“Extended warranty companies not keeping their promises? Hey, that's like…well, the sun rising in the East or some other highly unusual occurrence,” I smartly replied.

Anyway, under threat of boring and expensive lawsuit, I agreed to remove the name of the specific warranty company from my website.

In the course of my discussion with this attorney, I was amazed at the level of disconnect from which this guy suffered. He positively insisted that his company was strictly above-board and went out of their way to honor warranty claims. The consumers I have interviewed have given me the exact opposite story: generally, for very inexpensive repairs the extended warranty company will deliver, but if it's a repair that's more than, say, about $250.00, suddenly the warranty company has its inspector look very carefully and determine that the problem was caused by “owner abuse or neglect.” Result: claim denied.

We see this in my office on a frequent basis.

Since psychiatrists invent new (usually silly) diseases by the bushel load every time they republish their diagnostic manual, I figured I am entitled to invent my own disease as well. Here it is: “Disconnectitis”: the pathological state wherein a representative of a car dealership, an insurance company, an extended warranty company, a finance company, a credit bureau, a debt collector or a major car manufacturer insists that his or her company is “above-board,” “entirely honorable,” “pro-consumer” or any of the other usual hogwash, when in fact they are not.

Now, in truth, there are honorable and pro-consumer, law abiding corporations out there, and this new disease is not their diagnosis. You can usually spot the truly pro-consumer companies by noticing that they don't have to beat their chests so loudly about how they're pro-consumer, and instead spend their time and energy trying to figure out creative ways to satisfy their customers. Lexus comes to mind. Lexus is not perfect and has made lemons and I have had to bring lawsuits against Lexus on behalf of my clients, but, at least for the past four or five years, I have heard many clients comment on the level and quality of professionalism they have experienced when dealing with Lexus. Does Lexus run expensive ad campaigns telling people that they're “pro-consumer” or “law-abiding”? Of course not. They let their customers do the talking.

Severe “disconnectitis” is the diagnosis one would give to, say, Enron, which was a complete fraud and which yet pounded its corporate chest in its inimitable Texas self-righteous manner about its morality and legality while it committed highway robbery on California during the energy crisis and defrauded its stockholders and investors.

That was a pretty severe example. However, I see smaller examples all around, and frequently represent consumers who were sucked in by these loud protestations of being “pro-consumer”, etc.

Solution? Simple: talk to your friends and acquaintances. At the end, their own