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Monitronics inadequate service Chicago Illinois
The problem started when I accidentally triggered my alarm one day. To my surprise, Monitronics (the monitoring agency for my alerm system) did not call.
I called them to ask about this and they walked me through a test. The test worked. They advised me that I needed to allow the alarm to run for at least two minutes before they would call. That sounds odd.
So I purposefully tripped the alarm the next day and let it run for five minutes. No call. I called them back and they ran another test. Wouldn't you know that it worked fine.
I contacted the installer of the alarm since I was getting no where with Monitronics. He worked on the phone with them and supposedly they found a problem and fixed it, but I didn't believe it. Remember the tests worked.
And yes they did call me on the same phone that they should use for the non-test alarms during this test. So there are no issues with phone communication either. Nonetheless they have a backup number that they could use if no one answers the primary number.
So I tripped it again a week later and let it run for five minutes and again got no call. I called back and they ran another test and guess what it worked. So at this point I'm pretty convinced they just aren't paying attention to the signal.
By now I have had it and I'm not willing to do any more tests. I just gave up on it. I decided I would start looking into another monitoring service for my alarm. A few months later I was ready to make the switch.
So I called Monitronics to cancel my contract for lack of service. While I was on the phone they contract guy tried to walk through the standard stuff like if I had run a test and how long I let the alarm run, etc. I wasn't interested in talking about it any further at this point as I had already done several tests.
While we were on the phone I was googling them and found several complaints against them at Consumer Affairs. Mostly by people who (1) were not satisfied with the service and (2) could not get out of their contract early or even when it expired. Just check out the craziness they put you through with the contracts on www.consumeraffairs.com.
So he informs me that I can't get our of my contract early. At this time I was done. After seeing what I saw on google I had no interest in wasting my time any further. I decided I'll contact my attorney to let him deal with the contract, one that I think is broken by Monitronics because they fail to provide the service in the contract.
Think about this. I get a discount on my homeowner's insurance for having an alarm. What if someone breaks into my house and Monitronics doesn't follow the procedure on their end. My insurance company is not going to be very happy. And that is the least of the problem.
So I am adding this information to Consumer Affiars and Better Business Bureau as well and I will let my attorney handle my personal dispute from here. I do have a real soar spot for bad businesses though so I'd also be interested in some sort of class action suit against them.