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Fast money: Car device seller's scheme unravels
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Sam Burlum, the man who sold us the gas-saving device and installed it in our car said it would now get almost 100 miles to the gallon.
The problem is, according to the government-approved lab, it wasn't true.
Robert DePalma: No difference in anything.
So we went back to Sam to give him the bad news. I didn't tell him who I was at first, but soon, I identified myself.
Chris Hansen: That car that we brought in, that Honda…
Sam Burlum: Okay.
Chris Hansen: …that you installed the hydrogen assist fuel cell on. We had it tested independently.
Sam Burlum: Okay, well, did you do the same exact test we did, under same exact conditions that we did?
Chris Hansen: Well, let me just tell you, yes, we did it under professional conditions at an EPA-sanctioned facility.
Sam Burlum: Okay.
Chris Hansen: It got 34 miles per gallon before you put it on, and it got 34 miles per gallon afterwards.
Sam Burlum: Then the system needs to be returned.
Chris Hansen: The system needs to be retuned?
Sam Burlum: Ob-obviously, then, the system needs to be returned.
He insisted that once it was retuned, his so-called scientific road test would prove the device worked. And he insisted the EPA-sanctioned test had to be wrong.
Chris Hansen: It seems like what you guys are selling is a product that doesn't work to people who are in very difficult economic times, who want to believe that they can double or triple their mileage.
Sam Burlum: We're not in business to scam people. That's not what we do.
Remember, Sam was just the installer. The person we really wanted to talk to was the inventor himself, Dennis Lee.
He lived nearby so we knocked on the door and were greeted by his wife.
Chris Hansen: Hi, how are you? I’m Chris Hansen with Dateline NBC.
Allison Lee, shuts and locks door: Ahhh.
Chris Hansen: We'd like to talk to Dennis Lee if we could.
Just as we were leaving, Mr. Lee appeared, and it turns out, he had a lot to say.
For instance, when we told him his invention didn't work in our car he said he never promised anyone it would always work.
Dennis Lee: Do you know what we tell everybody?
Chris Hansen: Go ahead.
Dennis Lee: No, what do you think we tell everybody? We tell everybody it always works?
Chris Hansen: You sell it like it always works.
Dennis Lee: Is that what you think?
Chris Hansen: That's what you say.
Dennis Lee: You should actually check it out, because you know what we do?
Chris Hansen: You guarantee that the mileage…
Dennis Lee: I don't guarantee anything.
Maybe not, but listen to Lee himself on his promotional video.
Dennis Lee, on tape: It is guaranteed to increase your fuel economy by 50 percent or more.
And we reminded him that Sam, the man who installed the device, also told us it would increase our mileage by 50 percent.
Chris Hansen: We have your mechanic on camera…
Dennis Lee: Who's my mechanic?
Chris Hansen: Sam.
Dennis Lee: What mechanic is that?
Chris Hansen: Hmm, yes.
Dennis Lee: Okay, then it's some mechanic gets trained.
Chris Hansen: What are you saying?
Dennis Lee: That's not my mechanic. He doesn't work for me.
Maybe not, but some who bought the device told us their dealers had steered them to Sam.
Dennis Lee: Now, you're trying to be antagonistic and find something wrong, because that's what you do.
Chris Hansen: I know, but I'm telling you.
Dennis Lee: Because you're a lackey for oil companies and other people, and that's what you do.
Chris Hansen: Why, how could you say that?
Dennis Lee: You…
Chris Hansen: That's outrageous, Dennis.
Dennis Lee: Because it's what you do.
Chris Hansen: I'm a lackey for oil companies?
Dennis Lee: Well, right now, you've tried to…
Chris Hansen, chuckling: Based on what?
Dennis Lee: You've tried to tell me that you did something that shows…
Chris Hansen: Let me tell you…
Dennis Lee: That something doesn't work.
Chris Hansen: Yes, and it doesn't work. We bought…
Dennis Lee: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Chris Hansen: We bought it, Sam sold it.
Dennis Lee: Listen to what he just said. Now, you guys will be cutting this all out anyway, but listen to what he just said. See, it doesn't, it didn't work.
Lee is suggesting our experience is not typical, and he implied he doesn't want to rip anyone off. He told us his dealers are supposed to give the money back if a specific device doesn't work.
Dennis Lee: You should take it back…
Chris Hansen: …and get our money back.
Dennis Lee: …to wherever you bought it, only if you did what they agreed you should do.
Chris Hansen: We did it all.
Dennis Lee: Well then, I guess you need to go to them…
Chris Hansen: We, we paid the money…
Dennis Lee: ...and you need to talk to them.
Chris Hansen: …they installed it.
Dennis Lee: Because I will guarantee you some of these will not work. We have never said they always work, ever, to anybody, anywhere.
Dennis Lee: I don't know of anybody who says that – who doesn't give you back your money if a thing doesn't work. I don't know of anybody like that. I haven't heard of anybody like that. If I did, they would have a problem with me.
Chris Hansen: See, this is the same kind of doubletalk that you always use when you're backed in a corner.
Dennis Lee: Doubletalk, doubletalk, thank you.
Chris Hansen: That's exactly what it is.
Dennis Lee: Have a nice day.
Chris Hansen: I'm happy to talk to you.
Dennis Lee: In other words, oh yeah, you're ha — no, you're not happy to talk to me.
Chris Hansen: Give me one example…
Dennis Lee: You're happy to try to take everything I say and twist it.
Dennis Lee: That's what you're happy to do. You're not happy to talk to me. You're happy to twist what I say.
Dennis Lee: Because you have an agenda.
Dennis Lee: You lucked out. No one else will. No comment to make, because you could care less about the truth.
The truth, Lee says, can be found in a recent court decision. The Federal Trade Commission recently charged Lee with false advertising and attempted to get an injunction to keep him from marketing his device. But a judge said, not so fast.
Lee furnished the court with what he claims is scientific evidence that the device worked. He also submitted the names of twenty-six people who he said were happy with the device.
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Even though the court was skeptical of Lee's mileage claims, it decided not to grant the injunction at this time. The FTC is still pursuing the case.
But what about those twenty-six people Dennis Lee cited in court documents as satisfied customers?
Dr. Michelle Hemingway: I spent $1,000 for the kit itself, $2,000 for my mechanic to put it in.
Dr. Michelle Hemingway is one of them.
She said she's been back to have Sam re-tune her car three times so far.
Dr. Michelle Hemingway: Even though I've done all that, I've had no improvement.
Nir Kronenberg's name was also supplied to the FTC by Dennis Lee as someone who's had success with the device.
Nir Kronenberg: It doesn't work. We can't get our money back. It's a rip-off basically.
All told, we were able to talk to 19 people on his list.
Fifteen people told us the device didn't work as advertised. Some were heading back to Sam for more re-tuning. Others were asking for their money back.
Two people actually said the device worked, but they also told us their cars weren't in working condition.
Another person who told us the device was working in his car declined our offer to have his car tested.
The list of satisfied customers named in the court documents included one other person we wanted to talk to, but we couldn't reach her. It turns out she lives with Sam Burlum, the mechanic.
Electrical engineer Eric Krieg is a long-time critic of Dennis Lee.
Eric Krieg: He's very good at controlling people. He constantly recycles new people.
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Lee sued him for, among other things, defamation. But the suit was recently dismissed with prejudice.
Krieg has posted a Web site offering anyone a reward if they can prove Lee's inventions actually work.
Eric Krieg: The urban legends about the person getting 100miles to the gallon are the ones that end up getting repeated. They're kind of a friend of a friend stories. People like that are just supposed to go away and ‘Oh, it didn't work,’ you're just supposed to shut up about that.
Dennis Lee is still doing battle with the FTC, and continues to maintain he makes no promises his gas saving device will always work.
For his part, he is a crusader, fighting for the little man.
Dennis Lee: You need to do something for yourself and not wait for the car manufacturers or the government to do it for you.
But to others, he is no crusader at all.
Chris Hansen: What do you suppose will end up happening to Dennis Lee?
Eric Krieg: I've been wrong to predict his downfall in the past, he'll probably weasel out of this and have some wonderful new promise.
And sure enough, on his Web site, Lee is already promoting a new catalytic converter for your car.
Dennis Lee: We got 180 miles per gallon under laboratory conditions. We were all shocked!!!
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