Cen Com Inc

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because: Complaint: [redacted] I am rejecting this response because: Salesperson Katz confirmed that all my present services, test, open/close signals, low battery, etc. were  included in the quoted cost. Relying upon that assurance, I signed up with her for 1 year of service.  Burglary alarm on 11/22/16, police never notified. Crystal, dispatch supervisor indicated alarm was at 17:01, premises called three (3) times with no answer, and alarm restored 17:05. She further indicated "we were very busy, other alarms were dropping, you were put on hold, by the time we got back to you the alarm cleared, besides, it was only 4 minutes, and nothing happened anyway" I indicated that such a delay is not satisfactory. She indicated "policy is to call premises three times before calling police, there wasn't any reason, or time to call the alternate numbers, and the policy cannot be changed." Reviewing documents received in the course of cancellation I discovered the following contradictory, self-serving, and intentionally false information entered by one of their employees: CONSUMER CLAIMS HE WAS TOLD ALL OPTINAL SERVICES WERE FREE CONTRARY TO TERMS & COPNDITIONS. OFFERED TO WAIVE FEES IF HE REMOVED THEM AS HE SELF PROGRAMMED PANEL BUT HE REFUSED MAKING ADDITIONAL CLAIMS OF NO ALARM RESPONSE IN PAST. REVIEWED CLAIM AND FOUND WE DID RESPOND WITHIN SECONDS, BUT HE HAD WRONG PHONE NUMBER LISTED. CONSUMER WENT INTO SYSTEM AND CHANGED NUMBERS AFTER ALARM CONDITRION OCCURED.  Fact: The above statement is demonstrably spurious; caller ID reflects all 3 calls were received at the premises Fact: Their service is manifestly below industry standards regarding response to alarms, and inclusion of test signals, etc. Fact: Their site is patently misleading, and deliberately deceptiveFact: No terms and conditions were provided at any time  
Sincerely,
[redacted]

The customer agreed to the terms and conditions when they placed the order.
As for the 30 day refund, the customer must work with us to provide the service. As the customer did not go through with the Insurance replacement of the cellular device, they did not meet this requirement.
30 DAY REFUND: Subscriber has 30 days from time of initial order to cancel services and receive a refund of any pre-paid monitoring fees under the following conditions:
(a) No Alarm Signals have been received by Contractor from Subscribers system, including the receipt of GENERAL ALARM conditions, regardless of monitoring type.
(b) Subscriber has made a good faith effort to assist Contractor to convert the system, including providing a working phone line connection at alarm panel if so required.
(c) All of Contractors equipment is returned in like new condition within 45 days of time of initial order.
(d) An Insurance certificate or certification and compliance certificate or letter has not been provided to Subscriber.
(e) Refunds shall excludes any shipping charges.
 
Based on this, the customer is not due a refund of the insurance payment, Central Station setup fee or 1 month service fee.
 
As for his calls, he called over 30 times in a single day and cussed at whomever answered and was completely abusive. We were forced to explain to him that if called again that we would file a harassment complaint.

In your last conversation with our technician, you had stated that you planned to get a phone line for more testing. Had you done so, we could have probably determined the problem with your panel and monitored you over phone line. Your panel has the ability to communicate in several different formats and we could have determined the format by sending a signal over phone line. Since you did not complete this step, we were not able to completely troubleshoot the issue. As for billing per our Terms and Conditions, we did so. Additionally, the refund identified is per the Terms and Conditions. The customer is not due a Full Refund as he was outside the term, he did not complete the troubleshooting steps, and he has now stated that he would have refused the AlarmEar product. OUR 90 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE  Subscriber has 90 days from time of initial order to cancel services online at www.CancelMyAlarm.com  and to return all equipment in like new condition to receive a full refund, less any previously charged shipping fees, minimum $28.95, if no signals, including "general alarm signals"  were received by our monitoring center under the following conditions; Consumer had made a good faith effort to complete a DIY set-up in accordance with both provided instructions and with live over the phone technical support if needed, including having proper connection of the alarm transmitter to their local working communications source.  Consumer also agrees that if for any reason they cannot obtain traditional monitoring services that they will accept any offered upgrade offered by Contractor under the condition it is offered at no additional cost beyond shipping & handling, including the “Alarm Ear Monitoring System" prior to cancellation  of service in order to be eligible of any refunds.

The consumers account was already in collections prior an attempt at a settlement.  The consumer was offered a settlement which required a quarterly pre-payment plan which was not accepted by them leaving the account in collections.  At that point, the consumer wrongfully assumed we are obligated to restart any collection processes or accept any equipment back for a credit against the outstanding debt.  As indicated previously, any discussions on the debt moving forward must be done with the collection agency directly as per the fair debt collection act.

The consumer ordered do it yourself set-up alarm monitoring services on 02/20/2012 which included LEASED equipment that the consumer was to have used to connect their existing FIRE alarm system into our monitoring center.The LEASED equipment was sent and received by the consumer within a few days of...

the order.  The consumer was sent REPEATED notices to either CONNECT the LEASED equipment or to RETURN the equipment and to CANCEL services or the monthly equipment LEASE FEES would be due and payable, regardless of the monitoring services provided.The consumer ignores all requests as well as never returned the LEASED equipment.  The consumer was then notified of the collection action in 2014 if they did not return the equipment which they still did not do.All reported fees are valid and shall remain with the bureaus until such time they are paid.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:
I read the answer from cen com, and that is not how this happened.  I cancelled before the 15th of May, was unable to talk to anyone about cancelling, forcing me to cancel online.  As per my paperwork from 2004 when I signed up with their service, there are no cancellation fees after being with them for 2 years.  I cancelled before the 15th of the month so I would not owe any additional money for no services rendered.  I cancelled them from my credit card as I have heard bad things about this company.  They circumvented this credit card block and charged me not only for the next month of monitoring but an additional $351.  I was able to reach Ben P[redacted], who assured me that he would waive the $351 if I paid the month of monitoring that I did not owe plus $100.  I said that is not fair and he said I will see you in court and hung up. I never recieved an invoice from them. That is the last correspondence I had from them until I got a collections letter from Fidelity Information Corporation, giving me 30 days to respond.  I did respond with these facts.  
Sincerely,[redacted]

[redacted] – [redacted]
 
Here is the history of the customer:
 
9/29/16 – Customer ordered service and paid for one month. The customer wanted us to try to monitor their existing cellular equipment. Additionally, the customer paid $25 for insurance where we would provide a replacement...

cellular device in case we are unable to monitor the existing equipment. Here is the payment breakdown:
 
$35 – non-refundable account setup fee
$29.95 – one month of service
$5 – additional fee for interactive services
$25 – cellular insurance
$94.95 – Total
 
9/30/16 – Technician spoke with the customer. Customer’s existing cellular equipment was still assigned to the previous monitoring company and not able to be monitored. Customer was to contact their previous alarm company to get the device released.
 
10/5/16 – Sent estimate to the customer to replace the existing cellular equipment with exact replacement using insurance. Estimate only included shipping $28.95 and carrier activation fee $35. There was no charge for the equipment as the customer paid for the insurance.
 
10/5/16 – Customer requested account cancellation and declined the estimate to pay for shipping and activation of replacement device.
 
10/6/16 – Customer was told that he was not eligible for any refund as services were rendered and insurance replacement of cellular equipment was offered and refused. Per the agreed Terms and Conditions, the customer’s account started when they signed up for service. Additional 60 day notice of cancellation was waived in the interest of customer service.
 
After the customer called in over 30 times in a day and was verbally abusive and shouting cuss words to anyone who answered, we notified the customer that we would contact the local sheriff to file a harassment complaint if he called again.
 
If the customer had simply paid the shipping and carrier activation fee, they would have received the replacement equipment from the purchased insurance.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:
 
1.  Before services were ordered, the sales representative assured me that the company could takeover any alarm system.  I told the representative that it was a hybrid Honeywell/Comcast system at that time, and I was assured that there would be no problem with them preforming a takeover.
 
2.  After ordering services, the technician indeed told me that they could not perform the takeover with the Comcast portion of the alarm system intact.  At that time, they should have cancelled the contract and refunded the fees since they could not perform the service. 
 
3.  They mailed the monitoring device, knowing that they could not perform the service as the alarm system was connected, and waiting for Comcast to disconnect as instructed by the technician automatically took me beyond the thirty day period.  Furthermore, the device was received on September 12, 2016.  This was 12 days after ordering.  Ergo, the company expects customers to pay for services during times that they are not providing services.  There is a serious problem with the expectation of receiving payment for services that they do not render.  Most reputable companies commence charges when services begin. 
 
4.  The monitoring company is supposed to have the codes to perform the takeover.  The client should not have to hunt up codes from another company so that they can perform a takeover.  They guarantee to takeover any system or $100.00 will be given to the customer.  Instead of receiving $100.00 and a refund of my money, I received an additional bill for 99.00. 
 
5.  The terms of their contract that they provided seem to contradict statements made on their website.  Customers should not have to go to a number of different websites to have issues resolved.
 
6.  The company told me to go to the CancelmyAlarm website; however, that site states that a customer must agree to NO REFUND if they refuse to try the EAR monitoring system.  This system requires an additional payment of $18.95 for shipping, and REQUIRES a router.  Since I do not have a cabled internet system with the required router, I cannot hook up the EAR device.  That is specifically why I ordered the higher price cellular monitoring system. 
 
7.  I was quite willing and still am quite willing to return their equipment.  Indeed, I requested a RMA and return mailing, but they want me to pay the postage.  They also did not provide information on the person and department to whom it should be returned.  They are claiming that  a three inch antenna and about an inch and a half plastic light unit is worth 399.95.  Yet, they shipped it out in a padded mailing envelop with no additional insurance (a maximum of $50.00).  The company is clearly engaging in price gauging.
 
 8.  I was forced to request a chargeback on my credit card because the company did not act honourably providing a refund on its own volition.  A customer should not have to go to multiple websites to receive refunds when the company has not supplied a connection or services to begin with.  A customer should not have a bill for $1094.00 when no service at all has been rendered.  The company knew from the beginning that they could not provide services, so a refund should have been issued immediately.
 
9.  This company basically communicates by way of invoicing and add charge upon charge when they have done nothing to provide the service promised.
 
Sincerely,[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:
 
The behavior of the alarm system while I did request a test mode service last July 1 clearly shows erratic response as the calls made to the authorities was actually due to the signal that was supposed to have been included on the test mode that dispatchers originally told me they have not received any signal. This test was done several times and also a day before where no signals came in. Tech did confirm to me that the system is not working properly. Thats when he advised a cellphone upgrade but for an additional cost. I did not agree to this. Yesterday I have received another 75 dollar charge from harris county police office for that false alarm that would not have happened had their system been functioning properly because, as was stated, this was a request for a test mode. Added to this all on their website stated a 90 day guarantee or your money back, plus a 100% guarantee or they will pay 100 dollars. It clearly states otherwise because now they have imposed added terms and conditions about their immediate charges to the module plus remaining 60 day worth of monitoring service fees but I, the customer, have to immediately return their module in 14 days. 
The additional emails I got from them about module fees and remaining balances were only provided after my cancellation request. Added to this was an odd reply from Mr. Tom R[redacted] himself stating that the 30 day return policy was added only at the same time I requested the cancellation
 
 
Sincerely,[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because: I do not have any equipment to return as I didn't purchase any equipment from them or anyone else. Also I believe that this company is committing fraud. I also filed a dispute with my bank and have received a credit of $94.95 until November when the bank has finished its own investigation. I have received e-mails today the 20th of October from A.S.Alarm services threatening to report  this to the credit bureau and asking me for $394.99. I don't want this company to call my home or cell phone.Sincerely,[redacted]

The services we provided to the consumer was leasing of a cellular transmitter to send alarm signals from their EXISTING alarm system to our monitoring center.
 
On July 2nd, 2009 the consumer ordered services with pre-payment for a total of 15 months.
 
In October of 2010 the...

pre-paid plan expired and the consumer ordered a pre-paid plan for 60 months (5 years)
 
On January 31st, 2012 (1-1/2 years later) the consumer notified us of their intent to move to a new location.  A $25.00 fee was charged for billing address and monitoring center information updating.
 
On January 8th we received a cell transmitter FAIL TO TEST notification, presumably when the consumer REMOVED the equipment from the OLD location in order to reinstall it in the NEW location. (See below)
+->     Alarm history - Jan 2012  [redacted] - [redacted]    <-
¦08  14:35   (E358) E358 0 00¦    FAIL TO TEST - CELL COMM AREA 00       
 
On the following month, February 8th, AND EVERY MONTH FOLLOWING THAT MONTH, THROUGH MARCH OF 2015,  we once again received the monthly cell transmitter TEST signal, indicating that the consumer had in fact installed and powered up the leased equipment again. (see below)
+->     Alarm history - Feb 2015  [redacted] [redacted]    <-
¦08  14:24   (E603) E603 0 01¦99  PERIODIC RF XMISSION AREA 01  
 
The Consumers pre-paid 60 month term expired on December 1st, 2015 and they were send a monthly invoice.
 
On December 30th, 2015 the consumer called and stated that their alarm was not working and that they no longer wanted the services.  They were told to CANCEL services in accordance with their contract terms by certified letter or online at www.cancelmyalarm.com a minimum of 60 days in advance.
 
To date, the consumer has failed to cancel services in accordance with these terms and the account is past due as well as the consumer still retains our leased equipment in their possession.

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:The service does not and has never worked, I attempted to register the service which would speak to the temporary account number. If this alarm service worked I would have no reason not to continue the service. It is around 90% cheaper than ADT unfortunately for me it does not work. A fact that your company will continue to refute vs dealing with the facts which are1. I have a digital converter box from your company, that did not convert the alarm signal from my house (Can I send back at this point?)2. I prepaid for service back in 2010, which I do not dispute, merely stating when I did so I requested for the account not to renew3. The account renewed which is why there is a dispute.  Please stop referring to the previous prepaid service as proof positive that the alarm worked in the past. It does not. I am arguing the renewal which has led to the charge of $599.95. If service had been provided I bill would be paid for it.An additional question is this account still active?
Sincerely,
[redacted]

[redacted] Here is the history of this customer. 5/24/16 – Customer signed up for service and prepaid for 3 months of service at $15.95 using the customer’s existing cellular device which included a promotion for 3 Free Months of Service. The customer declined the insurance policy which would have...

covered the replacement of his device if we were unable to monitor the system using his existing cellular device. During the sign-up process, they agreed to the standard Terms and Conditions which can be found here: http://www.alarmmonitoringservices.com/terms.html 5/24-31/16 – Technician spoke to the customer numerous times to identify the existing cellular module which the customer asked us to monitor. The device that the customer identified was a wireless zone expander and not a cellular radio. Customer was to continue researching and even call previous monitoring company. 6/1/16 – Customer determined that they could not find the cellular unit and upgraded to a cell unit from Alarm Monitoring Services.  The customer paid for the upgrade to the cellular unit. When they did so, this clause from the Terms and Conditions came into effect: 47. PROMOTIONAL OFFERS AND EQUIPMENT: If at any time should Subscriber accept a promotional offer, or if Contractor should add to, upgrade or replace Subscribers equipment, unless specifically invoiced and paid as an outright PURCHASE, it shall be considered a LEASE and shall be required to be returned to Contractor at the end of the service term or retail value shall be charged to the Subscriber.  In addition, regardless if a PROMOTIONAL OFFER is accepted or equipment PURCHASED or LEASED, the Subscriber agrees to maintain Contractors service for a minimum of 24 paid months BEYOND any INITIAL PREPAID term or they agree to a final billing for remain months to complete this term. 7/7/16 – Technician worked with customer to get the new cellular unit connected to the alarm panel and to have the panel programmed to use the cellular device. Customer continued to claim that he had a cellular unit attached to the alarm panel but no device or programming could be found to this effect. Once again, the technician recommended that the customer contact the previous alarm provider with regards to the original cellular adapter. 10/15/16 – Company tried to bill customer for November recurring payment as the prepaid 3 months and 3 months free had expired. This payment failed. 10/18/16 – Company sent an invoice to the customer for the November recurring payment plus an additional 11 months of service. This additional 12 months of service was reduced from the 24 months as required per the Terms and Conditions when the customer purchased the cellular device. 47. PROMOTIONAL OFFERS AND EQUIPMENT: If at any time should Subscriber accept a promotional offer, or if Contractor should add to, upgrade or replace Subscribers equipment, unless specifically invoiced and paid as an outright PURCHASE, it shall be considered a LEASE and shall be required to be returned to Contractor at the end of the service term or retail value shall be charged to the Subscriber.  In addition, regardless if a PROMOTIONAL OFFER is accepted or equipment PURCHASED or LEASED, the Subscriber agrees to maintain Contractors service for a minimum of 24 paid months BEYOND any INITIAL PREPAID term or they agree to a final billing for remain months to complete this term. 11/9/16 – Customer requested cancellation through www.cancelmyalarm.com, but the cancellation was rejected due to wrong account number. 11/23/16 – Customer Service Manager spoke with the customer and offered to cancel the open invoice and any additional amounts owed for service per the Terms and Conditions if the customer would return the cellular device in good condition. Customer agreed. 12/8/19 – Cellular unit was received back from the customer. The unit appears to have been ripped from the wall with no care given to removing the wiring or backup battery. Battery connections and wiring connections were destroyed which rendered the unit unusable. As the unit was destroyed, the agreement to waive fees was invalid. The customer signed up for service using their existing equipment which the customer was never able to identify. At this point, the customer owes for the 12 months of service (which has been reduced from 24 months) as per the Terms and Conditions. Additionally, a $250 collection fee has been added which will be waived if customer pays open balance prior to sending to Collection Bureaus. We worked with the customer as per the Terms and Conditions. We are simply looking to enforce our rights under this agreement.

Sent: Wednesday, December 07, 2016 10:57 AMSubject: complaint [redacted]“Please reopen this and allow A.S. Alarm aka CEN COM Inc. another shot at making this right. A.S. Alarm aka CEN COM Inc. is telling me I have to pay more to continue monitoring with wireless. I will not pay another dime. They say their service will stop working. I say they breached the contract and any rational person would come to the same conclusion. They are responsible for my loss of service and it is fair that their failure to maintain service constitutes a fair reimbursement for the unused portion of service. I will have to replace that service at todays prices, which are higher. The original amount was 148.?? For upgrading. A.S. Alarm aka CEN COM INC. didn’t mention that. I expect a refund. I am sending a letter in congruence with the laws of the States of Washington and Texas noting my intentions of further proceedings if a resolution isn’t reached. (small claims court)They expect me to let them halt my service with no remuneration, or pay for an upgrade of 148.?? and not commit till contract end,  or a downgrade of 35.00 and install a phone line which is another expense. All of these options are not supportive of the customer. My opinion is this is highway robbery at its finest and this is what gives reputable online businesses a bad name. It may cost me 600 dollars but it will be worth every penny to let the entire country know how this has been handled.  I will guarantee one thing. The people I spoke to and the company will remember my name by the time I get finished posting and calling people. The customer service and treatment of this customer is appalling and if they expect me to roll over and take it, they are mistaken. “
Respectfully,[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:Please see my response to each response from the business below: My alarm panel was not defective. The panel could not be connected to alarm monitoring service of business due to their incompetence in not being able to properly re-program my panel. The company also refused to terminate their monitoring agreement even after becoming aware that they were unable to re-program my alarm panel as promised when I signed up for their monitoring service. The false alarms generated were again due to technical problems with the monitoring service. My alarm panel does not have the ability to generate CO2 alarms as were reported by the monitoring service. The false CO2 alarms were not generated by my panel, and were instead due to internal technical problems of the business. The business raised the issue of “location” of their additional equipment, which were non-sensical and literally made no sense. The business appears to have made these claims to avoid having to terminate the monitoring service because of their technical problems and general incompetence. The cancellation process of the business does not require a simple online process, as is claimed in their statement here. Using the website noted requires a telephone call to the business for cancellation. I attempted to make this call twice, and have documented telephone records of these attempts, and one call resulted in promise of a “callback” and the second was completely unanswered by the business. I only requested a “chargeback” on my credit card after making these attempts, and after recommendation of this action by Citibank, my credit card bank. I have sent a written notice to the business, via USPS Certified Mail, and am awaiting a response from the business. My written notice was delivered and accepted on Aug 10, 2017, at 11:58am (signature on record). I have not yet received any response. The due date set to receive a written response, via USPS Certified Mail, is Sept 5, 2017.  The “collection notice” sent by this business was integrated into an “invoice” and both illegal and fraudulent in nature. This is a derivation of one legal complaint to be filed against this business pending their written response to my written notice delivered on Aug 10, 2017. I made my third attempt to follow the cancellation policy of this business on August 15 2017 upon advise of legal counsel. On this attempt, likely due to my formal pursuit of multiple complaints with this business, I did reach a live person upon making the phone call, who did process the cancellation. A $199 charge was then charged to my credit card, without my authorization, and I immediately reported this charge as fraudulent to my credit card bank and had my credit card replaced to ensure this business could not process any further unauthorized charges. The equipment in question was also returned, via USPS Certified Delivery with Return Receipt. The business has attempted to process $689.80 of charges against my credit card. While I have disputed these charges to my credit card bank, the outcome of these disputes is pending. I have also requested a written response from the business, delivery of a statement and explanatory letter from the business stating that no monies are owed by myself to this business, and a written promissory letter stating that this business will never pursue collection of any kind against myself by this business. The business has failed to meet any of these requirements, nor provided any written response whatsoever. Based on the statements above, I reject the response of this business, and require them to provide the remedies outlined in order to resolve this complaint.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:
I was directed to the cancelmyalarm.com site but when I went there and looked at the cancellation fee plus the previous month (full rate) that amount that I was being charged to "catch up" was more than the amount to "renew" for 7 years. So I took the cheaper approach paid the bill (I always pay my bills) and stated to customer service that the account should not renew in 7 years.) As your records will reflect there has been no contact between us for the last 7 years, because no service was provided. Please provide the account activity logs that show that your company does not provide alarm monitoring at my residence, your company has never received a single alarm setting code or unlock code in the last 7 years from my residence or status that there is an active alarm, there nothing. I have a unit but it has never been monitored by your service. Never, Ever. I made an attempt to use the service I was paying for when you sent the digital diverter and I plugged it in but it did not work. Please provide the records to dispute this fact. I signed up for your service in 2008 with the promise that the alarm monitoring service would work for my residence. When I found out it didn't work I attempted to cancel but was informed that I was under contract and had to keep the service active, or pay hefty fees. The technical support team bounced me back and forth for weeks stating they were looking for a fix but it never worked. Once I determined that the service did not work I attempted to cancel (calling your customer service line) where they informed me that I signed a contract (whether the service worked or not) and at this point I could either I could pay a large fee each month or I could sign up for 7 years at a greatly reduced rate. I requested at the end of that period my account be closed. I am not asking you to rectify the 5 years that I paid for; I am writing that off as my fault I didn't read the fine print. And although it seems shady I signed the paperwork so I didn't argue with your customer service department. I did however inform them that at the end of this period the account should terminate. So I was surprised when I was contacted in 2017 about my alarm monitoring service. Given that I have not had alarm monitoring for the last 7 years I am not sure why your company agreed to cancel and then generated another bill for no service rendered. Please release the records from the last 7 years that show my account activity, monitoring calls or anything, I assure you there is nothing. So imagine my surprise when a person calls me stating I owe money for an account that I was told would be closed after the prepaid period expired. I assure you can pull my credit report I have no unpaid or behind bills, I pay as agreed. This was not agreed to. Addressing your other comment: I was also concerned about the fact that I was pre-paying for 7 years for a non working service but you are leaving out the fact that at that point the to be billed amount was close to the amount of the 7 year contract (at a greatly reduced rate) which is a good thing if the service is working, but for me a greatly reduced rate was no benefit. And your sales person convinced me that they could get the service working. So I paid on the premise that I was already in the hole since to try out the service I signed a contract (unknowingly so). Therefore I took the responsibility it was my issue for not reading the fine print and I paid the bill. Not primarily to continue the service (which I did not have) but to avoid the hefty cancellation fees and reduce the month to month fees that I was being billed for. Also I was in the process of making a large purchase and didn't have the time to fight the validity of the charges, an explain a negative report on my credit for this, I needed it to go away forever. I took it as a lesson learned don’t sign up for things that appear to be too good to be true. I had no need to complain at that point, I made the mistake to sign up for the service without reading the fine print. This is where the story should have ended. But here we are in 2017 and you are asking me to pay another bill. I know I did not sign up for this account to renew, that's why I didn’t pay attention to your calls stating that I have alarm monitoring and I owe your company money. I did not agree to renew this service!!! So someone calling me stating that I owe money is not at all an expectation, I have moved on I was burnt by your company I paid over $500 in 2010 to account for my past mistake. Again I’ll state cancel the inactive account, remove the charges and move on to another gullible customer. You have already received payment for not providing alarm monitoring service for the last 7 years, and I requested the account not be renewed. What more is your company seeking? I disagree with your statement that prepaying for an account makes no sense when in 2010 a customer service rep was in my ear stating they could get the service to work and the amount to bring the account current and cancel was greater than the amount to renew for 7 years. I have moved past that bad decision made in 2008 and would like to move on with my life. Your attempt to collect more money in 2017 for an account that has not worked ever from 2008 is ridiculous. I have leased equipment? What equipment would you like returned? There is no service!!!! If it’s a matter of returning unused leased equipment lets go down that path. But I do not owe your company and additional $599.95 for no services provided.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

The consumer ordered alarm monitoring services using her own alarm system and using her existing cellular alarm transmitter.  As part of the order process, the consumer is clearly notified that we cannot guarantee that their existing cellular alarm transmitter that they purchased from a...

previous alarm monitoring service can be used due to it not being in working order or not being released from the previous alarm company.   In fact, they are offered a replacement guarantee for a one time additional payment of $25.00 PRIOR to placing their monitoring order. (See below clause from order form.)
Prior to placement of this order, for a one time additional $25.00 fee, we can offer you REPLACEMENT INSURANCE on your existing transmitter.  In the event your existing cellular transmitter cannot be used for any reason, simply send us your old transmitter and    we will send you a replacement transmitter at no additional charge other than a standard shipping fee. Would you like to add REPLACEMENT INSURANCE to this order?:
NO - Do not insure my existing transmitter, and I am aware that your 30 day refund offer does not apply if my equipment is unusable.
Once we attempted to activate the consumers alarm transmitter, we found that it was not useable and that the consumer was very upset.  At that point we offered to ‘go back in time’ and charge her the $25.00 replacement option as if she ordered a replacement option at the time of her initial order.  The consumer agreed to this $25.00 fee and it was charged to her account.
A few days later, the consumer called into the office and yet again complained about the $25.00 charge just made to her account for the replacement option.  We sent her a letter detailing the charges and asker her what she would like us to do.  (See excerpt of letter below.)
At this point there are three things that can be done for you. 
PLEASE REPLY TO THIS EMAIL WITH THE OPTION OF YOUR CHOISE.  YOUR ACCOUNT WILL REMAIN IN ITS CURRENT POSITION UNTIL WE DO RECEIVE YOUR RESPONSE.
Option #1:
Provide us with the name and contact number of your previous alarm company in order for us to attempt to have the release it so it can be reused.  I suspect we would also need your account number and password to discuss your alarm with them.  If we can get the unit released, we will complete the monitoring set-up for you and also refund you the $25.00 charge for the replacement insurance you paid.  If we cannot get it released by the previous company, we would move on to option #2
Option #2: 
We would complete the replacement insurance option for you by sending you a replacement 2G cellular transmitter.  There would be a $28.95 shipping fee as per the insurance requirements, but other than that no additional fees would apply.  Upon completion of the replacement, you would ship the old unit back to us.
Option #3:
We continue to cancel your alarm monitoring order.  Your account would be closed, but there would be no refund available to you based on your cancellation being beyond 30 days after the initial order date as well as you election to cancel the replacement as well.
I trust we can continue our service efforts on account and will await your REPLY to your decision
Regards,
Mr. Benjamin P[redacted]
Customer Service Manager
Instead of responding to the letter, the consumer simply did a chargeback for all fees charged through her credit card.
The consumer was notified on several occasions that the chargeback would be sent to collections if it was not paid or settled within 10 days.  SEVERAL WEEKS later, the outstanding balance was sent to collections for the amount of $357.85, not $1500.00 as claimed by the consumer.
If the consumer wishes to make payment for the $357.85 outstanding debt, we ar happy to request removal of the credit bureau information.

We stand by our original response.
It is quite clear by the broken language from the consumer that there is a language barrier.
We suggest not ordering items on the internet in the future if there is not a clear understanding of the online information.

Mr. [redacted],   You state that alarm NEVER worked.  That is false because when we ship a digital diverter to a consumer, we have no idea what the account number will be.  We do know that the first 4 digits will be [redacted].  But we can only determine the last 4 digits AFTER the alarm panel calls into the center and tells us the account number coded into the customers alarm panel from his previous alarm company.  And since your account number is [redacted], that tells us your alarm panel was pre-programmed as [redacted] by your previous alarm company.  A fact that could only be known if the alarm reported into us and was converted into our monitoring center from its temporary account number of [redacted].   You also stated that when you tried to cancel services previously at www.cancelmyalarm.com, you elected to pay for seven years of discounted services because it was cheaper than paying the past due service fees.  To begin with, this makes no sense since your past due bills would have been due regardless of your pre-payment for future services.  In addition to that, records reflect that you pre-paid $429.80 for seven years of service and only received a credit of $30.00 against a past due balance of $79.80.  I also wonder why you just didn’t pay off the $79.80 balance back them to close the account.  Or pre-pay one year or two instead of seven years. I also wonder why if as you say you had to pre-pay seven years to get out of this contract why you didn’t at that point or any point over the next 7 years cancel services as per the contract online at www.cancelmyalarm.com.  You clearly know it was a requirement as you indicated that’s how you started into this seven-year prepayment cycle. Finally, if over the last seven years you truly felt that you were not receiving any of the services you ordered, why didn’t you complain?  I show no letters in file.  No emails. No attempted charge backs on your credit card or anything for that matter.  In fact, we have a specific paragraph in our Terms & Conditions specifically for issues like this as follows: CONTRACT BREACH: Any claims for breach of this agreement or breach of any express or implied warranties of fitness or merchantability must be communicated IN WRITING, SENT BY CERTIFIED LETTER, RETRUN RECEIPT, TO CONTRACTOR WITHIN FIVE (5) DAYS OF THE ALLEGED BREACH. FAILURE TO DO SO WILL RESULT IN SUBSCRIBERS FULL AND COMPLETE WAIVER OF ANY DEFENSES IT MAY HAVE AS A RESULT OF THE ALLEGED BREACH. Without anything from you in writing, specifically as required in our contract, you have waived any defensive rights that you state you may have. Of course, you fail to even touch on the fact that you never returned our leased equipment. Only a portion of the fees are for the services that you say you never received.  What about our leased equipment that you have had in your possession and still to this date have never returned?  Just the mere possession of the equipment makes the fees justified regardless of any services you state you did not receive. As a side note, we are willing to reduce the amount by $100.00 to $499.95 if paid within 30 days.

We will no longer engage with this consumer.