According to many, Vivint Security of Provo, Utah should be ashamed. The home alarm company has been accused of taking advantage of military troops concerned over the ISIS threats against their families.
ABC News reported the company has been utilizing overly-aggressive sales tactics with military families. The sales and marketing staff have been allegedly exploiting the safety concerns of deployed U.S. soldiers seeking stronger security for their families. These pressure sales have resulted in an “F” grade for Vivint from the Better Business Bureau.
“Vivint has an F rating with us and the consumers are telling us the sales people are saying one thing, the contract says another,” said Jane Driggs, the Executive Director of the Better Business Bureau in Utah.
ABC News Fixer has been contacted by five military families over the past year to complain about Vivint. They have allegedly been charged cancellation fees upwards of $2,000 when cancelling their service due to transfers or unplanned retirement caused by service-related injuries.
Jason Plummer, a Marine who was injured in a roadside bomb attack, said, “The sales person on the phone said that it would not be a problem.” But when he received medical retirement orders and was preparing to move off base, the alarm company would not allow him out of his contract.
Plummer said he did not realize the language in the contract did not agree with what he was being told by the home alarm salespeople.
“It definitely gives you a feeling like you’ve been betrayed,” Plummer said in an interview broadcast on “Good Morning America”. “It feels like you’re getting stabbed in the back.”
The other four families that contacted ABC News also complained that they had been misled by sales people about the ability to cancel their contracts due to transfers.
After ABC News contacted Vivint, the company agreed to cancel all of the complaining families’ contracts. They stated that either the company representatives or the families did not understand the terms of the contract.
While Vivint has agreed to deal with individual complaints as an attempt to avoid bad press, the Better Business Bureau says it has not done enough to correct the bigger issue of false promises made by its salespeople.
According to ABC News, Vivint released a statement saying it had taken care of the individual complaints brought to its attention by ABC News and that the overall number of complaints to the Better Business Bureau represents less than one percent of their large customer base. It also stated it has updated it policies in regards to military personnel discharged for medical reasons.
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