Brinks Customer Service....Awesome

And by awesome, I mean NOT awesome. Here is the story:

In our new house, there is a Brinks alarm system that always appeared to be on although we thought it couldn't be because we have never paid for anything. Every night it would start beeping about 2am, and I would get up and hit "cancel" to make the beeping stop. So, I finally decided I was tired of this routine. I tried reading the instruction manual and hitting a lot of buttons on the key pad, but I couldn't seem to turn it off. This was about 8pm. David had a late night of studying for the Academy plus an interview to prepare for the next day. I went to bed about 10:45pm. At midnight, I was awakened by a deafening "WOOO, WOOO, WOOO" sound coming from the alarm system. Apparently, David had to go to the garage to get something from his car and had set it off. When I was messing with it earlier that evening, I must have engaged the alarm somehow.

So, I call Brinks and tell them that we are the new owners of the home and have never paid for the alarm system. Can they please turn it off? They say that they cannot do anything without the access code. We say we don't have an access code because this is not our alarm system. They say that it is an active account. We say, "Why don't you call the number on file with the account and ask them if they still live here?" They say they cannot release that information. We say that we're not asking them to release any information. They refuse to call the owner of the alarm system without us giving them an access code. We say we don't have the access code because it's not our alarm system, and we've never paid for it. They tell us that they will not turn it off unless we call the police and have them come to our house to verify that we are the new owners on the phone with Brinks. We say it's 12:30am, and we aren't calling the police. They say they cannot help us.

We say aren't you supposed to call the owners of the house when you see that their alarm system is going off, and they haven't called you to tell you everything is okay? They say that they cannot release that information. We say no that is your procedure. It says so right on the information booklet that is with the alarm system. They say that we must call the police. We say, so if we are burglars, we could have the home owners tied up right now and you aren't calling them per your company's safety procedures. They refuse to call the owners of the system to make sure that we haven't tied them up to rob the house. (PS--if you have a Brinks security system, this should concern you.)

At this point, we are almost yelling at them on the phone. David and I have both tried reasoning with them to no avail. We have been through two customer service agents. They keep telling us "I understand." I yell, "No you don't understand! It is one in the morning and an alarm system that we have never paid for is going off in our house." The customer service agent says, "Well, it's 3 am here." I would have punched him if I could have.

David and I give up and decide to call the police non-emergency line. When we call the police, they say that Brinks must call them in order for them to dispatch an officer. So, we call Brinks back and tell them that. Brinks calls the police. About 1/2 hour later (keep in mind a deafening alarm is sounding about every 15 minutes for 10 minute intervals), the police show up. They call Brinks to confirm that we are the owners of the house. The Brinks customer service agent then begins the police officer instructions on how to find our main security system box and disengage the alarm. The police officer says, "I'm not paid to be your maintenance man. Send one of your people out here to do this." Apparently, the Brinks customer service agent says that they will not send one of their people. So, the police officer says that they need to call us back and tell us how to do it. The police leave.

Ten minutes later, Brinks still has not called us, so we call them. David asks them for the code to the system, so we can disengage it. They tell us that they cannot release that information. We say why not? The police just proved we own the house. They say they cannot release that information. We say then how do we turn it off? They say we will have to go to the security system's main power source and cut the power. Eventually, David finds it in the laundry closet in a corner. The box is screwed shut in such a way that he cannot fit a screw driver between the wall and the screws on the box. We begin to really despair. We say we cannot open the box. They say that there is nothing they can do. We say send a maintenance person now. They say no. I find a pair of bolt cutters. David cuts into the box. We turn off the power. We go to bed at 2am. We get up at 5am.

That was by far the most ridiculous customer service experience I have ever had. I can say definitively...BRINKS SUCKS.