Thank you for this wonderful area to let off steam and warn others. My complaint is with Bay Alarm. And this is a lesson for everyone: some companies will have a long term contract for their customers which they will not mention to you when you begin service with them. We had a 3-year lease at our store in the California Bay Area. After the alarm was installed, I signed that the work had been done. Also on that page, never pointed out to me, was this statement:
"User hereby authorizes Bay Alarm Co. hereinafter Co., or assigns to install, maintain, and service an alarm detection or monitoring system under the following conditions and agrees to pay the installation charge upon completion and the service charge in advace at Co.'s address for an initial period of five years, from date system is operational."
When we closed the store and contacted Bay Alarm, they let me know I had unwittingly signed up for 5 years. I asked, can I have the service continued at my house, then, for the remainder? The answer: "We'll send a salesperson."
What this salesperson told me is that I could serve out the rest of the contract at my house if I paid an additional on-time fee of $900 on top of the regular monthly payments!
Lessons to be learned:
1) Always ask if there is a long-time commitment for any service
because unscrupulous companies will hope you don't notice.
2) Bigger (as in a well-known company) is not always better.
3) Bay Alarm has no heart when working with customers.
I got Bay Alarm in case I was robbed, but they robbed me!
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tien@csua.berkeley.edu