Three years ago my husband and I purchased a home with alarm equipment already installed. We took the number off the sticker on our windows and called it to have the alarm activated. A technician was sent out and the alarm was turned on. We signed a three-year contract at that time. When we first had our alarm turned on the company whom billed up was Isag Monitoring. Recenlty it changed to Protection One Alarm services on our bills. We chose to have the monthly fee automatically deducted from our credit card every month.
After 3 years, we decided to cancel our alarm because they told us we would have to sign another contract for at least a year. We are not sure we are going to be in our home for an entire year, so we didn't want to have to pay for service we weren't receiving (otherwise we would have kept the service). We were planning on beginning service in our new home with Protection One before all of this happened. I called in late August to ask them when we could cancel our alarm because I knew it was sometime in September (since we had it turned on on August). They told me that we couldn't have it turned off until September 30th of which was the end of our contract. This was only about a month away, so that was fine with me. They told me to call in September to cancel it. So, early on in September I called and asked them to cancel my alarm. They told me within a few days I would be contacted by someone from the local office. It took more than a few days, but eventually I got a call from the local office. I told them I wanted to cancel, and the lady on the phone told me I had to send a letter to the Wichita office stating my name, my address, the reason for cancelling, and make sure it was signed. She said that both my husband and myself did not have to sign it, but we both did just in case.
I thought everything was fine and I wouldn't be billed for any further service as we fulfilled our contractual obligation and cancelled on time. Then today while looking online at my credit card statement I saw a charge for 427.79. When divided by our monthly fee, this turned out to be 12 month's worth of service. Apparently they are billing me for an entire year of service, when my account should have been cancelled as I followed all of their directions.
I called and happened to be connected to the Tucson office. When I called the lady in billing whom I spoke with said that the person I needed to talk to was out sick, so she would have to call me back. I left my information, and have yet to hear back from them.
In the meantime I have called my credit card company and disputed the charge. Fortunately for us they forced us to do automatic debits from our credit card when we signed up or I'm not sure I would have much course of action judging from the previous reports. If for some reason Protection One does not remove this charge and my credit card company reverses the refund, I will be taking legal action in small claims court. I am on disability and most definitely cannot afford over $400 in fees for service we are not getting. I will also sue for any interest accrued on my credit card in the meantime, which of course is a very high rate of interest.
I am still waiting to hear back from Protection One and hope that they will resolve this matter, as they are the ones in the wrong. This is a rip-off and a fraud. I can see from previous reports that this has happened to other people, so I think it is being done on purpose. We will see if they do indeed correct this though. At this time I would suggest that people DO NOT sign up for service with Protection One unless they want a huge surprise on their credit card at the end of their service, even if they follow all of their requirements. We were happy with the service up to this point, but now I think this company is a complete fraud. I have many health problems, and this is the last thing I need to be dealing with. I will not be using this company in our future home if they are indeed trying to charge customers incorrectly.
I will update this report when I hear back from the local Protection One office to let everyone know if it was resolved properly by Protection One.
0 comments