ComplaintsforGuardian Security Systems, Inc.

• Initial Complaint

  06/09/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Our church is being billed by a former merchant for services never performed.We are asking BBB to stop their harassment and note their poor treatment.

  Business response

  06/18/2024

  ****************
  Resolutions Consultant
  Better Business Bureau - ********************
  
  RE: ********************
  ID #********
  
  Dear ******************, 
  
  Thank you for bringing this situation to our attention.  The small church referenced in this complaint was a customer of ******************************************* beginning 12/9/1998. 
  On 10/30/23, Guardian Inspections team created a service ticket and scheduled the Annual Fire Alarm Inspection for 12/1/23
  On 11/28/23, the customer called to reschedule inspection, stating they would be out of town. Inspection was rescheduled for 12/18/23.
  On 12/12/23, the customer called in to cancel service, stating they were moving service to another company. Guardian rep advised customer of the 30 day written notice policy and emailed the link for the cancellation form to the customer to be completed. 
  Cancellation form was received same afternoon, and response was sent to customer acknowledging receipt of form and advising the cancellation would be effective 1/13/24. Fire ******** was notified. 
  On 12/17/23, automated appointment reminder was sent to customer email for inspection appointment on 12/18.
  On 12/18/23, automated dispatch notification sent to customer email at ******. At 11am, Technician was unable to gain access for inspection. Knocked on door and call phone number on ticket, received no response. 
  On 1/11/24, the customer called in a requested to be removed from scheduled, as services had been canceled.
  On 2/22/24, Guardian sent invoice to the customer for the missed Inspection - Rescheduling Fee equal to 2 hours of billable rate, for a total of $1441.44
  On 2/25/24, the customer emailed stating they had terminated services in early December, and requested Guardian delete the invoice for the missed inspection.
  On 3/29/24, Guardian customer care confirmed timeline and charges with inspections team. Account cancellation was finalized, and final balance notification was sent for the inspections invoice in amount of $1441.44. 
  On 4/23/24, (***** days) statement was generated and sent to customer via email
  On 6/1/24, ****** days) statement was generated and sent to customer via email
  As this customer was established with ******************** for 20+ years, and remained in good standing, we have waived the balance for the invoice reference above and the customer account will reflect a zero balance. 
  
  We are always sorry to lose a customer, and we wish them the best. 
  
  
  Warm ************************************************************** and Retention Manager

• Initial Complaint

  02/21/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Signed a 2 yr contract with Guardian Security Systems/****** in July 2023. They installed ****************************************** system and I paid $4804. 21 in Aug 2023. At first, the doorbell camera worked, but a couple months later, it had issues. Working off & on. ****, the salesman, dropped off the face of the Earth & never heard from him again. His sup, ****, never returned messages either after this large sum was received. Spoke with ****, sup of sales, & more helpful, so far..Had techs come out to the house to try different things to get the doorbell camera to work. Tried new doorbell, wifi extender, & more. Worked when tech was there & as soon as he left, nope. Still works off & on, which is the same as nothing, esp when you need to see who's at the door. Yesterday was 1 hr delay to notify my phone of me setting off camera. My contracts will be shared with BBB. Mostly, the company waited for me to call & initiate help even though they knew there was a huge problem. Me paying for an overpriced *********** doesn't even work & they don't know how tofix it. Received an email today from the office saying **** wants to know when they can come and remove all the equipment "per my request". I never requested that. I sent certified letter today to **** w some possible solutions. I would like to consult w BBB before I decide what exactly would be my request. But I want the monthly payments to stop. I want the contract to stop considering all the headache this has been not to mention leaving work early multiple times to meet w them. If you read Guardian reviews, their MO is to keep trying to bill people even after people have ended contracts, etc!! Is the owner aware of all that happens in the ****** office?Btw, as soon as I signed w Guardian, they sent a certified letter threatening to put a lien on my house, etc for non-payment. Standard protocol for them I guess.As stated above, my request will be more clear, after my phone consult. Thanks BBB.

  Customer response

  02/21/2024

  I am asking that they cancel the contract preferably March 1, 2024, or as soon as we can MUTUALLY decide on a date.  The Attorney General is also involved in this, as well as a couple other agencies.  I will put it IN WRITING when **** from Guardian agrees to do this, as this company is known for having ongoing problems for people trying to cancel them.   Since I have already paid over $5,000 since just last summer, it would be logical that I need to keep the cameras & all equipment.  I do not want them monitoring this system in any way.  I do not want to make monthly payments as this situation is still in limbo, and the doorbell camera continues to only work at times.  The cancelation contract needs to be in plain English, not legalese, preferably one page.  Want to cut all ties with this company.  Thank you.  Please forward this also to ************************* at Guardian Security Systems in ******, **.

  Business response

  03/07/2024

  Thank you for bringing this situation to our attention. *********************** signed a 24-month contract with Guardian Security on 7/19/23. We installed the system per scope of contract and have gone above and beyond in our efforts to resolve any subsequent issues. This was also addressed to the Attorney General and the case has been closed.
  
  A doorbell camera connection issue was identified on 10/16/23. We serviced the doorbell camera on seven separate visits: 10/20/23,11/22/23, 12/6/23, 12/20/23, 1/24/24, 1/30/24, and 2/5/24. Additionally, we credited two months of monitoring fees (December and January), refunded February monitoring fees, replaced the doorbell twice, and installed/tested two different Wi-Fi boosters in order to resolve the doorbell Wi-Fi connectivity issues. Note that we did not charge **** for any of these additional parts or labor.
  
  Unfortunately, the Wi-Fi connectivity issue persisted. We are confident that this is not workmanship or parts malfunctions, but an existing Wi-Fi connection issue. We proactively communicated with *********************** throughout this process and documented and stored all notes.
  
  Per ***************** request, we have waived the balance of contract and have terminated services and contracts.
  
  We are always sorry to lose a customer and wish *********************** the best.
  
  Kind regards,
  
  *****************************
  Customer Care & Retention Manager
  Pronouns: she/her/hers
  Phone:********************

  Customer response

  03/20/2024

  To reply to *****************************' correspondence (of Guardian Security) dated March 7, 2024--Some corrections on incorrect statements include 

  +She said the case with the Attorney General is closed and in fact, it is not.  Just missed an email correspondence and then it was reopened.

  +She listed off several dates they came to fix the problem, that never got fixed, and said "they did not charge **** any extra for parts or labor".  I was already paying $140.00 monthly including $30.00 of that for an extended service contract!  Meaning if one has problems, they are supposed to go out and fix it WITHOUT charging anything!  So I was paying dearly to get all that extra help.

  +***************************** also stated they credited back my monitoring fees.  This was ONLY because I asked on multiple occasions!!  They never acted proactively in this situation at any time.  Then after they saw I was requesting to get out of the contract, they still billed me twice.  I had to keep emailing or calling to get those reversed.

  +In conclusion, this company now has my letter to request cancellation of all services and bills/invoices.  They were served it through certified mail and it is now also documented in public records through multiple agencies, on the Internet.  This is to prevent them to continue billing, ANYTIME in the future, as has been their MO.

  Thank you, BBB.  I appreciate all your efforts.

• Initial Complaint

  04/17/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  Cancelled monitoring service since December 2022, due to technician not able to install upgrade. Lack of monitoring since 2022. Recurring billing still ongoing as of 3/25/23, and business still has not refunded me for 2/25/23 and 3/25/23 despite dozens of emails and phone calls. Now 4 months later, I received a new billing statement on 4/15/33. This business is totally incompetent and not able to give me a refund or stop billing. They are terrible!!!

• Initial Complaint

  10/31/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  Hello. BBB helped me with an issue a couple months ago. Thank you all for that! I have another problem.The address I gave is not correct because I cannot find their address. They have a returns address of: ******** ****************************************************************** I bought exterior motion activated sensors from them online (guardlinesecurity.com), a kit containing 4 sensors and a receiver. Shortly after buying the kit, one sensor went haywire. I called (last week of September) and was told they would send a replacement but they were out of stock and would have more in 3 weeks. After 3 weeks or more, I sent an email inquiring about the sensor. I got no reply. a few days later, I sent another email. No reply again. Thank you BBB for any assistance you can give me!

• Initial Complaint

  04/21/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  In 2020, we signed a 2 year contract with Guardian Security for security monitoring at our home. The contract was only signed because they insisted our security system needed to be upgraded from 3G and to do so would require us signing a 2 year contract. We signed the contract and they came to our house to upgrade the equipment and were not able to complete the upgrade. They informed us that the system would not be able to be upgraded. The following year (2021) we switched to another security monitoring service that was able to upgrade our equipment. They began monitoring our home in November 2021. In January 2022, I received a **** from Guardian Security for a full year of monitoring service for 2022. I contacted them to inform them that they had not been monitoring or house, or providing any service to us, since November 2021. They insisted that we needed to complete a 30 day cancellation request. I complied and after 30 days they still had not cancelled our service. When I contacted them again, they sent an invoice for monitoring service through April 2022 and insisted that we were under contract for the service. I repeated the facts of what transpired over the past 2 years and the fact that they said they could not upgrade our service after requiring me to sign a 2 year contract. I also told them I wanted a credit for 2022 and that I would reach out to the Better Business Bureau if they didn't respond to my note. They did not respond and so I am reaching out to you for help. The contract we signed was done so only because it was required to upgrade our equipment from 3G. Guardian later informed us they could not do the upgrade. They should not be allowed to maintain the contract is still in force for 2 years. I am requesting a full refund for 2022 monitoring services from them. The amount is $114.50. I am sure I am not the only customer that has been forced into signing a contract with them to later find out that won't fulfill the agreement.

  Business response

  04/26/2022

  Good morning,

  In reading the notes on the account, i show where our install team had trouble processing the upgrade. Notes say that we tried to install the new "cell unit", spent over 3 hours doing so was the signal was extremely weak. It was recommended that an antenna would need to be added or we would have to wait until the signal improved. Since this is no fault of the customers, we have processed a credit in the amount of $281.86 (which covers the monitoring the customer would've paid for 3/22-12/22). I've also issued a refund for the months of 12/20, 1/21, 2/21 since ******* system had trouble during these times. $30 per month x 3 months plus $9.09 for taxes, so a total amount of $99.09 will be issued as a refund. 

   

  Customer response

  04/26/2022

   
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. Please send the refund to *******************, *************************************************************, 98004
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *******************

• Initial Complaint

  04/19/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  TLDR: Date of transaction: 2/14/2022 What the business committed to provide: Take over the existing system from Puget Sound Alarm that Guardian Security acquired. Connect the existing fire and burglary alarm system to be centrally monitored within a month for my insurance company as my insurance company is required to connect fire and burglary within 30 days of purchase. Also update old keypads to touchpads.Nature of the dispute: Guardian Security made 2 attempts to connect burglary alarms only which didnt work and required a 3rd visit. Guardian Security also refused to connect the fire alarm within 2 months. Im losing faith in this company and would like to work with another company instead. Whether the company has tried to resolve the issue: Yes with the caveat of taking 2 months to find resolution with multiple escalations. However, this has delayed my insurance underwriting process as well as the trouble I went through made me not wanting to work with this company anymore.Desired outcome: Remove installed equipment and return the existing system to condition previous to installation. Terminate the contract and I will seek another trustworthy company.Long story attached as PDF

  Business response

  04/28/2022

  The original scope that the customer signed for was the takeover of the security system on a Vista 20P panel. Not the takeover of the security and fire alarm system. The fire alarm panel is an entirely separate panel. The original contract document that was signed on 2/14 specifically says intrusion monitoring and there is no mention of the fire alarm monitoring.This appears to be the original source of problem. While Guardian makes the best effort to install equipment immediately, our contract does not guarantee that we will be able to have the system up and monitored because Guardian could run into issues outside the scope of the contract. The contract also protects the customer on unexpected costs in the installation and takeover of the intrusion system for the original scope.
  
  However, Mr. *** is correct in that Guardian is the expert,not the customer, and the full scope of the issue should have been known in advance of the contract being executed. This error should have been caught corrected during the sales process. Ideally, it would have been caught by the customer, ***************, however as he mentions he is not, nor is expected to be an expert.
  
  The original written scope was delivered for the monitoring of the intrusion system. Guardian cannot remove the equipment on the security alarm monitoring and ******** old equipment has already been recycled. We have proposed leaving the new system in place, completing the installation of the Keypad and the Transformer. We will forgo out contract balance and charge only for the equipment, and allowing the customer to find a new service provider for the security system and to monitor the fire alarm equipment. We will not charge the customer for the balance of contract or the labor cost for the three trips to install the equipment as his residence. The intrusion system is functioning and up and running and can easily be taken over by another company.

  In responding to this complaint we completed an investigation into the sales teams, have coached, and set up additional new internal systems to ensure this error does not occur again. 

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩