My horror story with this company began when a door to door salesperson came to my house on the afternoon of June 4th asking me if I still had a contract with the alarm company that was on the sign in front of my house. I told him that I did, in fact, still have service with this company and I had just paid for another whole year's service with them a month ago. He asked how long I had had that service and how the service with that company had been. I told him I had been with that company about a year and a half and I had not had a problem with them; they were always very quick to respond.
The salesman then went into a long spiel about how Platinum Protection was trying to develop their business in parts of Nashville that they had not developed yet, so they were offering free alarm systems to home owners, or upgraded systems to those who had existing systems, as I did.in addition, he said that if I moved before the 5 year contract was up, I would get to keep the system in my current house as a selling feature and Platinum Protection would install a brand new system into any new house I might move into at no additional charge. All I had to do was keep their sign in my yard 60 months, pay $99 for installation and pay for the monthly monitoring service which was $47.99.
This all sounded like a pretty good deal to me, because the salesman offered services that my current company didn't provide, such as keychain alarm remotes, glass breaking sensors, a control panel that would enable me to communicate directly with the monitoring service in the event of an emergency, connection to my BlackBerry and a free alarm system when I decided to sell my house and move. One of the biggest selling points was that this system operated off a cellular transmitter, which the salesperson said was a lot safer than my existing alarm, since it didn't require a land-line. He also said that there had recently been several cases of break-ins happening in my area in which the land-line wires to the home owners' alarm systems had been cut to ensure that the alarm would not send a signal when breaking into the house. Looking back, this is bitterly humorous, since Platinum's alarm doesn't send a signal with nothing being cut.
So, the salesperson had me call my current alarm company (while he was standing there with me) and ask them how to cancel my service. My previous alarm company advised me that I would have to pay the equivalent of 60 days of service. I agreed and told them to go ahead and cancel my service, effective immediately, because the salesperson assured me my new service with Platinum Protection would be up and running that same day. I was also told that I could go ahead and cancel my land-line service, since the only reason I had it was for my alarm system. So, I cancelled that as well.
The salesperson called into what I assumed was the corporate office and told me that the technician could fit me in that same afternoon and that he would be there in approximately an hour. A few hours later, the technician showed up, took out my existing control panel and installed the new control panel, as well as the two breaking glass sensors. He then said he called into the monitoring system and checked that everything was set up properly.
I started to get extremely worried when the technician said everything was set up and he was about to leave. I realized he had never even asked me how many existing window and door senors I had, even though I was promised by the salesperson that all of my existing sensors would be connected to the new control panel and system. When I asked the technician about the existing sensors, he said they should be working, but then asked me how my I had.
I told him how many and he appeared to program them in, but never tested any of them to see if they were working. I also asked him if he was going to trip the system to make sure it was sending a signal, because he had not done so yet and he was about to leave. He assured me he already checked to make sure the service was working with the monitoring company and that it was definitely sending a signal that they were receiving.
Over the next 2 months, I accidentally tripped my alarm a few times and was surprised to find that nobody ever called me to verify that I was ok and not having an emergency, but kept operating under the assumption that my house was being monitored.
Then, on the morning of August 3rd, after being away for the weekend, I came home to find my alarm going off. I was extremely surprised that I had not been contacted on any of the 3 contact phone numbers I gave, so I called Platinum Protection. After speaking with the customer service rep, and a supervisor, they still had no explanation for me and all they could ask is "how long did the alarm go off for each time?". They said I needed to call the monitoring company.
I called the monitoring company and the customer service rep said that they have my file on record, but have never received a signal from my system that the alarm has ever gone off. I asked if there had even been a test signal sent on the day it was installed, but the only thing he could find on my account was where the technician called them to make sure they had my info on the day he installed the system. I was horrified that the technician had not even taken the time to test the system, especially after I had specifically asked if he had done so before he left!
I then asked how long the alarm has to go off before it sends a signal to them and he said once the alarm has been tripped, it should immediately start sending the signal to them. I was very upset and told him my alarm had gone off several times and was going off when I came home that morning. He then told me that maybe the siren on the alarm was faulty and was shorting out and sounding on it's own. I couldn't believe I had just heard such a ridiculous explanation. I explained to him again that I had tripped the alarm myself on some of the occasions and that the alarm siren was not randomly sounding. He had no other explanation and told me to call Platinum back.
I was extremely upset that I had been living in my house alone in a high-crime area for 2 months, and if I had had an emergency or break in, nobody would have been notified. I told Platinum that after all of this buffoonary, I did not feel secure in my home with their system and service and I wanted to give them back their system and get my money back for the installation and void our contract.
The supervisor at Platinum told me that this would not be possible, since I had a contract and they offered to send a technician. I asked why I would want another one of their technician's after the experience I have had with the first one who installed the equipment? He had no answer for that and just repeated that I have a contract.
The contract says that it takes effect when the monitoring of my house begins. The monitoring of my house has obviously never commenced, or the monitoring company would have a record of a signal being sent, yet they DO NOT have any record of that, nor do they have a record of the system being tested by the technician the day it was installed, even though he assured me it had been tested. Why I am being held to a contract that has already been breached in several ways by Platinum Protection???
Unfortunately, I am having to deal with these 2 companies, Platinum Protection and Monitronics, who have lied to me, made ridiculous excuses for not delivering the services they promised to deliver and who are now wanting to keep withdrawing money from my bank account for a service I have never even started receiving. Now, my home is completely unprotected and I have sacrificed 2 months pay for service from my previous alarm company, which actually did monitor my home effectively.
I called the Better Business Bureau to make a complaint against Platinum Protection. I spoke with a BBB Rep and was sickened by the information I learned about the company and I have been mentally kicking myself for not investigating this company before choosing to do business with them.
I am still in communications with the BBB Rep and I'm not sure how all of this will be resolved or what measures will have to be taken, but Platinum Protection and Monitronics have shown that they do not care to resolve this or act in an honest and principled manner.
Bekah
Nashville, Tennessee
U.S.A.
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