CHARLOTTE — When Carl Johnson moved into a new house, he kept many things the same, like doing the cooking when possible. But one thing that did change: his alarm company.
He says he had AMP Smart on his old house, that he called them -- around February -- to cancel and that they told him to mail them a letter. “So I wrote a letter and just never heard anything back. So that’s why I started to follow up making telephone calls,” he said. “I did get someone on the phone, but it was back-and-forth.”
He says they told him he had a contract -- with five years to go -- and wouldn’t let him out of it. He insisted he didn’t sign a contract.
He says he moved in March and signed on with a different company for the house, but says AMP Smart kept charging him every month.
Action 9 attorney Jason Stoogenke found similar complaints on the BBB’s website among a total of nearly 300. Plus an alert involving licensing and an “F” rating.
“I don’t like it. I could be doing something else with that money,” Johnson said. He says he went on to pay for both alarm services for months because he didn’t want to risk hurting his credit. “Me and my wife work really hard to keep our credit at a certain level and we want it keep going up… I can’t stop. I can’t stop or I know it’s going to tarnish it,” he said.
He says, then, all of sudden, sometime after Stoogenke got involved, the bills just stopped.
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Action 9 tried contacting the company multiple times and ways since August. He got in touch with a real person at one point. She told him to email a certain representative. So he did, three times, but no response in time for this report.
No matter what security company you use:
- Assume something you signed is a contract, even if it doesn’t look like one.
- You may even be agreeing to auto-renewal.
- Having trouble getting out of the deal? File a complaint with the state.
Each Carolina has an agency that regulates alarm companies specifically: North Carolina and South Carolina.
You can always consider legal action, especially if you’re in the military (remember: you have extra protection in cases like this).
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