Home security systems

The best security is not having a damn thing worth stealing.

I always wonder about these "home invasions" in sketchy areas. Suspect many are drug invasions.

 

Did you actually put anything in writing that you cancelled? I'll ask Todd about your case.

 

Since when did drives limit themselves to sketchy areas? Ours don't. They are equal opportunity thieves.

 

Yes, I did. I first verbally told the Vivint rep over the phone that I wanted to cancel, then was told I had to send an email to their legal department with my name, account number, and a statement that I wished to cancel. I did so immediately after the phone call and several of their reps have subsequently confirmed that they received my cancellation notice.

Then, a month later, I got a bill, and was told I was supposed to have given 30 days notice, which, while it does sound reasonable to me, hadn't been told to me by the first rep. I grumbled a little, but paid for that month.

Then, they kept billing me, and during the calls, claimed I had renewed the deal both in 2014 and in 2015, which I knew I hadn't, since it made zero sense to renew a contract when I still had a long time on the current contract.

And today, a follow-up from my previous post on the subject.

I had been told they would let me listen in on the phone calls where I supposedly had agreed to renew it. They said they would call back. Of course, they didn't.

So today, I called again, got another rep, who repeated the contract renewal thing, but said he would message his manager and team leader about it and they would get back to me.

Surprisingly, the rep did call back a few hours later. He said he had listened to the call, and as it turned out, my wife had supposedly called to complain about a bill and had agreed to renew the contract. Which doesn't make much sense, since she's always left this bill up to me, and she denied having ever called them, but maybe she did in fact forget she did. Either way, the rep read me how they get people to renew, and it's not exactly kosher. Their statement tells the customer that they understand they're being recorded for quality assurance, then something else, then the rep mumbles how they agree to renew the contract. If someone doesn't listen closely, they're agreeing to something they may not want.

But anyhoo, they said my wife was on the account as an emergency contact, but not on the actual bill, so she wasn't authorized to renew the contract, making it invalid, and that they would refund me the money for what I had paid since the contract had expired. I got all of this info emailed to me by the rep, showing his computer screenshot of his program stopping my account and refunding me the money.

So, hopefully, after numerous months and phone calls, this finally ends up working out.

Until, of course, I get the next bill ...

 

Damn ... that (the recorded customer service call) is pretty damn sketchy ...

 

I think he's wondering about the motives for home invasions and robberies in low-income and poor areas. Not that such crimes are limited to low-income and poor neighborhoods, but because there is theoretically less of value to be taken. One can easily understand why a home in a well-to-do neighborhood gets robbed, the contents of the home are presumably worth stealing.

With regard to low-income and poor neighborhoods, possible drugs are a motivation.
However, there is also an issue of opportunity. Homes in such neighborhoods are less likely to have any security, and some times, unfortunately, the perp knows the victim and has direct knowledge of the contents of the home.