SAN ANTONIO — Security systems can give up peace of mind, but one San Antonio woman says that peace of mind cost her twice what she was told it would be. And when she could not get the company to work with her, she called KENS .
Betty Jo Williams said the previous company she had contracted with for a home security system kept extending her contract, so she called Vivent and was told she would not have to worry about that.
"First thing I asked them, there's no contract, right? And the guy said no, there's no contract. I said oh, ok," Williams said.
Then, the salesman told her the price, which made Williams a little skeptical.
"Cause when he told me $40 a month, I said What? I said are you sure? He said yeah, I'm sure. You just pay $40 a month," she said.
The price was right and the terms were what Williams wanted, so she had the equipment installed and thought everything was great. That was until she got a phone call from Vivent telling her she was behind on her payments.
"I sent y'all's money. I said you debited it out of my account," she told KENS.
It turns out $40 was being debited out of William's account but it was going to the company financing the Vivent security equipment.
"The guy didn't say, you know I had to pay two payments, cause if they would have , I'd [have said]…hey no, I don't want it! Not for $80 a month!" William said. "Now it's $40 to them and $40 to them, and I'm like I can't afford $80 every month!"
When she tried to cancel, Williams was told that she signed a five-year contract. That's when Williams called KENS. Barry Davis reached out to Vivent, which responded quickly. They called Williams and told her there would be no contract and they would work with her on the cost of the equipment, if she still wanted to keep their service.
See the full report from Barry Davis below:
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