Bristol Telephone & Security, Inc.

RevDex.com:
I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below
The Museum's Director of Security told me that he called *** *** of BTS for a quote for an upgraded system. So we have a "he said-she said" situation. I will offer *** *** and BTS one half of the bill they sent for $1,for "years of cellular monitoring for the years remaining on the contract and a 40% contract charge for cancelling not days prior to renewal" or $
Regards,
*** ***

THEY NEVER CONTACTED US IN REGARDS TO A QUOTE. THE BILL IS NOT FOR SERVICE, IT IS FOR MONITORING OF THE SYSTEMS. WE DID NOT INSTALL THE ORIGIONAL SYSTEM WHICH WAS POORLY INSTALLED YEARS AGO. AGAIN, WE WERE NEVER CONTACTED IN REQUEST FOR A BID TO UPGRADE.
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Review: Bristol Telephone and Security assumed control over the security system at the church. They changed the access codes on the security system to where no one else can reset or activate the system except them. Because of an issue with false alarms, we temporarily discontinued their services. This past week, in an attempt to reactivate the alarms, we had three contractors come out to give us bids. The contractors were located using the yellow pages in the Bristol Directory. Finally we were able to make out Bristol Telephone and Security's name and phone number on a piece of equipment, so we could contact them about the equipment. The other companies had told us that the previous provider had changed the access code from the factory settings for re-programing and there was no way for them to be able to program the equipment without the new codes. At first, we got a young lady who answered the phone, who really didn't know anything. Finally got back to a tech, who's first question was "well, why didn't you call us, a local company"? After explaining that we used the yellow pages to find our contractors, and they were not listed, even in the fine print, he proceeded to tell me that all our records were destroyed, and the computer records had been deleted.

This action on their part has now put the church in possession of equipment that we purchased, that has been rendered useless by Bristol Telephone and Security. The estimated replacement cost with similar equipment is nearly $700.00, as there is no way the techs for the other companies can reprogram the equipment without the codes.

Lastly, I can not imagine that a real security company would delete and destroy all of the records on a client. I really believe that it was either done out of spite, or that they are not being truthful about the loss of the church's records. I dont operate a security company, but I keep all of my customers records for at least 10 years after the last activity.Desired Settlement: I would either like the codes from Bristol Telephone and Security to be able to use the equipment, or for them to refund our purchase cost for the replacement equipment.

Business

Response:

WE DID NOT INSTALL THE SYSTEM. WE TOOK IT OVER FOR MONITORING AND DID NOT CHANGE THE INSTALLER CODE. WE USED THE ONE THAT WAS IN IT WHEN WE TOOK THE SYSTEM OVER FROM ANOTHER ALARM COMPANY. THEY NEED TO CALL THE COMPANY THAT INSTALLED IT AND ASK THEM FOR IT.

Review: Our organization needed to upgrade its outdated security system and contacted Bristol Telephone & Security, our current security company, along with 3 other companies to bid on a new system. The ONLY company that did not get back to us with an estimate for a new system was the company we had been using, Bristol Telephone & Security. Not only did they never respond and provide a bid, but also they frequently have been extremely late in responding to requests for service, necessitating numerous follow-up calls. However, when we called to discontinue our service, they were prompt to send a bill for $1,051.20, informing us that we owed an additional 4 years on our contract and would incur a 40% penalty for cancellation not 30 days prior to renewal. Surprisingly, we received the bill within 3 days of discontinuing service, but the company never seemed able to respond to a problem we were experiencing in that amount of time! Our Director of Security called the company today to inquire about waiving or reducing the termination fee in light of the fact that they elected not to bid on our future business, thus forcing us to discontinue our contract with them. It seems that we are being punished for breaking a contract with Bristol Telephone & Security, which their lack of interest in pursuing our continuing business forced us to break. We are a nonprofit organization on a tight budget and cannot afford to pay this unfair bill.Desired Settlement: We would like the termination bill waived or reduced by at least 50%.

Business

Response:

THEY NEVER CONTACTED US IN REGARDS TO A QUOTE. THE BILL IS NOT FOR SERVICE, IT IS FOR MONITORING OF THE SYSTEMS. WE DID NOT INSTALL THE ORIGIONAL SYSTEM WHICH WAS POORLY INSTALLED YEARS AGO. AGAIN, WE WERE NEVER CONTACTED IN REQUEST FOR A BID TO UPGRADE.

[redacted]

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

The Museum's Director of Security told me that he called [redacted] of BTS for a quote for an upgraded system. So we have a "he said-she said" situation. I will offer [redacted] and BTS one half of the bill they sent for $1,051.20 for "4 years of cellular monitoring for the 4 years remaining on the contract and a 40% contract charge for cancelling not 30 days prior to renewal" or $525.60.

Regards,