I had a 2-year contract with a security system company. (I'll name them if it's allowed as a warning for others)
February 2017 - I call and confirm that my contract is up in May. I tell them I am moving and don't need service any more after this. At this time they didn't tell me anything about the onerous cancellation procedure I was going to have to follow.
June - I've already moved and do not need service in the new location (and I don't have the hardware installed to even get service if I wanted it). But I got billed for June so I called them to ask and they said "we keep billing you monthly after your contract is up". I politely asked them to remove the charge and end my service given my conversation from 3-4 months ago. Not only won't they remove the charge, they tell me that I have to pay another 30 days from my cancellation. (There were a bunch of other shady practices done to try to get me to not cancel. I won't detail them all as it would detract from my main point, but I'll mention that it happened because I think it shows what kind of company they are)
So now I'm stuck paying for June and July. I called and politely explained the situation to a manager. He spent 10 minutes trying to get me to not cancel (I politely listened to it for awhile thinking it would help me get the two months of bill cancelled) and then eventually said there was nothing he could do.
Anything I can do?
I've never done a credit card chargeback, but I suspect that I'm not in the "legal right" as everything that happened is probably in the fine print of their contract, and I have no proof of the phone call in February.
June 21, 2017 at 08:50AM
