Very dissatisfied with Protection 1 service - I have been with the company for almost 4 months and each month, when it has been time for the company to test the service, they are not getting a signal. Each month, I have to call in to see what the problem is and they tell me at the time they are getting the signal and that they do not know why they were not receiving the signal when they checked. They go on to put it on the phone company who must be working on the phone line. I have even tried to get someone to come out to my home to check the system but had been unable to during the week because of my working hours and not being able to take time off work.
I pay the extra to cover this but keep getting told that this will not cover someone coming on the weekend for an emergency situation and that they will not waive the fee. On Friday, May 18, 2012, I called in once again to see what was going on with the alarm system. Over the phone, I was directed by someone from tech support on what to enter into the system to manually reset it (They stated on the line that they could not access the system remotely). Once that was done, the individual stated that system should be fine and working with no problem. I ended up arming the system for the night because I did not plan on going back out.
Later that night, I had an emergency come up, so I had to leave but when I entered in my code into the system, it would not accept my code. I tried that for a while and ended up calling the company where the representative continued to state that I must not be putting in the correct code. I asked was there a way for them to disarm the system remotely and she kept stating that they could try to do this, so I could go ahead and leave but it could take between 30 minutes and 3 hours for this request to be complete and at the same time, the alarm would be going off the whole time.
I advised that this was not an option because I had neighbors. She then stated that she could instruct me on how to turn the whole system from the box. She stated that there was a key on the box that would allow me to open it. There was no key. The rep kept stating that there was a key there, and since I did not see it, I should try to use a butter knife. I explained that a butter knife would not remove the bolts from the system. Representative then stated that there was nothing else she could do for me and that she was going to transfer the call to customer service to see if they could assist me.
Eventually, after speaking with customer service, they were able to remotely turn the system off. Even with that being done, I was not able to arm my system again when I left my home and I am still unable to use the system because it will not let me change my pass code. On Monday, May 21, 2012 I spoke with an account manager to close my account due to all of the issues that I have been having. The only answer I got is, they can send someone out and if I could not take off work, I would have to pay the extra charge for someone to come on the weekend because the insurance does not cover weekend assistance and to get out of the contract, I would have to pay the $75. I was then transferred to supervisor Taylor who said they could just credit me a month's service charge for being trapped in my home on Friday and due to the previous monthly issues that I have been having.
I am very angry and dissatisfied with this company because of the problems that I have been having and due to the lack of concern when I had an emergency to attend to but due to this company's alarm system, I was unable to leave my home at the time to take care of it. Due to the persistent issue, that should be grounds to release me from the contract, but the supervisor and account managers as well as representatives do not feel that way. I requested their corporate headquarters phone number but was only provided an address which I will be writing into, along with the Better Business Bureau, the FTC, and local media.
