I posted this on my personal Facebook last night for a bit of input from friends, but I’m thinking I’d like to hear from other professionals too. Below is my post as it was, all I’ll add here is that I’m going to try to avoid details of the product at the moment to avoid any naming/shaming/etc until I come to a decision on what I want to do. Actually, one other point is that my current thoughts on accepting payment are to give it straight to a charity doing legitimate research/support for the issues this woo bullshit claims to heal.
“ Alright brains trust, rant/question time.
When I first moved to Melbourne my default answer to the question of “Can I bring this broken electronic thing in for repair?” was yes. I was new in town, didn’t think I’d make it as a tech in the big smoke, so despite my ads saying I fix audio gear until I got established I fixed everything from amps to TV’s to goddamn tennis ball firing machines if the phone rang.
One of these oddball jobs that came in was fixing some “sound therapy” equipment (I’m going to avoid specifics as much as I can). Every tech in town had said no to this woman, she was absolutely desperate to have the gear fixed and I needed sandwiches. The perfect storm.
She brought this stuff in and I started digging through it getting it going. She told me the tens of thousands of dollars it cost, and how she really couldn’t afford to replace it because she used it to help vulnerable kids and the money just wasn’t there. The problem is, I could see at a glance she had been thoroughly ratfucked by an alternative medicine pyramid scheme and the crap in front of me was worth $100 tops on Alibaba. No exaggeration. The stuff didn’t work, and I knew that for a fact.
Now, anyone who knows me knows that I think alternative medicine is an absolute crock of shit, mostly because 99% is proven as ineffectual at best/harmful at worst and marketed to gullible people by straight up lying shitgibbons. But this bias didn’t even weigh in here- I know this equipment didn’t cure what it said it does (which ranged from spina bifida to autism... seriously) because THE ELECTRONIC PART THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE MAGIC CURE WAS PHYSICALLY NOT CONNECTED IN THE (supposedly working) REFERENCE UNITS. The magic bit from the sales pitch had literally become disconnected because of the cheap soldering, and nobody had noticed any change in effectiveness. The very definition of placebo effect.
So, I explained what I’d seen as gently as I could so as to not break her heart and embarrass her, gave her a discount to try and balance the karma, and she gave me a theory that they must have only stopped working in the car on the way over because the treatment has been working fine. Cool, whatever, I tried.
From time to time she sent more of the units in as the rest of them failed one by one, I’d patch them up, try to persuade her not to buy any more and maybe do a little more research, and we’d go our separate ways. Eventually I just couldn’t do it anymore in good conscience, couldn’t be bothered explaining any more, and just stopped accepting her calls.
Fast forward to 20 fucking 20 and I get an email saying she couldn’t get me on the phone but is sending more repairs over in a box. Fuck. OK, fuck it, I figure I’ll resolder some broken wires again and tell her it’s the absolute last time because I don’t do these repairs anymore.
I open up the boxes, and fuck me dead, it’s not just “sound therapy” shit. There’s a full blown, Pete Evans level bullshit, LED covered, LASER firing shit show paddle thing with a built in piezo blasting “frequencies” and, I shit thee nay, a fucking crystal glued inside a viewing window. Again, it’s claimed to heal everything. This one is apparently for use on a kid who sounds like he’s basically a fucking vegetable only being kept alive by tubes.
I know these devices are bullshit (see above reviews). And I think it’s irresponsible and downright dangerous to let people dick around with snake oil when there are very real risks for not treating medical issues properly. The woman doing the therapy is lovely, an absolute sweetheart who appears to be throwing every earthly cent and minute she can get at helping people. But she’s also clearly scientifically and medically illiterate, and unwilling to educate herself (it would involve her admitting she wasted a decade on placebos).
What do I do, kids? My current thought is I’ll do what I can on repairs so the stuff at least turns on, try to look after her on the bill, then tell her that while I realise she’s got great intentions, I respectfully refuse any more work based on my technical knowledge and understanding of the efficacy of the treatments. I’ve already (carefully) explained to her why I don’t believe in this stuff, she’s still happy to pay me to fix it anyway, but my conscience is forever screaming “Fuck that”.
What else have you got? Should I just move? Buy a franchise?”