Bait & Switch.....
I chose & paid for a Viper Car Security System to be installed in my vehicle, they charged me for 4 hours installation, 89$ for an adaptor and and extra 90$ for resistor locks and relay for lights and shop supplies, including the 'Viper' system the total cost was 627.51
I am not a security system connoisseur so when they printed out my receipt, I didn't notice that the word 'Viper' did not appear anywhere on my receipt and that a totally different model# had been selected, eg 3305L was all that was listed in the 'Item' column, and I know now that that is an AVITAL model#, not a Viper model#. That's an important hint to those of you who purchase anything from this store. Make sure the model#'s on your receipt are the actual items you paid for, you will wish you double checked that one.
I dropped off my vehicle at 3pm, pIcked it up at 5.30pm. I noticed straight away that I did not have a Viper keyless fob, my fob read AVITAL. I should have been alerted to that red flag.
The next day my friends & I broke into my vehicle to test the alarm system, the alarm didn't even chip that a door was opened, there was absolutely no sound at all. On further investigation, I realized they had installed an AVITAL, not the Viper that I had specifically selected and pre-paid. So the next day I returned to AS and spoke with the salesperson who sold me their goods. I stated that I was not happy to find that they had installed an AVITAL rather than a Viper system and that I had broken into my vehicle without the alarm sounding, and that I would like them to take out their AVITAL and give me my money back. The salesperson assured me that AVITAL system was from the same company as Viper and all he had to do is up the sensitivity of the unit. That's kinda like going into Ford and picking out and paying for the F150 and driving away in an Escort and having the salesperson tell me that it's OK, they're both from the same company.
My husband returned the vehicle the next day and spoke with Jamal Poe, the manager, who interestingly USED to work for Car Toys in Portland, and he assured us that he would be more than happy to replace the AVITAL system with the Viper, that he was very sorry that we were unhappy with the install, so all we had to do is drop off the vehicle in a weeks time at 9am, which was this morning.
What a difference a week makes. This morning we were informed that they 'had' to charge us another installation fee. They would refund the actual incorrect system, you know, the one that they decided to install instead of what we paid for but it's going to cost another installation fee. What a neat scam they have going on. Customer pays for one brand, and they install another and as it was pointed out to us, they don't do refunds, only store credits. Wow, double whammy.
We are not letting this go, we have contacted Directed Electronics, who make Viper and our Attorney. Is there anyone else out there who has experienced this bait & switch business scam from this company? read more