Guardian Alarm
Ripoff Hidden Contract Renewal Clause

STAY OUT of business with Guardian Alarm unless you're looking for a lifelong commitment. We initially signed up for a five year contract with Guardian Alarm, and now we're STUCK with another five years that we don't want.

When Guardian Alarm's salesperson presented this package, he did not say ANYTHING about the automatic renewal policy. Apparently, the contract states that every five years your prison term with their service will be automatically renewed for another five years.

The only way out is to send them a registered letter at least 60 days prior to the end of your contract expiration date. WHO is aware of their contract expiration date when they signed the damn thing five years ago?! Guardian Alarm certainly didn't point out the fact that the contract was self-renewing. If they had, we would have known to contact them sooner.

Per their own customer service reps, Guardian Alarm does not do their clients the courtesy of sending them a notice informing them of the pending end of their contract. It's obvious to me that Guardian Alarm wants their clients to miss their contract expiration date so they can ream another five years' worth of payments out of them.

Their renewal policy is underhanded and dishonest at best. They would argue that the clause is there in black and white. Yes, it is, buried in tiny print more than 3/4 down the back of the page. My fault for not reading it, but I question the customer service practices of any company not willing to be upfront and honest about their contract policy. Why doesn't Guardian Alarm want to give their clients the opportunity to renew by advising them their contract is expiring? Could it be because too many of them would dump Guardian for another company?

Don't skip the fine print! I don't know if other home alarm companies do business in this manner, but I would check it out first if I were you.

By the way, we also couldn't verbally tell them now to cancel our service when our new term is over, even though it's "at least 60 days" from our next contract expiration date. Their "customer service" representative told me she could put a note in the file, but it wouldn't do any good. We have to wait for the next five years to pass and send their damned registered letter.

I'm putting it on my calendar.

Company: Guardian Alarm
Country: USA
State: Michigan
City: Southfield
Address: 20800 Southfield Road

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