Beware of Pinnacle Security

[from tikamar via the Petworth listserv]

I wanted to pass along my experience with an obnoxious, aggressive sales rep that was knocking on doors in Petworth today hoping to get new customers for Pinnacle Security.

This afternoon, I answered a knock at our door. A young sales rep was standing on the porch, holding open our security door. I greeted him, and asked how I could help him. I explained that I was on a call, and that if he was making sales, I was not interested. He cut me off and began to tell me that one of my neighbors had just signed on to their home security company. I said again, "Are you here to make a sale? If so, I'm not interested." He pushed back, "No. I'm telling you we just helped out your neighbor." I told him again that I was not interested, and asked him to let go of my door so I could close it. He forcefully said "No," and then went off on me, telling me that I was rude. I reminded him that he was standing on my porch and holding open my door. He continued to disrespect me and insult me, going so far as to

call me a "horrible mother," "a basketcase," and "crazy." I ordered him off my property, at which point he taunted me and told me, "Go ahead and call the police." He then retreated to the sidewalk, continued to shout at me. I began to speak louder so that our neighbors would hear what was going on.

The sales rep headed down the street, then turned back around and approached the house again, this time telling me I was lucky I was a lady, or… I told him not to threaten me and he yelled at me to shut up. He crossed the street just as my husband came outside to see what was going on. When he saw my husband, he began to walk faster. Then he stopped next to a group of neighbors and began talking, pointing at our house. My husband said he was going to go talk to the man, and began walking up the street. The sales rep took off running. By now, many of our neighbors had gathered to see what was going on, and I'm sure the man was scared. He took off so fast that by the time everyone reached the corner, he was out of sight.

I went online to research Pinnacle Security, and found a number of complaints about the company's sales tactics, described as unethical, aggressive, relentless and pushy. Funny, those are the same words that came to my mind after my experience. Apparently they tend to target elderly homeowners and lock people into contracts. The company is based out of Utah. I can't say that this experience was much different than recent door-to-door sales attempts by Honeywell and GE. In all three instances, young men, in their early 20's, were all disrespectful and unnecessarily forceful in their communications. Each time, the young men showed no regard for the fact that they were on someone's private property. I have heard similar stories from other neighbors. If you're happy with your current home security system, do yourself a favor, and don't answer the door if they come knocking.

Comments

[Bill C.]

Ok, I'm going to close comments on this thread. I think we get the picture.

[Jamie]

I worked for Pinnacle security as a technician, and then was offered a lead tech spot. I read in one of the previous comments that a regional tech was sick of people calling this company a scam, well I've got news for you, when 99% of the people in the company that do sales, and lie in some way necessary about the company, that automatically makes it a scam, because they are forced to lie, or nobody will buy. Part of me says I don't blame them, because that's pretty much the only way to do it, if they want to make any money at all, but when you get these piece of shit salesman, that call themselves "advertisement reps" or some bull-shit like that, and sign and target these older nice people into 5-7 year contracts when I know you can do less, but they want to line their damn pockets with more money, then it's just insane to me, and all these company's are the same. I've worked for 3 different company's Pinnacle is probably the worst, APX is probably the second worse, and then follow shortly by North Star. They're all a summer scam, and when they tell you that they have an office in the area (which happens to be a big concern for most people) that is almost a lie, because the office is there just during the summer usually, and then you MIGHT have a service tech close by for the rest of the year. Which happens to be usually some punk-ass kid who doesn't have a life or doesn't see the need to get a higher education. TRUST ME I've been around all these different company's because I was sold into the bullshit that I could actually make some good money, and you may for a little while, but all these company's will even screw their employees in the end, and the sad part? Most of them will put up with it, and accept that fact that they just stole $20,000 from you out of your back-end check. If you want to get a system and there is nothing wrong with that, because (when installed correctly) these systems can save lives, I've met people personally who have, but I wouldn't go with any of these summer-time dealers, I would go with someone more established, like ADT or Brinks, they actually have employees that earn benefits and they keep them happy by not screwing them, I would kill for an installation job for either of these company's. Although beware these dealers that are ADT Dealers (just like pinnacle used to be) they're just too small to do their own monitoring and will most likely fail before the end of your contract. P.S. I know personally the owner of Pinnacle, it has almost erupted internally over the past 2 summers, and I almost doubt they'll make it through this next, with at least not laying off a ton of people, and screwing them by promising the world.

[jasmine]

i do not work with pennicle, but my finace' does. Pennicle, like every other company of course, has horrible reps that lie and cheat there way to the top. please dont hold that against the company name but agaisnt the person. contact the company and tell them about there reps. down talk the person but not the company. its not fair to those who do their job right and follow the rules. If you bought a ralf lauren shirt with a hole in you dont blame it on ralf lauren but the person who sold it to you. i did door to door sells once and hated it. i tried to be as nice as possible, but some people are just so rude and dont want to hear your out. i understand if you had bad experences but that doesnt mean all of them are bad...
i am sorry for all of your bad experences really i am, but dont hold it agaist the company name. hold it agaist the person and tell the company, im sure they would fire them...if not..well then hold it agaisnt the company.

thank you

[Jayden S.]

Here in Texas, You could have shot him.

[common sense works]

Hmm. . .there are a few things wrong with the whole picture of door to door sales and signing up at the door. A good salesman is good at selling while being honest. Not being rude, or misleading. That's sometimes called (in legal terms) negligent misrepresentation. Shame on the salesman. Also, ONE SHOULD NEVER BE STUPID ENOUGH NOT READ THE FINE PRINT ON A CONTRACT before signing. Shame on the consumer. It's truly amazing how some people say the get "scammed" when in reality THEY didn't take the proper measures to ensure that what they were signing was a scam. In part, they scam themselves!

[Pinnacle Employee]

I have been a Pinnacle employee for 4 years now. Each summer and during the year i go out to sell security systems. I looked at a bunch of different companies that i could go out with and i chose pinnacle for one reason. It was a honest company. Now with any large company that leads the industry you will get complaints. It is impossible to run a business perfectly. In the very few cases that their is misrepresentation i have always seen pinnacle do the right thing. It is a unfortunate thing that the young man, right after a sale of you neighbor which would have made him happy and less pressured to sell. Would come to your door, hold it open and refuse to close it and threaten you with absolutely no reason given to him from you to do it. Im not saying you did anything wrong but out of the few bad stories you hear i have never herd anything like that happen! You had a bad experience but there are thousands and thousands each day that have great reps. Every day i get thanked by people that did not have systems adiquite to protect them, I have even gotten quite a few calls months and years later after the security that pinnacle put in helped them cause unlike other companies they make sure they put a good product in that will help them. 60% of my yearly sales come from happy customers that are satisfied with what i set them up with and the service they receive and want to help others receive the same thing.

Its a sad day you had to meet a rep like that! I apologize! But there are hundreds and hundreds of reps out there every summer that are doing exactly what they should do and help people. And if a rep is found doing something wrong or misrepresenting pinnacle they do not hesitate to let the person go. We really do want to provide you with a good service!

[Uncle Nancy]

No David, I think I'll just tell them I'm not interested. Thank you. Good bye. Why should I listen to your BS, idiot.

[David]

Ok..... This is the real scoop!!! APX, Platinum,ADT dealers, Siren, Pinnacle,Monotonics, and many more door to door reps..... All the companies are the same. They all have good reps and bad reps. Its just like the cell phone industry people always find something to complain about but do many people go online to write a good comment I seen just one this one page like 3 or so good comments and all the rest bad. Its personal preference and if the rep takes good care of you.
Get his info after install employee number corporate number and techs number. Office location ect..... you should be good. So stop crying because someone was rude at your door. How many times in your life have you been rude to someone else? Plenty I bet. If someone comes to your door just listen to all the facts instead of saying not interested before you just judge something.

[Uncle Nancy]

Wow Josh. As an employee of Pinnacle, you really did a great job of representing your company in a professional manner addressing critics so graciously. I'm kidding. If I was Pinnacle, I would fire you first.

[Josh]

Ill tell you what...i work for pinnacle security as a regional technician and ive got to tell you ive had about enough of hearing all the shit about how our company is a scam and a rip off and all these "convincing" stories that everyone seems to have...

FIRSTLY, we are the nations number one leader in residential security systems....maybe we just screwed over half the nation...makes sense why were number one...

Secondly, your going to have bad employees no matter where you go...mcdonalds, target, there are disrespectful police officers, politians, so im seriously over this whole oh my god he was rude...welcome to the U.S....

Thirdly, LEARN TO READ....if someone, ANYONE is preaching about oh this isnt a contract whenyou can SEE ON THE CONTRACT THAT IT HAS A TIME PERIOD IN BOLD LETTERS, then you are retarded, and i feel no remorse for you getting taken.....

in closing, there are some shitty people out there....im sorry for the inconvience of those of you who happend to get one from our company.....these ppl do not reflect the ways things work...every effort to find the ones responsible for such "tatics" are dealt with quickly and strictly...

our company preys on the elderly...give me a break...

[Brian]

We had a system put in through Pinnacle a couple of years back. It's fine, but I specifically asked whether there is a contractual period and was told there is not. Silly me for not getting that in writing, because upon trying to cancel the service today, I learned that I'm locked into a three year contract.

These young sales guys can lie through their teeth without consequences because they'll be long gone before the ink is dry on the paperwork.

[Anonymous]

I used to work with Pinnacle Security as a door to door salesman. I don't like knocking on people's doors. I don't like door to door salesman when they come to my door. I was told I would be a security consultant. The hours were long and the approach was ridiculous.

The job was out of state so it wasn't going to be easy to up and leave after traveling so far to make money so I stayed a little while. I took the job based on the mere fact that I wanted to gain sales experience rather than something more than the local restaurants I had near me. Little did I know about the actual experience I would receive.

When I wasn't making sales I was being instructed by other salesman in the office, including my own manager to "fake it 'til you make it" and other things like this. Basically I learned how to lie and aggressively sell which I do the exact opposite of what I learned in school and had no intention of getting good at it.

I'm sorry to all of you who had bad experiences with these sales reps. I, personally, tried to do the honesty approach and had very limited sales due to this, but I had no regrets about selling someone something they legitimately could afford and use.

I suggest buying a product only if you are comfortable with the product, contract, and salesman when you are saying YES. Remember, you control the situation and the outcome. Do not be pressured into buying anything you think you can't afford or don't want.

If you really want to avoid saying no then say yes but that your credit is really bad and you can't risk having another bill. That normally always works because pay is also based on the credit score of the customer.

[Mark]

I really don't like door-to-door salesmen and have not liked the approaches of any of those selling security systems. I also don't like the idea that a local stranger knows the inside of my house and how my security system is laid out. So I bought a system after doing research on line.

If you at all handy or know someone who can help you, I recommend you order a GE Simon 3 security system from www.SafeMart.com and sign up for their monitoring service which is about $9.00/month. While you have to install the wireless system yourself they make it about as easy as possible. Their customer service is excellent.

See reviews at:
http://www.alarmsystemreviews.com/unbiased-safe-mart-customer-reviews.html

http://scottelkin.com/family/home-wireless-security-systems-review/

[collette]

WHATEVER you do do NOT SIGN WITH PINNACLE. A respectable salesman came to my door with his mouth full of lies. told me that pinnacle and ADT merge and he was just making app. to update my service of couse if was FREE so I gave the Go ahead only to get a bill a mouth later from AdT. now I am stuck in two 3yr contract and pinnacle is being nasty about it from costumer service to the supervisor we should file a class action suit against them

[recentlysingleandscammed]

Do not sign with them. Period. I am usually wary of scams, but this time they brought down my guard and I am going to pay for it.

My security system failed completely after 2 months. First error messages, then a failed sensor and then, dead as a doornail. They told me that it would work with my new wireless phone system and it didn't. I said " well maybe we should wait to do this until after the glitches are worked out of my home phone system and the rep told me not to worry, if it didn't work out, they would make it right. We'll they didn't make it right after I asked nicely. They dodged my calls after I was persistent in trying to get the problems fixed. They told me my only option was to sign a new contract and pay a higher monthly fee.

I suggest if you have also been preyed upon that you file a report with the better business bureau of Utah as well as your local attorney general's office. I have consulted an attorney specializing in contract law. It's going to be far more expensive and damaging from a PR and legal standpoint for Pinnacle to challenge me on this than it would have been to send a nice technician to remove the junk that was improperly installed and write it off as a capital loss.

I'm going to see to it that vulnerable people and seniors should not be preyed upon by the likes of Pinnacle. And if you, dear reader, are Mormon, how would you like your neighbors to ask you why people from your church are running scams and ripping people off.

I'm pissed. The month after I signed, Consumer Reports published a report on " trunk slammers" like these guys. I wish I had been warned sooner.

Don't listen to the Pinnacle guy when he tells you that the horror stories online are " not true or have been resolved." they haven't been. Period.

[Scooter]

My mother and I dealt with a young man from Pinnacle Security a couple of days ago. I have to say, I am pretty pleased with the service we received. The man, a Ken McKenzie, was very friendly. He gave us his business card, and his rep ID in case we wanted to cross-reference his legitimacy against Pinnacle's records and told us straight-up that if we didn't want the system, he would forget it and move on. We went ahead and signed the contract and received the system, free of charge. Overall, I'm actually pleased with the system. It DOES call out and connect us to an operator, despite what others have said. I know, I came home from work and forgot to turn it off. The operator came on and I realized that I had forgot to turn it off. I told her what happened and was on my merry way.

[Caleb Cummins]

These guys came through my neighborhood and I they said they were from GE. I called GE and found this was a lie. The salesman was pushy and would not leave after I asked 4 times... I finally threatened to call the police and they left.

Another sales guy came by from APX Alarm about 2 months later and I told him to come back the next day while I researched the company. I found they received an award from JD Power and I called the company and was very pleased with the girl I spoke with (Carla). I signed up with them and have been very pleased with their service. Beware of the Pinnacle Security scam and sign up with a reportable company.

[tm]

Pinnacle is definitely working the neighborhood. One came by when my wife was there alone and tried to intimidate her (she's not at all easily intimidated). Another one -- or maybe the same one -- came by last night and wasn't nearly as pushy with me. I think they're looking specifically for people who look like they can be bullied. Best tactic is to bully them before they can bully you. Ask for ID. Then ask for an office location and phone number. Then ask for a regional manager's name. Then say you'd like to call the manager to set up a sales appointment. Don't worry, you won't have to -- these salesmen will give up if you make them jump through too many hoops.

[SM]

I had awful problems with ADT and finally went with Slomin's Security based on a recommendation from a friend. Their fees ($25/month) are about half what ADT's are and they have been much more reliable. Plus you get 3 months free monitoring when you recommend them to a friend. Their technicians actually seem to know what they're doing - refreshing!

[Jeanster]

Pinnacle Security is being sued by the family of a firefighter who died.

Quote: The alarm representative called the Contra Costa fire nonemergency dispatch line and told an operator there was a fire alarm report instead of relaying that she had spoken to the homeowner and was told a fire was burning. The wrong terminology and incorrect phone line sent the call plummeting down the priority list. Unquote

http://www.mercurynews.com/crime/ci_10247048

[Jeanster]

Actually, APX Alarm has made it in the news quite often this summer regarding their own pushy, aggressive and questionable sales tactics. Check it out here: http://www.alarmsales.org/2008/08/apx-alarm-keeps-it-in-news.html#links

[jb]

very disturbing notes. i've read a number of items about this (apparently) lone salesman. i had quite the opposite experience with a visit by APX security. they came to my home and offered a system upgrade for free, as a promotional item, using the same equipment i already have (I had ADT). They swapped out the panel, added some new features that I did not have and my system works great so far. I've seen several people going through the neighborhoods in this fashion, including ADT themselves (who came to my house a little too late!) APX seems to have made inroads as a formidable ADT competitor. I would suggest if this guy comes calling at least try to take his picture or something...maybe that would be a deterrance, as well as calling 311.

[jb]

very disturbing notes. i've read a number of items about this (apparently) lone salesman. i had quite the opposite experience with a visit by APX security. they came to my home and offered a system upgrade for free, as a promotional item, using the same equipment i already have (I had ADT). They swapped out the panel, added some new features that I did not have and my system works great so far. I've seen several people going through the neighborhoods in this fashion, including ADT themselves (who came to my house a little too late!) APX seems to have made inroads as a formidable ADT competitor. I would suggest if this guy comes calling at least try to take his picture or something...maybe that would be a deterrance, as well as calling 311.

[G Cook]

I had a very similiar experience with, likely the same, security door-to-door salesman. It was very disturbing. What is recommended that we do? Call the police? What should we say?