Complaint Review: NorthStar Security Alarm Service

Here is my story about Northstar Security Alarm Services:
A sales rep stopped by selling alarm systems saying that the system was free w/ a $40/month service fee on a 3 year contract. It sounded good and affordable so I signed up.

A day or two later an installer came by to put the system in. He completed the installation and was beginning to show me how the panel on the worked. My fiance in the meantime went upstairs to take a shower, when she turned the water on water began to come out of the panel on the wall and run down the wall. The installer had mounted the panel into the water pipe with three screws. He thought he was drilling into a stud apparently. So he calls his boss and they apologize and say they'll get it fixed. They don't know anyone who does plumbing in the area so I call a plumber that my builder recommends to come out and patch the pipe. He cuts a 1 foot by 1 foot hole in the wall to get to the pipe to patch and he does a wonderful job. I paid the bill at the time of service and the Northstar installer who stopped by later reimbursed me for the receipt.

Now the sheet rock which has a giant hole in the middle of it needs to be repaired. Northstar calls a sheet rock repairman to come out and do the job. The guy comes out and puts a patch on the wall, I pay him at the time of service and have a receipt. The patch was done horribly. It was not smooth, it was bumpy and had spots that sunk in a of an inch. The texture was not the same as the rest of the wall so you could tell by standing away from the wall a few feet that somebody did a horrible job trying to patch this. I called the original sales rep to come out and take a look, his name was Aaron Wagstaff, and he agreed that the job was not satisfactory. He stated, We'll get this fixed up and done right for you. So I waited about a week for them to give me a call as to when another repair man was going to come out. After a week went by I decided to call him, and at that time he informed me they would not be paying for anymore work for the wall.

So I asked him for his boss's #, some guy named Jay, which he could not give out to me but ensured me he would have Jay call me. Jay never called me. I called the home office in Utah where I had the pleasure of speaking with Ben Billinglsey, who is the customer care manager. Let's just say they need to do a better job of hiring customer care managers because Ben could have cared less about me. It took 3 phone calls (the 1st 2 messages weren't returned) before I finally caught him in the office. He said Northstar wasn't going to be paying anymore to get the wall fixed and that that was the final decision, end of story.

Now after faxing the receipt 3 times for the sheet rock work I am still waiting for reimbursement. I also had to call another sheet rock repairman to come out and correctly fix the wall which cost $150. I also had to repaint the wall myself.

Overall this was a horrible experience with a company and frankly I feel screwed on all of this. I am out $150 + paint costs + time and hassle with all of this.
Please be very skeptical if you ever run into this company and feel free to use this story. I've called them so many times I'm sure they'll know my name =).

Erik
Cary, North Carolina
U.S.A.