Reaction officers denigrating current Alarm System to new owners to upsell them on a new system and billing me for work I did not authorise.

A letter sent to Beagle Watch today, after being invoiced for a service that I did not request of authorise.

André and Jackie,

My dad (JHL Stander) signed up with Beagle Watch a few years ago to be the reaction company for 99 5th Street; Linden 2195. He replaced the alarm system about 4-5 years ago and upgraded to a new, more advanced system than the one he had the previous almost 30 years. Being an older person he wanted the new system to be similar to the previous one so that he and my mom didn’t have to re-learn a new system. In the 33 years they stayed at the Linden house there was never once an incident.

He passed away in February 2020 and in the 2nd part of 2020 we replaced the battery on the system because it wasn’t working properly. My mom moved to a retirement village the beginning of March and 2 of the Beagle Watch officers came to the house on Tuesday 2 March to ask if the new owners would be staying with Beagle Watch. The new owners had told me that they were going to be using SCP, but the one officer said that he will contact them and convince them otherwise. I told the 2 officers that we were moving and that they should please keep an eye on the house for the 10 days while we were away and that I will return and finish up everything to hand the keys over to the new owners on Saturday 20 March 2021.

When I returned to Johannesburg on Friday 12 March 2021 and went to the house the alarm system was dead. There was no power and it looked as if it had been switched off. I contacted Beagle Watch to ask what the problem could be and the lady who answered the phone said that I needed to replace the battery. I told her it was replaced around August last year and that there must be something else wrong. She said that with the loadshedding the only problem would be the battery. She didn’t suggest sending anybody to come and take a look or try to find any other reason for the fact that the alarm was dead. I knew that the battery was fine.

I told the agent on Friday 19 March 2021 that the alarm had been dead since I got back and that it seemed to not get any power, but that it was working fine before my mom moved. It turns out that the alarm system was unplugged, and as soon as it was plugged in again at 10:51 Saturday 20 March 2021 the system, including the battery, worked fine.

On Saturday morning 20 March 2021 when the agent handed over the keys to the new owners, 2 Beagle Watch officers came through to the house. They proceeded to tell the agent and the new owners that the alarm system in the house is sub-standard and that no one could feel safe in a house that didn’t have sufficient protection. I re-iterate, for 33 years my parents NEVER HAD ONE INCIDENT. The 2 officers also said that there were no PIR’s in the house, and the agent had to show them that there was, to which they responded “Oh, we didn’t see them”. They continued to denigrate the alarm system, to the point that the new owners were terrified. I am aware that this is a tactic to up-sell the new people to a more expensive system, but we were still the client and our account is paid until the end of March 2021, so that the hand over can go smoothly security wise. It is completely unacceptable for the 2 Beagle Watch Officers to have acted this way and to have **** about a system that has been working for years to scare people into investing in a new one. Unfortunately I do not have the reaction officers’ names.

I will not be paying the attached invoice, as the transfer of the house went through on 18 March 2021. The lack of service I received from Beagle Watch after enquiring about the fact that the alarm was dead was shocking, and the way the 2 reaction officers conducted themselves on Saturday is completely unacceptable.

I will be forwarding this letter to HelloPeter.com as well.