I had a monitoring contract for a home alarm system for 3 yrs. With select security. The contract ended on 7/05. I thought it ended on 11/05. I wrote a letter to terminate the contract in 10/05. The contract has an automatic renewal clause. The customer must notify the company in writing within 30 days of the end the contract otherwise your contract automatically renews for 3 yrs.
I recieved a letter saying they could terminate the agreement with 3 different options. IF I was moving within service area and signed a new contract or if i sold the house and the new people agreed to sign a contract with them the contract would terminate without penalty. The third option pay a penalty of $988.35. That is 33 months@ 29.95.
Since I'm not moving or selling my house the only option is to pay. I sent them another letter explaining that iwanted to end contract not start a new one and that they never notified me of the contract ending and that this was unfair, select security sent me a letter back stating that it was a legal and binding contract and I pay the penalty or continue the contract that I signed the agreement and must abide by it.
I called the customer service line and asked if there was any kind of negotiation to be done concerning the contract she stated there is no negotiatons options are those listed above. The automatic renewal clause without prior notification from the company is unfair and should be illegal.
The company should have to notify the customer 60 days prior to end of the contract to give the customer a chance to decide to continue contract, renegotiate the contract, or terminate the contract. Another clause in contract states if you move to a new address you must sign another contract for 3 yrs.
You cannot sign a new contract for the time left on the old contract another unfair and should also be illegal. This also happened to me. I filed a complaint with the better business bureau and also filed a complaint with wral 5 on your side. I contacted the attorney general of nc. I was informed that such contracts are legal in north carolina.
I now plan to contact my government represenatives to see if they can investigate this and maybe change the law so people in nc. Aren't subject to such unfair practices. It is illegal in other states to have an automatic renewal clause without prior notification from the companies as to when the contract ends. Hopefully this will be resoved but I doubt it.
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