ComplaintsforSmith Thompson Home Security

• Initial Complaint

  11/27/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  SMITH-THOMPSON, Lic. TPCL *******, BILLING ISSUE, On Friday, Aug. 25th, 2023, I received a call from SMITH-THOMPSON saying they would be at my house in 15 minutes for pest control appointment. I told the worker for S/T, I didn't have any work scheduled. he responded that I was on a quarterly contract. I pointed out that he was wrong. I generally line up an appointment in the spring and as needed in the fall. I ended the call. He preceded to my house and said he sprayed the outside around the house. I didn't authorize or approve. To my surprise, checking my AMEX bill on Aug 30th. there's a charge for $79.+tax. I was very upset that #1- S/T came to my house/property un-invited after I told the worker that I wasn't going to use their service. I'm not sure that he sprayed the outside of me house. I never saw it on my RING camera. #2- charged my AMEX the amount without me providing the card. I never gave S/T permission to store my AMEX. I don't do that much business with them. I don't know if they I.T. security to properly store my private credit card information. It concerns me a company will retain that information. #3- as far as a quarterly contract. I've never signed one. I see this a a money/volume grab to dupe customers. I disputed the charge with AMEX. Then, I receive a invoice in the mail dated 11.21.23 that I owe them $85.52. If this goes on my credit record, I'll involve my Lawyer.

  Business response

  12/13/2023

  ********************** signed our standard quarterly agreement on May 17, 2023 at 12:14 PM that day, service ticket number ****** (we have a copy in our records) and received his treatment. Went it came time for next treatment, we called, as we always do. He hung up on us (for unknown reasons) so ************** went ahead and did our usual outside treatment. We do the inside if the customer requests it, at no extra charge, but indicated he would not be there which is why. This is very typical. We also have the chemical records for the exact materials used on the day that he says we never showed up. This is state law, and we comply. We also have our technicians GPS records from his truck which clearly display that he was at the correct address. If any customer indicates that we are "uninvited" or that "they were not going to continue to use our services", the last thing we would have done is proceed to the property, knowing full well we would not be paid, so no one told us this clearly. He simply doesn't want to pay for services rendered. And as far as keeping a credit card on file, this was authorized by the customer and this again, is typical on an agreement like this. This is no "money grab" as the customer puts it, it's just standard normal operation practices done thousands of times a day, with zero problems. The customer has already disputed the credit card payment resulting in a balance due to us. The customer owes us for exactly what he agreed to pay us. 

• Initial Complaint

  11/06/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  My house was broken into Thursday, October 26. I armed the house "away" when I left that morning. I did not get a call from Smith Thompson when my house was broken into. The robbers walked all through my house and out the back door. Why did my motion detector not go off or the alarm triggered when the robbers walked out the back door? I purposely tripped my system on Friday to see if it worked and I did get a call from them. I called on the day of the robbery and reported it on Friday to the team lead but did not get any one to call my back. I had to call back on Tuesday, October 31 and was told they will send out a technician to check the system which he did on Wednesday, November 1 and was told the system worked properly and that he would notify his boss. I did not hear back from anyone and left a message for ***** on Friday, Nov 3. No one returned my call. Therefore, I called back on Monday, Nov 6 and finally was able to talk to *****. He was no help and could not explain to me what happened and why my system did not go off. He didn't seem to care or even know what to do. Smith Thompson failed to do their jobs properly to monitor my house. I am still waiting for an explanation on how this happened when Smith Thompson was supposed to be monitoring my home. I would like to cancel my service and want a full refund since Smith Thompson failed to do their job. This company gives a false sense of security and do not back their product/service. I've been with Smith Thompson for so long and am disappointed on how I've been treated throughout this whole ordeal.

  Business response

  11/08/2023

  The reason the alarm never went off is because it was never armed. When ************** arrived, the first thing he noticed was a dead battery in a glass break zone that was holding the zone open, and the Honeywell system ( that was installed by another company many years ago, that we simply took over the monitoring) will not let you arm the system with an open or 'check' zone. The system worked perfectly for nearly 10 years and was even tripped 3 times in the past few months, so we don't know how long this battery had been low and finally dead. Clearly a while. The keypad clearly annunciates the low battery indication so surely the customer would have seen this. In fact we get dozens of calls every day from customers asking how to swap a battery and most just do it over the phone, but we are happy to schedule a service call for those who do not. ************** did in fact change the battery while he was there and the system worked fine (Armed as normal, went off, signals received just fine). So... the system worked fine many times over the past few months, plus the last 10 years, and the system works fine when we test it, but fails to work one particular day of a break in? We've never seen this in over 45 years, a system working fine... then breaks... then fixes itself? The customer did test the system the day after the break in so apparently she was able to manually bypass the bad zone (with the dead battery) which can be done. And also the system will let you arm it with just a low battery, but when it finally goes dead after usually many weeks or even months, you would no longer be able to arm it, without intentionally manually bypassing the bad zone. Also, when chatting with the customer, there was some mention of her parents coming home after the break in, and the system wasn't beeping or armed, which further indicates it wasn't even armed. 

  We are curious as to why the customer never called in to inquire about how to swap a battery, or inquire about the low/ dead battery light on the keypad. That's the whole idea of the yellow trouble light on an alarm system, to get the customers attention, similar to a dashboard light in a car. Very routine and quite simple to fix, and usually done over the phone. No one mistreated her as she implies, in fact the telephone recordings will show quite the opposite, we were very patient. We will chat with both the Police and insurance investigators regarding this event, as there were some additional, unusual aspects to this burglary that we had never seen before. Any prepaid monitoring amounts that *** exist, will be happily refunded of course. 

  Customer response

  11/09/2023

  I am rejecting this response because:   my parents were not the one who came home after the break-in. It was me who was the first to enter the house after the break-in. The alarm was armed as it was red and beeping. This was told to the technician as well as ***** when he mentioned it in the phone conversation. We always armed the house "away" each day we leave and "stay" while we are at home. I do not know how to manually bypass any function on the alarm pad. You all came out a few years ago to do an upgrade on my system. If it wasn't working then since it was installed by a different company, why was nothing mentioned to me when you all came out to do the update or when I first signed up for your service. In addition, the pad never showed up yellow on my keypad. I replaced the batteries in the sensor and the technician also checked the expiration date which expires in 2028. Yes, I did get upset because you all cannot give me an explanation as to why they alarm did not go off if it was working properly as the technician mentioned. In addition, I had no one called after leaving several messages with reps who said that they would escalate to management which clearly didn't happen. Then I would constantly have to call to track down a manager to speak to which took about a week and half. The customer service here is the worst. I asked for an activity/breach report to be provided but was told that you all don't keep such record. I find that ridiculous that Smith Thompson does not have such records since you were able to tell me about the system going off the next day. This is unacceptable. 

• Initial Complaint

  11/06/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I had security system installed less than a month ago and it has not worked properly since. I have contacted the company multiple times and issue is still not resolved. I cannot get the company to respond and fix the issue after 3 phone calls.

  Business response

  11/06/2023

  We explained that we would be happy to send a technician out, but she just hangs up on us. We just need to get a service call scheduled to see if this is nothing more than a cellular reception issue. 

• Initial Complaint

  10/31/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  My Alarm went off first time in years this week and no one called. Upon checking Smith thompson, got Informed that the system with 3g service needs upgrade to 5g and it has not been working from July 2022 for old systems I was charged yearly on July 12 2022 for $******. Even after knowing that my systems are diabled, they haved charged me July 12 2023 for another ******. All along I have been thinking I was protected, i was not. There is no letter sent out what so ever on this regard nor a call. They have my no to call in terms of emergency, so no execuse to say it reached out.This is balant disrgard of the trust we put on these companies to guard us. I need both of these refunded

  Business response

  11/14/2023

  Actually the customer was mailed not one, but 9 different letters informing them that the cellular networks had been upgraded, as well as local and national media coverage on this very subject. And we received no mail back from this address as we track this. It's interesting that they received our invoices, but not our urgent upgrade letters? They simply failed to call in and schedule quick upgrade, which in most cases, was free and done at our expense. We will happily make a partial refund.

  Customer response

  11/25/2023

  False response with blatant lies.

  Claiming 9 letters when none was sent. Absolute lie conveniently said, since I can't prove it?.  For a company which took effort to sent 9 letters, they can't send one email !  They had their email id for years and they need email confirmation for cancellation...

  no. They haven't sent any invoice statements  either. It was auto charged to my credit card! 

  Please provide atleast one proof that any letter was posted or emailed or a call mas made !

   

  Business response

  11/28/2023

  We sent thousands of these required upgrade letters to customers and for the ones (such as this one) who failed to contact us, we offered to waive any charges for the upgrade. Still no response. We were required to send a hard paper letter, also recommended by the **** The 5G upgrade was not our decision, and we had to comply. Why these customers ignore us is completely beyond us, even when it is free! 

• Initial Complaint

  06/22/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  We utilized Smith Thompson security for our home. Without our consent, our service auto-renewed on 10/8/22 for the amount of ******. Our alarm went off on 5 occasions and we did not once receive a call for monitoring. The company was NOT fulfilling their business agreement. We made several attempts to call and complain never received contact with a human. On July 7th 2023 we cancelled our account.(a miracle to actually reach someone) We received our check and I would like to know where the ***** came from. Our account was charged ****** on 10/8/22. ****** / 12 = ***** ; Our cancellation was 6/7/23. Thus we are due a refund for ***** July, August, September. ***** x 4 = ***** I attempted to clarify on several occasions regarding response to the lack of monitoring and received no response of resolve. I would like my ****** returned due to the fact the home was not actually being monitored.

  Business response

  06/29/2023

  We are one of only a few alarm companies that does not have any kind of long term contracts, and the customer chose to pay annually (not required) and received a free month for doing so. The customer pays for 11 months and receives one month free, 11 times $16.95 plus tax is $201.83. The free month has no cash value and cannot be refunded in the event of an early cancellation. Just like any insurance or utility company, we do not just cancel service at midnight on the last day of the payment cycle. The last test we received was on Jan 25, 2022 and our agreement and all of our billing statements clearly ask the customer to test regularly. We also sent many letters (none returned back to us by the postal service) asking the customer to schedule a required cellular upgrade, required by the cellular companies. The customer did not give us 30 day notice which they signed and initialed on their paperwork. The called on 6/7/23. There were no calls recorded or documented that the customer called in for service stating that their alarm signals were not reaching us. We would be happy to refund another $18.35 (one month including tax) for the month of June. 

• Initial Complaint

  06/02/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  My home alarm went off accidentally for more than 5 minutes. No one from the Smith ******* called back to check.1. I called them to check. They said hi and them put on waiting and hung up 2. I called again a 9:10 PM CET on June 1st. The agent was rude and was not willing to listen to my issue. She said she would hang up and we ended up with no results. What kind of a security service is this. You suppose to call first to address an emergency. When I called to check, you hung up on me! and pretend you do not care about my safety ??? I expect you to take action against those 2 agents on the call without understanding the importance of such emergency call and need a report from you.

  Business response

  06/05/2023

  Actually when we researched your incident, your alarm went off less than 6 seconds, not 5 minutes. Any alarm system will not transmit an alarm signal to our monitoring station unless the siren sounds for more than 7 seconds. This is a state law to reduce false alarms, so if a customer turns off their system before this time, we do not receive a signal, which is exactly what happened here. This is why you did not receive a phone call. You have since tested your system and found this to be the case, and there was never anything wrong with your system. Our operators even asked you to do a simple test which you refused. When we listened to the recorded phone calls, we found that you called in and our dispatcher put you on hold, in order to look up your account, since they had no active signals from your system on their screen. This takes a moment. When another of our operators picked up the phone, you had apparently hung up as there was no one there. No one 'hung up on you'. You then called back in and were very rude. Neither of our operators was even remotely disrespectful or rude, in fact, it was the other way around, which is typically the case unfortunately. This is why we record everything. To answer your question, there will be no action taken against any of our staff, in fact, they were commended for being so professional and respectful. When our tech support manager called you back, after you filed this ridiculous and misleading 'complaint', he asked you to test your system to verify we are stating here to be fact, you did, and your system worked just fine. In the future, please note that the BBB is used for actual problems, not a simple tech support issue, which we have here for just these kinds of things, especially in cases, like here, where there was never anything wrong with your system. This is a clear misuse of the BBB, and like we stated earlier, ridiculous in our opinion. Please know you can always just pick up the phone and ask for a manager or tech support, before running to your keyboard to file a 'complaint'. Thank you,

  Customer response

  06/13/2023

  I have reviewed the business response and accept this resolution. 

• Initial Complaint

  04/03/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Smith Thompson device that gets installed in every home for monitoring security needed an upgrade to their security device which apparently failed to work beginning last year July time frame (2022). What does this mean? This means that the customer who had the device didn't get the monitoring as promised by Smith Thompson. Smith Thompson from their side, saying that they have been sending emails and letters. There has been no text message to the registered phone number or calls until late last Feb, 2023. Upon receiving the call from Smith Thompson, I acted on it and addressed the issue to upgrade the system. Yet, I must tell - I was charged to upgrade the system on my own cost though the service provider owns the liability to change the system when service CANNOT be provided as promised. The upgrade was warranted from the SErvice provider side and not from Customer's side.With that said, going to back to the actual issue - Although no service was provided, Smith Thompson didn't refund the amount they charged during the period when they DID NOT provide service OR rather NOT ABLE TO PROVIDE service. Until a customer is contacted for changing the device or a customer contacts *****************************************, ***************************************** cannot in no way charge customer - 1) Billing should be stopped 2) If the customer has paid in full, there shoud be a refund for the months they WERE NOT ABLE TO PROVIDE service 3) DE-ACTIVATE customer as ******************************************* WAS NOT ABLE TO PROVIDE service. Yes, the customer has the responsibility to work with SMITH THOMPSON to get the device fixed but in now, SMITH THOMPSON has the right to charge customers WHEN NO SERVICE WAS RENDERED.It makes sense for Smith Thompson to refund the customer for the time WHEN THEY WERE NOT ABLE TO PROVIDE SERVICE and I do request the same for my account, in my case - from July (2022) to Feb (2023).

  Business response

  04/03/2023

  The customer is referring to the cellular industry's required upgrade from the 3G to the newer 5G ready service. We sent out several letters to the customer which they never responded and finally had to place a telephone call to get their attention. Also, the monitoring of the alarm did not necessarily stop on any particular date since the units were (and still are) dual path meaning they can and did 'roam' to continue service. Also, the alarm system there on the premises continued to work fine, otherwise the customer would have called in for service, which many people call in daily for different reasons. alarm system do need service from time to time. We always tell our customers to test their system monthly. It is on their paperwork, our website, their invoices, etc. Also, we only charged a small trip charge for this upgrade as we provided free cellular units, which is very much different than any of our competitors. Most of our customers responded right away to our original letters in a timely fashion, but a few did not for whatever reason. And we never received any returned mail from this customer, so clearly they received the letters. Thank you.

• Initial Complaint

  09/07/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I have been a long time customer with Smith Thompson. Didn't realized that when came to canceling service, I will get such a hard time. Smith Thompson offers one-month of free alarm service when paid in full for the year. So, on January 19, 2022, I pre-paid $201.83 for the Jan 01 - Dec 31, 2022 calendar year. In March, I requested cancellation effective March 30th and went with another alarm provider. Smith Thompson In August 2022, when checking the status of the refund, Smith Thompson claimed they never requested the cancellation request and asked to re-send the original email showing the details of the email. The email was sent to them as requested right away. Smith Thompson then said that there were alarm calls which I can only imagine were human error as the old and new keypads are side by side. Now Smith Thompson is claiming that the alarm call means that the service was active. What am I suppose to do beside request cancellation. If Smith Thompson didn't cancel the service on time as requested, they can't hold me responsible for their error. Smith Thompson finally cancelled the service and sent me a refund check of $316.70 claiming that the refund is for 2 month (sept and oct) because the free month is November. This is terrible! The service cancellation was requested in March effective March 30, 2022. That leaves 9-months of refund. Even if you subtract one-month of free service (for pre-pay) that leaves 8 months of refund. The refund for 8-months should be $146.79 and not $36.70. Smith Thompson needs to correct their mistake and provide the correct refund effective March 31, 2022.

  Business response

  11/03/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2022/09/12) */ Occasionally we come across what might be the most absurd 'complaint' ever, this could be that one. The customer claims to have cancelled but we have no record (no emails, no phone calls, nothing) but the most interesting thing here is...how could we receive alarm signals and customer caused false alarms if they had switched to another company? And both keypads 'side by side', what does that mean? And even if they kept 'keypads' and systems, why would they arm the old one if it would supposed to be cancelled? The notes on this customer are two pages long on all of the hassles they have given our service reps about not wanting to pay for any service calls, and past due accounts, etc. We are delighted to see them go, and our refund was exactly what was owed to them, since we gladly refund any unused alarm monitoring unlike every other competitor out there, with our no contract policy.

• Initial Complaint

  06/01/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I hired Smith Thompson for rodent control treatment of my house at Mckinney TX. Their employee showed up with a price estimate and upon agreement came back to perform the treatment. After first 2 visits, nobody is visiting the house to remove the rodent cage installed and install the seal. Upon calling their call center, they deny the fact that their person visited my place for the second time and their supervisor is not reachable. How can be a business charging money be so irresponsible, forget to complete the job and still keep charging credit card?

  Business response

  07/20/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2022/06/14) */ Actually when we tried to revist the home, we were unable to reach the customer to make an appointment and we never just show up unannounced. Our technician was finally able to go back. And when we tried multiple times to reach the customer to confirm everything was taken care of, we still have not received a return phone call. We did not 'forget' to complete the job, we just could never reach them. And we have no idea what they are referring to regarding 'keep charging credit card?' This is a complete misuse of the BBB complaint platform as we have done absolutely nothing wrong, in fact, we have done everything right, after we completely investigated this. As is typically the case, this is most likely an attempt to get something for free. Consumer Response /* (2000, 7, 2022/06/16) */ Complaint has been addressed satisfactorily by Smith Thompson. Thanks a lot for the help. regards, ******

• Initial Complaint

  04/14/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Date Transaction: April 13 (2 Celina, TX properties) and April 14 (1 Frisco, TX property) Amount Paid: $59 + Tax for each property Business commitment to me: Agreed to do pest control treatment inside and outside of the home including along all interior baseboards Nature of dispute: Dissatisfied that company did not treat the interior of the home as advertised and that was verbally relayed to me. Was expecting the entire interior to be sprayed along all baseboards, around door and window crevices, instead technician spent about 5 minutes and only sprayed the corners of interior baseboards. Some of the baseboards were 15 to 25 feet long. Called Company to complain while technician was still in the home. Company Response: Contact Customer Service at Smith Thompson (XXX) XXX-XXXX, was transferred to Mark the Supervisor. Explained to him my dissatisfaction with the service and complained that treatment was not as advertised or explained to me. First he lied and told me it was just a spot treatment (how do you spot treat for pest control beats me and nowhere in any advertisement or paperwork does it say that), then despite what I was promised he explained that the chemical manufacturer's specification says only to treat the corners. When I asked for proof of both these ridiculous claims he couldn't answer or provide proof and instead offered to refund 1 of these service fees of $59+tax. Claimed he had 40 years in "Pest Control" and nobody sprays along the baseboards. I explained I myself have owned and had pest control services and I've never had a service that did not include it. Still dissatisfied I reluctantly accepted. 20 minutes later he called me back saying the company will not be processing a refund. no reason but just that he was over-ridden. This is utter nonsense and companies and people like him should be held accountable to provide their services as advertised and not use false advertising to dupe their customers.

  Business response

  05/20/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2022/04/19) */ We don not advertise any services that are dangerous, irresponsible, and illegal. We follow all manufacturer directions to the letter if the law, which is exactly what we are supposed to do...by Texas law in fact. Anything otherwise is against the Texas Department of Agriculture laws, and if the customer has really owned a pest control company as he claims in the past, he would know this. There may have been a time in the past with certain older blends of chemicals, that the entire length of the baseboard could have been treated, but we know of no such treatments currently, and if there is, we don't use them, as the modern blends work excellent. Spot treating of baseboards every so many feet is exactly what the manufacturer states, and if sometimes in rental properties, the houses are so disgusting filthy, that a treatment must be done quarterly or even monthly to stay ahead of the pests. Otherwise, in a normal home, we have never had a complaint. So until the laws and directions change, this is how we will treat a home. We did exactly what we advertise and will continue to do so. This is nothing more than an attempt to get us to come back out and over spray a property (for free of course), something we see often unfortunately.

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩