A door to door security sales company put in an alarm system and now charging fees not agreed to! What to do?
April 17, 2010 by
Filed under american alarm company
An alarm company sold us a system that only works occasionally, which is bad enough, but now they charged us two months bill within a one month period.
The salesman told us any differences in billing dates were to be cleared through the company verbally by both he and I. The agreement was taped and entered into the company’s billing system. I specifically told the salesman if the billing dates were pre-set that we would purchace their product in August.
So when the problem arose, oops, they suddenly could not find the record of the verbal agreement. (imagine that!). Today they put in for another autodraft.
They will not refund the overdraft fee connected with the first billing, nor will they work with us in any way.
The sales representives sent were from the Morman church. I have great respect for Mormons and have never known them to lie. They vouched for this company.
The company now quotes contract and treatening to ruin my credit.
What is my recourse?
You should read the contract carefully to make sure you didn’t agree to something you did not know about. Unfortunately, you seem to be a trusting individual. The fact that the salesman was Mormon does not guarantee that you are getting an honest deal. I am a co-owner of a business which sells, installs, and maintains security systems. We put everything in writing. Verbal agreements are not binding. We also require one year monitoring to be paid in advance. The monitoring facility is located in a small nearby city. These big nationwide concerns are not always the best choice. You may be monitored in another state and the operator may know nothing about your area.
You may have been in a better position if you had used a credit card. They will usually help you in a case like this. The security vendor has more to lose if they cross a MasterCard or Visa. Good luck with your dilemna.
One thing you should try to do is find the contact of the owner, and do all you can to get a hold of that person. He has more authority than any other person you could call in and talk to.
Also, if they are not fulfilling their part of the contract, let them know that that is not right.
The last thing you should do, and it is what they want you to do, is just forget about it and keep paying. While you can’t just stop paying, you need to get it taken care of and stay on top of it.