My Pro Alarm

Do not do business with a company called ProAlarm! Please learn from how stupid I was! They lied to me, they broke promises they made to me, they broke promises to the Better Business Bureau, and I don’t think they should get away with it. One Saturday, a young man came to my door. I thought when I answered that he might be a Mormon missionary. He introduced himself and said he represented ProAlarm. His sales pitch was two lucky families from each neighborhood would receive a free burglar alarm/monitoring system. In exchange for receiving this free system, all you had to do was allow ProAlarm to put their sign in front of your house as free advertising. I actually fell for this (even though I’d been raised to believe that you never get “something for nothing”) and agreed to let them install their alarm system. The first clue I should have had that something was not right was when the nice young salesman told me, “Please don’t tell your neighbors you’re getting this for free. They might be one of the families who would have to pay full price, and we don’t want them to know there are families that are getting it for nothing, so please don’t say anything about it.” I realize now that probably EVERY family would get a ProAlarm system for nothing, thinking they were one of the “two lucky families” to get it for free. It’s all part of the sales pitch. The salesman told me I had three days to cancel if I changed my mind, and he showed me where it said that, in print, on the contract. He said that if I did choose to cancel, ProAlarm would send a technician to my house to take the system out so “you won’t be stuck with a burglar alarm you don’t want”. Keep in mind that he promised me this; it’s very important! Within an hour, a technician named Darrell came to install the system. Just as Darrell was about to leave, he told me that I should check with the city to find out if I needed to obtain an alarm permit. (I had no idea there was such a thing as I had never had a burglar alarm before, and gee, how nice of Darrell to wait until AFTER he got the system installed before he brings this up, right?) He gave me his cell number and told me if I had any questions to call him. A couple hours after he left, I did think of a question, and I called Darrell’s cell and got voice mail. I left him a message with my question. He never called back. The next day, I finally did my homework and did some checking. (Told you I was stupid.) The company that performs monitoring services for ProAlarm is Monitronics. I found this very web site and saw all the complaints about how horrible Monitronics is, and then I checked the Better Business Bureau web site and saw they had literally HUNDREDS of complaints about Monitronics, which isn’t even a member of the BBB. All I could think was, “Dear God, what did I get myself into?” I tried to call the salesman and got voice mai, left a message with the urgent delivery option that I wanted to cancel. Tried to call ProAlarm at their 800 number. They had five voice mailboxes, three of which dumped into the same voice mailbox (five options and thee of them were the same mailbox. Interesting.) I left messages on all the voice mail options, with urgent delivery, that I wanted to cancel and for someone to please call me to confirm. It was Sunday so I didn’t expect to hear right away, but I thought they would call me Monday morning. All Monday morning I didn’t hear anything. I called several times and kept getting voice mail. I was panicking, wondering if their little game was to simply not answer the phone and that way you wouldn’t be able to cancel. So I decided to fax them my cancellation, in writing. I attempted to fax a letter requesting cancellation to the fax number on the contract. And guess what? The fax number on the contract was not a real fax number! It was another number that dumped into the same voice mailbox as their 800 number! Isn’t THAT interesting? I wonder why their fax number on the contract is not a real fax number? So I found their real fax number on the Better Business Bureau website and got the fax to go through. I also sent them a letter by certified mail, return receipt requested, demanding to cancel. I also used the “Contact Us” link on ProAlarm’s website to send them an email requesting cancellation, and I found two other email addresses from the BBB website for them and sent emails requesting cancellation. I had no response to the fax or the three emails. Finally at lunchtime, I was able to reach their Accounting Department and talked to someone named “Nate.” I demanded to cancel and Nate said he would get the process started and would call me back with a phone number so I could contact a technician to come remove the alarm. He actually did call back and gave me a cell phone number for a technician named (fill in). The weird thing was, this cell phone had an area code for somewhere in the Carolinas (I checked online to find out where it was, since the area code was obviously not an Arizona area code). How was someone in the Carolinas supposed to come to Arizona to remove a burglar alarm from my house? I attempted to call this cell phone several times and left messages, but the technician did not return my calls. Gee, I wonder why? So I called ProAlarm again, and got hold of someone named James. When I told him about the cell phone having an area code that was not in my area, he stammered and stuttered and said, “Uh, uh, I THINK that should be in your area.” (Like I wouldn’t know the area code for my own city.) At 5:00 that afternoon, I got a call from a different person who identified himself as “Nathan” (not the same guy as “Nate”) and he came across about as slick as a snake-oil salesman. First he tried to argue me into not canceling, and I told him about Monitronics and how I wanted nothing to do with Monitronics because that company had hundreds of complaints with the BBB. He told me that ALL monitoring services have hundreds of complaints with the BBB, and not to let that bother me, and I told him that if that is the case, I would rather take my chances with the burglars!! I told Nathan how angry I was that I had been calling all day and except for one brief return call from Nate in Accounting, giving me a cell number for a tech who was on the other side of the country from me, nobody had given me the courtesy of a return phone call. Very soothingly, Nathan pointed out that HE had called me back. (Keep in mind he said that; it’s important too.) He promised me the contract would be cancelled and a technician would come to my home to remove the system, and set up an appointment for Darrell to come back the next day at 5:00 to remove the system. Five minutes later, Nathan called me back. He said, “Did you know there are actually two companies with the name Monitronics? The one that ProAlarm uses is not the same one as the one with all those complaints.” I totally blew up, because I had checked on the Internet, and could find only ONE company called Monitronics, and it had the same address and phone number as the Monitronics on the paperwork that salesman (blank) had given me, so it was indeed the same Monitronics. Nathan had just told me a barefaced, out and out LIE. I told him that this was NOT true and that it WAS the same Monitronics and there is only one company with that name, so don’t give me this garbage. Realizing his little lie wasn’t going to work, snake-oil Nathan ended the call after again promising that Darrell would come to my house to take the alarm system out. Next morning at 6:30, I went outside and discovered the ProAlarm sign was gone. Boy, it sure didn’t take them long to get that sign out from in front of my house, did it? Within about 12 hours of my cancelling with them, the sign vanished. They were sure in a hurry to get their sign back! At 5:00 that afternoon, Darrell did not show up. I waited till 5:15, called Darrell’s cell, got voice mail, left a message. No return phone call. 5:30, no Darrell. Called him again, again got voice mail, again left a message, and again no call back. Called Nathan’s cell, and when he answered, I told him Darrell was half an hour late. “He’s just stuck on an installation, he’ll be there,” was Nathan’s response. 5:45, no Darrell. Called him again, left another message (because Darrell never, ever answers his cell) and then called Nathan, got HIS voice mail, left a message that Darrell was now 45 minutes late and I was getting upset. No call back from Nathan either. At 6:00, a full hour past the time that Darrell was supposed to be there, I called him again, again got voice mail, again left a message, and then called Nathan and got HIS voice mail and angrily left a message wanting to know if he was suddenly avoiding my calls, and that Darrell was now an hour late. Two minutes later, a snotty-sounding Nathan calls me back and says, “I was in a meeting, I was not trying to avoid your calls.” I told him Darrell had not shown up, and I got the same song and dance that “he’s doing an installation, but I just text-messaged him and told him he needs to get over to your place.” (That’s a word-for-word quote.) I asked, “So he will still be here tonight?” and Nathan said, “Yes, tonight.” Rest of the evening went by, no Darrell. Next morning, called Nathan’s cell, got voice mail, told him, “Your technician did not show up last night. You need to call me and set up a new appointment.” I also tried to call Darrell, who again did not answer his cell, and left a message for him as well. You guessed it, no call back from either of them. I tried Darrell’s cell a couple more times, and I tried Nathan again at lunchtime and got his voice mail again, left the same message again, and again no call back. I tried one more time that afternoon, still got Nathan’s voice mail, and left him the same message. The next morning, called Nathan’s cell again, again got voice mail. (What happened to the soothing “Now, I called you back,” that I had gotten before?) I said, and I admit I was sarcastic, “I’m going to assume you were in a MEETING yesterday and that’s why you didn’t return my calls. Darrell has never yet showed up. Call me to set up a new time because I don’t want this system in my house!” Nathan didn’t call me back. Isn’t it funny that after he got mad at me for accusing him of avoiding my calls, he suddenly seemed to be doing just that? He never did return any of my phone calls after Tuesday. He just stopped calling me back. I couldn’t get anyone from ProAlarm to call me back either. And Darrell NEVER calls anyone back. I even tried salesman (blank) again, and HE didn’t answer HIS cell or call me back. Hmmm, interesting. 10 days later, they charged my credit card!!! I actually managed to get hold of someone named Reina at ProAlarm, and she promised me she’d remove the charge from my card and that a technician would come to my house to take out the alarm system. Later, another person named Courtney called me at work and left a message with one of my co-workers who took her call saying that the charge had been removed from my card, and Courtney also promised that a tech would come to my house to remove the alarm. I called my credit card and put a dispute on the charge, just to be safe, and then filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. I was obviously being given the runaround as far as having the system removed, and I wanted them to make good on their promise to send someone, ANYONE, to remove it. I was not using it, had it turned off, had cancelled the contract, and I had promises from all these people that a technician would come remove it, and they hadn’t followed through on that yet. The BBB forwarded me a response they received to my complaint from (blank) saying that the contract was cancelled, they were “trying to get technician Darrell out to the customer’s house, and will continue to try to do so until the problem is resolved.” (That’s an exact quote of what (blank) told the BBB.) Yet nobody showed up. I called Reina three times over the next week, and each time she promised they would have someone come out to remove the system. The third time I called her, she said she “just didn’t understand what is going on, I put pressure on the right people. I will call them again as soon as I hang up with you and put pressure on them again.” But again, nobody showed up. So I had promises from salesman, Nate, Nathan, Reina, Courtney and (blank), six different people from ProAlarm, promises made to me AND made to the BBB, that the system would be removed from my house, and these promises were NOT KEPT. They were LIES. To my relief, the charge WAS removed from my credit card, but I told my credit card company that they ever tried to put a charge on my card again, it was to be red-flagged because I was NOT authorizing any charges from them. After a month, the BBB closed my complaint, without my permission, saying that it had determined that even if I disagreed, they felt the company had made a “good faith effort to resolve the problem” and that the company “had not responded to the last few contacts from the BBB.” Interesting. So now ProAlarm was just totally ignoring me, and also was now totally ignoring the BBB, in essence thumbing their nose at both myself and the BBB. And how is it “good faith” if they had been promising to remove the alarm from my house and had never done so? Broken promises and lies are “good faith?” So now you can see ProAlarm’s game. This wholesome young salesman, as part of his sales pitch, promises that if you cancel within three days, they will take the system out of your house at no charge so you aren’t stuck with something you don’t want. ProAlarm is gambling that most people will not cancel, and as a result won’t find out that ProAlarm has NO INTENTION of removing the alarm. They figure nobody will call their bluff. If you DO cancel the contract and call their bluff, they put plan B into action. A lackey like Nathan will call you and try to argue you into keeping the alarm, and if you insist on canceling, he will tell you lies in an effort to keep you from canceling, such as the lie he told me about there being “two” Monitronics. If that doesn’t work, he will then stall for time by giving you all these promises about how the technician will come, don’t worry, he’ll be there, etc. After that first day, you won’t hear from their lackey again. He’s done his job, served his purpose, bought some time for the company, and you will never be able to reach him again because he just ignores you from then on. You will never be able to reach the salesman again after he leaves your home. You will never be able to reach the technician again after he eaves your home. You will get empty promises from the people in the office, IF you can successfully reach a living, breathing person and not voice mail. If you file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, ProAlarm will make the same empty promises to the BBB, but nothing will ever actually be done as far as keeping those promises. They stall for time and drag their feet until the BBB closes the complaint, and then they figure they’re off the hook, and you’re stuck with an alarm system you don’t want. You’ll never hear from them again, and they will never keep their promise to get the system out of your house. They’re either liars or totally incompetent. They manage to get someone to my house to install the system within an HOUR of signing the contract, but they don’t get someone to my house to remove the system after a MONTH of promising they would. They can remove their stupid sign from in front of my house within TWELVE HOURS of my cancelling, but a MONTH of trying to get them to keep their promise to take the system out as well results in NOTHING. Bottom line – if some young guy from ProAlarm comes to your door and offers to give you a free alarm system in exchange for putting their sign in your yard, SLAM THE DOOR IN HIS FACE AND RUN OUT YOUR BACK DOOR AS FAST AS YOU CAN. These people are liars from the word go! They have lying down to an art form!!!