In 2006, my mother passed away and my elderly, handicapped father was left to live alone in his house. Concern for my father's safety in the home became a major concern to me, so I purchased an Alert1 system for his safety in the home and my peace of mind. Unfortunately, in 2011, my father fell in the bathroom and upon falling, landed on one of three wireless telephones turning the phone "on" unbeknown to him. Upon pushing his Alert1 button, the unit blared out "EMERGENCY, EMERGENCY", but failed to notify the 24 hour operators at the Alert1 to respond and to check to see if my father was alright or if he was hurt or could not get up and needed an emergency response team to be notified to come to his aid.
The unit did not work because the line was busy from the phone being turned on in the fall. I, upon learning this, was livid that the system had failed and called the 800 customer service number to get to the bottom of the problem. Upon calling, I was notified that the system would not work if a phone line was activated and I needed a RJ31X jack if there were multiple phone jacks in the home. I asked to speak to a manager and try to get some sort of restitution for this crucial error in the system that could have cost my father his life if, in fact, he had seriously injured himself and to find out why it had not been communicated in the first place.
The manager was far from helpful and told me 1) the paperwork that came with the unit states that if there are multiple phone lines that this jack was necessary (this was never told to me upon purchase of the unit, or the question of multiple phone lines ever asked) and 2) never offered any type of restitution and the jack could be installed by my father's phone provider free of charge. So, I called the phone company to see, and they had never heard of this jack and any jack installation would cost a fee and that I needed to contact an installer that was familiar with the jack and its installation.
So I searched the internet for a installer and one installer informed me that the fact that the jack was not installed properly in the first place could be a liablility issue for Alert1 company and to pursue them getting it installed free of charge for the error. I then called Alert1 back, and asked to speak to the manager I had spoken to a day earlier and was told she was on vacation (naturally) until Monday, so I told the rep who answered the phone of my dilema and complained that the multiple phone line issue was never explained upon purchase of the unit and asked, "why", and she replied, "I just work here, I don't make the rules", so I replied, "may I speak to someone who does." She informed me another manager was on duty, but "was in a meeting"...this was a Friday and I had to fly back home Sunday to return to work Monday.
The manager on duty did return my call hours later to notify me that she was a Sales Manager and that I needed to talk to the manager I had talked to the day prior and she would call me back Monday about the matter. It is still Friday and I found an installer who is willing to come on his day off to install the jack once I told him the circumstances surrounding the need for a jack (there are still some good people in the world) but....I'm sure this will cost a pretty penny! But my father and his safety is worth the world to me and I hope to charge the installation fee to Alert1.....we'll see...maybe they will read this and get it together for future consumers of their product....one can only hope and pray!!! It can be a matter of life and death.