Complain about a product or service

Guardian Protection

Joe of Waxhaw NC (11/06/06)
i purchased a new home with ryan homes. they reffered me to guardian protection services to pre wire my home for security, cable, computers etc. i contracted for about 20,000 worth of equipment. it took the company about 6 weeks before the could get it operational. they then installed three boxes to the wall in the closet despite fact all compenents were to be in recessed panel. when i complained i was told i was being extreme for asking the equipment to be recessed in the wall as shown in the showroom and the model home. they now claim i requested this which i did not . further they could not get their wireless acess point to work until i bought a 50 d0llar router from a computer store. they had to remove the 350 dollar router .. or so i was told it was 350 dollars. i had to get the builder involved to do what is contracted for.

huge waste of time, poor workmanship. left with three surface mounted boxes. now claiming i am paying late when thier home office told me i would have 90 days to pay after the system was considered finished. they have yet to recess the panels. i would never use guardian again.

Noelle of Alexandria VA (04/04/06)
In June of 2005 we bought a house on road on Rebecca Drive in Alexandria, VA, and soon got a call from Guardian Protection Services saying that the previous owners still had 29 months left on their contract for the alarm system. They represented to us this: if we wanted any alarm service we would have to fulfill the previous owners' contract for 29 more months and that we'd have to use Guardian.

We said we wanted to use our old company, but they said the we couldn't use the system that was in the house with anyone but Guardian. We said maybe we'd consider going month-to-month with them, but they refused. Then they offered us a one-year contract, which we signed on June 23, 2005. In December 2005 we bought another house, this one on Kimbro Street in Alexandria. Guardian soon went after the new owners of the house on Rebecca, with the same spiel about them fulfilling the contract, while they simultaneously are holding us to our contract.

This seems to be their modus operandi: Intimidate new owners of homes with the thought that they have to fulfill someone else's contract. We would like Guardian to relieve us of our contract as of the end of 2005. They have refused, even as they are going after the new owners of the Rebecca house. Our main complaint is about how they misled us in order for us to sign the contract in the first place.

We are now paying for services we are not using.

Pamela of Washington PA (10/11/05)
I initially purchased my Guardian Home System as a special offered in conjunction with Howard Hanna Reality. At the time I was advised that it was 24.95 per month, and for an additional 5.00 I would get a service contract. I specifically asked if the contract could be canceled if it was not satisfactory and was advised by Ryan the sales representative yes. I was later informed by the technician that this was not the case after the system was installed, and that I was now indebted to Guardian for the next 5 years.

The technician also advised me that this was not the first instance of the same type of situation with this particular sales person and advised I contact the Sales Manger, Tom. I discussed this with the sales manager who more or less supported his employee and advised me I was now stuck with this system for the next 5 years.

Since that time the system has never worked, and in fact the fire alarm went off without any call from Guardian, or notification to the fire department, which I called and had to have them come, inspect the home. Subsequent calls to Guardian produced no solution, and I stopped paying for service in an effort to obtain some type of action. I advised those who called that I would not recommend Guardian, and that I was actively warning individuals from purchasing their serivce. In a final attempt to obtain some type of action I called and was transfered to the executive offices, and eventually contacted by their Customer Service Manager, who could not validate that the contract did in fact stipulate no cancellation. Also he advised that should I sell the home I would still need to pay for the service even if a new owner purchased.

Also I was finally able to obtain an agreement that they would provide credit for 3 months (not the 6 months I had requested) which to date I have yet to see a corrected invoice showing this credit towards my account. I question that the contact that Guardian is using is legal and that they are obligated to provide a working service (which has not been the case for over 18 months despite repeated discussions) and that their sales force is missleading in order to obtain a contact. Also no other protection agency demands a 5 year contact without any cancellation policy or buyout.

I am now indebted to Guardian for the next three years regardless of the sale of my home. And have not had a working system for over 18 months for which this company will not refund those payments.

Justin of Elsmere KY (07/12/05)
I contacted the company about programming my security system. I was informed that I would have to pay for one year of monitoring service in order to get a pass code so I could set the alarm on my already installed security system. I agreed and fulfilled the contract. Now they are charging me $75 to keep the code. Although it states in the contract that they own the programming of the security system, they never informed me of the fee that would be charged. The sales representative knew exactly what I was looking to do. I clearly stated that I just wanted to use the alarm locally and did not want the monitoring service but agreed to pay the $25 a month for a year in order to get the code. I was misled and misinformed. I will never do business with this company again and will make every effort to tell everyone I can about this company and how they do business.

David of Wilkinson IN (08/29/00)
When I moved into my current home 2 years ago, the previous owners had service Guardian Protection Services for the home alarm system. They had installed it on a special Guardian was running at the time, where they received the system and installation free if they signed a 2 year contract. They had purchased (and paid in full)a 2 year contract that was then transferred to me. Upon moving into my home, I called Guardian to have the contract transferred into my name and PIN #. They came out and programmed it with my pin #, and I signed a contract for the remainder of the 2 years. I decided I did not want to continue to have them monitor my alarm after my contract was up in October '00, so I called them and told them I was not interested in renewing my contract.

Within a week, they called into my alarm system and disabled all functions. I called them on 8/24 and spoke with Jennifer and told her they had also disabled my control panel, and I now had no local alarm capabilities. She said that they would reprogram it and enable my local alarms for $20. I could not believe they wanted me to pay $20 for this!! They called my alarm system, used software to totally disable it where I can't even use MY own alarm, and now wanted me to pay $20 to reactivate it!!! THIS IS PURELY EXTORTION!!!

I do not feel safe in my home, knowing I will not be awoken be the siren if someone breaks in. So, I called back the next day, 8/25, and decided to go ahead and give them the $20. When I got through, I talked to Diane and told her I would like to have my alarm system re-enabled for $20.

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