Not honoring end of contract

ComplaintsTelecommunication ServicesMonitronics Security

Complaint

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Lina
Country: United States
After 3 years of bank drawn payments, and honoring our conract with this comnpany, they try to charge for 5 months extra service. We moved from the address of original service in Feb 2007 and continued our payment committment until our contract was up in July 2007. Despite the end of terms, they continued to try and charge us. When we asked for explanation, they said we needed to send a signed letter of cancellation to a long distance fax number(972-620-5553) - of course they don't want to make it easy. We sent the letter in August but just recently within the last month found out that they did not honor the cancellation notice because the signature did not come through on our original letter. When we called to clear it up they refused to let the unwarranted charges off unless we re-signed with them for another 3 years at our new residence. These people are crooks - I have re-sent the letter Dec 2007 and they threatened to ding my credit if I did not pay for a service at a residence I have not lived at for almost a year. We held up our agreement - when did it become the corporations decision whether or not we want to continue service?? Our contract was up, then we had to jump through flaming hoops to cancell it. Anyway, I can't find any other fax number to send my letter in hopes of finding someone in the Monitronics company with some morals.

Comments

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  • 0
    Alarm Tech
    Are you sure the "[***] sales dude" was from Monitronics? Alot of these guys are Mormon gypsies from Utah working for the summer.They dupe Monitronics and other monitoring companies into doing the monitoring and buying the contracts that they set up. Same as they duped you. I would also state the name of the company that INSTALLED the system.
    Note if you want since you are not using the system, you should take it down and sell it on ebay, most complete alarm systems are worth 250$+ used.
  • 0
    Bill M
    you are an idiot, did you not read the posts?  These people all canceled their service and they signed the cancelation notice.  Monitronix is scaming these people.  You must either work for them or own the company.
  • 0
    screwed by monitronics
    this seems all too familiar.  i too tried to cancel my service over the phone and then by mail.  this was after i had a credit of over $400.  we let that balance get to near zero and then attempted to cancel.  they also reiterated the "30 day policy" to us so we paid them another $50.00 to settle up.  a couple of months later we started getting bills again, this time for $30.32. ( I don't know where they come up with these figures)  the bills were followed by collection agency phone calls and now my credit score is affected.  when i tried to address the matter with collections they didn't want to hear anything other than a check is in the mail for 30.32  i am now writing to the attorney general of CT and will have them file on my behalf.  i realize its such a small amount of money and paying them would make the problem go away but multiply the $30.32 that i am willing to send in  by the tens of thousands of customers that cancel policies and it becomes a profit center for monitronics.   i won't stand for that!!!!!!!!
  • 0
    Monitronics Dealer
    Customers are not the only ones who have problems with Monitronics.  As a dealer we have experienced the numerous back and forth paperwork trail add up only to end with a simple statement from their staff:  We have no record of you ever cancelling the account.  Weird huh?  Nope.  Read all the posts on the internet, there is a common thread.  Oh, and if you have an account with them, ask how often they verify communications.  I set up most of my accounts for daily comm checks only for them to reset them to monthly communication checks.  They don't see the problem with it and only after one of their tech support guys screwed up and told me the truth did I learn of this.  They then agreed to make an acception for MY customers.  Unfortunately I know they have a policy to ignore (and lie if necessary) the dealer and serve their own purpose.  Unethical behavior becomes a cancer which cannot stop in a company.  Doing the right thing may be hard, may cost you some money, but isn't integrity more immportant than everything else?  I am pulling my accounts to another monitoring company who will monitor them as I direct them regardless of the number of signals they receive.  Suggest others follow.  Dealers - ask for your daily reports to confirm comm checks.  BTW their tech support guy actually told me,"so what if the comm fails at 1 day or 30 days.  If it fails it fails."  True, but I can probably fix it in days 1-5 so that the other 25 the customer receives the protection they are paying for.  He didn't get it, nor did he care.  Ethics - it's the only thing people will remember when your gone.
  • 0
    Monitronics Dealer
    Just for fairness, if you breech a contract, read the whole contract including contract termination clauses.  Usually in exchange for a discount on the installation you get a higher priced contract per month for a period of months, usually 36 - 60.  However, there are clauses to avoid penalties as well.  If you in good faith comply with a contract, the other party should as well.  Not wanting it any more isn't one of the options, at least for our contracts.  But we do have compassion and are willing to work with people if they aren't trying to BS us, and we can tell too.  Honestly, record the phone calls.  I don't care if you record me, just don't edit it.  Funny thing is telling the truth is easy to keep track of.  Also, keep the paperwork trail, for a long time.  Good luck to all.
  • 0
    LNovotny
    Accountability is crucial in customer service and business.  Due to downsizing my business operations, I made a move to a smaller warehouse space to save overhead in August of 2009.  During this process, I contacted Monitronics notifying them that we would be moving out and cancelling our service after 4 1/2 years of great service.  The customer representative stated that I needed to supply them a letter regarding cancellation and that we would still be charged until Nov 2009.

    I agreed with their request even though we were not receiving their service for Sept-Oct 2009 in compliance with their alarm agreement.  We had them on a bank withdrawal/auto payment each month.  To our surprise, they kept withdrawing monies in Nov - Jan 2010.  I finally went to the bank and stopped the auto payments directly.  That is when the phone calls to my cell phone started to happen 2-3 times a day.

    I spoke with a customer representative for over 30 minutes stating the steps and procedures I had followed.  The Monitronics representative said she would write her report and send it in to settle everything.

    To date, I just received a collections letter for stop payment fees, late fees and "NEW" 24-hour monitoring at a buidling that I do not event occupy!  I am simply at a loss now of how to handle this.  Any assistance would be so greatly appreciated!
  • 0
    Wendy Barber
    I never had a contract with them.  My monitoring company, Powell Security, sold our services to them.  Our alarm went off one day... and no phone call.  NO MONITORING.... I called Powell to learn why we were sold to Monitronics and requested to return to Powell (they really do monitor).  That was February.  We are still receiving harassing calls that "we are late on a late fee".  I asked Monitronics to produce a contract.  Of course they can't.  I never had a contract.  I was month to month/ paying Powell quarterly.  I am reporting them to the Texas Attorney General.  Trying to bully someone out of $26.59 is almost laughable, if it weren't me on the receiving end of their disgusting business practices!
  • 0
    Alarm system installed like PROMISED!
    I have tried calling your customer service many many attempts; put on hold hour at a time left several messages NEVER received call back.  The problem is we moved; was promised soon as relocated one of your service people would install our system we have been paying our bill for Four month in good faith...We do no want out of our contract; would like to be able to use our service...you made the statement. "If all else fails, contact the Executive Management Team.  Mike Haislip is the CEO of the company.  He is one of the finest persons you have ever worked for and will generate a timely response to your concern." I have just wrote a letter along with my bill...we will see our GREAT your company is resonding.  I take a contract serious however it works both ways we pay our bill always on time in fact we usually prepay two months inadvance. I may send my letter to CEO.  Thanks for the info...

    "signed by fustrated customer because some one does not return phone calls in CUSTOMER SERVICE."
  • 0
    Del
    Just when you thought the only for sure thing was death and taxes, we found a new one.  The story goes like this.  My Father was approached by a door to door salesman about a security monitoring system in July of 2010, and despite Mom's objections he signed on the dotted line for a 3 year contract.  Mom refused to sign and did not want the system installed.  The system was installed and they had many false alarms which frustrated Mom even more.  On September 23, my Father passed away leaving Mom with a system she never contracted for, and did not want.  My brother was asked to contact the company to try to have the system removed.  The person on the phone stated that if he would fax a proof of his death, they would discontinue the service.  The representative never mentioned that, that would not discontinue the need to pay for the service.  About the middle of October the service stopped.  At the end of October another payment was deducted from Mom's checking account, and so she put a stop payment on the account at the bank.  On November 12th a letter was sent from a collection agency, no notice from the company that anything was owed was sent, just straight to collections.  They have now tacked on over $600 in collection charges and are demanding full payment for the service that has been disconnected.  The contract does state that they will remove the installed equipment if the account goes to default, but they have not made any effort to remove the system, just demanded full payment.  Today November 29th, my brother called them again to attempt a resolution, but was told that the best they would do is to drop the collection fee, and we would need to pay the contracted amount.  They are supposed to call back with the amount due.  So the question is does the spouse of deceased person, who refused to sign the contract, owe on that contract once the signer has passed on?  One other note, when the sales man was asked about terminating the contract he said that it could be terminated, but you might be fined about 300 for early termination.  Apparently he was wrong, the price to terminate this contract is greater then death itself.
  • 0
    Chad Hershberger
    Your response is ridiculous here. You are the only company I have ever seen that forces you to cancel by paperwork. Every person I've talked to that had other security systems could call and cancel by phone. No one does it like you guys. I'm in a situation where I'm under a 3 year contract for a house I lived in for a year. I've been paying for the service every month without using it because the place I moved to had free alarm monitoring. I'm scared to death that I'm going to run into the same issues canceling in June as every else is having. Any company that doesn't have a way to cancel the service that at least gets you a confirmation of the cancellation and will later say they never received the cancellation letter is crooked in my book. If you guys weren't like this, I would recommend you to other people, but as it stands, I tell every person who asks that you are the worst company in the country for alarm monitoring. You're killing your reputation!
  • 0
    Mat
    Which address did you use to send your cancellation notice? I am reaching the end of my 3 year contract and am eager to leave this company!

    Thanks
  • 0
    BC
    How do you sleep at night knowing you work for a company that rips people off. You must be a thief yourself. Open you eyes, If the CEO is such a great and fine person why does he allow the mistreatment of people? Thanks for the great info that is of no use - try getting in touch with any of the execs - that do not handle compliants - only refer to the same idiots that people talk to in the beginning.
  • 0
    Ty Empey
    come to vivint and we'll take good care of you. if you want more info about how a real alarm company should treat you then send me an email and we'll chat. empeyt@yahoo.com
  • 0
    Ms Maxi
    All this stuff about Monitonics should be on twitter and facebook so everyone would know how sorry their service is.  I agree that they and their alarm people who use them are frauds.
  • 0
    Gilberto Ruiz
    I was living in Gulfport, MS when I switched from ADT to Monitronics because it was cheaper. But I ended up paying more than expected. What technicians only did was add a wireless device because I got away with telephone. Then 6 month later  I had to move to Florida, sold the house, told the new owner to call the Monitronics to have the system set for him. Then I read the paperwork and found out that I signed a contract for 3 years. I call the company and told them that I was not living in the house and the equipment was still on the house. Because I signed an agreement to pay for 3 years I could not cancel the account. So I was paying for something that I do not had and using for more than 2 years. I lived 2 of those years in a rented apartment and paying for the biggest mistake on switching security company. The contract expired and call to cancel the account. They requested to send a letter which I did and after 6 month of that call, they are still taking money from my bank account. I feel ripped off by more than a $1000 for something that I didn't have, used and don't need. If people from MONITRONICS are reading this, stop stealing money from my bank!!!
  • 0
    Mark Johnson
    I have attempted to cancel my service and I received a fax number 972-484-1393 attn: Correspondence Group...I have faxed them the letter and they are still billing me. I have had to place a stop payment on all future ACH debits from them. I have called and spoken to them and they claimed that they have not received my request for termination. I am writing a letter to the Better Business Bureau (BBB) these people are egregious and every one should be made aware of their unethical practice. I have a couple of friends that have Monitronics and I am going to tell them cancel their service with them.
  • 0
    Dane
    You are wrong. It is not a month to month renewal. It is a one year renewal. The company that I am with offers a one year contract from the beginning with a 30-day out clause at any time for any reason. This is a company that wants to earn my business. Stay far away from any company that requires a 3-5 year contract. If they were confident in their services, they would have to lock you in.
  • 0
    Questioning the Situation in WA
    My contract is just ending.  I called them a six months ago to inquire how the contract continues after the three year period of service.  They told me it continues month to month.  Everything above indicates I have been lied to.  When I contact them tomorrow I will find out.  I hope I have better luck.  Stay tuned...
  • 0
    ATALOSS
    We had a business contract with Monitronics for three years sold the company with location that had alarm installed about 1/2 way through the contract, did everything Monitronics said regarding changing over ownership.  New owners left the system in the building and couldn't take do to landlords.  New company owners told Monitronics to cancel the service and stop paying monthly.  Now Monitronics is calling our cell phone numbers and indicated that we are responsible for the rest of the contract, really.  The agreement had the business name and our business Tax ID Number,  if this goes into collections with it go to the business name (LLC) or against the Tax ID Number, we didn't sign a personal guarantee.  Who is at fault here.  Monitronics is indicating that sent a new agreements to the new owners and new owners failed to sign and return.  But new owners did update the online account to their information and were paying for a few months.  Who is a fault??? I was told this should be against the LLC not the Tax ID Number, anyone out there experienced this with Monitronics.
  • 0
    old alarm salesman
    I have watched the industry change in the 40 yrs l have serviced this industry.unfortunately there r different terms on contracts ,normally today it is36-60 months with a 30 day notice.that notice should always be certified so someone signs and u get a return receit.our industry is mostly unregulated and in a tough economy l try to please my  clients.we r in the biz of liife safty and there r many great storys about monotronics calling back a client and dispatching help.read ypur contract old compaa.ys gobbled up byADT may have 30,60,or90 day renew clauses and maynot be mo  to mo but annual
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