Guardian Interlock Reviews

Anyway, closest service was in Nebraska! Had to do it they said or the car will lock out and not run. So, made the 325 mile trip, the closest mind you, only to return to MN, the next day, and have it do it again. Not one word a lie!!! Returned to Nebraska two days later... Spending the cost for a hotel room twice, plus missing a total of 3 days work. Moving along, I've been semi local, within a 100 miles of home in PA for the past 4 months only to have had to take the device in for early service each time, minimum once, before each scheduled service. IT HAS NEVER LASTED A FULL TERM!!! I Have received my one year sober pin 2 months ago so they cannot say it's not working properly because of failed blows. Their excuse? I missing rolling blows. When it goes off while driving. BS!!! Come to find out, a few times I'd pull into my destination and it would go off before I was ready to shut the car off.

Well common sense would say no need to blow, I'm at my destination, and shut the car off right? WRONG!!! They want you to blow in it no matter. NICE! If only they would tell you these things that happen to make them money prior to you spending additional hundreds while pulling your hair out. They did finally, and literally laughed about it and the fact I had to drive to Nebraska twice because of it. This is funny to these people. I've so many stories but am getting worked up again so let me just finish with telling you I am now 140 miles from home, in Long Island, NY. Had a message on my way up here, two days ago that read across the screen "NO BASE". The car would not start. I started from scratch and it finally started and showed my service due at 16 days. Correct I thought, I just might make a service day without these cons getting extra out of me. NOT!

I went out to the car at lunchtime (already started it this morning to get to work, no problems), and there it flashed, "SERVICE DUE" 4 days remaining! WTH?? I called the number of the state office, I now know by heart only to get another ignorant woman that sounded like she was talking to me from home on the loudspeaker. The mention of this to her just ticked her off and she hung up after having me on hold for 20 minutes. People, this is no lie and no joke. These people and this company will not be around long, I pray, so save the time and go to another agency. PLEASE! Take my advice on this matter. I KNOW. And I want you to know I've only briefly touched on the hassles and blatant ignorance displayed by this outfit. There are other agencies that provide the interlock. USE ONE OF THOSE!!! If not...DON'T SAY YOUR WEREN'T TOLD. Good luck.

After the second week everything started to go wrong. My truck went from 27 days to 0 overnight. This is awesome, because I work 7 days a week. So now my truck is shut down, and no shop to take it to on a Saturday afternoon. So the truck sits in my driveway. So much for making my appointments. Come Monday, the lady on the phone told me how to by-pass the system... The wrong way, so now I am totally locked out. But wait, this gets even better. After changing the system out, now I am at the shop every week to have it recalibrated because it keeps running down to 0 or to -3.

This week I have spent over 12 hours in 3 days taking this ** unit in to have it recalibrated and I am losing a ton of business because of it. Now keep in mind, I don't drink, and will never touch the stuff again. But I told Guardian that I want this piece of crap out of my truck and changed over to another system, of which they own, and they refuse to do it without a court order. Well, I didn't have a court order when I had it installed. So I told them that they had one of two choices come Monday. Either they can take it out, or I will. And if I take it out, it will go in the trash. I don't give a ** about their ** contract. Bite me.

Last night driving down the freeway with my little one in the back seat, freeways about 60MPH it alarms me to take a retest. As soon as I pass the retest my car went out of control. I was thrown across the freeway in every direction not being able to stop. I somehow thankfully managed to dodge hitting other cars. I saw one car go sideways trying to avoid being hit by me. I was swerving across all of the lanes. At one point I was sideways facing the barrier and I thought we were going to hit it. (I had lost all control to the car, my power steering, my breaks, my lights were going dim) my car spun around and almost flipped to the side. And finally stopped sideways in the middle of the freeway. luckily I had been swerving long enough the traffic behind me had slowed down.

Some kind, people eventually stopped risking their lives on the freeway to push my car to the side of the freeway. My lights were out at that point. Device wouldn't turn on. Window wouldn't go up, had to manually lock the doors. I left my car there and went back the next day with a different battery. Replaced the battery and the device turned on, I passed the test and my car started. I called the Guardian Interlock hotline and they were rude and claim that it had nothing to do with their device that their device uses as much battery as a clock. I have an appt to get the device uninstalled ASAP. I refuse to put my kids' lives at risk and will deal with the courts. I wish I had taken the time to read the reviews first as they are all 1 star reviews all stating the same thing about killing the battery. DO NOT USE GUARDIAN INTERLOCK!!

PLEASE people look into several companies first. Ask about the TOTAL monthly costs, if they honor the courts 30 day (I have to go every 28 days because garage set it up to gain 2 more months of payments with Guardian in the long run), and have them TELL YOU ABOUT ALL POSSIBLE fees that might occur I.e. rolling fee (which means not only do you have to listen for the beep to blow BUT NEED TO LOOK AT IT IF IT DOESN'T BEEP BUT IS LIT UP)... I didn't know this and went to park and shut it off just before it sounded and Guardian charged me an extra $45! I pay $123 per month for 2 years and to have to pay all these unregulated fees is greedy dishonest people! The other company I called is $85 TOTAL for each month and with a 5 day grace period and treat you like a person.

I feel that the RMV is also to blame now that I want to have this device switched and what they told me I'd have to do in order for that to happen is like fighting Congress. Well live and learn. The penalties don't stop there... Your insurance goes over double and yet we have a Interlock installed!!! It's how this country works anymore. Greed greed greed!!! Good luck and yes driving is a privilege but it shouldn't cost you over and over!

So as I write this, I've driven 420 miles wasted about 10 hrs, it's 3 am, and there is no one who can help, because it's after hours. They answer the phone to say "We can't help you. It's after 4 pm." Give me a break. I work till five so I'm outta luck cause I have a job???? I work nights!!!! An UBER from where I am to my house is $65 so I guess I'll sleep in the truck and wait for the world to be ready cause I have to wait for a supervisor!!!! I am gonna copy and paste this on everything I can find so that nobody uses GUARDIAN FOR ANYTHING!!!

ADVICE TO POTENTIAL CONSUMERS: DO NOT GO WITH GUARDIAN SECURITY! You will be extremely disappointed and will be paying an enormous amount of time & money trying to get this device to work. Please look at the reviews for this particular company - it'll save you the hassle & headaches. I am going to be disconnecting service however it's going to cost me $150+90 for the removal. I'll pay this amount just to get away from GUARDIAN to go to a more reputable company that'll ensure I'll make it home safe & sound without the anxiety & the uncertainty of it malfunctioning and leaving me high & dry with no funds to tow me & my vehicle home.

My battery went dead one morning on the way to work and when I got a jump it wiped out all my days and they charged me $35.00 to recalibrate it 7 days after I just had it recalibrated. When I called to pay $51.00 for a lock out code they passed me around for 35 minutes before I got to the person to give me, what turned out to be the wrong code and I missed my appointment to have their junk removed from my old vehicle. And here's the real joke, they were charging me $18.00 a month more than SMART START. Honestly I don't know how they stay in business.

This piece of crap also does not like cough drops. Breads. And a list of items I use or eat on a daily basis... Like toothpaste. Mouthwash. Whatever... All I see is that the states and the courts have employed nothing but a bogus. Bogus way of testing for BAC. Even the tests at the recovery centers people are assigned to do... They do not have a test that can single out abuse. If you use hand sanitizer. You will test positive. Perfumes or colognes. Pizza dough. Breads, the list goes on. We let the start and the courts get out of control. This interlock device is a piece if crap as the recovery center tests are false. As when I went in one day and I tested positive for opiates. My wife laughed as I blew up. When she told them she cannot get me to take a ** when I have a headache.

This device is nothing but a pain. Cannot determine a cough drop and or a menthol cig... Or a bread/dough from a person who is drinking. Hell my wife got a fail after eating a mint chocolate. With all the tech we have now. There has to be a better tech to be employed than this piece of ** waste of money... And threat to the lives of the users and others on the road. Worse than a cell phone if you ask me. And I think a cell phone is pretty darn bad. And to add to this. I know I was busted for OVI but my cousin seen the judge and prosecutor having alcoholic drink at lunch before my hearing... Double standard?? Two faced?? Or people above the law???

I would have to call around 6-10 times throughout the day with a 20-30 minute wait each time until I was finally connected to the Tennessee office. I work and this is extremely inconvenient. I have spent countless lunch break all on hold with this co. When I was able to take the device out of my car you can't just go into the garage where they service the interlock and show them your new valid license. I was told I have to go through LifeSafer and they would call my local garage and give them the ok to have the interlock taken out of my car. The first day I called and waited only for about an hour to speak to someone she told me to email her a front and back of my new license and she would call the garage. Awesome Right? Wrong.

My email went without response for over a day. I tried to 3 times to call all with 20 wait times and reached voicemail each time. I emailed her back and she finally responded: "wait 30 min then call your garage and set up appt." I called an hour later to give her ample time to call the garage and they never heard anything from them. Tried calling back the whole rest of the day. Couldn't reach them. Sent two more emails informing her and nothing. This is now the 4th day and my device will lock out in 3 days and the garage closes for Thanksgiving in 2 days. It's like twilight zone. You can put the device in your car but can't get it taken out. This is literally a nightmare.

Also, if you work on your car (tune-ups, etc.) be sure to blow EVERY TIME it asks. If you shut the car down without blowing, the greedy folks at Secure Auto require $50 for the two minutes it takes to reset the damn thing. They refuse to waive the $50 or so required to prematurely reset this thing. I selected Guardian because I needed it quickly and it could be serviced nearby. I wasn't made aware of the scamming hidden costs. So, I am now looking elsewhere and shopping much more intelligently to replace the Guardian for a faster brand which doesn't mandate a $50 penalty for a simple, 2-minute premature reset. If you need an interlock, ask the vendor for a copy of the contract and operating instructions BEFORE you commit to a brand.

Updated on 04/03/2017: I've had a Guardian for nearly a year now and have already written a one-star review. So now my transmission fails and I decide to get a new car. I am told I must have the car towed into the Guardian agent to remove the existing Guardian unit. At $5/mile (AAA rate) and about 65 miles round trip towing will run me $325!! DO NOT GET GUARDIAN. In addition to obsolete equipment (as reported by other reviewers) they have NO field service and don't seem to give a damn about their "customers".

After THIS location got shut down, they moved it to ANOTHER "garage", literally. Where the owner and this lady were constantly rude, and DRUNK! The dude reeked of alcohol and the lady was incompetent. There were so many times this FLAWED device has be pay EXTRA $$$ every month because of the device. I have had to pay so much EXTRA $$$ out of my pocket. This ALSO caused my increase in time of the device because of the DEFECTS.

After this THIRD LOCATION SHUT DOWN, they moved me to a location in Arvada. They were the easiest to deal with, but even the owner there honestly opened up to me about how hard it is to keep employees working because of the conditions. These poor people!!! Only puppeteering for the $$$. THE FINAL DRAW for me was when they STOPPED sending my downloaded information and payments to the DMV. In result, it showed them that I was NON COMPLIANT, therefore, my license was revoked.

Well, I got pulled over for a speeding ticket one night driving from Fort Collins, and found out through THIS INCIDENT. Although I had my license in hand and WAS COMPLIANT, the company Guardian Interlock, was NOT DOING THEIR PART!!! Luckily, I had a sober passenger who could drive us home, but I still got a TICKET and they made drive back up NORTH to go to court where I had to FIGHT this ticket and STILL had to pay a FINE!!! FOR THEM NOT DOING THEIR JOB!!!

After that, that was enough for me to pull my duties as their customer/client, whatever I am considered to them... MORE LIKE $$$ dollar signs. THE RESULT: I paid the EXTRA money to get the device removed and went to SMART START and paid AGAIN for installation. ALL IN ALL - Smart Start has been great. They are helpful, consistent, and their devices are on point. HOPE THIS HELPS to anyone who has to get the device installed and out as soon as possible - SMART START IS THE WAY!!!

I am now having to pay $210 additional dollars one week after installation to have an updated device with a camera one tenth the size through a company called Intoxalock. When I told them about the issue they informed me that humming into the device was not required because of the camera which made perfect sense. When looking up companies to get the device I chose Guardian because of how large they were and neglected to read the reviews which at the very least would have given me pause about using them at all.

To summarize they are a horrible company to deal with from sales to service to the product itself. Do yourself a favor and choose any state approved company beside Guardian. It will save you a lot of time, money and energy. P.S. I am using online avenues to comment about Guardian to warn potential customers but also in hope that they will see this review as they refused to give me a physical address to write them a formal complaint.

Now, I was arrested for driving under the influence, not poor humming. And I apparently cannot hum. I have had to pull over, stop, take up to 10 minutes to try and get the the hum right, not too loud, not soft, evenly, whatever. Today, I had to pull over with my elderly mother in the vehicle, on the shoulder of Highway 270, southbound, just north of Olive, because I had 'Hum Abort'. That is an extraordinarily busy highway.

The purpose of this letter is twofold. First, the State of Missouri should really vet its retail providers better. This is a lucrative business for a business that can convince the state it is reputable, yet - can be so damaging to those trying to abide by state mandates. Second, this is a very dangerous position this company, LifeSafer/Guardian has put the State of Missouri in. I am placing you, Governor Nixon, personally, and the State of Missouri, on notice that should I be injured or killed as a result of the malfunction, use, attempted use and compliance of the Interlock Device, provided by Guardian/LifeSafer, my beneficiaries, my designated personal representative, and/or myself will pursue a personal injury claim, not limited to loss of consortium and wrongful death against any and all available entities, including LifeSafer/Guardian and the State of Missouri, seeking remedy for our claims.

I suggest the State of Missouri review the Vendors they have enlisted to act on behalf of the State to provide this service. While very beneficial to prevent deaths via drunk driving, it is only a matter of time before one of us is killed, simply being compliant with the State's mandates. Should you wish to discuss this further, please feel free to contact me.

Are YOU SERIOUS??? MONEY SCAM. I can barely afford it, now you want to charge me an extra 45 because of issues. They refuse to acknowledge it's an issue. Their response, "It's a change in your breathing pattern." You think? Because after nine times... OF COURSE I would not be breathing the same. This is a piece of junk. Poor design. I understand it needs to be there for legal purposes, but use a device that is not poorly made, that makes people have to come in and pay extra, then act like they are breathing wrong. Because after having it in my car now for the 3rd month, I all the sudden forgot how to breathe. Ok. Sure. I just try to leave to go get groceries... 6 times... it keeps aborting. I quit. Kids don't need groceries anyway... right?

I don't money to pay Guardian every time for a reset just because I'm not home to start my car. I guess they are trying to control what we are doing when we are not driving as well as when we are driving??? Also, their customer service sucks!!! All they care about is the $50.00 fee they collect. All they can say is 'Well you can pay the $50.00 reset fee which will allow you to get to the local service center' which doesn't do you a bit of good if the local service center is not open on the weekend!

I then proceeded to call the Lifesaver installer in Vancouver, WA (initials G.N.) that installed the unit. This was my second call in frustration to him within a month. He immediately told me to bring the ** thing in, he would remove the * thing, and never ** call him again, and then hung up on me. Yes, he cussed me out and hung up on me. He then immediately contacted their main office and told them that I cussed him out and that he would not service or remove my device. EVER. The main office at Lifesaver wanted me to drive 3 hours north in order to have the device reset or removed. It appears that Greg in Vancouver, WA, is the only Lifesaver installer in southern Washington. I now had only three days to have it removed before it went into permanent lockout mode. And they were not willing to service their product locally.

After numerous phone calls, I was able to get a removal appointment nearby in Portland, OR. As I was awaiting removal of the Lifesaver device in Portland, the installer of the Guardian device (both units are blow & hum devices made and marketed by Lifesaver) showed me a file half an inch thick of new user's that are having issues with their Lifesaver & Guardian devices. The following day, I had a "blow" only device installed on my car from a different manufacturer. And to date, I have had no issues with it. I no longer dread the experience of getting into my car with the thought of being stranded or failing tests anymore. I have not failed a single test and, it is a cheaper unit to use. Do NOT use a Lifesaver or Guardian device. The monetary cost and frustration will drive you nuts!

Anyhow, when I called Guardian, the person who I spoke to was nice in the phone like many have already said it and sent me to a place called Orchard Automotive, located at 13314 NE Vancouver WA., where they did the installation in my diesel truck and trained me how to blow the device properly. Everything was OK until I left the place and was in my own.

One evening after driving to a cell phone store, I tried to re-start my vehicle and the fun begin. That day I blew for about 2 and a half hour and got aborted for equal amount of time. Finally, after been on the phone with a Guardian representative for half an hour, I got to start my vehicle and got home exhausted, angry and more anxious than ever, in the verge of having a panic attack. I want to clarify that I suffer from General Anxiety Disorder for many years and this thing definitively is no good for people who suffer this sickness.

The next day I tried to blow the device again and when I was driving thru a light in a intersection, the machine beep and I blew and abort and blew harder and abort again. Remember, this was in a major intersection. Imagine how hard it would be to drive with one hand and on the other the device. On top of all that blowing long and steady and trying to read the tiny instruction in the device monitor. How dangerous!!! I totally agree with the others whose stated that this Guardian device is very distracted to the drivers.

Well guess what, after those aborts, I got the fail. The next day I went to Orchard Automotive and the lady who works there said that I failed due to a refusal from my part therefore I got to pay 25 dollars. When I complain about it, she, visible irritated, said that because "I didn't follow the rules" I got the fail. I replied that I am a customer and that I deserved to be treated as a such. When I told her that no wonder this company had a one star review, she seemed to calm down. Well fox, the moral of this story is clear: If you happen to get in this unpleasant situation, been convicted of driving under the influence of something (DUI) and you have to have a Ignition Interlock, please look around, do some research and don't get Guardian because is one of the a WORSE in the market today and is going to make your life a lot more miserable than what already it is.

I am here to give a piece of advice on how to operate the device! After a few times of getting stuck and becoming very upset, I turned to the internet to find tricks on how to operate the device. Youtube and general reviews didn't seem to be much help. Finally, I found an official instructional video on Guardian's site. The key piece of information I found on the video was the lady's suggestion to use a "Z" sound when humming. This is the part that was making me abort so many times. Since incorporating the "Z", I've had very few aborts. They still happen occasionally, but nowhere near the frequency as before. Now, I know this isn't the actual problem a lot of people have faced, but if anyone is having trouble with the hum/blow mechanic, give this a try. I hope it helps.

Finally a very nice girl said it's 121.00 a month or 220 every 2 months. She apologized. Said they have had issues training people. I also said I would not sign any legal doc unless it was correct. Please send me correct docs. She said "OH. JUST CROSS EVERYTHING OUT." I responded that is not legal. So she agreed to send me updated docs. OK!! Now it's in my car and I had no idea that you had to blow, hum for 5 min and then inhale at the correct moment. 3 techs helped. I was beside myself. I have an anxiety disorder which up until this week was under control. So for 2.5 hrs and with the help of the youngest of their staff was finally able to drive. I made it to two errands. I thought I was on the way.

So Wed I went to the car and could not do it. I tried for 3 hrs. Completely upset, crying, shaking canceling all my appts. Called Guardian and was informed 40 to remove at the service station and 150 with Guardian. My heart was pounding from all the breathing and humming, it physically hurt. So frustrated the girl at Guardian said she would sit on the phone and try and help. So for over an hour we did this. Humming and breathing together. She told me that she does this all day long listening to people hum, breathe and get upset. I only got it once. Thursday tried again it took me all afternoon. I was now becoming physically ill. Stomach issues, dizzy, weak, exhausted. Was again beside myself and now the anxiety I had under control for years was running my life.

My loved ones said they never saw me like this. Best friend of 20 yrs could not believe what was happen to me. Friday tried again brought the dog for luck. Still sick, dizzy, stomach pain. FINALLY GOT IT AFTER 2 HRS. SO THRILLED. Was able to be normal. Run to the grocery store and other errands however lost a week of work. It did take me 3 hrs to do 1 hr of errands. But I was feeling a little better except for the extreme pain in my chest from all the breathing. Had to pull over. Could not do the running test. Sat woke up with severe stomach issues and the chest pain was unreal. Tried again and kept aborting. I was running out of air. Could not do it for the full 5 min. After 2 hrs did it. However I was hysterical, in such pain. Was not able to drive anywhere due to the chest pain.

Sun again brought the dog for support so after 1 hr got to go to the pharmacy for my stomach. Then struggled in the parking lot for another hour. Finally got to the grocery store but had to pull over. Could not do the running test. Another hour in the grocery store lot. The pain was unreal in my chest. I was coughing and hacking you would have thought I was a smoker. I AM NOT!! Passed got to the vitamin store. Now the sun was going down and it's getting cold. So was out there freezing in flip flops, a big sweater and unable to turn on the heat. SO HUMILIATING. Now my dog was shaking and freezing. I had it. Just wanted to be warm. Called Uber. Went home. Had to leave my car in the parking lot across town..

I spent that whole night and the next day with Vicks on my chest and a heating pad. Nearly 48 hrs of straight chest pain and stomach issues from the stress. Every single person who cared about me felt helpless as I was literally suffering. Had a friend come out on Tuesday again rearranging my entire work schedule so we could try and get my car home. I tried. I could not do it and then my friend tried he could not do it either. I did spend that morning looking at YouTube trying to master this. I think it's unfair that each state has different length of times and styles for this device.

If I could only do it for 2 min instead of 5 I may have had a chance. However the majority of reviews for Guardian and the smart device are awful. There should be some consideration. We know we committed a crime. However as my friends said people commit worse and they are not humiliated and punished like this. It's torture and robbery. I will take trains and Uber till my license is unsuspended. Horrible.

I'll provide this public information to everyone to save you the trouble of digging it up. In Minnesota, their registered agent is CT Corporation System, Inc located at 100 South Fifth Street, suite 1075, Minneapolis, MN 55402. The company home business name is Sheram Enterprises Incorporated at 228 Church St. NE Marietta, GA 30060-1604. The company CEO is Kent Owens located at 4290 Glendale Milford Road, Cincinnati, OH 45242. Again, this is public info I found on the Minnesota State Attorney's website. Only way to get the attention of these losers is to sue them.

I was pretty upset as I had not coordinated a ride to work for the following day as I was counting on my car. I was told he would have it done that evening. At 9pm, I still had not received a phone call, so I called again and was told he was just starting on it and it would be done around midnight!!! I am a single mom of a 2 year old, so I was not going to be able to go pick it up, let alone I needed to find a ride to get me there. The woman told me they would then bring it to my home, which I was uncomfortable with but didn't really have any other option. At quarter til midnight, they called again and said they were having trouble with the wiring diagnostics and it wouldn't be done till very late. I work at 8am, so staying up any longer was out of the question, so I told her I would get it the next day.

I ended up taking an Uber/Cab to work the next morning and also had to pay my babysitter extra to pick up my son since I didn't have time to coordinate a ride for either of us. I would have just canceled altogether and forfeited the $50 deposit, but they had conveniently charged my card prior to any work being done whatsoever. Also, to just top the whole thing off, the girl forgot to take off my $50 coupon I had off of the installation and lost my paperwork when I did finally get to pick up my car, so I was waiting in the office for a good 45 minutes before they were finally able to find it. Just a huge headache and hassle. I've talked to others that have gone with LifeSafer, and although the monthly rate is a few extra dollars a month, I really wish I would have just gone with them and recommend any and everyone else to do so.

I have had 3 different units installed in the last year. It controls my life. Every morning I have to leave extra time just in case it doesn't feel like working today. I don't leave my house unless I absolutely have to because of the stress that it causes when I get stranded because of a product that I pay a lot of money for. I don't let anyone else in my car because of the product is so loud and makes you put on such a show every time you have to use it.

There are other products out there that only take a 3 second blow and do not require humming. Not to mention the fact of how horrible it is to be stranded with someone else in your car because of a breathalyzer. The company does not care. The state of PA stopped issuing from this company because of all the complaints. Also it takes way, way, way too much concentration attempting to get this thing not to abort WHILE YOU'RE DRIVING. No one should be trying to hum, put your lips the right way and blow for that long while they are driving. THIS PRODUCT IS DANGEROUS!

I went there with my receipts from having my car worked on and was told it didn't matter who messed it up, I would be charged 40 bucks to have it reset. Smh. Then the Owner (Linda in Columbus Ohio) told me that she would tell my judge about my reports. I told her to PLEASE do so. Plus, when I had the Interlock removed the man that did it stole from my car, my makeup bag. Was not happy.

I feel like they are taking advantage of people that have had a DUI. In my case my record is awful, but this case was from 2001, and I had it on for five years. I know what I did was wrong, so very wrong and I feel I will never be done paying for it. I had the Interlock put on so I could prove to the judge that I don't drink and drive anymore. When I had it removed I told them that they are making me a career criminal because I was in compliance and all they wanted was money. My case is from Clermont County Ohio and I had the Honorable Judge McBride. This happened in 2001.

When I was there to have my car reset and then I was told about the charges. I told them I wanted to take it off. I didn't have to have it on this long. I was trying to obey the law. I wanted to receive my regular licenses back and I feel I deserve them. The woman started to reset my car and when I told her I would not pay the 40 bucks to do so then she aborted my report. Meaning I don't have any paperwork to prove my point. She did this and she should have known what was going to happen. Then she tried to tell me that she gave me the paperwork. I had two people with me and they can tell you what happened.

On the way there I told them what was going to happen and I was right. Smh. They did prorate my refund. I only received one because I had to argue with them. They charged me 3 dollars a day and I just had it reset and paid 105. When I had it removed it was only 10 days after paying. This is for two months. When I first was with this company it cost me 115 for two months because I had the insurance on their equipment. They dropped my insurance without informing me. I don't know why.

Also, I wanted a printout of my reports for the last two years before all this happened - I have had it on my car for 5 years - so I could send it to my judge and Linda from Columbus told me it would cost 300. I asked about this two weeks before all this, yet this same woman, after arguing with me on the phone told me she would send it to my judge because she thought it was a bad report. Not so. Over 5 years I did wonderfully. So I wish she would have done that before wanting to charge me 300 dollars to have them print it off. I feel this is my information and I am entitled to this. They said they give me a copy of my report each time I have the car reset. While this is true, who would keep five years of reports? I thought I could just print them off myself. I could if I was given permission to do so, and so can they.

It is all about the money for this company. And I still think they have/or should have a backup system so they can pull up the aborted info and print if off. They told me "No". Smh. And while writing this review I found out the main company is not located in Columbus, Ohio as they stated. Also, I have always been told that their equipment will not mess up my car. Wrong. It does mess up your electrical system. They have a sign now in their shop that tells you about it draining your battery. And it only picks up alcohol. While this may be true, it doesn't tell you if it was from drinking. You can tell what is going on if you read the reports. It does state on these reports when you blew, what happened and when you blew again or whatever. It is all there. That is why people should be trained to read them.

Plus, none of the Customer Service people know what they're talking about. I called to ask if it was okay to remove my camera when the car was not in use, and the representative told me "it should be okay." I called to ask if it was okay to schedule a calibration appointment out past the 30-day mark (due to an apparent 5-day grace period) and the representative told me "it should be okay." Does anyone in Florida have REAL knowledge about a grace period once the device reads 0 days? I was told it could read up to -5 before I was locked out completely.

I urge you to go with another company. I lost an incredible job because I could not make it on time often due to my car not consistently starting. I've had it towed over five times and today, am having it towed again. It worked fine this morning, and then four hours later it wouldn't even turn on. None of these devices are going to be perfect, far from it, but Guardian is by far the WORST interlock that you could get for your car. I am writing this review in hopes that I can prevent at least one person from dealing with this terrible company, terrible device and worst of all, the customer service.

I was then having to take the vehicle in for another service, charge of 32.00 dollars and then a few days later again the same 3 thing happened. I ended up waiting on the scheduled service day to take it back to get serviced, because I could not afford to keep paying the money like that on every 32 or 4 days... After the service scheduled day, I insisted that I was given a new handset because I am not going to keep having difficulties with the previous one originally given to me. I then left the service center and again the truck has been running insufficiently and talk about stressed out. I am very low income and it takes everything extra that I receive from my disability benefits to keep my driving status current and legal... I am scared to death that the interlock I currently have now will cause me to actually be in violation without my knowledge or voluntary participation in it.

I have filed a petition with the court to see what there is that I can do to have it replaced by a different company... When I tried (as well as my attorney) to contact the Guardian company and ask them for a resolution, I had gotten nothing but negativity, saying that I must not be using the device correctly, or that I must be trying to falsify the reports and the unit would not be doing as I described, it is my human error. I'm frustrated and confused on how this would be beneficial to the people that are truly trying to become and stay legal drivers. It's like you are damned if you do and damned if you don't. If I have it removed early to go to another company (service center) then I have to pay 150.00 to have early termination and then another 150 someplace else to re-enter a unit from that company in my vehicle...and of course the Guardian company will not reimburse any of my cash that I have paying to them for a faulty device..

I drive a diesel. I think that sometimes that the unit is not properly installed and calibrated for such a vehicle... Any help would be greatly appreciated. Also in the comments part of my read out that you get after it has serviced says..."Due to increased security measures, retraining may be required. Please see your service technician for details." Model # AMS2000, serial # 47450, piece of junk (in my opinion).

The battery died the next two days so I bought a brand new battery. Two days later that battery was dead. I charged the battery for about four hours. I started the warm up of the device. When it said blow, I did. The pass came on when I went to start the car. The battery died and everything went black. I disconnected the battery to recharge it. The next day my handset went from 40 days to -1. I went and got it reset for $25.00 and a speech about how I needed more practice on blowing the machine. Guardian said that they never have had battery problems (LIE).

Guardian has two answers to any problem: (1) you're an idiot and aren't doing it right (drunks are morons). (2) being the criminals that you are, you most be trying to beat the machine. I understand that what I did was wrong and I have to pay for what I did. This is more punishment not monitoring. Lesson learned: no matter what you do or how hard you try to do the right thing you will always be a criminal.

Third month, I had to replace the GCM again and the engine management computer and had several faulty wiring issues which cost me approx. 1,200$ in just parts. I am a certified mechanic myself. They spliced power wires and other feed wires directly into the GCM and engine management computer wiring, and several other places. This CANNOT be a coincidence, I have NEVER had any issues with my vehicle, electrical nor mechanical. The tech that installed it just said "I don't know. It could be the problem, you will just have to wait until it's removed and see if they persist." What a **. I live in TN where it is required to have the monitoring or you cannot drive nor can you get the restrictions pulled. At this rate I will have to sell my vehicle just to pay for the repairs. Crazy, crazy.

But after the month and a half I begged and threatened Audio Itch to sue them and Guardian for giving defective equipment while they all get a cut of the $53.00 that you have to pay to get the device reset. I talked to 6 other people and they said they had to pay 6-10 times. I was shocked to hear this and after doing a little multiplication in my head this is a huge amount of money that Guardian, the State and Dealership make each year just to reset the device. Know just think how would you feel if the device was defective. Wouldn't that make you upset and want to sue them. Well I'm going to sue Guardian for this reason. To file a class action Lawsuit I would need more people who went through or still going through this. Please let me know. Thank you.

Called to find a shop open today so that I can get to my other part time job and was told I had to wait until Monday. Called my insurance company who said that there's no tow company that can fit into my employer's garage! GUARDIAN IS GOING TO REIMBURSE MY LOST WAGES, TOWING FEES AND REIMBURSE THE MONEY I PAID TO INSTALL THIS **. TRUST ME ON THIS!

I think that this type of violation is not warranted paying out $53.00. More dollars to reset the device is criminal due to a honest mistake. So I decided to come here to read all of the complaints that everyone has to offer and after reading about all the experiences here with Alcolock I have decided to stay with Guardian. I have never had any false positives and my device is installed correctly. These devices are not a toy. I just need to pay more attention instead of shelling out more money to keep myself on the road.

I asked if they had anyone nearby that could help me, she tells me the nearest shop is closed till Monday (it's Friday at 5 pm). The best she can do is set up an appointment FREE OF CHARGE (if they had charged me I would have gone ballistic) for the next day. The next day, I get a friend to take me to my appointment since I still can't start my car. The technician was nice but he couldn't get into his Guardian account and I had to sit in the office with him for over an hour while he was put on hold. He finally got it figured out and I got a ride to my car and all was well.

Fast forward to January when I receive a court notice for "Failure to Show Proof." When I had gotten the device the techs and the people at the 1-800 number told me that they fax the monitoring reports to the courts and MVD every time I come in for calibration. When I got my court order I found out that Guardian had not submitted a single thing to them in the 3 months I had the device, the only record they had was the installation report I had faxed them. I called the 1-800 number and they told me that I would have to go to my service center to have the paperwork sent in. So, I go to the service center and the guy behind the counter who clearly couldn't care less tells me he sent them the paperwork.

I give it a few days and call the court, nothing. So I call corporate again, get the same answer and return to the service center. Where the same guy tells me I need to call corporate to have the papers sent and he can't send them from the shop... what. Finally I get him to print each one of my monitoring reports and end up sending them to the court myself. Around this time, I was moving to Sacramento, CA. I called to ask what I needed to do, they said all I needed to do was schedule my next appointment in California which they arranged for me. One week before the appointment I call the California service center to request a different time and the guy tells me I'm nowhere on their schedule and I have to call corporate to get transferred.

Northern California apparently has a different call center or region than Arizona and the Northern California people were actually quite fantastic. Once I got in touch with them and the man at the service center I went to out there was an absolute gem. I wish I never had to go anywhere else. But California was temporary for me and I had to return to AZ. Since my return here, my Guardian service center is now also a Lifesaver service center. Every time I go in for a monitoring appointment which used to take no more than ten minutes, I'm there at least 30. Today, I needed to take my car in for maintenance, I called the 1-800 # and the automated system said the hold time was 30 minutes so rather than doing that, I checked the website which said just to keep the receipt to show that it wasn't a tampering event.

The mechanic called the 1-800 # for bypass code and the 1-800 number told him he had to call the actual service center. The service center's phone number is disconnected... This is the phone number I pulled from the monitoring report they gave me 6 days ago. I called the 1-800 number again and the rudest woman I have ever spoken to talks over me to begin telling me they need to fill out an affidavit according to state law. The mechanic deals with interlocks for different companies on a daily basis and he says he's never had to do paper work, normally they just give him the code over the phone. Out of curiosity, I called the MVD. It's not state law. Anyway, the rude lady on the phone decides at this point to put me on hold while I'm mid sentence... The line then cuts off 3 minutes later.

I called back to speak to a supervisor to be told that the supervisor has to listen to the call then call me back. The supervisor calls me and says "Well the system says you hung up, everyone's entitled to their own opinion but she didn't hang up on you." I asked her if she had listened to the call and she tells me she had and that the rep "must have just been having one of those days." I get the thing removed in 3 weeks and I'm dreading that appointment because I already foresee it being another series of the runaround. Save yourself the headache and use someone else. I've heard excellent things about Smartstart and their warm up time is super quick whereas the Guardian device takes up to 5 minutes to warm up and at least another minute to analyze.

2 days later I am having a lot of problems with the device, it take between 8 to 10 time before the device can take a good sample to analyze. I am doing everything correctly, the device is definitely not working properly. I just called twice to Guardian Interlock. First time they put me on hold and then they cut off the call. I called for a second time and the person told me that they will reset the device again, which I refuse. I told them I lost 2 days of work. They changed one device already, I am not willing to lose more time or try more devices. I need full refund because their devices are not working.

They said they have to charge me for uninstallation and early termination fee for the contract, which I refused. They said I need to speak with the state director named "Paul." They put me on hold and after 10 minutes, the lady pick up the phone to tell me that he is not in the office, that they will call me on Monday. Now I am stuck at home. I will be stuck at home during the weekend without having a car to use. This is the worst experience of customer service I ever had. Bad service on the phone, bad service with their service center and broken devices. They only care about your payment. Avoid this company at all cost.

So I had to go right back up there same day, more gas and miles on my car. No offer of gas money or anything. The guy said I must have failed a retest and he checked and no I passed it so he gave me another one. ALSO 2 months ago, went to the gas station. Went in, came out to blow and the device would not turn on. Called them. He came from Columbia and it was the handset again. So last Friday night,1130 pm, I got off work and it was the HANDSET AGAIN.

Had to call my 65-year old neighbor out of bed to come get me and then I called them this morning and they said the earliest to come here would be Wednesday, and asked me if i could bring it to them and I said, "I could not. I have been stranded repeated times this year and I do not know if these devices are refurbished or not but I have lost time from work and gas to and from for multiple trips there because of this."

It was now January, no suspension and I had to go in and pay another $100 for calibration that's still won't count because my license was still valid. I got in the horn and called my attorney to call the state of Florida to get this suspension started which they did in February. I got in for the calibration and the days start now. Thank God.

The device to me was quite simple since I watched tons of YouTube videos on how to blow and hum at the same time. I am in my 3rd month when the device gave me a fail and I couldn't figure out why. The only thing I drunk before I left was some cranberry juice and I am thinking that was the issue so my time dropped from 21 days to 7. So I go in, had to pay $75 and explain what happened and they sent me on my way. Now it's month 4 I am leaving work, did the start up test, passed. So I am stuck in traffic and decided to smoke my hookah cigar and the liquid got in my mouth the same time it was time to test and it failed telling me to pull over, turn off car and wait 30mins. I did drunk all the water I had and started car with no problems. I go to place, pay another $75 and explain what happened and was told I will receive a letter from the state of Florida and if I get another fail I will get extended.

I got letter and was told I had to go to counseling until the device was out and had to pay $25 a session - more money. I was thinking for these next two months I am going to live my life through that device. No eating, drinking anything other than water for the next 2 months which is what I did and I didn't have any problems and now thank god it's out and my car seems to be running better. To everyone on here I have read all the comments and I really feel sorry for what everyone is going through because I know how depressing this device can be. The only advice I can give is to live by that device, drink plenty of water and have a water jug with you at all time in the car. No eating, putting on cologne until after you have shut off car and properly turn off device. You shouldn't have any issues. Until then good luck and this will pass. Good luck.

I call the service center and tell them the unit is malfunctioning. I immediately am met with hostility and accusations of me drinking and tampering with the device by the secretary. I remain calm and explain again what's happening and I'm told I need to bring the handset in to be looked at so they can see what is wrong. Of course, this was explained in an accusatory tone. Oh, this is in regards to a DUI I received 3 years ago, and I've been sober since then. Next day, I go to start my truck to go to the service center and miraculously, the amount of days until service went from 27 to minus 2. WHAT THE HECK!! Go to service center, get accused of nonsense by some washed out secretary. They plug the handset into their computer and my how quick their tone changed!! It's a faulty unit with a bad computer they say. Now they are all smiles and sorry's. They take 45 minutes to put a brand new unit in. GOOD TO GO!! NOT!!!

Right there in the parking lot, the new unit says minus 2 days till service still. The mechanic gets confused and swears it just said 27 days 5 mins ago. Truck goes back in so they can put a new base in too (why they didn't do that the first time is beyond me). That was 2 days ago. No problems for 2 days. Everything's good I'm thinking, I'm not angry, things happen and I had a faulty unit. Move on up I say. Well guess what? MY TRUCK IS NOW STRANDED AT A GAS STATION PERMANENTLY LOCKED OUT, WHILE I SIT AT HOME TYPING THIS!! I went to the gas station to grab some lunch. I had just done a rolling retest 10 minutes prior. I get out, go in, grab a soda and chips, come back out in less than 2 minutes. Get ready to go and this darn thing starts beeping all crazy saying "ABORT TURN ENGINE OFF." I turn the engine off and it says PERMALOCK.

So, now I'm mad, my truck won't start and I have to go back to work. I get a ride back to work (just about .5 mile away) and call the service center. They tell me to call Guardian and they can walk me through bypassing the system so I can drive it over to get looked at. Of course I can only go there between certain hours (which are my working hours meaning I have to take time off work). I call Guardian. They say they have no idea why the service center would tell me that as bypasses are not allowed in my state. I have to leave my truck stranded at the gas station tonight, take the handset in to the service center to have it "reset." I tell them "once my truck starts, I will be coming over so you can remove this p.o.s. from my vehicle and I'll go do business elsewhere." Their reply, "We will not remove it without a court order." WTF did you just say!!

I call the court and my probation officer tells me they are lying and have no legal right to say or do that as the vehicle is MY private, personal property. The court says they could care less who I have on through, as long as I have one. The judge told me to just schedule an installation with a different company. The same day, I have it uninstalled and there will be no problems. So I'm pretty sure tomorrow will be a stressful day as I know (by reading these posts) that I have a battle ahead of me. Bottom line, do not go to guardian. Under any circumstances!! In fact, we all need to pony up and Sue the clowns. Uuugghhh.

I get it calibrated... drive home. 2 hours later... service date goes down to 2 days... I take it back and the guy just resets it (this time for free). I've asked multiple times for a replacement headset but am denied every time (that would imply that something might be wrong with the device). No base messages... Unable to start the car due to a LED read out of No Base... I do an Indian rain dance and it magically starts 20 minutes later. Now... I'm sure this really is a state of the art device which never fails as they claim. However, in reality, there are technical issues with it. They will NEVER admit that however and there is no neutral 3rd party to assist.

The truck was parked in my driveway in a remote area with 13 dogs inside and outside. Our driveway is in plain sight of the house and the yard. Nobody touched my truck or used the keys for over 36 hours. The device was unplugged by myself leaving the vehicle and reconnected upon entering. The Lady in the service provider’s office called me flat out a liar or maybe being senile. During the time frame in question, I was mowing about a 1/4 acre of weeds, feed 10 dogs, took a shower and used FB messenger on my phone. All this can be confirmed by my roommate who was in my company most of the time, feeding dogs too and eating breakfast. Any explanation for this or anybody had the same experience?

Again, the age old story... you drove drunk you deserve it.. Yes... But in IL at least, just getting to the point where you can have one of these, sometimes requires an extreme amount of hard work, counseling, rehab, AA etc. I for one have been through all the above and have been sober for > 2 years. I'm not worried about blowing positives or even false positives for I just follow the guide and don't eat/drink anything even remotely before/around this thing. The problem I have is the false positives for disconnects or 'bypasses'.. Nothing in the training about how to avoid those..

Standard answer... get a new battery. Got a new battery the last time you told me to. Standard answer... car must be in working condition... hmm the car seemed fine without this in there given it only has 37K miles on it. Could it be your dated hardware and overprotection against tampering be the cause? Nahh of course not it only fails 1 in 10 million times per our own tests. After all no need to have a 3rd party oversee this.

Anyway... I'm not sure if any of these vendors are better than any others. My guess is quality and service will decrease when the competition for new customers/margin increases. There's simply no incentive for these companies to be good companies. Hell there is incentive for them not to be... ie. Service Resets... Violation costs...etc. Until there is a neutral 3rd party involved... this will run rampant.

I talked with the shop's owner thinking maybe I was just unlucky and this was just an uncommon occurrence of which I was the recipient. Not the case, many of the clients had expressed this happening to them on **'s behalf. I called the auto shop. They said I could come down the same day at 3:00 and have it removed. I then called **. He said no can't be the same day, and not only that I would have to call back later that day to schedule an appointment. This is his protocol that I had to follow. If you have to get an interlock device in the Bay Area go somewhere else!! You will get nothing but a bigger headache on an already trying situation.

3. Lockout on device on weekend - NO service at all from service location or guardian. Basically telling me I'm screwed.

Decided to change service provider, called guardian to notify, pay removal fee $50.00 no problem. I may or may not have an early termination fee. Service rep could not give me a direct answer. Set appointment up with service station, day of appointment service station rep say they cannot remove the device, even though guardian made the appointment, service station rep tells me call DMV. I call DMV they tell me that the service station has to remove if I ask them BUT it’s my responsibility to have new company install same day of removal, Understood & that is what was done. 2nd appointment to remove. Service station still refuses to remove. New company says they can remove since guardian station refused.

Removed device, returned to guardian but now at different location month of December 2014, nothing said from guardian about early removal or fees... March 2015 letter from DMV - guardian filed letter that I tampered with device. WTF!!! And DMV wants a letter from guardian stating this was just an error before they re-issue license back. Now guardian wants the $150.00 now then we can discuss getting me a letter to get my license back. These guys are a bunch of ** Scammer Clowns. Basically you can't leave them & they won't follow the DMV rules & DMV won't enforce anything against them AND DMV ask for a letter from them stating it was just an error & Guardian plays dumb asking why DMV needs a letter. Like this is the first time they scammed anyone. Bottom line don't get a DUI & have to get this device on car from Guardian. ** Scammer Clowns.

Got home and he plugged in the handset, waited and waited and waited. Then it was blow, hum and suck, oh before he could get all that done, "abort". We are so sick of this damn thing. We can't even get it started to take it in, so what do we do now? We've called and called, left messages with call back number, no one has called us back. It's all a money thing.

Private owner was Steve and Jennifer ** at the time and The Director of MO. Lifesafer Guardian Interlock is STEVEN **. The State of MO. refused to renew the contract with Mr. Steve ** and Jennifer ** allegedly due to improperly installing devices and violations of not following company protocol. Now I was notifying Lifesafer every week that device was killing my Audi battery and asking me to blow even when car was off. I also informed them when I open car door pop trunk device asked me to blow. If I wanted to leave home work gas station church etc. I had to jump my car. I ended up going to Audi dealer to find out that yes of course my car was not made for device and device may been killing censors such as oxygen sensor tire pressure sensor transmission light sensors killed battery and killed parking brake light sensor etc.

But the worse is yet to come. So went to New location and tech Ryan did everything he could to help me when state office stated I had a violation due to not blowing in device while asked. He wrote emails and called countless times explaining his education only went so far and he is unsure why device is asking me to blow when keys are next to car when trunk is popped or doors open. He uninstalled the device when I had 3 weeks left to go and reinstalled it the correct way he felt.

As of 1/29/15 I completed my time and was allowed to have device removed around noon that day. I go 2 blocks away to stop sign and realize my multimedia screen never came out, dash and middle console push buttons are lighting up, average mpg not showing, transmissions light was on. I called 2020 with Vista office and spoke with rep Sophie who knew I left maybe 3 mins ago. She said, "Well we are booked for the rest of the day. If you can come back tomorrow, Ryan our tech will look at it." I told her "okay" and tried to calm down as I head through my job. I didn't feel right so I called my job to inform them I would need the rest of the day off, and went back to Lifesafer and to my surprise they was not busy at all.

I had tech Ryan look at my car. He said, "That's strange because when you brought it for me to de-install the device it was working fine. So he pulled in back into his garage as I patiently waited. 30 minutes passed and he said, "I can't understand your car, why it's not working now." I ask, "Could I get the number to owner to escalate this issue?" He refused, stating he has to ask owner if that's okay. Sophie said she continued to call owner...no answer. So I ask Ryan to close my hood and I pull my car out the garage, and called the customer service line and spoke with Pam to report issue. While on phone with rep. Pam, I went to Audi dealer again to have them examine car in which the Manager over dealership is will to speak to Lifesafer to explain why this device is not fit for my car. But I'm yet to get a response from director of Lifesafer. And I do have every call recorded and all emails sent from company admitting fault.

I am willing to admit when I have made bad choices. I have had so many issues with this device. I AM PROUD TO SAY THAT I DO NOT DRINK ANYMORE, AT ALL. This device upsets me so bad that I can't even to continue writing or even express what problems THIS DEVICE HAS CAUSED ME. There should be something I can do for all my hardship with this and all the money spent on this piece of JUNK!!!!!!!!

So this runs to my latest encounter. New Years Day, I go to start my car. I have not drank in almost six years. I get into my car to start it... it cranks but won't turn over. I call and have it towed to Ron Meadows. I have had my car there three times and at another shop once while having this interlock. Now my usual think is to call the place, tell them they need to call Audio Connection 2 where I get month readings, to let them know they will be working on my car. They give them a bypass code to do so. Then I call Audio Connection to let them know in fact I am having work done... then I called MVA interlock division to let them know that I am having work done and will provide them with the correct paperwork. Well tell me why I have one month left till I get this off. Now they tell my mechanic that I must call Guardian? So I call Guardian they tell me "well we need paperwork filled out to give him the bypass code." So the lady tell me I am faxing it to them now fill it out and fax it back. My guy gets the papers fills them out faxes it once and hears nothing... faxes it again and hears nothing. So he gets off work calls me at 8 am this morning Jan 3rd 2015. I still have heard nothing.

I call up and the lady says, "well what's your name and date of birth." I give this to her she pulls all my info up. She says, "well there is nothing we can do because the Maryland division isn't there today and won't be back till Monday." I am a single father who has to take my Daughter to School on Monday. Now I don't know what I am going to do because someone didn't want to do their job. I am now suffering from someone else's laziness. Guardian is a very extremely run company. There is always some problem that they are not willing to help or to fix. Most of the time it is their wrong doing. I don't drink any longer. So once this thing is off I will never have to deal with it again. But I feel sorry for the next poor man or woman that has to deal with these people. Clearly they want all your money and use safety as a cover up for their profit. Something has to be done about these people who only care about filling their pockets than saving lives... one more thing I have heard they have been bought out four or five times. I have never heard of such a thing. Good luck to everyone who has to deal with these modern day mobster.

I had an appointment for 9 AM I did not end up leaving the shop until 5 PM! The VP was auditing the shop at the time of installation and assured that I received the new policies (including a camera installed in my vehicle). Obviously seeing that I spent the entire day there at the auto shop. Shortly after leaving, I made a stop before getting home, upon turning the car back on the machine went from 30 days down to 11 days (on the same day I got it installed). I had to return to the shop to get it recalibrated. I tolerated it since I knew I only had to have for 40 days. 30 days passed and I had to pay to get it recalibrated (reset for another 30 days), AGAIN the same thing happened.

After getting the machine recalibrated (reset for 30 days) for the remaining 10 days I had left per the mysterious court order, the machine shaved down to 6 days THE SAME DAY I GOT IT RECALIBRATED. I call the 1800 number and they tell me they cannot reimburse/give credit, I'd have to take it back to the shop so that they can recalibrate it "free of charge" (really!? free of charge? because it's my fault it's malfunctioning). I did not pay them 80%; 60% for this machine I paid their fee 100%. Guardian and I signed a contract stating the product and policies/services the machine is to provide. I paid the full amount they charged while their product crapped out on me all throughout the period I leased it out for. My advice, DO NOT GET GUARDIAN. I'm not even getting into the period it takes to start, Guardian is like MS DOS when it comes to technology.

The states should be held liable for having this device mandated. Yes, they did make mistakes, but that does not it okay to sell faulty devices to make a dollar off these people. I have not read anything good about this company. The smart phone app is smarter than this device. It should not take 20 to 30 minutes to warm up and then say that the base has failed or the handset says that it does not recognized the base or any other crap it comes out with.

If they get stuck in the cold somewhere and can't get help, Guardian will be the first that I go after. Already have a lawyer to jump on that route with me.. States wise up and do the right thing. Better to have them stop at Police station which is open 24 hours to be tested or a special plate marked so a cop could random check them. Can put a TV, phone, GPS in a car, but a breathalyzer can't work at all. Waste of time, just as dangerous as a drunk driver, not reliable and the state and company should be held liable for this crap.

I called interlock and they basically said 'you are s.o.l. , we can't do anything for you...' this is of course after I was on hold for forty minutes at seven in the morning. I had personally used smartstart myself before and when my device stopped working, they were very accommodating and shut the system off so I could get the machine to the shop for them to replace it. Also, with smartstart, they provide all shops with adequate information so you do not have to do their job for them. I am seriously considering getting a lawyer and suing this company for serious malpractice and lack of professionalism over the phone.

My car slipped its timing belt and I just decided it was time to pull the cord and went to Smart Start. Brand new units. No warm up time (I was always the last to leave therapy - waiting for the unit to warm up). I've heard the manager arguing with the corporate offices on many occasions and it seems to fall on deaf ears on his end too. One last story, Last time I was there to be calibrated, the guy in front of me had the calibration machine go wonky during his calibration. Manager called to complain about the computer malfunction and was informed the customer COULDN'T HAVE HIS HANDSET BACK!!! Stranded for following compliance - he eventually got it to work but needless to say was quite upset. I can't imagine what I would have done.

My device originally had me exhale and then inhale, which was touchy enough. Yesterday I took it to get services and because the closest station was in a different state, it automatically updated my device to that states law which is that you have to blow HUM and inhale which is the biggest joke ever. It took me an hour to get it right and I called the company, where the man that answered informed me that that didn't sound right and he has never hear of a guardian device requiring you to hum. He also told me he didn't know anyone that could help me....terrible and dangerous product, horrible customer service. Don't use guardian interlock!! It has been hell for me and I still have 5 months left.

Also my device for no reason at all jumped from 15 days left before I had to take it in for the monthly maintenance, to 0 days and I had to pay a $25 dollar fee to get the days out back on it. I am still waiting to hear back from Guardian for my refund, but I am sure I never will. After doing some research I found out that Guardian had been sold about 3 different times over the last 4 years and all of their equipment is old and out of date but they will not update the equipment because they want to save money. This company is one that I wish I would never had any experience dealing with and I can't wait until I get my license back so I can get it uninstalled and never have to deal with them again!!! Once again people... STAY AWAY FROM GUARDIAN INTERLOCK!!! You will thank me for this advice!!!!

I've done my share of after hours and Sunday service calls. My policy is that if something goes wrong with the device or the install, the mobile call is done at no charge. There shouldn't be a charge. However, many times, I show up and the client isn't blowing correctly, has something else wrong with the car, or they might even be intoxicated! When it's not a guaranteed issue, I charge a premium price. I have a life and my time is worth a lot to me.

I've heard many complaints about the "way" these devices work. One thing I feel is a big issue is the lack of training that people receive before they are sent down the road after installation. It takes my installers about 45 minutes to do what we call a standard installation. While that's in progress, I spend a full hour training my clients. Example: I had a client stranded. She stated that she had no cocktails. When I arrived, I plugged in my mouth piece and the car started fine. She had cleaned her mouthpiece like it was a thermometer. With rubbing alcohol! Now I tell people, soap and water! Duh! Hand sanitizer? That's like poison for getting your car started. Don't do it.

When you go out to your car, you want to go somewhere. If you bring any alcohol near this thing, you're not going anywhere. I could go on and on about these devices. The good and the bad. My advice is to learn and remember how much hassle the whole process has been and never do that again. In the long run, cabs are pretty cheap. Research the dealer before you get your device. I actually have good reviews on my Yelp from interlock clients! A good provider will help you understand how the device works, how to be successful with it, and how to get out of the system. They also should stand behind the device and their installation. The devices fail sometimes. The installations fail sometimes. Cars break too. If they didn't, there would be no need for tow truck drivers! A good provider will answer the phone or call back in a reasonable amount of time and try to help. Do your research. I hope that this post helps you through what I'm sure is a difficult time.

My car has had a recall on the ignition. My ignition is not working right, but because I have the device I have not been able to take it in for the recall service. It is embarrassing to teach workers how to use the device and I am afraid one of them will blow in the device with alcohol on their breath and I will be blamed for it. As a result I have been waiting for the device to be removed to have the work done. I told my daughter if I die because the ignition switch malfunctions to sue the state over the device resulting in it being difficult for me to service the car. It is now time for the device to be removed. I received a letter from my probation department telling to take it in for a final download. Now remember I have been driving with this for TWO years.

I took the letter in. The girl, who by the way is the cop's daughter, (always unpleasant to deal with) looked at it and said she did not know what that means. So now, more than a week after it should have legally been removed, I am still waiting to hear when I can have it removed. The installer says to ask Guardian and Guardian says to ask the installer. I have had several problems over the last 2 years due to different malfunctions. It is not anything to do with drinking because I stopped drinking over 2 years ago. I have had to pay 4 times for resets, 100 hundred extra dollars. I pay 90 dollars a month to be monitored by people who treat me very shabbily and can never answer any questions I have about the device or the paperwork.

I have remained quiet out of FEAR of some kind of retaliation from the vendor or Guardian. I feel like I am being held in prison by corrupt correction officers. Someone is making a killing off of this service. I think someone in my state is corrupt and made a corrupt unethical deal with Guardian for this contract. When I researched Guardian, I saw they are a FOREIGN for Profit Company. Who knows how much extra money they get by charging thousands of people for resets due to malfunctions and people having to keep it longer because nobody seems to know the paperwork process? What I am saying is this whole thing smells very fishy. I am even afraid to post this complaint.

This is a money maker for the legislatures and state officials. There is a fee to install it, monthly rental fees, recalibration fees, removal fees, possible towing fees, not to mention possible damage to your car and the day to day frustration of the unit operating correctly. There is a definite issue of DUI's or DWI's, but this type of breath testing machine is not the solution to those issues or assisting in restoring your driving privileges, nor is it safe. I am very angry about how this unit is to "help" someone to restore their driving privileges and especially how I was treated from the company. No one understands this frustration except the people who have had to install it in their vehicles. The brochures mention all the possible "helpful hint" situations, however, the actual frustrations that occurred, happened to me and I installed it my car voluntarily not because I violated the law.

So, I went through at least three abort cycles before I unplugged it and plugged it in and it passed me (which isn't advised by the tech because I could restart my days). When I called in the issue (because in the four months I've had the device I have never been aborted), he told me that it was an unfortunate flaw and I'd just have to gauge my breath and suck with the really short beeps (trial and error sort of thing), and there was nothing he could do. My only concern is that I work in the ghetto late at night and don't really want to be stranded, waiting for the device to pass me. I wish there was a safer device out there for people like me.

Anyway, the device looked extremely used when I got it (all scratched up) and continuously gave an ABORT reading before I could even finish blowing into it. After a few days, I was driving and had to blow 12 times in order to finally get it to analyze and pass me. I was not FAILING (it says VIOLATE when you do). The machine wasn't working right. My dad was concerned for my safety since I have a history of panic attacks and was having trouble breathing after blowing into the device so many times.

We took it back to Gravois Auto Repair to see if they could remedy the situation. The lady supervisor, Hope **, was not at all sympathetic and treated me like a criminal. She said that it worked "fine for her" although plugged into a machine in the shop is very different than plugged into my ignition and when you have to re-test while driving the vehicle. She said that she "re-calibrated" it and told me food/soda/mouthwash can affect the readings so I should be aware of that. She was very rude.

Then today I had a job interview downtown St. Louis. Even though I had kept the device inside my house where there is air conditioning, it still gave me a temp lockout error message as soon as I plugged it in. The temp lockouts last 5 mins, unbelievable considering it had been in air conditioning for the past 16 hours. Then I got 6 ABORT readings followed by another 5 min temperature lockout then 3 more ABORTS before getting a PASS reading. I was late for my job interview because of this. Then when I got in my car to go home, the ABORT error readings continued.

I hadn't eaten anything all day and only thing to drink had been a soda over 2 hours prior. I sat in my car without air conditioning and blew into the device 26 times, only to get ABORT readings and then there were 3 temp lockouts. I started to feel very dizzy from blowing so much and the 90 degree heat & humidity. You have to PASS in order to turn on the air conditioning. Finally, for my safety, I took a cab home and left my car downtown. I called Hope ** at the Auto Shop to explain and once again was met with nothing but hostility and her insistence that there is nothing she can do about it and that it worked fine for her last Sat. Finally she agreed to go head and replace it with a new device. Now I have to get a ride to my car and hope that we can get it started and to the shop. I have never been treated so unkindly by someone in a managerial customer service role and/or made to feel like I was imagining that the device was defective.

Needless to say, I went back outside and the car started, turned it off, waited and it started again. However, what does it starting now have to do with the fact I now have two fails - I thought. Anyway... I called an officer out and ask him to document that it was me that started the car with no avail. He said the only way that you fail such a test is by consuming alcohol. My point is I have done everything I can do to follow the rules of this failed device and continued to be plagued by malfunction... With this device, you are GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY of no fault of your own. I'm truly considering walking...

I tried again at approximately 7:45am and was allowed to start the vehicle. I proceeded to drive from Frederick, MD for approximately 90 minutes headed south and when I was almost to Richmond, VA the device began to fail me during rolling re-tests, asked me to pull over and turn off my vehicle. I did so, called Guardian, explained the situation (actually got the same rep again) and was told to wait it out. I did so… repeatedly for almost 2 hours, on the side of Route 95 South in heavy traffic. I called and repeatedly pleaded for some sort of help but was told Guardian could be of no assistance because A: it was a Saturday and B: they offer no roadside assistance. I explained to them that I was and had been already driving for almost 2 hours and that I had run into issues starting at 6:30am. They told me they were understanding and that there was clearly a malfunction but that there was nothing they could do.

A VA State Trooper arrived on the scene and I asked him to give me a roadside sobriety test. He spent approximately 20 minutes with me, determined I was not and had not been drinking and was not in possession of any alcohol and left the scene. Eventually my vehicle started again and I was on the road. I drove for approximately another 30 minutes and the device began to fail me again; pulled the vehicle over, turned it off. I sat in this new location for almost another 2 hours, again in the phone with Guardian as well as the local service center where I live in an effort to get some help. Again, none given.

Long story short is that I ended up leaving my vehicle on the side of RT 95 South near Richmond, VA and getting someone to come pick me up, rented the equipment I needed in Greenville, NC to complete the work and then got a ride back to my vehicle the following day. My vehicle had been towed and impounded off of RT 95, so I had to get it out of impound on a Sunday to the tune of $400, got in my vehicle and was given the same situation. Failed me twice, then started. I drove it back home and we were snowed in the next day. Tuesday, March 4th, I left for work at 6:45am as I always do and made it approximately 15 minutes down the road before the rolling re-tests began to fail me again. I was forced to pull over and sit for almost 90 minutes before the device worked again. That night I took the device to be swapped out and have not had an issue since but the damage has been done.

My PO has filed a violation for 30 failed breath samples in one day and I am now facing a year in jail because of it. To be clear, the device never Permanently Locked, it simply Temp Locked and then let me re-try time and again, which according to the Helpdesk was not correct but according to the executive at Guardian is exactly how it’s supposed to operate, which makes zero sense.

I spent weeks in a conversation with Guardian asking them to see logic and they refuse to admit that a malfunction is even remotely possible. However, I personally witnessed a box full of devices tagged for malfunction to be sent back to the manufacturer. It’s such an utter contradiction I can’t even see straight and I’m amazed that no one else has put this company on blast for taking ordinary people’s lives and potentially ruining them by claiming that a technology is incapable of operating incorrectly.

I have the testimony of the VA State Trooper that I dealt with as well as the P-Tune rep who took my device saying it was indeed malfunctioning as well as 9 witnesses to the fact that I was not drinking or in possession of alcohol at all. My question here is simple, does anyone else have a similar situation they'd like to or be willing to testify to in a court of law? This company will continue to get away with making a profit by lying to the courts in the state of Maryland if people do not take a stand for what is right and this is just one instance of what I am sure are countless examples of devices malfunctioning. Court will be in June and in Rockville, MD. Please email me at ** if you’re willing to tell your story of a malfunctioning device. Thanks.

I would NOT RECOMMEND THIS PLACE FOR YOUR INTERLOCK! They made excuses to cover their butts and offered no help whatsoever. They told me to bang the device on my knee to get the condensation out, take the tube out every night and blamed me for not blowing or inhaling properly. I've done this for almost 2 years now and know how to use it! They do not know what they are doing. It is slow, and painful dealing with idiots that just want your money. I did my homework and transferred to another Guardian Interlock Company much closer and professional in Wheatridge. Nicks Auto then tried to charge me a $10 transfer fee which was **! The company automatically transfers without a fee.

DON'T LET NICKS AUTO RIP YOU OFF!!! Also, if you need a new handset... good luck. They did not have any in stock and just didn't know when they would arrive. It makes it pretty hard to get to your job to make the money to pay them, and even harder to drive in traffic with your interlock not working properly. I am so fortunate I did not have an accident. It's even more challenging on snow covered, icy roads when 2 hands should be on the wheel.

For one thing, I don't mean to brag but rather I'm just being straight up honest. If you're reasonably intelligent, mechanically/electronically inclined, and possess a healthy amount of ingenuity as I would consider myself to have, you can easily bypass these devices in a number of ways and continue to drink and drive if you so desired to. Of course I would absolutely discourage this although I will admit that I have been guilty of it in the past numerous times. Now I'm not sure whether Guardian Interlock only has one model of breathalyzer or if there are multiple ones because I have seen multiple models out there from other providers all with various anti-tamper and anti-bypass features some of which look pretty torturous all in an effort to keep people from bypassing them.

Mine is fairly simple in a lot of ways being in the AMS Series but it is very accurate at detecting even minute amounts of alcohol even in the air for instance, colognes or sprays - especially Axe will fail this device. Nevertheless by trial and error, by my own ingenuity, and sometimes even by some luck I have found a handful of ways to bypass this device with simple contraptions of my own, starting and stopping my ignition certain ways, and there have even been a few instances in the past where I had to resort to just downright damaging the device which later on I credited as the result of some kind of "accident" to save me from assuming financial responsibility from the damage incurred - (the hell with that after all the dough they make).

I won't go into detail about how I bypass this evil device but now it is nothing more than an expensive pain in the ** that I am counting down the days for until I can get it out of my vehicle. Obviously these devices are not keeping drunk people off the road if they can be bypassed in the number of ways I have already discovered especially when all you need is a sober person to blow in it if you don't know of any other way to bypass it whenever there is one around and off you can be. I understand certain models can only be blown by the driver but many do not have to be and still there are ways around those too.

One thing that really ticked me off about the device is that it is set to fail you at an alcohol level of .02 which is downright ridiculous. In most states, the legal limit goes up to .08 before it becomes illegal. .02? Really? This is where the money making comes into play. Heck if the salad dressing from your last meal contained too much vinegar, you could fail this breathalyzer. Unless you are court ordered not to drink, there is no reason for setting the device at .02 except to increase the number of times you fail it and therefore increase the number of fines you pay to have it reset.

Well I'll leave anyone wondering who is stuck with one of these devices or will be soon with a little tip. Try to get a vehicle that has a manual transmission - (preferably a smaller and lighter car) as these can always be push started should you get yourself into a situation where the interlock gets you stuck somewhere. My five-speed has saved my ** a number of times. When I got a permanent lockout and other times when my days ran out, I just parked on a hill or slope and rolled my car into a start. After that just unplug the damn thing so you don't have to listen to it as you will eventually have to get it reset sooner or later anyways.

It is also easier to bypass the interlock in cars with manual trannys if you know how. If you play around with it enough, you might just figure out how but be careful not to fail it too often as that can get expensive and for court-monitored people, you could get really screwed. I just enjoy finding ways to bypass this greedy-**, money-grubbing, penny-pinching, control system we live in and are plagued with so much nowadays. It really gives me a rush when I figure out how to keep my hard-earned money from falling into their dirty hands.

I couldn't believe it. I drove to CVS stopped my car and called the service tech that had just calibrated it. I explained it came up as a fail, he said he was not sure why, he said it could be the food I ate etc. and I could come in for $25.00 to have it downloaded. I was under the impression that this device measures BAC by the breath test measuring alcohol.

The tech said he would make a note of this for me, but it will still show up on the monthly log. I understand that 2 fails in a 30 day service period will cause a lock out. This is a real problem with the equipment giving false positives at the owner expense. I'm concerned that when I go for my license reinstatement test this will happen again, a false positive. I have made a mistake in the past but this should not continue to go on, unfair problems with the devices. This can and has caused a lot of unfair problems for people like myself.

This really needs to be investigated so the blame is not on the people due to faulty equipment. I would like to know who to contact to look into this unfair and unreasonable business practice. We are law abiding citizens just trying to get by and drive to work, this is highly uncalled for and Guardian needs to take responsibility for their equipment. Why should we have to pay to have our vehicle towed, taken back to the service center all at our expense?? Something needs to be done legally about this. A company can't put out a product that fails and expect the people that are leasing it be responsible. Any feedback will be appreciated. I believe it's time to stand up for our rights, we are not criminals.

Blowing into this thing is has humiliated me many times! I can blow it with a can of compressed air so what's to stop a drunk driver from doing this or getting someone else to blow in the damn thing for them! The mechanics won't work on my car with this thing hooked up... What do I do?? I've decided to be the criminal the state wants me to be, so I'm going to drive something else and take the risk. I'll still have to feed my paycheck into the coffers of this bureaucracy for for the next who knows... Let's stand up against these idiots!!!!

First offense DUI (pleaded down to impaired under .08), no accident, no injuries, no victims, no property damage. $2,500 fine, 1 year suspension, 1 year interlock. He learned his lesson. He could have been killed because of this device that is nothing but a money making scheme for Guardian Interlock, Speedy Glass and the Ontario Government. Who regulates Speedy Glass installing these and making sure they don't cause any additional car fires?

This month I received a cancellation notice of my driver's license? I am submitting another administrative review report. I can understand if people are attempting to tamper with the system and they probably hear a lot of b.s. stories but this device is not accurate and it fails continuously even when I haven't consumed alcohol or eaten anything prior to the test. I would not recommend this device to anyone - it is expensive and inaccurate and can leave you stranded!

You have no idea how disgusted we both are with how we were treated. The lady? I talked to at Interlock was a total witch which I let her know just before I hung up. I realize you are so used to people trying to find a way to bypass the system you can't even begin to think there could be a problem with your perfect little machine. Maybe now and then you should consider there are actually people with lives who are trying to do the right thing.

The equipment will be shipped back for testing. When it arrives you will see that we were right all along. People may have no choice but to choose your product but without an appropriate response to this issue, we will not let it go. Imagine a member of your family trying to make a decent living then not being able to get a good night sleep because no one cares enough to help. If we didn't have a friend 35 miles away he would have had to spend the night in the car at the job site after pouring 5 truckloads of cement in 80+ degree weather. How would you feel if it was you?

In case this e-mail is not going to the correct place I will keep researching until I find where it needs to go. The issue also being that even had he called a tow truck to have the car taken to the shop, we had no idea where it should be taken or who would be working on it. We were told that they made service calls for $200 when we had the device installed yet they were not interested in doing that since the car was also out of the area and it had to be the car not the device. I guess we needed to pay for towing it 150 miles back home? Thank you to the guy that did finally show up who is also extremely upset about no one else coming to help (within 2 hours not 24).

Okay, that's fine but did that really need to be such a hassle? The second time, I was talking on the phone and I got into my car without even thinking and tried to start it without even thinking about the interlock. This set it back to -5 days. So I called and somehow got hold of someone on the first try. She says, "Bring it in by tomorrow or you will be locked out." I made the appointment and went to get in my car. Surprise, surprise... I was locked out. I called and talked to the same lady and she says that's too bad, if someone can bring me and the handset in. No, I'm all alone.

So finally I call my dad when he was done with work and he takes me. I am about 3 hours late for the appointment I had previously scheduled. The guy did not want to do anything for me because he had already finished for the day and was just sitting around. So my dad told him I need my car and he better do something so he did. This last time, I had gone to work without incident; I get back in my car to go home (it's 112 degrees out). I plug in the device and begin the test. After blowing, it makes one loud beep and says, "Abort." I continue this for about an hour while waiting on someone to come get me. I'm sweating my ** off and I'm mad. I call the "Helpline" and get no answer and leave a message.

It is now the next morning and still there is no call back. I'm going to show up today and demand service as a paying customer. We'll see how that goes. I understand what I did was wrong and I deserve the punishment I am receiving but this is ridiculous. I can understand being penalized for getting trashed and trying to drive and being locked out because that's what it's for but to be punished like this for either a simple mistake or a malfunction is just plain wrong. Down with Guardian Interlock and their incompetent employees!

I'm also having issue where I had an automatic starter on the car and they were to disable it when the interlock was installed. My car starts on its own and makes the unit go off. There needs to be a way that when you have such a unit as this, that your radio turns off before you need to blow or something. I found out that I can have this unit taken out and go with another company today from MVA. Once I have them look at my wires again, it's out!!! I would have gotten the interlock out in November 2013, but now it is February 2014! :(

There is no telling if these devices are ever cleaned between different client’s usage. What are the internal workings, or where did these apparent accumulated deposits come from? I do eat a lot of barbequed food, and I did notice after cooking a hamburger with Jack Daniels BB sauce, I got a false lock out; just as I did after eating three slices of pizza. Maybe the residue builds up on the inside of the unit. Sadly, I believe there is no recourse. I'll just have to pay. After all, it truly winds up being all about the money. This is how some pos gets a job and keeps a job designed for a slob. I hope I can find some similar stories of aggravated assault perpetrated by a WR3 Ignition Interlock device. If they can't run clean, then they should be banned.

I went in and explained to the male attendant who is also one of the techs what happened. I informed him I knew this was incorrect because I had not been drinking. He asked me questions like had I sprayed anything in my car containing alcohol or had my handset been around anything with alcohol. I said no, nothing at all. He plugged in my handset and read the results and it had showed every time I blew that day I was actually over 0.00. I knew this was incorrect as mentioned above because I had not been drinking and I have made sure I neither used nor consumed anything that has alcohol in it, including Chapstick. I let him know I was drinking my coffee and smoothie as I do every morning. He proceeded to tell me that I will receive a letter from the DMV probably stating my Interlock installment requirement will be extended and I could request a hearing if needed.

I began to tell him that this was not fair because I had not been drinking and something was wrong with my handset. The only troubleshooting they did was to recalibrate my handset and they printed out a document for me to sign stating it was checked and working properly. I asked him to come out and plug the handset into my car and test it and then read the results. He refused so I asked to speak with his manager who was in the next room and who could hear the entire conversation. He walked into the room where his manager was and came back out and said he won't do it. So not only would the manager not speak with me but he also refused to do any troubleshooting. They handed me my device back and I informed them if this happens again, I will call the police and request they come do a breathalyzer on me to prove I have no alcohol in my body. He encouraged it.

I left there and was able to start my car with a Pass. Once again, 15 minutes later I was prompted to perform a rolling test and I failed 3x and had a refusal again and my handset went back to -5. At this point, I was already worked up feeling high stress and anxiety. When this happened the second time, I began crying and had to pull over because I was shaking and upset and it was not safe for me to drive. I called the Police and had them come out to give me a breathalyzer. Meanwhile, my boyfriend was on his way to the office to speak with them. I waited for the officer and explained what happened and why I called them out. He watched me start my car and receive a Pass. Unfortunately, he was not able to give me a breathalyzer (some districts will, some won't) but he did give me a case number and his card and said I could reference his name when I went back to Driver Advisors and they could call him. He laughed about this and said, "This is the first time I have had anyone call and request a breathalyzer."

I wasn't sure how to handle this situation and had to call my Sergeant. I once again went back to the office where I got my interlock installed. At this point, I was mad, stressed and had severe anxiety. I went into the office and probably wasn't as professional as I should have been. My boyfriend was already there speaking with the tech and the manager, who refused to speak with me earlier. I explained what just happened and this needed to be fixed immediately. They hooked up my handset again and showed me the results showing I was blowing between a .036-.039 in the morning. Again, this was happening without me consuming any alcohol. The manager pulled me back and showed me my results for the day leading up to my first visit at 11:30 am. I asked him to see my recent Fails/Refusal and he said he was not going to download that because it would generate another letter from the DMV.

I asked him to print my results for every day I had the Interlock and he did. I got it installed on 4/30/13 and had no Fails, blew 0s and just had a few aborts which is expected when getting used to using this thing. After pleading with the manager and explaining everything I have been through, he decided to swap out my handset. I was sure to inform him that this has caused me to miss a day of work and high stress/anxiety. He said he understood. Before leaving he had me do some practice start up blows to make sure I was using the device correctly. I passed 3 times. Then when I went out to my car he watched me connect it and receive a Pass reading and then start my car. He told me that when I receive the letter from the DMV to bring it in and he will remove it and send an explanation to the DMV as to what happened.

Well first of all, I want a hearing with the DMV to explain what happened and the issues I have had after only having my Interlock for 1 and a half weeks and then to also inform the DMV that there was a second Fail/Refusal 15 minutes after leaving their office that prompted me to call the police and this does not show on my report because they would not download it.

After I left the office, I called their corporate office in Tempe and made a complaint on how unprofessional, rude, unwilling to help or listen and judgmental they were, both the tech and the manager. I'm sure in their mind they were thinking, "She was drinking." I'm sure they have people come in all the time saying the same thing. Don't judge me! I understand I have made a bad decision to drink and drive and I have to deal with the consequences and I am fine with that, but if I am required to have this device installed in my car and my driving privileges depend on it, then it needs to be functioning properly. This has caused serious anxiety for me. If this happens again in the future, I will continue to call the police or go to the station each time to make sure I have a record of it.

I talked to another Guardian man from a different location that was still open. He said when it went to “no base”… then problem with hookup. So when it went to permanent lockout, it might have resulted from “no base”! Oh, we’ll see where it rolls tomorrow. I hope I won’t need to have the car towed to that place. I already have to maybe give the device to my sister to take over there while I’m at work. Grrr! Just a friggin headache. And I know it all started because of my decision years ago. I am sober for 5 years and will not get rid of this device till 2018. I just hope this device can be less of a headache! I will keep you all posted! And stay sober. It’s all about how we handle our thinking.

It kept beeping and beeping even though I blew into it. It took my eyes off the road and one hand off the wheel. I was always in fear that a malfunction was gonna make me get into an accident, kill someone, and lose my license. It made me blow at the same time every time I had to merge on a busy highway. I tried to ignore the robot for just a minute so I could merge, but the beeping gets louder and louder and doesn't stop. So I finally gave in and focused on giving it a good blow while doing some swerving. It would say "Abort" and make me blow again! It malfunctioned all the time and I had to blow extra hard than usual - to the point of dizziness! I go to the Interlock place to complain, but their machine is perfect and I’m doing something wrong. I hate Guardian Interlock. Their product is a nightmare.

Once they took it out today, my truck started better and runs much better! They spliced into three wires on the steering column and the setup is very basic, but not sophisticated at all, and disrupted the power supply and screwed up the way electricity is supposed to flow in the ignition wires. They act like it’s a sophisticated equipment, but I could have taken it out the car myself. I almost did! I was gonna return it in a box and tell Interlock to shove it. But I held on and completed the program - at a huge cost. I’m very disturbed now. I may lose control and I’m afraid of what I might do. I could snap any minute. I’m like a dog who got punished, which is a good thing, but then my owner (the system) kept shoving my nose in crap even after I started pooping outside. So now I’m crazy and I’m gonna bite the owner’s neck one day.

I did screw up and got one DUI. Luckily, no accident or anyone hurt. I learned my lesson that night. I was forced to stay in jail 10 days because of the high level of alcohol (.21). Go to a DUI classes that took a year and half. Fine whatever. I deserved that, but Guardian was the tipping point. That machine caused more stress than I can write about. It's not even about alcohol. If I hear another beep beep, I’m gonna wig out on somebody. After going and fighting a ** war for Bush and everything I had to deal with the system, Guardian is the tipping point, and now I’m turning my back on the system until it evolves.

It's like my enemy now. I won’t attack the system, but I sure won’t let them control me anymore and I’m going rogue. They went from hardly punishing offenders at all, to nailing first time DUI's hard, and milking them all the time for money. The experience of having a DUI has actually forced me to drive a lot more. I put thousands extra miles making it to DUI class and Interlock and forced stuff. The system made me drive more after a DUI and not less. I learned my lesson, but now I am gonna unlearn my lesson because of the extra crap I went through.

Needless to say, I had not been drinking and had followed the directions avoiding smoke, eating, pop, etc. so there was no reason for it to fail. Also, note that before this incident I had numerous false positive readings. And since I have learned that this technology by this vendor is crazy old and unreliable, I have since moved onto another company, Dragar, three months ago and have not had one single false positive, which I think is mainly due to the technology they use is different.

Make sure, before you choose the cheapest product out there (Guardian), that you do your home work. After all, the DMV sided with them and added an extra year onto my term for a nice Christmas present. However, I since learned that the DMV is looking at all of the incidents in the state of MN from the Guardian product and are eventually most likely going to ban the piece for too many false positives by too many people. Thank God. I want justice for this nonsense. Being completely sober now for going on thirty two months, the DMV wanted me to change my sober date which I refused to do for them. Talk about resentment. What about the justice for people that have reformed and are no longer drinking and driving? What are we supposed to get hosed for doing right and not breaking the law? Where's our rights?

Also, the cord went wrapped around my e-brake a few times; and while going 65 mph on the highway with my eyes on the road, I grabbed the device and my brake got pulled almost causing serious wreck. The Guardian Interlock has so many flaws; and since I don’t drink anymore, that is good; but it is affecting the safety; and I am lucky to not be in an accident yet, because of this crappy machine. There needs to be an upgrade; I’m serious when I say this thing almost caused wrecks; and I don’t like taking my eyes off the road to see what it’s beeping about, after I blew into it and it asked me to blow again or malfunctions. I’m so frustrated; and on top of that, Guardian always tries to hit me up for an extra 40 bucks when I go in because they don’t like the way that I blew into the machine, even though I had no fails for alcohol. What a rip off.

The guy running the place acts like the Interlock pimp. Plus the alcoholics that blow hot into the machine are told “it is fine, just pay 40 dollars”; and the shop owner preys on their ignorance and doesn’t mention the DMV will be notified; so they end up on the device forever, instead of knowing what’s going on and changing their ways, instead of thinking 40 bucks takes care of it... What a scam, shame on you Guardian Interlock.

I read the paperwork thoroughly, "I understand that I may not jump start or charge my battery with the interlock unit in my vehicle." Where the ** does that leave me? Spending $90 for you ** to come jump me or tow to a mechanic that will be required to jump to diagnose. If that ** up the system, I am liable. You are a dirty, smelly, disgraceful facet of the system, and you should be ashamed to look at yourself in a mirror. Go ** yourself. People like you are part of the problem, not the solution. I have come to the conclusion that I will be better off having it removed from the car, selling for + equity and not driving for a year. I recognize that not everyone has this option, but it seems like a better bet than having to deal like ** like you.

Well, I stopped using that and just went solely with water and I'm still getting continuous inconsistent fails that have not only cost me time and money, but has gotten me completely spooked to even drive the car. You can start the car and go to the gym, then two hours later, you can't start your car when you're done. I'm in sales and this has cost me to be late for work, missed clients coming in to see me, stuck on vacation, no start before going on vacation, so on and so forth. I have been in touch with Quentin, the rep who seems like a very nice guy, but he even says the system isn't perfect and I'm in a very small group of people who work out frequently and have these problems. Now, it has escalated to the point of not being able to handle this anymore and I'm looking for serious help. The gentleman where I go to do the checks shouldn't be a representation of your company, period. His name is Jerry ** and it's Global Auto in Revere, Massachusetts.

Jerry is awful - completely awful. No disregard for anybody that comes in there. He only cares about the money and never wants to help anybody, yet he signed up for this gig which is scary. I'm at a point of total frustration and do not want these fails to affect me when it's time to come out. I will be in touch with a lawyer soon and make sure I get a hearing with the registry in Massachusetts to let them know about how inconsistent and inaccurate this device is. Something has to be done, I've read all the complaints and it's fair to say they all sound similar, but nobody seems to care.

Basically, I have had 4 Fails and numerous Aborts without any alcohol in my body and obeyed all the rules of the device, all in the first month of having this. I had several rolling blows (It asks you to blow no matter what speed or anything while driving.). It's an accident waiting to happen. I then receive a letter from the state asking for explanation of Fails. I really don't have one! I have 21 days to do this or my driving license could be taken away. Really, this machine determines my rights? Next Fail, I will be heading in for a blood test to send to state! I do not trust this thing!

I bought a personal breath analyzer just to double, triple check to make sure I'm good to go, and I still get fails. And get this, they were all below any DUI limit. But yay for me, I get an Extendo of three months. Thanks God at least the folks I get serviced by are half decent, aside from the fact, that it's always your fault. Never the device, never the calibration, because God forbid they were wrong, then a class action might be feasible. One day the truth will come out, and all will see what a p to the o to the s it is. Until then, we suffer and the DMV and Guardian make a whore of a killing.

For the first 6 months of having this thing on my car, from approximately November 2010 – April 2011, the only issue I had was that the cold weather lengthened the warm-up time, which I could deal with, and did every day, the unit sometimes takes more than 10 minutes to let me start the car.

As soon as the summer hit, and nationwide, I believe it was a brutal one, especially so in Kansas, I began having many, many problems with this device. It became a normal occurrence for it to fail me twice every time I tried it, passing me on the third time. These failures showed up merely as sensitivity failures at first, and I suffered no consequences. When I suggested that it may be due to the hot weather, they denied that heat causes their units to malfunction. They merely turned their computer screen towards me, pointed to a jumble of figures which meant absolutely nothing to me, and told me the machine is, essentially, infallible.

As a prerequisite to this next statement, and although I know it doesn't mean much, given the circumstances, I have not drank alcohol since my DUI 2-1/2 years ago. That being said, one morning when I tried to go to work, the device continually failed me, to the point that I had to have my girlfriend drive me to work. When I went in to have the device re-booted for my upcoming month, the guy from the store, whose name escapes me now, whistled and told me I had a big failure, .24. I assured him it was impossible, the level I had when I received my DUI was almost, but not quite, as high and I was literally incapacitated (I had blacked out and crashed the car into a ditch, to give you an idea of how drunk .24 makes me). “How, at 8 am, on my way to work, could I possibly have been that drunk?” I asked. He told me it has way too high sensitivity, and the machine doesn't lie. I asked him what the consequences are, and he said, "Legally, you should have your license suspended for another year. But I can just mark it down as two late appointments, you can pay me an extra $100, and we'll act like it never happened."

What choice did I have but to pay? The receipt was itemized and the extra $100 on a separate line. I saw him put it under the cash register drawer, the $80 monthly fee went inside.

On another occasion I overhead him discussing first with a woman and then his partner, Tristan, how he was going to "corrupt her file" because "she's a friend of mine, and she has some violations." This woman was a probationer on the interlock program and he was wiping her file clean. I asked, "Family troubles? " when he hung up with the girl, before calling his partner, and he replied, "No, just some girl I mess around with. I try to keep her on her toes, but she keeps failing." I remember, several months earlier, this same man telling me about how he and his wife of several years go to Mexico every summer for Sammy Hagar's birthday party, and he's committing crimes for his younger girlfriend on the side. I was actually kind of stunned. He realized that I was listening to him, became somewhat verbally hostile, yelled at me for signing my name instead of printing it, as he'd said (which I did out of nervousness), and then he confirmed, "One month? (because you can pay for two at once). I said yes and he looked me in the eye, took my paperwork. After looking it over to confirm it was correct, he slid it across the counter towards me. There was two months worth of credit on my account, for which I only paid the $80 monthly fee because I had overheard him committing a crime, for God's sake.

These people are **. The guy that founded the company, Kip Fuller, is an egomaniac and a leech of the first degree. Look up his YouTube account: he's posted every video interview he's ever done, posted them himself. He's like an even more-evil Shamwow guy, marketing all these goofy products like robots for your home and even a "stealth bra" for your car that deflects cop radar. I met a "corporate representative" from Ohio when I got the unit taken off, today in fact. He told me that originally in the ‘80s, they lobbied for this stuff in congress. These people have made their product a government-mandated obligation for which we have no choice but to pay, and they employ operators who are morally dubious, at best. It makes me sick. He then went on to extol the life-changing capabilities of the Guardian interlock system, and how it really helps make a difference in America's society. I felt like strangling him to death.

That same day, they said the de-installation fee was $100. I asked him if he had a copy of the contract, and he answered no very defensively, and said I should have kept mine. I did, and went out to the car to get it. It said "De-installation fee: $50" (or thereabouts). He replied, "Oh, yeah, that's the old one. I'll go ahead and honor that." Anything about honor sounds like an ironic joke coming from this guy’s mouth.

We need to be careful about these people, and these companies, because they're already running our lives, and they don't have anything but your money on their minds.

We tell you a million times and give you a ton of documents about violations and what can extend your time. I bet you were in a hurry and just signed off and blew off the tutorial. It detects alcohol when you blow into it (what's on your breath). James, if you use mouth wash and blow into it, you will get a violation. The mouth wash is over 20% alcohol or above .20 which is above the .08 violation limit. James can be smarter than the machine. They charge you for violations because they do not want you to be extended, like when you over draft your checking account, they charge you fees because they do not want you to overdraft.

I bet the machine went into permanent lock and you were locked out because you had too many violations. The handset dropped days from say "30" to "-1" because you violated the machine, but you are not smarter than the machine to notice your days dropped. **, it counts down to "-7". This is your driving responsibility, so do this "Probationary Program" correctly, follow the rules set out by the State of Arizona and MVD.

At the Jetta guy, google Jetta brake fuse and/or Jetta brake light issues. You will get thousands of issues from Jetta owners with the same issue. Second, you are full of it or your Jetta tech is an ** hat. No interlock is tied into your brakes. It is done behind the key and they go to the starter wire; the ignition and power wire all behind your key switch. None of those wires interact with your brakes behind the key switch. FYI, all Jettas are electrical nightmares, they are garbage as far as the electrical set-up is concerned.

Guy with starter issue, does your car start at will? If you have a short in the ground to your starter, it will affect the machine and short into our machine, affecting the behavior. If your car does not work right, how can you expect our machine to do so when it is being shorted out by your car? It is the same concept of leaving a plasma screen outside during the summer months in AZ and expecting it to work correctly.

In short, James, you are a lazy, pathetic human being and I hope you get extended longer by multiple companies until you realize you affect the outcome of the machine and you must take this seriously. I'm so happy I do not have to deal with people like you anymore. I'm sick of hearing how you are a victim and nothing is your fault and you are perfect. Well now, I know you are the one who drove drunk, what if you killed someone? Now, you have to pay for driving drunk and I bet you won't do it again. So, grow up and deal with what you did.

Now to the Guardian folks who say "We hear you don't drink all the time; you had someone else blow." and all you folks who say that it's our own doing, try this on for size, guys. I also have SCRAM device attached to my ankle that monitors me for alcohol every 30 minutes and which I have had on for 3 years, and I never had one single violation. Sure it costs $360 a month versus the $80 or so of the interlock, but it flat out proves that Guardian will place blame anywhere but squarely on its own shoulders. They are able to blow our complaints off, simply because we made a mistake. And yes we did, and we are paying for it, some in spades. The deal is though they need to be watched over to prevent this kind of thing.

I demanded another unit as this one is not working right. So I got another unit and 2 days later, it cut down on my time and I lost 14 days. I took it in and I watched the tech download the info. There was nothing on there to explain why it cut down on my time. I had been also told that this time it would be free but next time it would cost extra to reset the unit. So i guess it's my fault if the unit malfunction now. While getting my unit checked I had seen people drive or walk in with units that need to be reset all the time. Many of them got stranded at work or home. I was talking to the tech while he took care of people in front of me, and he mentioned that it's very common for the units to fail and he sees it all day long.

A month went by when I tried to go to work when the unit again failed me. Ok, I tried drinking water and lots of it but nothing helps. When a friend walked by( and I know he doesn't drink at all), I asked him to blow to see if it's me or not. Guess what, he failed too. I called in and had been told to wait and try later. There went another day at work. I couldn't pass the rest of the day and no one in the family could as well. I took the unit in at the end of the day and it showed all the fails and I needed to pay money to reset it, as it's my fault. The tech calibrated the unit same time. When I got home, I can start the car with no problems. I guess seeing the tech got me all sober in 45 min. When I called Guardian about it. They said that I must be drinking, as their units work and 100% never failed. A few days later, I lost time again. I'm very mad now because it's above and beyond what should be normal to have problems. I drove back in to have it checked up. The tech told me that I missed a rolling retest at 2am and I had been trying to start the car at 12am sharp on the dot. Well if did try to start it and couldn't, how did I manage to refuse the rolling retest?

After coming over so often, the tech and I started to talk on first name basis and got to be sort of friends. That's when he told me that whenever he has to reset the unit, the shop keeps the money. So they are not really interested in repairing the problems. Also, all late fees that people pay the shop is their to keep. So they are really happy to have people come late. Guardian won't admit that their units have a lot of problems. Every time something happens it's the customer's fault and customer pays extra money which the shop gets to keep. If you call Guardian, they will give you the runaround till you give up and just pay up and move on with your life. I agree it's a good idea with the interlock. It makes you think before you drive. But guardian got into it and they just do their best to milk the people for all they can get away with.

The unit would blow me legally drunk at .100; I would turn my car off and then blow again, and it would blow a 0. The unit blew me dirty one night I was driving my kids to a school dance. It completely shut my car down, and it left us stranded for three hours. I called the 24-hour emergency hotline; they said that I had to get it towed at my expense, and it was my problem. This was about six months ago. Also, my truck was broken down, and it had to go to the shop. The guys fixing my truck didn’t want to be liable to blow in my machine and interlock ignition, they said that they don’t give out the password to bypass it. They then sent me to the DMV for non-compliance in getting it serviced on time when it was broken down.

I have told the company many times to take my credit card off file, so I can send them a check. They continue to bill me; a couple times they billed me twice, causing me to over draft. This is the biggest scam. It is really unfair to a person that has completely changed his life to have to deal with this. This machine has completely broken my car and my bank account. Please, help!

We made the choice not to make this our responsibility and not to take it seriously. Grow up. You did miss the re-test or used/"violated" the machine because we are human and make mistakes. But we lie about it, so we can make someone feel guilty that we made poor life choices and have to have this interlock device. In short, own up. Take this seriously because you do not want another year extension. It’s because you cannot take ownership for your actions, or think you know more. Or, the more you ** and moan you will get your way. I got bad news. If you think you can fool the system or lie, you can’t. So, learn from me. Take this seriously.

I hadn't eaten anything or brushed my teeth within several hours. She assured me not to worry as it wouldn't affect anything since I am over 21 and can fail, just not 3 times consecutively in 15 minutes. So when it randomly fail-violated on me 4 more times throughout the month, I thought nothing of it. Well I get a letter from the Arizona DMV stating that my license has been re-suspended for a year. After this, I tried calling Guardian interlock and ended up being repeatedly redirected to different numbers and people, all of whom claimed they had no access to my reports or file at all. This was the location I had it installed at in AZ, the branch that does the monitors in CA, and the regional headquarters in NM, all of whom claimed themselves incapable of helping me and redirected me back and forth or told me to call back on another day.

This went on for 5 days (14 phone calls) until I finally got hold of Marsha, the lady I was told to wait all weekend to speak to who could access my records. When I spoke to her, she explained (as per usual) that she couldn't access the monitor reports or help me at all but to call the regional manager for Guardian Interlock in California (where I live). I got hold of him and finally he went over my report and basically said there was nothing wrong with my interlock. When I explained that I don't drink, he made a remark about how he hears that all the time. When I asked him to look at the monitor report and see that the fail-violates were followed by a pass within 60 seconds, he accused me of having someone else blow into it. I live by myself, and never have people in my car as I can only drive between work, home, and school. He repeatedly failed to acknowledge the possibility of the device being defective, was absolutely unwilling to help, and basically told me to file a court hearing, while I'm in the middle of college midterms.

For one, what don't you people understand about the concept of an alcohol testing device? Do you not know that they are sensitive to alcohol, in whatever form? I see multiple instances where people are complaining about being able to start their car when they haven't been drinking, and receiving a fail test. Well, did you stop to consider the perfume you just bathed in before you left the house and all of the alcohol in it?

Or what about the mouthwash you used after you brushed your teeth? Did you ever notice that it contains (usually) about 21% pure alcohol? Another one mentioned the handset saying "refused" when they first plug it in. That just means that you got in too much of a hurry when you last drove your car and unplugged the handset (which, is a customer convenience feature, by the way) before it was eligible.

I just think that it is hilarious that these people want to play the victim after they have been convicted of a serious offense. Drinking and driving is not only illegal, it's irresponsible, it's dangerous, it's costly to everyone (not just offenders) and people who offend and get caught should expect the consequences. The bottom line, don't put yourself at the mercy of the state, and you won't have anything to worry about.

I was awarded $450 plus my court costs because they unconsciously kept my money (from a pre-paid contract) when they canceled the contract. I can collect the $800 towing charge from the maintenance-free contract on my car. So I still lost about $1000. I had an extended vacation in Reno (Lake Tahoe) and had one of the most traumatic experiences in my life. I took them to court and they lied in court. I should have said something but the judge told me to shut up. The Judge only awarded me the money they kept from me because they canceled my contract.

Your service center in Richmond, where I go to, is in a very convenient location and I am pleased with their service. Unfortunately, the product itself is the one in question. I had the device installed in 5/3/10 and to date, I had the following experiences: Numerous times, the system locked me for 10 minutes after 4 to 5 attempts to successfully blow the device. The handheld prompted inhale, but won't turn on even after inhaling again. These resulted to lost appointments, working late, etc. These were acceptable, but not when I got fail readings on the monitor check reports.

One night, after DUI school, the handheld won't turn on so I had to leave the car in the parking lot overnight. I missed work the following day and arranged for a cab service to take me to the service dealer and back to my car. Around 4PM in the parking lot where I work, I sprayed sunblock on my arms and the system gave me two violations. At least, I know how this happened. There was one incident that I got a fail reading and I cannot explain how it happened. These incidents were reported as violations even with no drop of alcohol in my system.

10/4/10, around 3PM, I was in my house in Sacramento going home to the East Bay. I did not drink any alcohol the whole day, but the system gave me a fail reading. I waited for almost 3 hours and was able to drive and meet my friends for dinner that night. I blew the device 4 times to drive to Richmond and 2 times after dinner to drive home successfully. The following morning, 10/5/10 around 7AM, the system read fail the first time I blew. I was so furious because I just drank strawberry lemonade the night before and I consumed nothing that morning. After just a few seconds, I tried again and passed. The same day, around 5PM after work, I plugged the unit and it prompted "refused".

I realized that these are just some of the consequences that convicted DUIs like me have to suffer. However, IDD users are still entitled to accurate reading reports. I have suffered a great deal from this mistake and have definitely learned my lesson not to drink and drive. These inaccuracies have been giving me unnecessary stress and I am afraid of the results of these false reports.

They have given me defective devices, charged me extra fees to have it re-calibrated, got threatening letters from the mvd saying, I was going to have an extension on the duration I had to have this stupid thing on my car, and have had to waste plenty of gas and time going back and forth to the place.

My physical safety has been at risk ever since this thing has been installed. I have asthma and blowing into the device is sometimes difficult and when I am short of breath the device aborts. I have had multiple attacks while trying to use the thing to start my car and almost had to call 911 once. Multiple times, I have sat in my car in tears for 30-60+ min trying to get my car started. I have missed work and 2 doctors appointments due to the thing not working. I have had to sit in the deadly heat of Arizona waiting in my car for the device to let me start it.

I have suffered heat stroke from this. It has fallen under my brake pedal multiple times and I have had to reach down while driving to pick it up, being a serious hazard while driving, been stranded in dark, isolated areas where I, as a 21-year old girl, felt unsafe and was almost attacked one time while waiting in a dark parking lot in my car (thankfully locked) for the thing to warmup. This device is unreliable and unsafe! I want reparations for all.

My issue is that even though these false positive results were in the morning after being home, all of the night before they are not contestable at all. The Guardian Interlock is uncooperative to say the least. It is a proven fact that normal everyday things cause a false reading. Guardian is making a killing being affiliated with Maryland’s MVA and will say and do anything to buck or disregard claims towards them.

A jury of 12 is required to convict a murderer but MVA snatches a license based upon false information. This is not Fair.

This morning, 5/6/2010, I plugged the unit in at 7 am and it comes up "refused" and my horn goes off and won't stop blowing. I didn't blow into the thing, just plugged it in and now this. I knew something was wrong with it and have called Lang but no answer as they are not open yet. My attorney says not to unplug battery, wait and call them and see what they say. I don't want this to go against me and have found out online that there has been all kinds of problems with this thing. This is my life and I don't need to have this go against me as I am trying to do everything right.

So, Guardian gets $30 for each "missed re-test" and gets to try to use the MVD to bully me into another year-long contract. Let's not forget the money the AZ DOT makes off of all of this. Most of us know that the interlock deal is a scam, but it is only getting worse. The interlock dealers have carte blanche to report what they want; and if you cross them by telling them their fees are being illegally charged they will make sure to use MVD to ** over. The DOT wants you to have the interlock because the "authorize dealers" have to pay them to operate.

I'm not saying that I have been unfairly punished, but as someone who can honestly say I never drove when my license was suspended and have never driven without the interlock while my license is restricted, I am being completed worked over by Guardian and the state is sanctioning the extortion. Maybe it is time for a class action suit listing the state of AZ as well as Guardian.

By the way, I wrote to contest my restriction extension and sent in a copy of one of my reports showing a missed test back in January that guardian never reported. I hope that the MVD will see that and question all of the data Guardian sends them. They normally don't give out copies of the reports they pull, but one guy thought giving it to me would prove his point, but all it did was help me confirm it was BS because I had someone in the car with me at the time. Unfortunately, having this corrective action reversed means someone at the MVD has to lay down the rubber stamp and actually look into the matter which I doubt will happen. They get a paycheck whether they do the right thing or not so they choose the lazy route. Maybe it's time the Federal Government looks into this state.

Every customer that came in there in the 2.5 hours I was there was there because there's a major problem with the device used by Guardian Interlock, either the car starts without blowing, the device malfunctions and the car is inoperable for no reason or it just shuts the car off while you're driving it. The manager totally freaked out and removed the device from my car when I complained.

I took my business (12 months paid up front, by the way) to another company (LifeLock) who not only installed the device and had me on my way in 1 hour, they told me to come in for my monthly maintenance by end of day on my scheduled appointment and it would be fine. (Guardian charges you if you're 5 minutes late). Unfortunately, Guardian interlock messed up the wiring under my car so badly that I had to take it to get fixed before LifeLock could do the install. Do not give these people your business. They treat you like total crap.

On Feb. 23rd, I received a letter from Arizona Motor Vehicle stating "Corrective Action" against my driver license. The letter stated that "We have received a report from an authorized installer that your ignition interlock device shows evidence of tampering or circumvention. Your period of driver license restriction has been extended one year. Please refer to your authorized interlock installer for details.

On Feb. 27, I went to see the installer who claims he did not send any report of tampering to Arizona, gave him a copy of the corrective action and he said he would contact AZ MVD about the misunderstanding. I phoned AZ MVD and indeed they claim that they had received a tampering report from the installer on Feb. 20. I went back to the installer today March 1, 2010 and he was unable to come up with any form stating that the device had not been tampered with, so he typed a notice to MVD stating that he did not send any such report on Feb 20. Also said that I had not tampered with the device. He then signed the letter and faxed it to AZ MVD. MVD says the letter is no good and refuses to remove the corrective action against my driving record.

I have had to miss work so I could contact MVD by phone. I am mentally drained and stressed out to the max. This has caused me many unnessary trips to the installer which result in gas, also the expense of faxing paperwork to Arizona. Also **, because now AZ MVD requires me to keep the device for an additional year which will cost another $720.

The installer is outright lying to me about sending such report. Also while attempting to contact the installer by phone, they never answer the telephone and I've had to leave many messages, which I have never received a call back so therefore I've had to drive to the location every time I need to speak to them.

I am very frustrated, have lost many nights' sleep, and don't have hundreds of dollars to retain an attorney to get to the bottom of this problem. How do I get Arizona to remove the bogus "Corrective Action"?

About one month after that, the replacement unit failed. It kept aborting. I counted 30 times. I blew into that thing and it would not let me start the car. Once again, I took the device back to the service center and they gave me a new handheld unit. It's now 1-21-10 and the 3rd unit is working okay but I got a letter from MVA stating that that I didn't show up for my last scheduled appointment and that I'm in violation of the interlock program. I have kept all my appointments. I've been on time and had no failures. The people at the service center have been great. It's the Guardian Interlock that's the problem. I hope that someone who has to have one these devices put on their car reads this and is forewarned.

I have emphysema and I have a hard time blowing on it to get it started. I sent a letter from my doctor about this to the person who reads the outcome on them (Mel ** court monitor). The device makes you have to blow every 10 to 20 minutes while driving. It gives you a short time to blow and get a response to keep driving or it will kill the engine then.

This can cause an accident. If this is the only way they have for people who drink, they are stopping one harassed and correcting a bigger one by not having control of a car in the middle of traffic, and this has happened. My son was not able to get in touch with anyone to come and fix this and was unable to go to work. No one would answer our calls and we both left voice messages over and over for them.