Pinnacle Security Review: Installation Damage To Customer's Home

I was scammed by Pinnacle Security. In my opinion, everyone I talked with at the company lied to me about one thing or another. I have never come across such a large dishonest organization and I will do everything I reasonably can to prevent others from being scammed by this organization. I had an alarm installed in the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area.

My formal complaint to the Oregon Attorney General reads as follows:

***** beginning of formal written complaint ******

On May 15, 2009, at my house, a representative from Pinnacle Security knocked on my door and offered to give me a demonstration security system in exchange for putting his company sign in my front yard. We chatted for about 10 minutes while he made his sales pitch. The only cost he mentioned was that I would receive the system at no other cost than the use of a small piece of my yard for advertising purposes. He did not mention any other charges.

Then we discussed the proposed system for about 20 minutes. The proposed system would have two door alarms and a motion sensor alarm. According to the representative: 1) The exchange of value for having their security system in my house would be for me to keep their sign in my yard for 39 months. 2) My 65 lb. dog would not trigger the motion alarm. I asked the representive about this explicitly. According to the representative, the system alarm would not be triggered by the movements of a 70 lb. dog. 3) There would be a monthly service charge of about $45.00 and my insurance company would cover the full cost of this. We had a meeting of the minds based on the representatives verbal claims.

I agreed to have the system installed. When installing the system, the technicians made a hole in the wall in my office, holes in my doors, holes in my door frames, and holes in the wall of my living room. After talking with my insurance company I found that my insurance company would only pay a token amount of a few dollars per year. I now doubt that very few, if any, insurance companies would actually pay the full cost of the monthly fees.

On May 18, 2009 I called Pinnacle and demanded that they cancel the monthly service fees. I made it very clear to Pinnacle that I was canceling because the contract was invalid because it was made under falls pretenses (and I attempted to inform them what those were), and therefore the contract is invalid.

Pinnacle informed me that they would cancel the monthly account, and they would remove the equipment from my house and they would not repair the damages made to my house. I demanded that they either leave the system in place for the 39 months, because the representative and I had agreed that I could have the system in place if I kept the sign in my yard, or they must repair the holes in my house after removing their equipment. Pinnacle said they would cancel the monthly payments, and they would also either remove the system from my house without repairing damages, or they would charge me for the cost of the system.

My complaints are: 1) The original agreement with the representative was that I could keep the system as long as I kept the Pinnacle company sign in my yard. The only cost to me would be the use of a small portion of my yard for advertising purposes. Pinnacle refuses to honor that agreement. I am at a loss for the system or I am threatened with retribution from the company. 2) After the system was installed, I checked the specifications for the motion detector. According to the best information I can find, the motion detector will only tolerate the movements of about a 40 lb. pet before it would trigger the alarm. (I have not tested the system to determine the actual tolerance.) The original claim by the sales representative was that it would tolerate a 70 lb. pet before triggering the alarm. 3) I talked with my insurance company, and they said they would not cover the monthly cost. The claim made by the sales representative that any large and reputable insurance company would pay the monthly service fees in full, and my insurance company (Allstate) is large and reputable, was completely false. 4) Pinnacle has denied that they will be responsible for fixing the holes in my house after removing their equipment, referring to text of the writing on the back of the purchase order which says that the purchaser will be responsible for repairs made after the equipment is removed. This is despite the invalidity of the contract because the contract was made under false pretenses. The agreement between the sales representative and myself was made under false pretenses. The verbal contract made between myself and the representative was based on multiple misrepresentations of the truth made by the representative. I believe that the system was not a demonstration system that it was a scam to get me signed up for their monthly services. The systems motion detector alarm could be triggered by my 65 lb. dog. Insurance companies do not pay the monthly costs of these kinds of systems.

Because of the falseness of the statements made by the sales representative, the contract made between myself and the company representative is invalid. Since the contract is invalid, the company and myself cannot be held to the terms of the contract. The company damaged my house and should be required to repair those damages despite the writings in the purchase order because they were not made in the context of a valid contract. If the contract is for some unforeseen reason valid, the agreement made between myself and the Pinnacle representative was that I will receive and have use of the system in my house if I keep the sign in my yard, and that there would be no monthly service cost to me. The company is refusing to honor this. (The system has a nice door chime feature that I get value from, so I want to keep the system to use as a door chime.)

I believe that I should get the system for the price of the use of a small piece of my yard as we agreed to, or the company should repair my house after removing the equipment. I believe that the company may have had poor representation in the person of their employee, ****** ******, who struck a bad deal for them. I believe that the company is trying to save the costs of the bad deal by making me pay for them by the negative value of damage to the walls and door of my house.

When I talked with Pinnacles customer support on the phone, the support person said that the company does not recognize the claim that insurance companies pay the monthly service fee as valid, and tried to rationalize that the sale representative must have meant the small discount from the insurance company. So Pinnacle acknowledged that it is aware that the statement is false.

I am concerned that other people may be taken in by false statements made by Pinnacle, and I am concerned that Pinnacle does not respect the integrity of the personal property of the people it does business with. I believe that many Oregonians are being stuck with systems that cost more than were promised, and I am concerned that Pinnacle may be damaging peoples personal property without agreement from the property owners.

***** end of formal written complaint ******

The Attorney General sent a copy of my complaint to Pinnacle. Pinnacle responded to the A.G. as follows:

***** beginning of Pinnacle's response *****

We have received the complaint that was filed with the Attorney General in the state of Oregon.

According to our contract, the customer is responsible for all payments due under the agreement. It also states that any verbal agreement is superceded by the written agreements on the contract. The written agreements states that the customer understands they are responsible for the monthly payments, and that they understand that drilling may be required for the installation of their services. It is our policy, according to the contract, that we do not repair holes which were necessary for the installation of the equipment should the customer choose to cancel within the three day grace period.

Our records show the Mr. **** cancelled his agreement within the allotted period of time, and that we informed him of his option to either allow us to remove the equipment or he would be responsible to pay the cost of the equipment. Our records show that the system was pulled on May 28, 2009 and Mr. Ball has not contacted us since then regarding the repairs to his walls. We have cancelled the contract and released Mr. Ball from an monetary obligation to Pinnacle Security.

If you have any further questions, please contact....

***** end of Pinnacle's response *****

This response is pure legal BS!!! And I'm sure they know it. First, my claim was that the contract was not valid, so all this stuff about the content of the writing is nonsense.

Second, the writing is not the contract, even if it has words like "Contract" or "Agreement for Services" written on it. The first thing we learn in business law class is that a contract is the meeting of the minds, not the writing, except when buying and selling real estate. So Pinnacle's document is actually more of a purchase order than a contract.

Third, Pinnacle claims that "It is our policy, according to the contract [sic], that we do not repair holes". Which simply means that it is their policy to break the law (i.e. to commit vandalism). They made holes in my house as part of an invalid contract, so they are obligated to repair the holes after removing their equipment. If their policy is to not repair the holes they made, then their policy is to vandalize people's houses, which is criminal activity.

Fourth, it cost less to repair the holes in my house myself, than it would cost me in time and money to have a contractor come out, make a bid, fax the bid to Pinnacle, have Pinnacle respond, have the contractor show up and do the work, etc. On top of that, after putting my time to get a bid, fax it, etc., Pinnacle may have decided to not pay the costs (per their stated policy to commit vandalism) to fix the holes. So I just fixed the d****d holes myself!

The last person I talked with was the guy who removed the equipment. I explained to him that the contract was made under false pretenses and why it was invalid and I asked him to please fix the holes after he removed the equipment. He agreed that I had been lied to and misrepresented by the sales rep, so he would certainly patch the holes. He removed the equipment, packed up his equipment, and prepared to leave. I asked him when he was going to fix the holes, and he said to contact the main office and left. He lied to me. I believe he did this to minimize confrontation while he removed the equipment.

From the first to the last, everyone at Pinnacle Security lied to me. The door-to-door sales guy lied to me multiple times. Pinnacle's main office lied to me about the contract, among other things. Pinnacle lied to the Attorney General about the nature of my complaint. The equipment removal guy lied to me about patching the holes in my walls. And they all seemed like such nice Mormon boys. Unfortunately for the Mormons, this kind of thing creates an impression of what Mormon morality is about: lying, vandalism and theft are OK.

In my opinion, these are really bad people to do business with. I have never had the displeasure of meeting a more slimy and dishonest group of so-called business people in my life.

In my opinion, they get away with it because, as organized criminals go, they are small potatoes and the local Attorney Generals has bigger crime issues to deal with, and their shrinking budgets don't help. I feel sorry for the folks who have to repair the damage caused by this criminal organization, and I feel even sorrier for the folks who get stuck being forced to pay for an overpriced Pinnacle Security system.

If you feel you have been scammed by these guys, please submit a complaint to your local Attorney General. If they get enough complaints they may find the political will to act.