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Just found a bunch of invoices dated over a one year period that add upto
£11,500 for a house alarm.
Not long after the owner died suddenly of a heart attack.
A bogstandard alarm. The notes etc made me redfaced and angry. I bought the house with knackered heating (she would have been cold) and a leaking bath (through the ceiling) and no hot water.
Wow. Googling their name it seems they had previous form to.
Shysters
Rogue Traders, Watchdog? Treating elderly vulnerable people like that is a disgrace.
She was constanyly itemised charged for 3yr cover, 5 invoices in one year.
One was for a smoke alarm.
It covers 2004-05 and a quick google shows they had form
Old folk are easy pickings for unscrupulous businesses, even "reputable" ones. My dear old dad was charged nearly £5k for hearing aids he didn't need. He heard better without them, was always grumbling about them, and despite having them insured for loss or breakage was charged another £5k when one broke, because the replacements were the "newer" model.
He payed a similar sum for a water softener costing £600 by standing order. The softener co claimed it was on a lease, despite irrefutable evidence to the contrary. He kept every piece of paper, every document. God knows what else we'll find...
hora
Drop me an email with the details and I'll take a shufty. I appreciate that it's far too late to do anything now but if they're still at it there's something I can do to at least inform others in a similar situation. I hate these people with a passion.
Will do. Im ****ing angry. I saw the state of the house when I bought it. Everyone on the close liked her (her husband was a local retired beat constable).
I detest people like this.
any links to the alarm company.
My Mum was constantly having to check on her father that he wasn't being scammed by people calling at the door telling him his roof needed doing or similar.
Even keeping tabs on him we found when he died that he had about 3 separate boiler breakdown warranties, drainage cover, a computer warranty...
All sold when he'd renewed home insurance or by cold calls and the sales person had "advised" him to upgrade or to get extra cover.
🙁
Emailed you.
Dec03-Oct04 ×5 invoices ttl 10k
Feb07 = 1.5k
Ironically I ripped out the alarm myself whilst I was renovating the house on a tiring long Saturday when I triggered the alarm and couldnt silence so I called the number on the box and was told '£450 for a callout'.
I said bye/hungup and ripped it out.
In 2005 I bought/had an alarm installed at our old office for £360 by a local firm.
Too cheap but it was only for one floor, 4 sensors with a mobile(s) alert function.
Find out who the MD is and pour brake fluid all over his/her car every 6 months for a few years. People like that deserve contempt and any small thing you can do to redress the balance needs doing.
There were 2 blokes who ran an 'alarm' company from Leics. who were locked up recently for ripping off customers - any relation?
http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Directors-burglar-alarm-companies-bullied-lied/story-23000232-detail/story.html
Contact trading standards hora. They will be interested. Some 'home improvements' company tried to screw my father in law on countless occasions, my wife reported them and her evidence was added to the case they had built up against them.
I honestly have no idea how these people sleep.
Name and shame.
Zippykona - they sleep because they are absolute scum with no conscience!
My elderly parents have nearly been ripped off 3 times in the past year and I was able to involve the police one time while the asshole was still there demanding thousands for work that didn't need done. Much to my disappointment he talked his way out of it or the police couldn't be bothered pursuing it. Only consolation was he lost several tools in his rush to scarper.
Another time, they were going to be charged £650 to remove a couple of small bushes, a guy recommended by trailrat did it for £140 (cheers TR).
I sincerely hope anyone who picks on the vulnerable dies of something hideous....... slowly !
An elderly relative of mine has been 'befriended' by a local business man and has been relieved of over £100,000 helping him out! As she's doing it of her own free will we are powerless to stop it but she vulnerable and it winds me up to a point where I may end up doing something stupid.
Ravey Davey you should be able to report that to social services - they will be interested in it from a vulnerable adult perspective.
Raveydave speak to someone/take advice. At the footer of the link is a helpline number which may or may not help:
On another note I've managed to get the daily letters addressed to the previous owner down to 1 or 2 a day. Many were charity/begging letters using images of animals etc and alot were address from abroad with routing PO box's here in the UK. Thats after 4-5yrs. Originally the level of mail was 😯 so she/they were obviously on someones spamming hitlist.
My parents lost thousands to scammers...not just one off's either. If you have elderly parents you really do have to keep an eye on them.
I have first hand experience of dealing with the scum that run one of these alarm and security monitoring companies. It's a shame as I'm sure there are decent companies out their. Just the sharks that give the others a bad name.
I would be interested to know if it was A H S Monitoring in this case.
It actually made me feel a little sick reading the OP story and the other ones like it. I know my parents wouldn't fall for this sort of thing as they are wise to them but there are so many people that fall victim to the scams.
Hora - does the old lady have any living relatives that you know of? You could pass on the information to them as they may be able to do something with it, even if it's just passing on to trading standards to help compile a case.
A Cousin who lives in the area who apparently hadn't been in touch with her for years prior to her death (but gladly took the proceeds of the house).
Thanks for the advice fellas. I've phoned her local police but as she's doing it of her own free will they won't get involved. He's cleaned out her wine cellar for his own pub and she's constantly giving him massive handouts. I'll give these links a good look over later.
RaveyDavey - this seems familiar from several 'now we have learned our lesson' stories that have featured unfortunate police inaction 'events'. How do they respond to press inquiries on this sort of story?