Missold burglar alarm

paddysreturn

Hi,

An elderly relative of mine received a cold call and agreed to buy a burglar alarm for £500 with a monitoring contract of £69 per month for 5 years on a small terraced house worth around £100k.

She realised after signing that she couldn’t afford the cost and rang up to cancel within the 21 day cooling off period and was persuaded to go ahead. The very next day at 7am the engineers turned up to install.

Now she cannot afford the cost and cancelled the direct debit (just a couple of months in). The company added charges to her account and told her that they would pass her account over to solicitors if she didn’t pay.

I’ve done some basic research and the product seems well overpriced and the company directors seem to have been associated with several companies that have been liquidated in the past.

I understand that she has signed a contract and I wasn’t present during the conversations but what is the best way to challenge this/seek help for her?

hollydays

How old is your relative?
Is she registered with tps

bris

5 year contracts are pretty much frowned upon for consumers, it won't stand up in court. £69 per month is also a rip off and the courts would know this, they would be in more trouble than the customer.


Ask trading standards to look into it.

paddysreturn

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction Bris.

@Hollydays she is 81.

Thanks

hollydays

Helpline here for elder abuse.
This is financial abuse
https://www.elderabuse.org.uk/helpline-england

maninthestreet

Sounds like daylight robbery.

scd3scd4

I have an alarm with ADT at about £35 and a three year contract. I paid about £125 for the install. Sounds expensive to me.

mikb

Did they by any chance point out the high levels of crime in the area, and why you need such a monitored alarm?

When they try this line on me, I explain the only criminal thing I'm aware of right now is the inflated and skewed statistics you're using to try and scare me, the fraudulent claims that police will respond immediately to your special alarm, the "you must sign up now or the offer goes away" technique to pressure sell, and your apparent ignorance of the TPS.

They go away.

Genuine alarm companies don't cold call trying to frighten and confuse people into buying their products.

I agree with comments above, they won't want to push this to debt collectors and court action, they wouldn't want their sales techniques scrutinized too closely.