Monitronics International ripoff on automatic contract renewals and lousy customer service Dallas Texas
After honoring my original two-year contract with Monitronics International, Inc., an alarm monitoring service, I called to cancel my service. The information was taken on the telephone, but I continued to be billed. I called again, only to find out that they needed a letter with my signature. I complied, and continued to be billed.
I called again, and was then told that my contract had automatic renewals, and that my service could only be cancelled if they received a letter prior to the anniversary date of my original contract. Further, when I pulled out the contract to search for this clause, I found that they need to be notified 90 DAYS IN ADVANCE OF THE RENEWAL DATE! I have never used this service. I find this situation horrible--I can no longer afford to carry the service, and as soon as one bill was late, they CALLED TWO OF MY FRIENDS that I listed as emergency contacts if an alarm went off and I was unreachable.
I spent tons of time on the phone with customer service (I went through menus, waited and waited on the line, was transferred, etc., etc.), only to get either incorrect or partial information. The automatic renewal seems very unethical--especially when they do not send out any reminders and do not require a signature. It is a vicious merry-go-round. I had another alarm service in another home, and had no such problems with cancelling the service.
Bottom line: If you acquire Monitronics for your security system needs, the least of your worries will be a robbery--Monitronics will rob you before anyone else has a chance.
Noreen
Maple Valley, Washington
U.S.A.
6 Updates & Rebuttals
Kimber
Dallas,Texas,
U.S.A.
Monitronics International ripoff on automatic contract renewals and lousy customer service Dallas Texas *Consumer Suggestion ..I had a contractual pro
#7UPDATE Employee
Wed, November 10, 2004
Monitronics is a very customer-service oriented company and your satisfaction is important to us. Please contact the Executive Response department @ 800-447-9239 ext 2196 to better assist you.
Kimber
Dallas,Texas,
U.S.A.
Monitronics International ripoff on automatic contract renewals and lousy customer service Dallas Texas *Consumer Suggestion ..I had a contractual pro
#7UPDATE Employee
Wed, November 10, 2004
Monitronics is a very customer-service oriented company and your satisfaction is important to us. Please contact the Executive Response department @ 800-447-9239 ext 2196 to better assist you.
Kimber
Dallas,Texas,
U.S.A.
Monitronics International ripoff on automatic contract renewals and lousy customer service Dallas Texas *Consumer Suggestion ..I had a contractual pro
#7UPDATE Employee
Wed, November 10, 2004
Monitronics is a very customer-service oriented company and your satisfaction is important to us. Please contact the Executive Response department @ 800-447-9239 ext 2196 to better assist you.
Kimber
Dallas,Texas,
U.S.A.
Monitronics International ripoff on automatic contract renewals and lousy customer service Dallas Texas *Consumer Suggestion ..I had a contractual pro
#7UPDATE Employee
Wed, November 10, 2004
Monitronics is a very customer-service oriented company and your satisfaction is important to us. Please contact the Executive Response department @ 800-447-9239 ext 2196 to better assist you.
Jonathon
Arlington,Texas,
U.S.A.
Wow, i'm amazed
#7Consumer Comment
Tue, November 09, 2004
Noreen's problem seems to be the same problem that is in every single one of these complaints I've read. The wierd thing though is how Tim from AZ is handling the issue. Why would you stay with a company that you have to monitor, and who you are always afraid is going to mess you over. There are other companies out there! Use another one because it sounds to me you are just one step away from writting one of these complains! Wow, i'm just amazed that someone would go threw that when they don't have to!
Tim
Phoenix,Arizona,
U.S.A.
Also a Customer.... I had a contractual problem with them
#7Consumer Suggestion
Wed, July 21, 2004
I've been a monitronics customer for many years. And have had a few issues with them:
I had a contractual problem with them, whereas the particular contract which was in force said nothing about their ability to raise rates, yet they did. I called them on it, and they backed off their rate increase.
When it came time to renew, I did, and THAT contract actually did have verbiage in it surrounding their ability to raise raise (by an insignificant amount). This was fine with me.
But I paid close attention to the renewal clause. I saw that yes, indeed, you must inform them in writing 90 days in advance (very rediculous)... so with each contract I've written with them that is set to expire that fiscal year, I *ALWAYS* write a letter at about 120 days prior to the end of the contract, indicating that I want to cancel. This covers my a*s in case their "automatic renewal" is of a rediculous price. I usually wait until close to the end of the contract to settle on a new price.
But you're right, unless you take specific steps to cover yourself with them, they'll burn you.
I also had a problem in the past year surrounding the issue of security. In the mail I received a "verification notice" from them that my password had been changed to "Allen". I'm the only one in the house, and did NOT change my password to "Allen". Upon calling them (very concerned, of course), they could tell me NOTHING about when or even if it was changed, only that yes, they could see that a letter had been generated to me surrounding a password change... but that my original password was still in place. (????).
This makes me very nervous about the integrity of their data.