Guardian Alarm Systems, Inc.

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed Administratively Resolved]
 Complaint: [redacted]
I am...

rejecting this response because:
When we (lauren and myself) tranfered service to the alexandria location we specifically asked if we were tranfering service not signing a year contract. Guardian explained that we were not signing a renewal contract. Guardian explained to my roommate she needed to sign a form to give them permission to install their services on our property. This bait and switch tactic of getting people to sign contracts they are not aware of can be seen in other complaints in consumer report. At that time we were under the impression we had been paying month to month because the same thing had happened when we signed a one year contract unknowling at the arlington location. When we confronted guardian on the phone about this they became unprofessional to the point my roommate (lauren) did not feel comfortable talking to guardian. We were threatened that "we could pay it or be sent to collection" and "they didnt care what was said to us because they had our signature". This was screamed at me with several other nasty comments before we were hung up on and had issues getting guardian to cancel service.
Regards,
[redacted]

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed Administratively Resolved] Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:
The response from Guardian is both misleading and disingenuos on several accounts.
Guardian stated that I could email [redacted] directly to cancel the service.   
They have misinterpreted several clauses of our contract, specifically paragraph 9 which does not address hours of operation for retreiving equipment and paragraph 13 that states that the alarm system shall at all times remain the property of the company to be removed by the company upon termination of this agreement.  Based on the contract language, there is nothing preventing Guardian from retreiving the equipment when the new home owners are available.  It seems that Guardian is simply trying to exploit the situation by charging me an exorbitant amount of money for their lack of willingness to retrieve their own equipment. They have breach the contract and their business practices are unethical and irresponsible.  
Attached is my official response to their claims. Regards,[redacted]

See attachment or check attachment tab.

6/6/2014To Whom It May Concern:,In response to your letter dated 6/2/2014 regarding [redacted] ID # [redacted].[redacted] contacted us regarding the canceling of his monitoring service. A contract was put in place between [redacted] and Guardian Alarm Systems, Inc on...

February' 10th 2012 for a period of 9 months. The contract then renewed automatically for a period of one year at the end of the nine month on November 10th 2012 and each year thereafter.On Saturday 4/12/2014 [redacted] requested the canceling of the service even though he still had 7 months left on his contract. Since he was moving we were willing to let him out of the contract early with no penalty. That same day I emailed him letting him know that I could have a technician come to his home and remove our equipment on Monday or Tuesday the 14th and 15th of April. He then emailed back to inform us that he had sold the house and no longer had access to it and that the real estate agent [redacted] would be in contact with the buyers to allow us access to the home.On May 5th the real estate agent still hadn’t contacted us to allow access to the home. On May 9f I sent the following email:[redacted],I did speak with him. Unfortunately he's not very motivated to make time for someone to come by during regular working hours. Right now he is telling us that the only time someone can come by is after 7pm or on a weekend. If we are unable to come up with a more reasonable way to retrieve the radio we will be forced to charge you for it.The new owners will only allow access on Monday through Friday after 7pm or on the weekends. I am not I the position to pay a technician overtime for after hour’s emergency call to retrieve equipment that by contract [redacted] was responsible to return. [redacted] needs to read his contract especially paragraph 2.1, that requires him to notify us by registered mail 60 days before the contract renews in order to cancel. And paragraph 9 that states we perform service Monday through Friday between the hours of 8:00 am and 5:00pm. Paragraph 13, regarding our ownership of the equipment, 15, removal of equipment, 16, default on his part. If [redacted] can not find his copy of the contract I would be happy to send it to him.I have attempted to work with [redacted] and allow early termination of the contract and to retrieve our equipment, but his inability to take care of his responsibility to make sure that the equipment was returned to us before selling and moving out of the home is out of our control.At this time we will be exercising our contracted [redacted] to charge [redacted] for the equipment he has not returned and if necessary will seek legal action against him.Regards,

Review: Two years ago, I agreed to use the Guardian Alarm System service in my new place. Recently, I have moved. As requested by [redacted], Vice President of Guardian Alarm System, I sent a written request to cancel the service back in the beginning of April. In order to discontinue service, the alarm system ("radio") has to be picked up. I provided the Vice President of the company with the contact information of the new home owners in order to schedule the logistics of the pick up. The Vice President of the company contacted the new owners of the home to schedule a time to pick up the alarm system. The new homeowners said they would only be available in the evenings or on the weekends. The Vice President claims that they will only come to pick up the alarm system during working hours. The Vice President says because the new owners will not be available during their working hours that I am in violation of my contract with them and are charging me $350. I believe that every effort is being made by myself and the new owners to return the alarm system to Guardian Alarm System. Their refusal to pick up their alarm system when the new owners are available hardly constitutes a breach on my part.Desired Settlement: I am requesting that Guardian Alarm System schedule a time when the new owners are available to retrieve the alarm system and close the account with a zero balance.

Business

Response:

6/6/2014To Whom It May Concern:,In response to your letter dated 6/2/2014 regarding [redacted] ID # [redacted] contacted us regarding the canceling of his monitoring service. A contract was put in place between [redacted] and Guardian Alarm Systems, Inc on February' 10th 2012 for a period of 9 months. The contract then renewed automatically for a period of one year at the end of the nine month on November 10th 2012 and each year thereafter.On Saturday 4/12/2014 [redacted] requested the canceling of the service even though he still had 7 months left on his contract. Since he was moving we were willing to let him out of the contract early with no penalty. That same day I emailed him letting him know that I could have a technician come to his home and remove our equipment on Monday or Tuesday the 14th and 15th of April. He then emailed back to inform us that he had sold the house and no longer had access to it and that the real estate agent [redacted] would be in contact with the buyers to allow us access to the home.On May 5th the real estate agent still hadn’t contacted us to allow access to the home. On May 9f I sent the following email:[redacted],I did speak with him. Unfortunately he's not very motivated to make time for someone to come by during regular working hours. Right now he is telling us that the only time someone can come by is after 7pm or on a weekend. If we are unable to come up with a more reasonable way to retrieve the radio we will be forced to charge you for it.The new owners will only allow access on Monday through Friday after 7pm or on the weekends. I am not I the position to pay a technician overtime for after hour’s emergency call to retrieve equipment that by contract [redacted] was responsible to return. [redacted] needs to read his contract especially paragraph 2.1, that requires him to notify us by registered mail 60 days before the contract renews in order to cancel. And paragraph 9 that states we perform service Monday through Friday between the hours of 8:00 am and 5:00pm. Paragraph 13, regarding our ownership of the equipment, 15, removal of equipment, 16, default on his part. If [redacted] can not find his copy of the contract I would be happy to send it to him.I have attempted to work with [redacted] and allow early termination of the contract and to retrieve our equipment, but his inability to take care of his responsibility to make sure that the equipment was returned to us before selling and moving out of the home is out of our control.At this time we will be exercising our contracted [redacted] to charge [redacted] for the equipment he has not returned and if necessary will seek legal action against him.Regards,

Consumer

Response:

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed Administratively Resolved] Review: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:

The response from Guardian is both misleading and disingenuos on several accounts.

Guardian stated that I could email [redacted] directly to cancel the service.

They have misinterpreted several clauses of our contract, specifically paragraph 9 which does not address hours of operation for retreiving equipment and paragraph 13 that states that the alarm system shall at all times remain the property of the company to be removed by the company upon termination of this agreement. Based on the contract language, there is nothing preventing Guardian from retreiving the equipment when the new home owners are available. It seems that Guardian is simply trying to exploit the situation by charging me an exorbitant amount of money for their lack of willingness to retrieve their own equipment. They have breach the contract and their business practices are unethical and irresponsible.

Attached is my official response to their claims. Regards,[redacted]