Digiknox Security

Description of Work: I ordered Medipendant for my 87 year old mother. I paid $180.00 up front for the use of the equipment and six months monitoring. I signed up over the phone, and paid via credit card on June 16th, 2010. The equipment was scheduled to arrive in two weeks or less. After a month of waiting, I called Digiknox and spoke to Elizabeth, the person who had taken my order. She said the equipment had been recently upgraded, so there was a bigger than usual demand for it, and that it would take up to two more weeks to arrive. On August 4th, nearly two months after they took my money, I called Digiknox, and was unable to connect. I kept getting a message at all three phone numbers--the one on the website, the one I had written down, and the one on my credit card receipt-- saying that their mailbox was full. This was on a Wednesday. Apparently there was no one in the office to either take the calls coming in, or to listen to the voice mails that had already piled up. They appeared to either be out of business, or ducking customer complaints. I couldn't think of another explanation. So I filed a complaint with the Ohio Attorney General's office that night, and then I contacted Digiknox through the Medipendant website at http://www.medicalalertoutlet.com. On Friday, I sent them a second message containing a copy of the complaint I had filed. A few days later I WAS able to get into their voice mail, and left a message asking them to contact me. There was still no response. As of August 14th, there has been no acknowledgement of the emails I sent. I contacted Chase Visa on August 6th, and they reversed the charges. This appears to have gotten the attention of Digiknox, because they eventually did send the equipment, and attempted to deliver the Medipendant to my mother's home. She was aware of the situation, and knew I had already arranged to reverse the charges, so she refused the delivery and asked that it be returned to Digiknox. At that point, given that Digiknox had ignored my phone calls, emails, and complaint to the attorney general's office, she would have felt unsafe with them monitoring her equipment, because lack of proper attention seemed to be their modus operandi. We had never signed a contract, and they never provided any goods or services, so the reversal of the charges ended any commitment on either side. On Friday the 13th of August, Digiknox finally contacted my voice mail--still no reply to either email--and asked me to call back. Apparently the fact that Chase took the money back had gotten their attention at last. I also had a call from an outfit called "My Payment Incorporated," attempting to verify the $180.00 charge on my credit card. I called them back and told them via voice mail that the charge had been reversed because I never received the equipment or the services I had paid for. I also returned the call from Digknox, but no one was in the office to take it. This is where things stand as of August 14th, 2010. If I ever do receive an explanation or an apology, I will update this report. Update, August 16th: After Chase refunded my payment, and my mother refused receipt of the equipment which was sent to her later, she received a call from Digiknox which went to her answering machine. They seemed not to understand that a refund had already been processed through Chase, and they told my mother via voice mail that no refund would be processed by Digiknox for 120 days. They also claimed that UPS had not returned the equipment to them. I tried calling the number that appeared on my mother's answering machine, and got a recording saying it had been disconnected. When I tried to call the original phone number I got from from the Medicalalertoutlet website, and the number on my credit card bills and the BBB site, I was told via recording that all of the numbers had been changed. When I tried repeatedly to call the new number the recording gave me, each time it rang several times and then disconnected me. This is where things stand as of today. Update-August 17th. I had the opportunity today to hear the message on my mother's answering machine. They were apologetic, and said that My Payment Incorporated had frozen their account , and this was why they could not give a refund for 120 days. I am guessing that they may be going through a bankruptcy. That might explain why the accounts are frozen and the phones don't work. The number from which they called my mother's answering machine still comes up as disconnected when I try to call them back. I have no way of telling them that my money has already been refunded. But I did mention this to My Payment Incorporated in my message to them via voice mail. UPDATE August 25th: I was going through my caller ID deleting calls, when I saw the call from Ron Cotton, and noticed that the phone number on the caller ID was different from the one he'd left in my voice mail. I decided to give it a try, and lo and behold, he answered! He sounded a bit guarded, as if I'd taken him by surprise, and when I explained who I was and where I'd gotten his number, he said it was a private number, which explained why he seemed a bit taken aback at first. He volunteered that he knew who I was, and had read my complaint. Here is the explanation he gave for what happened: 1. Medipendant had a massive recall of equipment, which left Digiknox scrambling to resupply its customers. This was his explanation for why the equipment never arrived until after the charge on my card was reversed by Chase. 2. Digiknox moved offices, and this was his explanation for why the phone didn't work, message boxes were full, and calls weren't being returned. He said they were NOT going out of business or in bankruptcy. 3. Their accounts are frozen due to my complaint, and those of other complaints from other customers that were filed after Digiknox failed to deliver on its contracts, but they are not in bankruptcy. He sounded sincere, and if this really is all the fault of Medipendant, I suggested he sue them to recover his losses. I do question why moving would put your phones out of commission for more than a day or two. But if they did have a huge backlog of unhappy customers, it would go a long way towards explaining the resulting chaos. I am investigating now to find out whether Medipendant ever recalled any equipment. Will update if I can verify one way or the other. UPDATE: August 31st. I contacted another monitoring company, Phoenix Medical Alert. They also service the Medipendant, and I will probably end up going with them. I spoke to Justin, and sked if he was aware of any problem getting merchandise from Medipendant, or if there had been any recalls that he was aware of. His company had not been selling that product for more than a couple of months, but he promised to contact Medipendant directly and ask about it. Here is his reply to me, and I am pasting it verbatim just as he wrote it: This was from the head of the Medipendant: Justin, Who is saying this? We have upgraded software in a new version and if older units have other software, it was choice of dealer to return. We made issue known. Had to do with how tests were performed. New user instructions were sent out, as they are in all of the boxes we send you. _____________ What was the company that was saying there was a recall? The reason for this was to update the firmware to make the tests easier to perform. There was no actual recall and the only reason to send them back was to have Medipendant update the firmware. I hope that answers your question. Please let me know. Justin I have informed Justin that my information came from Ron Cotton at Digiknox Security, and I assume he will pass that on to the head of Medipendant. Obviously someone is not telling the truth here. I see no reason why Justin would deceive me, or why Medipendant would deceive him. I believe that Elizabeth told me the truth when she said that there was an upgrade to the equipment, and it would take an extra week or two to send the pendants. What happened after that, is anybody's guess. At this point, I consider the case closed.