On the evening of 5/20/09 two young men knocked on our front door. They told my husband and I that they saw the Monitronics Security System Sign in our front yard and wanted to let us know they were in the neighborhood to update the security system. They told us that their company, Pinnacle Security, had merged with our current company Monitronics Security and that we needed a new key pad to comply with Pinnacle's monitoring computers.
They made several calls on their cell phones and then announced that a technician could install the new key pad later that night. These young men stayed at our home for a couple of hours watching sports with my husband. They chatted with our 9 year old son about his interest in sports. They accepted non-alcoholic refreshments from me. They played with our black lab.
I went to bed around 10:00pm and my husband stayed up with the two young men to wait for the installer to arrive. In the morning the new key pad was on the wall and the Monitronics Security Stickers on the windows of our home had been replaced with Pinnacle Security Stickers (my husband helped them put the new stickers on). Oddly, the technician had left his full tool box in our living room. I called Pinnacle to let them know he needed to come pick it up. A full week went by before another man called me and asked me to leave the tool box on our front porch so someone could pick it up. I placed it on the porch and when I returned home from work, it was gone.
Last week I was looking through our bank statements and noticed that we were being charged for monitoring from both Monitronics and Pinnacle Security. I assumed it was in error since I had been told that these companies had merged. On 10/16/09 I called Monitronics and spoke to an account manager. He told me that the two companies had NOT merged and that Pinnacle had misrepresented itself. On 10/19/09 (had to wait for Monday) I called Pinnacle and spoke to an account representative who told me that their salesmen made it clear that they were not responsible to cancel my previous security service. I told her that I disagreed with that statement and that I wanted my money back (5 months at $45.99 = $229.95). She told me that I signed a 39 month agreement and that my money would not be refunded, plus I was responsible for the remainder of the contract (34 more months).
I am furious that my family has been scammed. My husband and I both work hard outside the home, but make little money due to the recession (he works in construction & gets partial unemployment). We chose to have a security system because we live in a very crime-ridden part of town and we wanted the peace of mind knowing that we could get help quickly in the event of a break-in. Every penny counts and we cannot afford to pay for double monitoring. I am disgusted that Pinnacle Security misrepresented themselves and now has the audacity to deny the claim.
I plan to press legal charges against this company and encourage anyone who has been scammed by Pinnacle Security to contact me through this website.