CastleRock Security review: refusal to cancel ( 159 comments)

Same happened to me. I fulfilled my three-year contract, and because I didn't cancel on the year anniversary I had to pay for a full year...for a house I don't live in anymore! Awful, Awful company...steer clear.

I CAN HELP! I have an option for you guys. Castlerock is only a monitoring center without techs or field reps. I work for Pinnacle Security. I have techs in every state. I will pay for most and often all of your cancellation fee's IF you sign an agreement to allow my company to take over monitoring of your home. This offer also comes with updated equipment and extra sensors for more protection. Pinnacle will keep all of your accounts in house for the life of the contract. If you quit after that is your choice. If you do not decide to take my option i'll be glad to talk on the phone or email chat to help out any way i can. Trust me that i know these contracts. Afterall i sign them daily. I have already helped about 4o homes switch away from Castlerock already. I am here to help with your cancellation fee's or advice anytime. It doesn't hurt to email me with questions.
Jeff
Jallen2283@yahoo.com

Jallen2283@yahoo.com
Nice try, Jeff. The reason many of us are stuck with this god-forsaken company is because we trusted Pinnacle in the first place. How nice of you to offer to keep our account "in house" this time instead of selling our account (trust in you) to unscrupulous blood suckers. Pinnacle also has a BBB rating of "F". I wonder why? Fool me twice, shame on me. You've got to be kidding. Congratulations on hooking 40 more suckers. More sheep's clothing.

We were recently disputing a false alarm claim with Castle Rock. After many times of being put on hold for half an hour, promised they would call us back and not doing so, the bill passed its due date. We expressed concern about late fees but were told we had an extension. They then used the direct transfer agreement we have for our monthly payment and took the $150 fine out of our account without our permission and without warning us, and before the matter was even settled (the only reason it wasn't settled being their complete failure to help us). If you use them, DON'T GIVE THEM ACCESS TO YOUR BANK ACCOUNT. They will take whatever they want without warning, and that's just scary.

Ditto on the Pinnacle comment. Pinnacle is what got us into this mess to begin with and we would never give the company our business again. Nice try Jeff.

WE GOT OUT OF OUR CONTRACT WITH CASTLEROCK. Here is what we did: We sent the following e-mail to our local media station and cc'd the Attorney General's office in Washington State (where we live) and Illinois, as well as CastleRock's president/CEO.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
AttSubject: RE: contract #A313XXXX
Date: Tue, 2 Nov 2010 09:41:58 -0400
From: KPolanco@castlerocksecurity.com
To: XXXXXXXXXXX

Mr. Chinn –

A letter will be sent out today which states we accept the terms you requested and the account will be cancelled in full when the final payment of $89.98 has been received here.

Thank you again for your cooperation.

Kathy Polanco
Customer Experience Enhancement Coordinator
Direct: [protected] Ext. 1465
Fax: [protected]
E-mail:kpolanco@castlerocksecurity.com
CastleRock Security, Inc.
2101 S. Arlington Heights Rd.
Suite 150
Arlington Heights, IL 60005
Main Number: [protected]
Customer & Technical Support: [protected]
Dealer Support: [protected]
Website: www.CastleRockSecurity.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: jonathan chinn
Sent: Monday, November 01, 2010 6:20 PM
To: Polanco, Kathy
Subject: contract #A313XXXX

Ms. Polanco,

Thank you for your response to our contract dispute. The terms you outlined in your e-mail are satisfactory to us with one minor change. Upon receiving our check for $89.98 covering the months of November and December the contract will end at that point and the monitoring system disabled and not December 31, 2010. This benefits CastleRock Security in two ways. First, you get paid for not providing any services for two months. Secondly, since we no longer own or live in the residence monitored you won't have to try and locate a contact person in case the alarm goes off.

If this is acceptable to CastleRock Security please acknowledge in writing to - Jonathan A. Chinn, ADDRESS.

We will remit payment immediately upon hearing from you.

Jonathan Chinn

From: jonathan chinn
Sent: Tuesday, October 26, 2010 6:35 PM
To: getjesse@king5.com; Smith, Lytton (ATG); bjohnson@castlerock.com; kplanco@castlerock.com;

Subject: recurring, persistent problem

Dear Mr. Jones:

I write to you to inform you of a persistent problem company with which you have had an intervention in the past (Door-to-door security sales tell the wrong tale - posted July 19, 2010). You ask who are these miscreants? They are CastleRock Security (2101 S. Arlington Heights Road, suite 150, Arlington Heights, Il 60005, [protected]) who bought out Pinnacle Security and is licensed in this state.
They assiduously thumb their nose at their mere customers. They have remarkably achieved a "F" rating (the worst) from the Better Business Bureau having at last count over 600 filed complaints. A perusal of the web site "complaintsboard.com" illustrates their unsavory reputation. The main issue would appear to be their persistent use of the automatic contract renewal strategy. Most ethical companies have eschewed the practice and at least 23 states have restricted it. Alas, apparently our state has not so acted. You will note a copy of this missive is sent to our Attorney Generals office and a separate note will be sent to state politicians to see if they can address this issue in one of their more productive moments. In this election year perhaps national politicians and the Federal Trade Commission would likewise be interested.
Thank you for your continued efforts for the mere customer.

Jonathan Chinn

I continue to have the same cancellation problems as listed below. Back in 2007 I sent a letter to cancel service and was told I had 2 years left on my contract. I instructed them to keep the letter to cancel upon completion of my contract (May 2010). I have been trying to get them to cancel ever since. They told me that it auto renewed and I am stuck until ay 2011. I am on the phone with them again as I type this getting yet more run around. DONT DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY.

We live in Ontario Canada and are signed up with Castlerock. We had a false alarm call out and paid Castlerock $50, but they haven't paid the police, so we have a letter saying, they won't respond to Castlerock alarm response. And there are 6 others in our area that we know of that Castlerock has not paid for the false alarm call out. I'm all in for a law suit...sign me up...glasgowgirl.

I too was duped into a contract with Castle Rock, but the company wasn't Castle Rock at the time, it was ASI. I was never told that I would be signing a 5 year contract which anyone wanting to be completely honest with the customer would have. It wasn't until I decided to go back to ADT that I discovered this. Since that time I have contacted the BBB and the Attorner General regarding this company, but was told that if I wanted to continue my course of action I would have to take Castle Rock to small claims court. I feel a class action law suit is what it will take to finally put this company and others like it out of business.

I had originally signed up with Firstline Security and after a few sales/name changes am now stuck with Castle Rock Security. I knew I had a three year contract so after the three years, I tried to cancle the monitoring only to be informed that it auto renewed for one full year and that I was required to cancle in writing 30 days prior to my renewal date. I cannot find this in my original contract but as my monitoring is now provided by Castle Rock, I was informed that I was bound by their current rules.

Stay far away from this company.

I have resorted to sending a monthly check with the statment :"Notice of Cancellation as of XXXXX" on every check. I enclose a copy of Notice of Cancellation of Policy, countdown on every one. I send this through Certificate of Mailing so that I have proof that I sent it. I will also be emailing every email that has been listed for contacts at Castlerock on the last day of every month.
BTW ~ love the idea of "testing" the system. I know it doesn't mean much to them, however it will make me smile everyday !

They did the same to me. Kept charging and charging. I finally called bank and put a stop on their charges. Cost you your bank fee of 30.00 or? but well worth it to get them out of your life. I checked the BBB and they have a D- rating. Good luck!

I just received a letter from CastleRock Security acknowledging that my account would not renew next month. I sent a registered letter with a money order for the last two months. I had just canceled the credit card and I did not want to give them a check with my bank account.
I met the 30-day requirement to notify them prior to the (undesired) renewal date and had the postal delivery confirmation to prove it if necessary..

Last year I tried to cancel but was told I was one day late. One day! After speaking to someone on the phone, and told them to put a note on my account that it is to be cancelled this year, I decided to fax them today, giving them 5 months notice that I am cancelling, I even e-mailed Kathy Polanco the same letter I faxed, I stated that I wanted someone from that company to contact me today, well I sent the fax and e-mail 3 hours ago, no response. I'll be faxing and e-mailing again tomorrow and the next day, until I have confirmation that my account is cancelled, I want it in writing on their letter head. I don't trust these people. The BBB has their rating as an F. I have the feeling I will be writing to the Attorney Generals office in IL and CO. We all need to find out our rights as consumers, who is protecting us?

I just received word from Kathy Polanco, that my account has been marked for non-renewal. I informed her, that if another payment is taken from my account past the last payment date, I will be sending her e-mail right back to her and to the Attorney Generals Office in IL and CO.
I hope this is all that I will be dealing with from this company. I also told her how I have been reading all the complaints and read about the outstanding F reputation they have with the BBB.

I do not like it but apparently faxes and emails will not meet the requirements in the small print of the contracts to avoid renewals and a US mail delivered letter is required. They can acknowledge receipt of emails and faxes but that does not remove the contractual obligation to mail it (I assume they have to receive it by 30 days prior to the renewal date...Many have said they telephoned and some even told of being given a date that a letter was due by and then found out later that the date was too late and they got stuck with another year. The whole issue of dealing with these companies - Pinnacle, SAI, CastleRock has taught ma to read the contracts more fully and to NEVER, NEVER do business with door to door salespeople. Good Luck

etcm: Thanks for your comment.

I will send a registered letter to them. I want to make sure all my bases are covered.

I am in the process of fighting with Castle Rock Security. They are bullies and thieves. I have also contacted Anita Alvarez, Cook County's State Attorney. There is a pending lawsuite against Castle Rock and I wanted her to know of my situation as it is much the same for her current client. I agree, that we, as a whole, should file a class action lawsuit against these criminals. Enough is enough. We work too hard to pay for inadequate or even no service at all! For more information on the lawsuite against Castle Rock (Or whomever they want to call themselves this month) contact: Attorney's Consumer Fraud Unit at [protected] or visit the State's Attoney's website at www.stateattorney.org.

My husband and I are going through the same thing. We sold our house and said the new owners could finish out the contract with us paying. We did not realize it was an automatic renewal until it was too late so now we paid 2 years for a house we no longer live in. Fast forward to February 2011 my husband returns from Afghanistan and is going through bills. He notices we need to cancel, calls them and they say it is too early to send the letter that it has to be 30 days out. Well with redeployment issues and all we forget. We call April 26, 2011 and are told it is just too bad we are locked in for another year. This is wrong. We are contacting the BBB and the military to see if we can get this business Black Listed. To be Black Listed means that no military personnel can use this business. Also, we will be contacting an attorney. If there is anything else we should be doing please let me know.

I got this off of the Arlington Heights BBB:
The following describes a pending government action that has been formally brought by a government agency but has not yet been resolved. We are providing a summary of the government's allegations, which have not yet been proven.

On February 18, 2011, Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez announced a suit was filed against CastleRock Security, Inc., and Bruce Johnson and Kathy Polanco, individually and as agents of CastleRock Security, Inc. for violations of the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act and the Illinois Automatic Contract Renewal Act.

According to the lawsuit, the Defendants required customers to cancel automatic renewal contracts in writing thirty days before the end of the contract term, when consumers are not legally required to give such notice of cancellation. Alvarez alleges that the Defendants failed to honor consumers' valid cancellations of automatic renewal contracts and then continued to charge customers for alarm monitoring services under renewed contract terms. Alvarez also purports that the Defendants failed to provide customers written notice of automatic renewal no less than thirty days and no more than sixty days prior to the end of the contract term, and that they didn't provide customers written notice of automatic renewal that clearly and conspicuously disclosed that unless the consumer cancels the contract would automatically renew.

The lawsuit asks the court to ban the Defendants and any agents, employees, and representatives from engaging in the business of offering for sale, and selling, home security alarm installation and monitoring products or services to members of the public. Additionally, Alvarez requested that the court require the Defendants to pay restitution to all members of the public damaged by their violations of the Consumer Fraud Act, as well as requiring the Defendants to notify every Illinois consumer who may have been a victim of the acts and practices described and inform them of the availability or restitution. Alvarez also seeks civil penalties, as well as courts and attorneys fees.

For more information on this lawsuit or to obtain additional information about consumer fraud protections contact the Cook County State's Attorney's Consumer Fraud Unit at [protected] or visit the State's Attorney's website at www.statesattorney.org.

The worst company I have ever dealt with. Still in contract, will be up in june. I knew they had to get a letter of cancellation a month before end of contract. Sent a letter and they said they didn't get it, sent another letter and they got it two weeks before end of contract and they still would not let me out of contract. I am going to send a certified letter of cancellation this time.

I am still battling with Castle Rock Security. They have turned my account over to collections. I refuse to give this unethical company another dime of my hard earned money for a system that either only worked on bypass or did not work at all. I have sent two letters to the BBB and I have reported this company to the Consumer Fraud. My original contract was with APEX and after almost five years of poor service, I had enough. Now Castle Rock actually expects me to pay them for four months of service for a system that is inoperable. I will continue to fight this company before I give them another dime.

I am right there with all of you. I tried to cancel May 7 2011, they told me they needed a written letter by the 1st of April (30 days before the end of the contract). Not only that but I paid for an extra year of service not realizing my 3 year contract was up. I've changed my bank account number to block them from charging me any more and they said they're going to send it to collections. The company is obviously a scam, just look at their F rating on the better business bureau's web site, and look at how many times the company has changed their name to escape all their horrible reviews and complaints.

The same thing happened to me. I have been paying a year for a service I don't use. I was told to send a letter 30 days before my contract ends/actually to fax it. The number they gave me is disconnected. How do we go about filing a class action lawsuit?
LAPN

Nothing but problems. Vacated house in 2009. Was told for the first time about 30 day prior notification or auto renew. Explained to them that house was vacant and service was being shut off. They didn't care. Attempted cancellation again a year later and was told this time for the first time that only a written letter is accepted as cancellation and, by the way, last year they said the autorenewal was for March (I needed to notify them by March or auto renewal took place in April). When I called them a year later, they had already auto renewed and this time they said tat my contract renewed in March so I would have had to have written them by February. I have asked for a copy of my contract every time. I have never received it. I am given promises verbally which they later deny. They refuse to follow-up with anything in writing. My electrical and phone at this residence have been shut-off for over two years now and I just received a notice one month ago that they've detected an issue with my security system. Someone comes and cuts your line, you can forget that they'll notice like they claim. This company needs to be put out of business. They seem to forget who is the customer. They do everything to keep themselves happy and the customer be damned.

You all need to start calling their office and tell each employee that answers, that the company has an F- Rating with the Better Business Bureau, that they have all kinds of law suits against them and that any person that cares about themselves and has morals and scruples, should not be working for a company like this. Tell them to google the company Castle Rock Security Reviews and check out their rating with the BBB. F- This company is unethical and rips off its clients. If everyone of us called everyday and kept calling, they would soon see what it's like to be harassed. After all, they are the ones that should be harassed, not us, who were loyal clients for years. Call them at [protected]. They have been calling and harassing me for payment for an entire year. I used them for almost four years and when my system broke and almost started a fire, they refused to repair it, but continued to charge me. I finally had to stop payment and put a stop charge on their company. So...call them and harass them, if they are or have called and harassed you, call them and harass them back. Call and continue to call them... Lets tie up their lines and let their employees (who are doing the harassing calls) know that we are madder than hell and we're NOT going to take it anymore! Again, their number is [protected]

Yes, let's start a class action law suit against these crooks. If you want to each email me your name, phone number and email address, I will get an attorney to look over all these complaints and see what we can do.
Please email your information to me at.. silverslipperz@aol.com I will get back in touch shortly.
Lets turn this thing around and let them know that we're madder than hell and we're not going to take it anymore!
Please put Class Action Suit in Subject Box. Try to find any others in castle rock security reviews and give them this information.
Thank you!
Lynn Kennedy

Sent information for services to be cancelled. They wrote back and said we were under a contract to only cancel at the time of renewing of the contract. They never explained this to us, nor did we ever received any information about this. Then they sent the letter to us where we signed the contract back in 2007 with another company, and it was highlighted under a section regarding the payments about the renewing of the contract. At the bottom of the letter where it states about cancelling the contract, it didn't say anything about this had to be done at the yearly renewal of the contract. This company is misleading people. Don't sign anything from them on the day they come out, you need to look their paperwork over closely. They will take money out of your bank account and will not stop.

I have paid out my contract in full with Castle Rock, called prior to completiong of payment to ensure the proper procedure for cancellation and did what I was told, sent a letter canceling services and payments in full had been made. I stopped receiving invoices and then the invoices for payments due started 10 months later. Castle Rock states that they never recieved my cancelation letter. I have told them my services have been cancled and they have not sent payments. They say that to now cancel my serive I owe them over $500. They are starting the process of sending us to collections.

At http://castlerocksecurity.info/?p=94#comment-1611, I've described my experiences with Castlerock Security (similar to what's described here) and the steps I took to get Castlerock to cancel my contract.

The company should be put out of business. We signed up with ADT for a three year contract and had a direct debit from our checking account for the payments each month. Somehow ADT sold our contract to CastleRock and I didn't even know it. The bill kept getting paid. We decided to move in July 2010 so I called to cancel the Security service. CastleRock said that i had to pay until August and then the contract would be ended. I did this but they kept billing me and having the money debited until i called the bank and had them canceled. This was a year ago - suddenly I get a notice from a collections agency that I owe $500. No notice from CastleRock, no phone call. I am not paying them.

I'm having the same problems as everyone else describes above. We purchased an alarm system in 2005 with FirstLine and then they probably went out of business (hmmm...can't imagine why...). I guess Castle Rock took over our "contract", I say "I guess" because we did not recieve notice of this. I just tried to call and cancel today, September 2, 2011 and they said that my contract does not end until May of 2012...well right there I started throwing a FIT with the stupid phone rep. I said WHAT? I've been with you for like 6 years...how long is my contract with you? she said - "well, you automatically renewed in 2010".. I said, WTF? NO..you did not receive my signature for that..you can't do that...I told that girl to note the account that I will be contacting an attorney. I'm canceling my automatic payment and Castle Rock can STICK IT. I'm now going to look into filing a class action law suit - If anyone else is interested...let me know.

I agree I was contacted in July of this year about my service (which has been not monitored for 18 months). I was told that all I needed to do is send in a cancellation letter and all would be good. I recieved the message format, typed it right then, signed it, and faxed it back with in 1 hour. I saw a auto deduct from my account for castle rock. I called and the supervisor and she said its in your contract and it should of been done last month (After reviewing the phone conversation you had with our represenative he forgot to mention that it needed to be done last month). She said she would send me a copy of the new contract. Still havent seen it. Now Safe Right is buying them and the complaints. No justice I signed up with Pinnacle when did I sign a contract with Castle Rock.

My mother is having the same problems, so i decided to look them up. I found that Illinois has began a law suit. Does anyone know if there is one for the customers in California?

Castle Rock is contiuing to harrass me through a collections service. I refuse to give this unethical company one more dime. There system was faulty and was inoperable more than not. I sent them a UPS package enclosed with a letter to cancel and called constantly to verify they received my letter of cancellation. There had the audacity to try to bill me for three months more to complete the so-called automatic re-enrollment althought the system was inoperable. They are a joke. Now Castle Rock is using the name "Capital Management Ventures' Same Company, same B.S. and same unethical policies. We should all get together and sue these ###!

Yup, we need a lawsuit for CA.

How does one actually go about canceling this contract?

So, how do we go about starting a class-action lawsuit? I have been dealing with Castlerock taking funds out of my bank account, even though I sent them a cancellation letter in April of this year. The ONLY response from CR is for money- not once have they addressed my correspondences, cancellation, etc. I will end up paying them, only because I do not want to be sent to collections. BUT, I want to find a way to re-coup those charges, and teach them a lesson in why unethical, AMERICAN-based companies need to stop fraudulent practices.

I’m another case like so many others. The system died in May 2009 and they wanted $140 to replace the A/C adapter. I told them no way and left it dead. I cancelled the contract in writing April 2010 and included the final 3 months payment (the contract expired June 2010). They cashed the check but didn’t acknowledge the letter. They continued to bill me after the contract expired saying they never received a cancellation notice (they found the check that was in the letter though). I told them to get lost and filed a BBB complaint in Aug 2010. After going back and forth wih them Kathy Polanco of CRS filed the following statement with the BBB in Dec 2010:

The account will be removed from collections and the status changed to “paid in full.” No further obligation will be due from Mr. Donnelly.
Please contact us with any concerns regarding this account.
Respectfully,
Kathy Polanco

This was obviously just to get the BBB complaint closed since a few months later they put my account into collections with National Credit Solutions who then added a negative hit to my credit report. I’ve filed another complaint with the BBB and disputed the negative credit item with the credit bureaus. I think it’s about time a national class action suit was filed against these people since I believe the Cook County suit only covers Illinois.

I too am another victim. I talked to a rep to cancel and was told I should have sent a written notice at least 30 days before July 10th, eleven (11) days ago ! He additionally told me I had 3 years to read my contract. He offered to lower my payment to $34.95 instead of $44.95 but I had to sign a new two year agreement. I told them I was contacting the Wash. State Attorney General and questioned him who does business like this? Crooks! I just wrote a letter informing them I want this contract cancelled July 10, 2011, as that follows the fine print of at least 30 days before end of renewal period. I will be contacting the Wa. State Attorney General of these predator