About 2 years ago I purchased a home alarm system from "Protect America". I bought it and signed a contract for 2 years, after 1 year I was having all sorts of problems with the system and was not happy. I had to keep the system or pay a ton of money for breech of contract, so I kept it.
I called 2 times for someone to come out to fix the unit and they never did, nor did they even call. After my 2 years where up. I was told I had to "Mail" in a cancellation to this company 60 days in prior to my contract end; this was in November which I did.
My contract was up in February this should have ended my contract since I mailed the cancellation notice, and they have me on record as calling to cancel. I sent the letter early, more than enough time for USPS to get the letter to them even on a donkey.
Time goes by I went on vacation to Seattle. While I was on vacation wouldn't ya know my alarm goes off. My sister in law was staying there to watch things. I guess she did not take notes on the operation.
This happened multiple times in 2 weeks, no police showed up, NO call from Protect America, NO call from ANYBODY to see if it was a false alarm, which they have done on the first year of service. This would usually indicate I HAVE NO MORE SERVICE cause it was cancelled.
Months go by and they are still AUTOMATICALLY withdrawing money from my bank account for alleged "monitoring services" EVEN AFTER I CANCELLED AND EVEN AFTER FALSE ALARMS. I could not get them to cancel. I ultimately had to close my bank account to keep them from withdrawing money out for an account that had been cancelled.
Let me ask ya if they where monitoring, wouldn't I have got a call from the police or from them to see if its a false alarm when it was going off. Even a moron would day "Yes" since I paid for it.
So today September 12 I received a bill from Protect America for a $98.85 for past due and current monitoring. Hum I thought. It seems they have been billing me for services they where not monitoring and they are still trying to do it and the damn this still doesn't work.
I called them today. They tell me you owe this money for months past, June, July, August... I S*#@ you NOT.
Now they state we NEVER received ANY cancellation notice within 60 days for contract ending. Ya see when you don't cancel within 60 days of your contract end they don't contact you, they renew the contract for a further 2 years, its in the fine print they say, and the sales guy does not tell ya this. Only after 3 months have passed they send me a bill stating past due and this is the first time I have seen a bill from them.
I spoke with this people person "a rude idiot" to say the least, I told her the entire story. She then got angry and defensive. This was obviously the person that needs people skills, oh and she was a "supervisor".
I asked her why am I being billed for services if the service that I paid for when all you people do IS they simply call the police and me if my alarm goes off and they never called once... She changed the subject immediately.
She offered me a discounted price for the renewal contract that I just made without my knowledge... Ha. I then kept explaining to her " I cancelled the service". This went through one ear and out the other. She said why did you close you bank account. I said you where taking money for a service that was cancelled 3 months prior, I sent a cancellation notice, and you fraudulently withdrew money. She then got more defensive and all the facts I stated to her earlier she kept twisting my facts to be in her favor.
I will be contacting the attorney general of Arizona, the BBB of AZ, the registrar of contractors of AZ and possible small claims about this problem. Any others please chime in. This seems to be happening to more and more every day.
I will keep you posted on the mail they will send me...
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