Complaint Review: Devcon Security - Orem Utah

On 6/15/11 I signed a 3 year contract and paid the first year in full. I paid the 1st year monthly monitoring fee of $614.76 and an installation fee of $459.02. Ill give you the short version of this story with just the details to substantiate. Bottom line is, they misappropriated my money and started charging me for services at random.

On 2/22/12 Devcon charged my credit card $591.42. I did not know of this charge until receiving my March-2012 bill. 

On 3/26/12 I called my bank and disputed the unauthorized charge. I also called Devcon and requested an explanation and ask that the charge be removed. My bank was extremely helpful in addressing this issue; Devcon, not so helpful. Following is the explanation provided to me by Devcon.

The money I paid on 6/15/11 was put into an account. My installation fees were deducted from the account as expected. My monthly charges were deducted from the account each month. The account was charged for a service call on 6/17/11 which should have been at no charge because it was within the first 90 days of service. The account was charged for another service call on 8/03/11 which should have been at no charge because it was within the first 90 days of service.

On 2/22/12 my account that they setup for me had a zero balance with no money left to cover the remaining 4 months of monitoring that I had paid them for in advance. This is when they decided to charge my credit card for the 2nd year of monthly monitoring service in advance. Hence the charge of $591.42 changed to my credit card on 2/12/12. It took several hours on the phone over several days talking to several different people at Devcon to convince them that they had made an error. 

On 3/29/12 I received a phone call from Tony in the Devcon billing department. She assured me the issue had been cleared up and an adjustment credit would be applied to my credit card. 

On 5/4/12 my credit card showed an adjustment credit of $591.42 from Devcon, finally!

On 6/07/12 I received a call from Devcon collections saying I owed $591.42 and it must be paid in full immediately. I called Devcon customer explained everything from beginning.  I was transferred to billing, where I explained everything from the beginning again. After much research I was assured that everything was straightened out and the account showed a zero balance, with my annual fee for my 2nd year of monthly monitoring due in 1 week. 

I was transferred to one more person to finalize the process for correcting their errors. Thats when the fun began.  This last person, Mike in billing, was argumentative and belligerent to me. He refused to acknowledge that they had made an error in their handling of my account. He did agree that I should not have been charged for the 2 service calls and he agreed to deduct that from what he believed I owe. I insisted that I should not owe anything until 6/16/12 when my 2nd year of service begins. Mike argued that payment for my 2nd year of service was due on 2/22/12 because thats when my account showed a zero balance (due to their billing errors!). And since the amount was due on 2/22/12, I was now 90 days late on payment.

After 2 hours of arguing, I finally just ask for a bill. Send me a bill for the correct amount due for my 2nd year of service, $591.42 minus the 2 service calls I was charged for in error. He agreed and said I would be sent a bill for $374.33. I agreed to pay the bill as soon I it was received. 

On 06/14/12 I received a bill from Devcon for $591.42. This is the wrong amount. I called Devcon once again. It took numerous phone calls every other day, talking to someone different each time over nearly 3 weeks before I could get a bill for the correct amount. They kept telling me to ignore the bill and send a check for the correct amount. I repeatedly told them that I would not send back a bill saying I owed $591.42 with a check paying only $374.33. I wanted a statement showing the correct amount of money I owe.

On 7/06/12 I finally received confirmation of an electronic bill for $374.33 on the Devcon website. I printed off that statement so I would have a paper copy. 

On 7/09/12 I sent Devcon a check for $374.33, which is the amount they said I owe.

On 7/16/12 they received my check and applied it to my account. I have a printed statement from the Devcon website, showing this transaction.

On 7/18/12 Devcon cancelled my account without notification to me. My house was not being monitored. They had been paid in full for the 2nd year of monthly monitoring. They cashed my check and applied it towards my account showing a zero balance. Then they promptly closed my account and cancelled my service.  I would not have known except that I was setup to receive e-mail notifications when my alarm is set or disarmed. 

On 7/23/12 I noticed that I was no longer getting e-mail notifications on the alarm system for my house. I called Devcon and learned they had cancelled my service.  

On 7/30/12 I finally got my account reinstated and my house is again being monitored. It took 7 days of calling every day and talking to a different person and being told that something different was required of me each time.  Finally, on 7/30/12 I talked to a person in Technical Support who was able to explain to Customer Service the proper process for reactivating my account.

From 3/26/12 to 7/30/12 I fought with them continuously over their misappropriations of the money I paid for the services defined in my contract. As soon as they received my check to cover the monitoring fees for my upcoming 2nd year of service, they cancelled my service without notification. This company should not be allowed to operate. Some of the staff were polite when I called. Many of them were belligerent. One person in Devcon billing called me an idiot and a liar. Very few of the people I spoke with had any clue how to solve the problem in an appropriate way. Thank goodness for one intelligent Technical Support person.

Do not use this company!!!