Complain about a product or service

Brinks Security

Kathryn of Seattle, WA September 4, 2009

I activated Brinks Security in 2007. My neighborhood doesn't have cable and the house doesn't have phone land lines so I use Clearwire wireless. Brinks never told me that they had poor interoperability with a wireless provider. After over a year of paying on my contract, alarms constantly went off in the middle of the night. Multiple technicians came out and the last technician told me cancel my services until Comcast came to the neighborhood. I called Brinks and asked them to turn off my system.

I bought Brinks to protect me and my family. Getting woken up in the middle of the night turned into a health risk issue as we sleep on different floors than the alarm box which posed safety issues. I called customer service and told them my dilemma. They told me to write a letter and I could end my contract. I actually wrote 3 letters because they kept billing me for 699.00 for the remainder of the contract - even though I turned off the service in January 2009.

They submitted the bill to a collection agency without telling me. As someone with great credit this amounted to the company extorting money from me. I paid the 699 to clear the collection but I am a well paid professional and this took valuable time from my schedule and I don't want this to happen to someone else. When I would talk to the customer representatives they would say, "Well you did sign a contract' but before I signed up for the service if I had been told that Brinks was not compatible with Clearwire I would not have signed up.

Theresa of Phoenix, AZ July 30, 2009

In December of 2008 my husband and I purchased a home. We called Brinks to have a security system installed. In order for me to have free installation I had to sign a three year contract. We thought no problem we will be here for three years. The sales rep asked me if I want to pay monthly or yearly and I said yearly so I paid for 1 year up front, 395.00. Well... Like everyone who knew the market would do what it did and in June of the following year we lost our home. Brinks told me as long as I had a rental agreement they would release of my contractual obligations. So, after we signed our lease I faxed them over our lease agreement. I heard nothing and they put me in collections. I called and they said they never received my lease so I sent it to them again. I called back a week later to confirm they received it and they said they did but they still had to charge me for the entire year but release me for the following year. So, I have to pay for a full year of service for a home that I don't live in and that they are no longer monitoring!! WHAT?? I have left messages for their supervisor and of course no phone call back. They are wrong here and I am not going to let this slide. This is just the first of many emails I will be writing and phone calls being made.

Tony of Dallas, TX July 24, 2009

When Brinks installed my alarm system, I was told that I would own the system. I was also told that the service I paid for every month for almost 6 years would monitor my alarm and call emergency services when ever needed. One day, while at work, Brinks called me and saif the alarm was going off. I knew my wife was home alone and the kids were at least safe in school. I called my wife on the other line and got no answer. Paniced, I called her cell and still no answer. I told the Brinks rep to call the police and he refused. He said that I had never signed some paper work indicating that I had purchased a license from the city. Well, I had done that, his paper work was wrong. He continued to say that he could not do anything.

Come on! This is what I have paid 1,000's for??? For Brinks to do nothing when there is a break in at my home with my wife alone. I quickly became furious, and paniced even more. I huung up and reced home to see what was goning on. The whole time trying to get my wife to pick up the phone....still no answer. I only work about 10 minutes away, but it seemed like an eternity. When I arrived, I found my wife was not home and the wind had blown open a back door that was not closed all the way. My wife finally retuned my call and said she was at the gym working out and had left her phone in the car. All was well at home. No thanks to Brinks.

I did a little checking and I am not a lawyer. But I think that when Brinks told me that I owned the system, and them over a month later disabled the system over the phone line, that is a crime. I may be wrong, but when someone sends a code over the phone line to intentionally disable or otherwise do harm to someone else's property is a crime. Correct? Thanks,

Craig of Pflugerville, TX June 22, 2009

My dispute involves brinks apparently upgrading my service to a yearly contract when I was paying more per month specifically to avoid a contract.

I signed up for my alarm service with brinks over a year ago. At the time of signing I was offered two prices if I recall correctly it was around 10 per month on a yearly contract or 13 a month without a contract. I knew I might switch service eventually and informed the brinks salesman of that so I opted for the monthly contact.

Over a year later I decided I need a cellular alarm which I was told brinks does not offer (apparently this information was also incorrect). I was told that my contract automatically upgraded to a yearly after 3 months of service. This is unacceptable, why did they offer me a monthly contract at a higher price if in reality it was not a monthly contract.

I would like my service to stop at the next billing cycle. I did not agree to yearly service, in fact I paid more each month to avoid a contract. They are going to continue to bill me.

Tony of Marengo , IL July 8, 2009

Three years ago I move into this house due to adopting my sons 2 sisters. We got Brinks place on the house and were told at that time that "WE WOULD OWNE THE EQUIPTMENT AFTER THE 3 YEAR CONTRACT." I needed this system for the new children in my house geting out. I paid over 500 the first year with installation and over 300 for the next 2 years. Now my contract is over and my system does not work. I contacted BRINKS and they said the equiptment is theirs and there is nothing IU can do except reattach or pay to buy the system. This is wrong I am not a lawyer. I was told I would owne the system and be able to use it. The company is a rip off

Cliff of Racine, WI June 20, 2009

Brinks COMPROMISES YOUR PERSONAL SECURITY AS A STRONG ARM TACTIC TO FORCE YOU TO CONTINUE YOUR CONTRACT. THEY SAID "Too bad your system will not work at all (no siren, lights, etc.), even though you have paid your contract in full if you don't keep our monitoring service. We send a code over the phone line to PREVENT ANY ALARM OPERATION -- not just block it from phone monitoring. Just like the many other complaints about Brinks, after 4 years as a "paying customer", I was unemployed and needed to reduce expenses. I called Brinks to request removal from the monthly monitoring (40 month). I was promised my security system (and the many accessories THAT I PAID FOR AND OWNED) would still work as a stand-alone service. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Once they sent the blocking code over the phone lines (Warning to other consumers, disconnnect your phone line 24 hours in advance of a disconnect from their service -- you will at least have an alarm system) my alarm did not work. When I called customer service, they promised AGAIN to fix it -- until a supervisor (read that high pressure salesman) got on the line to tell me I needed to send them 1600 to BUY the system -- and EVEN THEN, it would NEVER work with another monitoring service. This is the most criminal corporation I have ever dealt with. It is like dealing with those groups who sell vacation time shares -- hold you hostage and then try to steal from you. SHAME ON YOU BRINKS -- You are the kind of company that give salespeople a bad name. Think I will go talk to a politician or car salesman, at least they are many times higher on the integrity scale.

Catherine of Chicago, IL June 4, 2009

I am a police officer in a large metro area, who answers calls. Last year I took a attempt Burglary report from a woman who had a Brinks alarm. She informed me that the offenders had cut her phone line and that disarmed her alarm system. She had sustained a few thousand dollar losses. She said to prevent that she had to purchase a wireless upgrade. So in order to have a reliable alarm service and not just a p deterent (until the criminals figure out that to disarm the alarm just cut the phone wires, and then the deterent won't be there).

Consumers will have to pay an additional 275.00 installation fee, and a 10.00 monthly monitor fee. If a burglar knows that the cutting the telephone wires will result in disabling the alarm, what is the point in having an alarm? Brinks never explained this to me, when I called to ask about this the Rep said the alarm is a deterent. I can purchase a loud siren from radio shack.

This is not fair to Brinks alarm consumers, as they believe they are protected and is something the consumers need to be made aware of. Also in my city burglar alarms are not a priority call, and I have been dispatched to a residence long after the burglar has left the scene. too many false alarms and low manpower. I believe that not too many folks are aware of this phone line situation.

sherrie of san diego, CA June 17, 2009

We wanted to continue the brinks home alarm system that was already in place when we purchased the house 9/08. when contacted by the sales rep. Richard Nombrado he informed us that we could add the basement area for free. If we ever wanted to separate the systems we could and then there would be a charge but otherwise it was free and included in our 30 a month payment. He had my husband sign for the contract as I had left. The next day when the unit was to be installed, he had me sign another contract which was for the downstairs unit. I didn't know that we were signing 2 separate contracts until we started receiving 2 different bills for unit a and unit b. This is one house with a basement area...not apartments. When we contacted Brinks corp. they said they would fix the problem. We continued to receive 2 bills and called our local office who said that since we had signed 2 contracts for 3 years each we were stuck with the payments.

Ashley of Cumming, GA May 12, 2009

A few weeks ago my husband was laid off from a very WELL paying job which he had been employed with for over 10 years. We called Brinks to inform them of our new financial hardship and to see if we could suspend our service until he found another job. We had already turned off our home phone service since it was an extra expense that we just could no longer afford. We had also already worked out suspensions or financial hardship claims with all of our other creditors...credit cards, satellite, cell phone, mortgage, etc. with no real difficulty.

We were appalled after speaking with Brinks. They offer no hardship clause nor will they work with you if you need to cancel your service do to job loss. We were in the last 9 months of a 3 year contract which we had been paying on well and never really had any issues or complaints about.

When we signed the contract 2.5 years earlier we fully expected to maintain the service for the duration of the contract, however due to mitigating and uncontrollable circumstances we could no longer afford the service. We are trying to be responsible Americans and do everything we can to pay our debts, however Brinks has been the MOST difficult and unrelenting company we have had to deal with! We were offered the following: 1. You may cancel your service and pay a cancellation fee of 30 x 9 months remaining on your contract. 2. You may subscribe to a different service which is 5 more per month and you must pay a 175+ dollar installation fee! As you can imagine neither of these options were acceptable since they did not help us cut our monthly costs at all! We had no choice but to cancel service since we no longer had home phone service and are now being charged outrageous fees! We are currently in the process of contacting lawyers to mitigate the matter for us and even take this to court if nessecary.

I find it appaling that they can do this to their customers and get away with it when LARGE banks are helping people cut their mortgages and all of america is suffering right now. This company is only concerned about themselves and has NO RESPECT for their customers regardless of how long or how well you have been a customer to them. I WILL NEVER RECOMMEND BRINKS TO ANYONE I KNOW! Consequences: our credit is now ruined and we are having to try and work with an attorney to get the matter reconciled.

Deb of Fairview, TX April 17, 2009

I moved and had to move my Brink's service. A month later Brink's still did not have my correct address where my alarm is installed and told me my account was cancelled by me and they billed me for 800+ because they claimed I did not fulfill my contract! But they were taking my money on my monthly auto-pay, so how could they say my account was cancelled? Then I could not access my online account with Brink's to change payment form, so they emailed me a new password.

The password did not work, so I called again and was told I can not access my online account because my account is cancelled. I said, but you are taking my money on my monthly payment! I have had Brink's for 10 years and I don't know what has happened in the last year or so, but the customer service is horrible, and I am stuck in a 3 year + contract (which they claim has been cancelled), and I can't change service. I am appalled, and disgusted with Brinks and concerned whether they are even really monitoring my home.

Wasting hours on end on the phone with multiple Brink's people, none of whom tell me a same story. Nobody there knows what is going on!

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