each "free" classroom computer nets five sales of the same brand to parents. Many states have passed bills making it illegal for hackers to wander into open computerized data bases when it's illegal to wander into open public buildings. (We think that any business or government that doesn't properly guard criminal, medical, credit and other sensitive information is as much to biame as the hacker. ) Even the IRS is not on the small consumer's side when it comes to computers. They insist on a five-year five-year depreciation period for the capital outlay even though most small computers are replaced within three years. But consumers need as much or more protection as computer makers and sellers. Computer advertising is modern sleight of hand: It usually promises more than anybody can yet deliver. What many computer buyers end up with is a hole in their desk into which they pour money for extra circuit boards, software and cables to make their computers work as promised. If something goes wrong with a purchase, it's often hard to know exactly who's at fault. Complain, and the retailer blames the manufacturer, who blames the |