Brinks Home Security

I used monitronics for a about 18 months but when I moved they threatened me endlessly so I continued to pay out the contract. On my last 2 checks I wrote - contract ends on ___ date, and on the last check I put paid in full.

They continued to harass me stating that I hadn't given them proper notification and that my contract was still valid. I probably got 30 or more calls from them... I just told them that I would LOVE to see them in court so to please go ahead and take me there! I haven't heard from them in awhile now, but they are NOT a reputable company. Period. Take your business elsewhere. There is no good faith or customer service type attitudes, only rude people who are pushy and will threaten you.

STAY AWAY FROM MONITRONICS!

I had a alarm system placed in my house. The installer was not able to get "good reception" so I would have the alam go off all of the time for no reason. After 8 different techs had come to my house and they too were unable to get the alarm to work. I finally had medtronics stop payment on my account. It was a huge deal I had to sent a letter in writing saying the account needed to be closed. A few days after I sent the letter I called to make sure they were not charging my account any more. I was assured payments would be stopped. Well, now it's a year later and I just signed up for online banking and noticed thousands of dollars that have been withdrawn from my account from medtronics. I'm sure it is going to be a huge battle with medtronics to get my money back.

When I signed up for Monitronics, the contracts states I must have an active phone system at all time. I have a phone system but changed carriers. Monitronics informed me that they couldn't monitor with the phone system I had unless I bought a piece for $350.00 to go with the alarm system. I told them their contract didn't state that - that is just stated I must have a phone system and they needed to rectify the issue, not try to sell me a piece to add to my system. They refused and hung up on me.

I was hired originally as a nanny for the owner of VESS which is a Monitronics Distributor/installer. Well, I was quickly moved from nanny duties to "light office work" wich included doing collections for Monitronics on a daily basis continuosly throughout the day. I was told to call customers with the same issue over and over through out the day if they did not make a payment, it was borderline harrasment. After about a month I was sent out on a "job" to perform an install on a new Dell computer. I guess the owner of VESS is also working for Dell on the side, I have never installed a computer professionally and I had only been on one call with him prior. I arrived at the customers home and they were very upset. They called Dell and complained and I was then fired from Monitronics because I did not complete a Dell Assignment. This company does not know what it is doing and I am very dissapointed and have lost trust on home business owners. Because i was let go for no reason and when I was paid I was paid from a personal monitronics account without removing taxes, I am not even able to collect from unemployment, because of the owners inability to run a company I have now become so much in debt that I can only hope to get out ok.

I would strongly advise against Monitronics! When I moved, they forced me to continue to pay for my contract (no buy-out) and then when it ended they have continued to harass me about the bill because they state that is wasn't good enough for me to write on my last 3 checks : Contract cancelled. I told them to go ahead and take me to court ... but they said no, they were just going to keep calling and calling and calling... this is their tactics.

Use another company!1

I have a Monotronics home security system and they were to debt my account each month, this payment type had not happened yet. When I mail my payments, they do not post for at least two months and they call me asking for payments. Then I set my alarm off by accident too many times to count and they never call to make sure I don't need help. They say there are monitoring me but, there are no calls at all. I am not monitored so what am I paying for?

I pay my bill on time every single month! They call every month before the bill is even due asking for a credit card payment over the phone trying to get a double payment for one month service. When I ask why they are calling before the bill is due they say they are just making sure we pay the bill on time. When I tell them that I will send it by check every day until it's due date they call again acting like they never talked to me the day before. This goes on probably 20 days a month and is soooo incredibly annoying!

I also signed a contract for a three year agreement through Monitronics Security Systems. I added a warranty agreement for an additional $5.00 per month. When I called to cancel the warranty they told me that there was never a warranty on the plan. I asked them why I am being billed an additional $5.oo per month and they hung up on me. BY FAR THE WORST COMPANY I HAVE EVER DEALT WITH!

Monitronics is ripping off their customers stating the FCC has made changes from analogue to digital and they have to come out to your house to change your security system. They give you three options to choose from. A letter states those three options as follows:

1: "Monitronics will install a new $350 digital transmitter for FREE in your existing security system. All that is required of you is a $30 trip charge and a $69 re-activation fee.

2: Monitronics will install a new $350 digital transmitter for FREE in your existing security system. You only pay a $30 trip charge, a $19 re-activation fee and agree to a 6 month extension on your Monitoring Agreement.

3: Monitronics will install a new $350 digital transmitter for FREE in your existing security system. All you pay is a $30 trip charge and agree to an 18-month extension to your Monitoring Agreement."

None are of these options are acceptable to me. I don't want their service any longer but under my contract I have until 8-2008 to finish the contract. I am told that my system will not work after Feb 18, 2008. However, I have to pay one way or the other for them to come out and change from analogue to digital even though I do not want their service, but they are going to continue to bill me for the alarm system even through it does not work. I DON'T BELIEVE THAT IS LEGAL--I have to pay even through the system does not work. I should have an option to discontinue the service especially when it is not going to work. I already paid once for this service, I do not intend to pay twice. Please advise smb!

We moved in June 2006 and requested a system move. We were told we would be contacted by an independent contract, but after a month we gave up on that, 1 month NO monitoring service. We contacted them a second time and requested the service, still no contact, a second month of no service... THEIR poor service. NOTE: Still paying the bills and don't own a house with an installed system because they haven't lived up to their agreement to move the system. Third month we request cancellation and are told that our service is canceled... now get this, we THEN got a call from an independent contractor wanting to install a system for Monitronics based on a work order dated the day I called the third time. By now it's September 2006 and I call them a 4th time very upset that an install was canceled and I'm told that my account does have a note about the cancellation. October comes and with it another bill... so I call a fifth time and I'm given explicit direction on how to cancel the account and stop charges immediately which I follow to the letter (and have records in my file). I receive a bill in November and call... only they can't find my name or either address in their system (canceled right?). I continued receiving bills and continued calling and it took until August 2007 and a very IRATE discussion that this needs to end NOW to connect me to their Executive Response Group who refuses to acknowledge any of my past contacts or the information they provided and proceeds to tell me that I owe over $400 in monitoring fees. She acknowledged the cancellation letter (which by the way stated that charges would stop effective the date of the letter that was sent or they would respond... they never responded).

I called for a simple account payment history so that I can confirm that their records match mine and it takes 20 minutes! And to top that all off, the customer service person thought she had me on hold and said, "My customers are not very nice today. In fact they are getting on my nerves"... HELLO your company has been getting on my nerves for over a year now, you get 5 minutes of my attitude and if you don't like it get yourself a job with a reputable company!

MONITRONICS is about as shady a company as I have ever seen. They violated the agreement which was given when service was started to 1) provide customer service, 2) move the system free of charge, 3) provide honest business.

Monitronics to this day is completely NON responsive to a Better Business Bureau claim... typical, they are non-responsive to everything! Alarms, contract cancellations, complaints, service calls, etc!

Issues with Monitronics Home Security service:

Last September I had an alarm go off at my house. Well, I didn't find out about it till almost 4 hours later. The Police had already came and gone several hours before I was notified or the individual who was my emergency contact. I was very dissatisfied with the service and instructed the customer service agent to cancel my service. At the point I was told that I would have to send them a letter with my name, address, and my customer info in it with the request to cancel my service. Well, of course they denied ever getting it. I sent them a second letter this time and due to a job change relocated thinking the matter was solved. A few months go by and I come home and discover that they still had not terminated my contract. I called their customer service and received more run around and finally I was instructed to send the same letter but, with all the info mentioned before but, they wanted time to include my password and passcode in the new letter. Why would someone ask for all this in a letter that was going through the public mail. When dealing with secure documents you never send them through public forums. Then the supervisor I spoke with told me that they are not responsible for delivering what they sell. She claimed in the contract they still get paid basically if they do not provide the service they advertise. I would warn any consumer against ever doing business with this company. Shady contracts and poor customer service are not traits of a company I would hire to handle home security.

I have tried calling Monitronics 5 times to check/change my password, every time they are unable to help me. So Finally, I had a false alarm tonight. My alarm went off for no reason. and even when they called me asking for my password they didn't know what triggered it. I gave them my password, everything seemed fine. Well, i get a call an hour and half later and the person said the police were on their way and that there was nothing they could about it "they were sending the police for my safety" Apparently there was a misunderstanding about my password and I had no password on record. I starting going balastic at the guy on the phone saying I had tried to verify my password on the phone 5 times! Their customer service is the worst I have ever encountered.

This is the absolute worst refusal to stop service. I am going to seek each and every avenue to file legal and ethical complaints against Monitronics Security Services. Fortunately we had no real need for their services for the 3 years that we did utilize them. To me they have proved to be ONLY a money collection spot and I will be seeking out "CLASS ACTION LEGAL ACTIONS" because I can be assured at the manner in which Monitronics does conduct business, there is most certainly a legal penalty!

In February of 2005 my house was sold with the security system. When cancelling with monitronics they said the only way to not pay is if the new owners took over our security system with monitronics. Which the new owners agreed. Then one and a half years later we go to purchase a new home and on our credit report we owe monitronics $300.00.? From what? When we called and argued, we were told that we never cancelled in enough time and no where in there records did it show I called. Hummm weird then how would I have known there policies? Well it's 06/2007 and I'm paying 300.00 to get this off my credit report. So who won here? They need to get there policies straight and maybe monitor who takes calls in there office. how can they monitor homes safe and secure?

This is old stuff, but I was cleaning out some old paperwork from my desk, and decided to Google Monitronics and Fraud, and sure enough it sounds like they are still up to their old tricks. So here's my story for all you other frustrated Monitronics customers out there.

In December of 1999 I signed a contract with Monitronics International to monitor my home security system. That contract included an automatic annual renewal, with a 90-day written cancellation policy. From January of 1999 until Spring of 2002, I only received a couple of letters stating that my rates would be raised, but I never received any notifications of contract renewal, or anything other than the automated debiting of $30-$32 per month from my checking account.

In the Spring of 2002, my system started doing weird things. After several phone calls, I finally convinced Monitronics to send out a technician. He said it was so old he wasn’t even familiar with it. He recommended replacement, but he couldn’t quote for me, saying I would have to call Monitronics to get a price. When I called them, they said they would have to send someone out to give me a quote.

In August of 2002, the equipment failed completely. It went into siren mode while I was showering, and wouldn’t stop unless unplugged and de-batteried. When I called for service, the response was that it was not a problem because they weren’t any phone calls from the system. I had to kill the equipment and I faxed in a request to have monitoring cease immediately. I believe I was offered a choice of buying a new system and signing up with Monitronics for three more years, but I do not recall the details of that offer, because I was so disappointed with the so-called “service”, that I wanted to cancel. Another company installed an alarm system at my house a week later. I called to cancel Monitronics. I was told that since my contract had automatically renewed until December, that I would have to keep paying the monthly fee until then, and also that the only way to cancel was in writing.

September 11, 2002, I sent a letter of cancellation, to the address indicated at the top of this letter. In it, I specifically requested written confirmation of the cancellation of my account. November 12, 2002, I had not yet received any confirmation of the cancellation. I called their Customer Service department, and spoke with a representative who identified herself as Denise. She confirmed that my contract would be canceled as of December and I would receive no more charges after my contract expired in December, 2002. She led me to believe that she was actually looking at the physical letter I had sent.
February, 2003, I realized that my checking account was still be automatically debited for a monthly fee for a service I had not received for over six months. I wrote a second letter to complain. After several calls I found that there is no procedure company for dealing with (ex-) customer complaints such as mine. There was refusal to allow me to speak to anyone of any authority, there was denial that a letter was received in September, and I was even told that since I had not sent the letter via certified mail, I was out of luck. That is not a practice I find that I normally have to follow. March, 2003: I held the line until I was able to speak with someone who was apparently a supervisor for the customer service department. She insisted that there was no record of ever having received a letter, there was no record of my having called in November, that there was never a Denise working for her department, and finally that in January of 2002 I had agreed to renew my contract for 9 months, not the standard 12, and therefore any cancellation should have been received in July. At that point, I felt like the story was going to keep changing in order to keep me bound to a contract forever.

March, 2003: In another call, I was assured that the automatic debit process from my checking account would be lifted. It was not. I had to have the account barred from any more debits by Monitronics (at a cost of $25 by my bank to stop payments).

April 21, 2003: I sent a letter of explanation via certified mail. April 22, 2003: I received two letters dated 4/17 warning me that “service may be interrupted” due to lack of payment, after I had stopped the automated debits of February and March. I both called the number indicated, as well as spoke with individuals who called me. I always insisted that my account had been canceled as of December, and they always insisted it hadn’t. We were at an impasse.

May 2003: I received a letter dated 5/1 that thanked me for my inquiry about cancellation, and offered a special lower rate!

May 7, 2003: I spoke with a Terry Stone, followed by Samuel in the Account Resolutions department. He indicated that I was still under contract, and he was puzzled as to why someone had changed my contract from January 2003 to October 2003 instead of January 2003 – January 2004 (caught in their own lies!). Yet he still insisted I was to be billed until October 2003, even though no monitoring was occurring, and that the account would be turned over to a collections agency. Samuel promised to send me a letter confirming that my account would be canceled as of October 2003, which I never received.
June 2003: I received a statement dated 6/3/03, indicating that the charges were up to $208.85.

June 5, 2003: I submitted my report to /link removed/

June 30, 2003: A rebuttal was posted to /link removed/ which basically said they are reputable, blah blah blah.

July, 2003: I received a statement dated 7/3/03 indicating an “Adjustment” of $208.85 to the account, dropping the old balance to zero, but adding another $31.75, due 7/24/03.

August, 2003: I received a statement dated early August with a past due amount and a new monthly charge.

August, 2003 I received a letter from a Customer Service representative which apologizes for her mistake in how she canceled my account in June, and that all debts and obligations are now dropped.

August, 2003: I received four phone calls from Monitronics to discuss my past due account, after receiving the previously mentioned letter.

After August 2003, I believe everything finally dropped. But I suppose I should go check my credit report...

I canceled the service when we moved; they continued to draw payment from bank account for two months. When I called, they requested a faxed cancellation letter, which I sent. They continued to draw money from my account for three more months. My bank agreed this was unauthorized and stopped all further payments. They then keep billing me...

UPDATE... after being on hold interminably, Clay Barker, a retention supervisor, finally agreed to zero out my account. He acknowledged that they did not cancel the service as they should. This was call #7 to them from me, with probably 20 calls from them for collection purposes left on my answering machine.

Bad company! Very poor business practices. Stay away from Monitronics! (By the way, their product was not good either. Their machinery kept breaking down.)

Three "representatives" from other Alarm System Companies have visited us indicating Monitronics, Inc. is no longer servicing Puerto Rico. Therefore, if this is true, Monitronics had not being monitoring our homes since... I do not know when, but am working to find out. My reason to believe this is true is that whenever the alarm is activated, nobody calls to check it out. The few times they ever responded, although I have asked for a techician to visit us, nobody has come.

Thanks,
Aida

Company details:
Monitronics, International, Inc. 12801 N. Stemmons Freeway, Suite 821 Dallas TX [protected]