Late payment? Electronic Repossession.

[sixmile]

Further graphic evidence of the chains that bind:

http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/1119794.html
No remittance, no ignition: Auto 'electronic repo' in action
'...The beeping was a reminder that 24 hours remained before a car-loan payment had to be made — or else the vehicle would fail to start.

The Gibbses made it home to Blue Springs, punched in a one-time emergency code provided by the dealer to keep the car operable and then drove to the dealership to deliver the delinquent payment.

In five years, said Michelle Gibbs, it was the one car payment she and her husband, Robert, let slip; the dreaded “disabler” has forced them to keep up. “I think it would be nice to do it for other products,” she said.

Small used-car lots that finance their own sales are driving the practice for now, but it could become commonplace, say consumer groups. Increasingly, satellites and programmable timers are capable of shutting down a home’s utilities, computer software, appliances and leased machinery if overdue bills aren’t paid.'


It won't be long until the credit card and mortgage companies take this ball and run with it...

[DJ13]

1. It would be cheaper to chip citizens than all the products

No payment on your WalMart credit card? ZAP! Electric shock.

Im kidding, but you just have to know that some twisted corporatist has thought along that line.

[sixmile]

4. It wouldn't surprise me in the least

Most people, myself included, are wholly-owned subsidiaries of finance companies and banks. It makes me rethink not becoming a Buddhist years ago.

[DKRC]

15. Of course they have

If you haven't read Spychips, go to the site and read the articles at the links. The book has information on patents to do deep implantation into organs so that we couldn't remove the chips without expensive invasive surgeries.
And yes, there is a part about zapping people with these implanted chips.

http://www.spychips.com/


ABOUT THE BOOKS

"Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track your Every Move with RFID" (Nelson Current) was released in October 2005. Already in its fifth printing, "Spychips" is the winner of the Lysander Spooner Award for Advancing the Literature of Liberty and has received wide critical acclaim. Authored by Harvard doctoral researcher Katherine Albrecht and former bank examiner Liz McIntyre, the book is meticulously researched, drawing on patent documents, corporate source materials, conference proceedings, and firsthand interviews to paint a convincing -- and frightening -- picture of the threat posed by RFID.

Despite its hundreds of footnotes and academic-level accuracy, the book remains lively and readable according to critics, who have called it a "techno-thriller" and "a masterpiece of technocriticism."

[lunatica]

2. It's inevitable

But I sure hope they put a card slot in everything so you can whip out your credit and debit card and pay on the spot, as soon as anything starts beeping. That's so much better than having to find a bank or the accounts receivable office of whatever it is you're paying.

:sarcasm: :sarcasm:

Will it ever be possible to live off the grid?

[roamer65]

3. I would have the device or car's computer yanked out and replaced.

Just to fucking piss them off.

[lunatica]

7. It would probably start bleeping in distress

And they'd come get you

[sixmile]

10. Or disable the disabler

Tinfoil time.

[Statistical]

26. then they repo the vehicle.

removal or disabling the device violates the contract.

I technically could disable smoke detector in aircraft lavatory with a hefty screw driver.

Just because you can technically do something doesn't enable you to escape the legal consequences.

[billyoc]

5. Aww, I want one!

Sounds like valuable electronic parts that I can salvage after the unit gets "stolen". :rofl:

[Vinnie From Indy]

6. These devices sound like a tort LAWYERS dream

"Good people of the jury, my client's entire family was killed because the loan company disabled his car at a time when that car could have saved them all. In short, these people died for less than $200. owed to some bankers."

[lunatica]

8. Great point!

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. How many freeway pileups can one disabled car cause?

Or frozen to death drivers in winter in Minn?


Better hope the hearse is owned outright by the furneral home.

[tammywammy]

12. Per the article

"They will not shut down a moving car, manufacturers note, but will render starters silent the morning after the warning light turns red."

[doctor jazz]

23. That won't mollify the "it's okay to steal from corporations" idiots.

:eyes:

[Statistical]

27. Plus the system has one-use emergency code.

They have been around for decades. Even the newer ones w/ gps locating have been around at least 10 years. No major lawsuits.

[doctor jazz]

22. How would that be different from a physical repo where they hauled it away?

I don't get it.

[tech3149]

11. One more reason I'm glad I have no car payments, credit card etc.

It may be a bit strange dropping out of the consumer culture that is American life, but it damned sure provides a sense of freedom that you can't get when you are owned by your possessions.

[Lyric]

13. This pisses me off so much.

At the dealers AND at the people who buy these cars.

If people refuse to buy cars with this crap installed, then they'd stop fucking installing them. ARGH. They can only do to us what we LET them do by going to fuck along with it.

:banghead:

[Tesha]

17. Maybe this is the *ONLY WAY* these folks could get a car loan...

...and they decided this was better than walking?

Tesha

[depakid]

21. The trouble with that logic is that it opens the door to a slippery slope

once you allow abusive practices (justified by whatever rationalization) the practices tend to spread and worsen.

[doctor jazz]

24. How is it abusive?

???

[depakid]

28. I guess if you can't figure that one out, then you deserve to have your vehicle shut down

irrespective of the circumstances.

Just like you deserve to pay high ATM fees- and have your interst rate jacked up arbitrarily- as per the contract that you signed.

[doctor jazz]

29. I've noticed you hate the Second Amendment, now it seems you hate people who pay their bills.

Are there actually any honest, upright people you think are okay?

[depakid]

31. If you'd like to make false attributions- and toss out aspersions be my guest

Just don't expect much other than derision in return.

If you'd like to reason and discuss responsible public policy, maybe we might talk.

[Tesha]

33. So yes, you believe that people who can't get a conventional loan should walk.

This "remote turn-off" feature seemed, to me, like
a creative way to extend credit to folks who couldn't
justify it in the normal way.

Tesha

[backscatter712]

14. Just wait until this practice catches on in the medical industry...

Like that pacemaker? Better stay current on your medical bills...

Coming up next: coin-operated dialysis machines!

[lunatica]

19. use your debit card to get dialisis or that extra hour of your heart surgery

Hey, you can't be expected to carry coins around in the surgery room, but a card is OK. Especially one that has automatic withdrawal

[NightWatcher]

16. if I had a chipped car and they disabled it, I'd torch it and leave it on the side of the road

we've got to take our souls back from these evil corporate overlords. Dont borrow from them and they will have no power over us.

[Tesha]

18. Maybe you simply shouldn't sign such a contract?

'Cause torching the car will definitely land you in
legal jeopardy. Then again, if you end up in the
slammer, you won't need a car no more ;).

Tesha

[NightWatcher]

20. you're right, I'd never take a car with those stipulations in place

[doctor jazz]

30. If the insurance company cancelled your home policy for non-payment on premiums

would you torch it too, out of spite?

I can scarcely believe some of the incredibly idiotic shit I see written here. It's impossible to tell whether it's DU or FR sometimes.

[Tesha]

32. (Without specific regard to the posters on this thread)...

Long ago, I decided that *A LOT* of DUers need
serious mental help.

Tesha

[Liberal_in_LA]

25. They should have had that car paid off by 5 years.

[jmowreader]

34. The one that worries me is the PassTime GPS

This device can report where a car is driven to. This opens the door to a whole slew of new abuses:

"You drove your car to the mall twenty times last month. This demonstrates to us that you are shopping every day. You now have more money than you told us about, so you can afford to pay $25 more per week. Agree to this contract revision or return the car." (She drove the car to the mall twenty times last month because she's now assistant manager at the Chick-fil-a in the mall food court instead of the one on Exit 49. The move doesn't come with an increase in pay, but try telling them that.)

"You drove your car into an area where a high concentration of drug dealers operate twenty times last month. We require you to submit to urinalysis within 24 hours at your own expense or return the car." (It's quicker to get to the mall if you drive past this one neighborhood. They missed the part about her driving past it fast enough to put it on row 6 at Martinsville...)

"Your contract limits you to driving 1500 miles per month. We recorded your car 800 miles away from your home last week, which puts you in violation of your contract. You are required to pay a 25 cent per mile excess mileage penalty within 72 hours or return the car." (So there was a regional managers' conference three states away she was required to attend if she didn't want to lose her job.)

"You are required to pay a $100 Maintenance Neglect Fee because you failed to have your oil changed every 5000 miles as required by your contract. It must be paid within 24 hours or you must return the car." (She did it herself. The device's software knows where all the quick lube places are, and she didn't go to any of them so there's no record she had it changed because, as we all know, anyone poor enough to need to go to a BHPH lot is too poor to own a $25 socket set. Fortunately she kept the receipts for the oil and filter.)

"You are only allowed to sell or trade the vehicle to D Street Motor Sales during the period when the payment protection device is installed in the vehicle."

"Disparaging D Street Motor Sales, the payment protection device program or any employee of D Street Motor Sales at any time, whether verbally, in writing or online, is prohibited for a period of 60 months after the payment protection device is removed from the vehicle. Failure to comply with the terms of this paragraph is actionable in a court in the state of Delaware, where D Street Motor Sales Corporation is incorporated." (D Street Motor Sales conducts business in Anchorage, Alaska.)

Of course, there will be the piece de resistance in the contract: "Your responsibilities under the terms of this contract end at the time the payment protection device is removed from the vehicle, not when your final payment is made. It may only be removed by an employee of D Street Motor Sales." And when you go to get the thing removed from your car after paying it off, "nope, sorry, the only person in town who knows how to do that is George. Oh, George? We fired him for being five minutes late to work. Yeah, we might be able to remove the payment protection system from your car in a month or so..."

Which will lead to this quote in the Anchorage Daily News: "Officer Maloney stated that he had never seen someone shove a car up a salesman's ass before."