I hate it when newspapers use a stupid pun headline. So what do I do? The same thing! What a putz.
So this morning I had my last conversation with Integrated Alarm Services Group of Las Vegas, NV. I am posting this in hopes that anyone thinking of establishing a business relationship with this company thinks again.
Integrated is a racket. They are not unique -- I think most other alarm monitoring services are also rackets. Here is why. When you sign the contract, there is a little clause about it being for a year. After that, unless you send a notice in writing a month in advance, it automatically gets extended for another year. And then another. And then another.
Let's say the contract is dated September 21. Let's say you have been a “valued“ customer for over 5 years. And let's also say you sell your house in October, not knowing back in August if and when your house was going to sell, so not sending a duly-worded and signed notice to the alarm company to terminate the contract before its annual auto-renewal date. Heck, not even remembering about that pesky and sinister auto-renewal clause. Well, now you are stuck with owing for the better part of a year for alarm monitoring services that the alarm company is failing to provide, but which you by golly better not fail to pay for.
I voiced my objections back in November to this incongrous business arrangement, only to be told that if I didn't pay up they would make sure it turned up as a big black mark on my credit report. I told them to go right ahead.
Over time I relented and paid up to the end of the year, and intended not to pay a penny after that.
Today a poor unsuspecting collections lady called me asking when she can expect the remainder due. Although the phrase “when hell freezes over” was never vocalized in exactly those words, I let her know what I thought. She was obviously unprepared for this and I ended up speaking with her supervisor who said she had been monitoring the conversation. In the end we reached a settlement and I made a payment to make the whole thing go away. Part of me wanted to continue to refuse to pay just on the principle of the thing. It is not so much the money (I ended up paying $140 out of $215 “owed“), but that I was not getting anything for it and that I thought the contract was unethical.
I am still not happy. I wonder if this matter went to court what would happen. Would a judge agree that it is wrong to pay for 10 months of non-service just because of a contract that is clearly designed to take advantage of exactly this type of situation?
This time around I have made other arrangements for alarm monitoring. Integrated and other monitoring companies like it can just, well, insert your favorite naughty phrase here.