Outrage: Sounding the Alarm

Mamie Johnson outside her home. Photo by Shaun Heasley

Mamie Johnson of Memphis, Tenn., was skeptical when a man knocked on her door last November and told her that her home alarm system wasn’t working. But he soon put her at ease after explaining that her alarm, seven years old, couldn’t possibly be working. He even called her current security company, while sitting on her sofa, to confirm that the system was out, she says.  

So Johnson, 60, signed some paperwork and the man recoded her alarm for new service by the Alarm Company LLC. But within days, Johnson called her original security provider to make sure her old service was canceled, only to learn that her system was never out and that she remained under contract with the company through 2010. Johnson tried to cancel her new contract but was told she couldn’t because she had signed paperwork committing her to more than $1,500 for five years of service. That meant she was stuck paying for two alarm services each month. “He lied to me,” Johnson says of the Alarm Company representative. “I was signing up for the alarm that he said I didn’t have.”

Johnson’s experience doesn’t appear to be isolated. The Better Business Bureau has logged numerous similar complaints against the Cordova, Tenn., company. A representative from the Alarm Company was unavailable for comment.  Johnson did get some relief. After filing a complaint with the BBB, she says, the company disconnected the service and released her from the contract. Nonetheless, it continued to bill her $40 a month until April.