Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:20/05/2025

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  The company is continuing to send me bills every month after I cancelled my plan three years ago. I did not receive a new bill until April 2025 this year saying I owe back from April 2023, yet my account was closed at the beginning of February 2023 (as my contract was completed) with letter and email confirmation from the buisiness. I have reached out multiple times asking them to fix their mistake and stop sending me bills, however they have not responded to any of my emails and have ignored my calls. I have even spoke with someone from the billing department and have forwarded the emails to them of the evidence. They continue to do nothing except bill me. They continue to send me bills where I am owning over $1000 which I believe could be affecting my credit score. I would like to avoid seeking legal action if they can resolve the issue on their end.

  Business Response

  Date: 21/05/2025

  Hello

  The account cancellation was missed, our apologies , the arrears letter that was sent please disregard with our apologies, note also the account was not placed into collections 

   

  Thank you

  **** 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 21/05/2025

  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***** *****

• Initial Complaint

  Date:14/05/2025

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I am trying to cancel my account with API Alarm due to unsatisfactory service and also due to our alleged "contract" expiring in September and avoiding API auto-renewing it so they can take advantage of us for another 5 year. I am also unable to pay my bill via the mobile app. I've reached out to their customer support team multiple times and all they have done is ignore me. As a customer, I've requested a copy of the alleged contract we are under multiple times when the account was still managed by ****** and was provided nothing. According to their customer service team the only way to cancel an account is via email, which is pretty odd because all they have to do is ignore your emails (as they're doing to me right now) and they can continue ******** money from you. Also I find it odd that I'm surprisingly unable to pay my bill through app right now (I turned auto pay off so I had control over payments) and know of no other means to pay it. To me this is API deliberately preventing me from paying my bill likely so they can send me to collections and make life difficult for me, a customer who no longer wants their services anymore. As it stands I want two things from API right now: 1. The ability to pay my outstanding bill 2. Full cancellation of service (buyout if necessary) and full confirmation that this business-consumer relationship is unequivocally over and done with. I want nothing to do with this company anymore so please CANCEL our service and leave us alone.

  Business Response

  Date: 15/05/2025

  api has not received a request to cancel the account , we have reached out to ****** home for the original email to cancel, the account will be cancelled today, the May invoice will be cancelled and we will refund April 

  Apologies for the frustration  api has only assumed full service for the client as of April 

  ****

• Initial Complaint

  Date:02/04/2025

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I had ****** provide a home security to **** * ** ******* **** ***** Alberta (***** ** ****** ************ ************. I sold the business but retained the building. With the assistance of their account Executive (***** ******) I transferred the equipment to the new tenant. A cancelation notice was sent to ***** ****** on February 29th, 2024, as part of the transfer process. The new tenant (******** *****) commenced being billed on March 1, 2024. Unbeknownst to me, ****** continued to auto bill me from March - October in the amount of $68.02. Subsequent communication between me, ****** and ***** ****** revealed he sent my notice of cancellation to ****** on March 26, 2024. After much back and forth, in October of 2024 ****** did agree via telephone discussions to cancel my account and re-imbursement me for the over payments. Fast forward to February, I have not been provided the re-imbursement. My emails to ****** and their accounts department API refuse to communicate with me via email and telephone. My emails result in please contact API and my telephone calls result in multiple voice messages being unreturned.

  Business Response

  Date: 15/04/2025

  Good Morning ****** 

   

  apologies , ****** failed to advise api of your cancel , we are cancelling the account now as well as the invoice owing.

   

  apologies 

  **** 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 16/04/2025

  
  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  My request is for a refund from March 2024 to October 2024 not for the month of October.  
  
  It has now been 7 months since I resolved my account dispute with ****** and API.  At the end of the dispute, API agreed to refund my monies for overbilling my account $65.02 from March 2024 - October 2024. 
  
  As you recall, API continued to bill me $65.02 despite having already received my notice of cancellation on February 29, 2024.  The Notice was sent to Mr. ***** ****** (account executive) as part of his requirements to close my account and transfer my equipment to the new tenant of at my office Ms. ******** ***** and commence a new contract which continued from March moving forward. It was the same property, same equipment and despite this API continued to bill me.  I have the emails with the account executive which included the notice of cancelation received by ***** ******.
  
  At the end of the dispute, you agreed to refund my monies from March to October 2024.  You had indicated that the monies would be refunded within 4-6 weeks.  I have yet to receive the refund. Can you confirm where you are with respect to the refund?  I have now contacted API on three separate numbers and have not been able to speak to anyone.  Five messages have been left.  No one has returned my phone call.  
  
  Regards,
  
  ***** ******

  Business Response

  Date: 17/04/2025

  Have spoken to ***** for clarification, refund amount is march 2024 to october 2024 , less the 1 month we refunded yesterday.

  Refund for 7 months will be processed today.

  Apologies once again *****

  ****

  Customer Answer

  Date: 24/04/2025

  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***** ******

• Initial Complaint

  Date:21/03/2025

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I have called api Alarms to cancel my account numerous times, and they either put me on hold and never pick up the phone again. Or they tell me I need a reference number, but won't give me a reference number. A couple of times, I was told I didn't need a reference number, but they didn't cancel the account. My daughter has even emailed the company for us to cancel the account and only received a reply that stated: We are in receipt of your request, please allow 48 - 72 Business hours for completion. I want the account cancelled now and the amount they say I owe cleared. I did my part with calling them to cancel the account, but they haven't done what I want and keep charging me for their service.

  Business Response

  Date: 24/03/2025

  Hello, 

  api was advised by ****** **** to cancel the account  Feb 2025 with a final invoice owing for 23month of unpaid invoices. 

  From: ************ ********************** 
  Sent: Tuesday, February 4, 2025 2:58 PM
  To: customerservice ******************************
  Subject: Cancel
  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 25/03/2025

  
  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because: api should have cancelled the contract back in September of 2022 when we first contacted them on the issue. But they didn't. When we would call to again request getting our service cancelled, their customer service people would either put us on hold and never come back on line or tell us we needed a reference number. But, they were not able or willing to supply a reference number to us. This lack of service is another reason why we want our contract cancelled and why we do not accept paying an invoice of 23 months.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ****** ******

  Business Response

  Date: 15/04/2025

  there are no cancel calls or requests on file with the exception of February 2025  , ****** also does not have a cancel request for the account 

  all payment for monitoring were rejected from Nov 2022 despite the account being in contract term 

  we can adjust the invoice to half . 

   

  **** 

   

  Customer Answer

  Date: 28/04/2025

  
  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because: the house alarm went off and after an hour and a half the neighbours called the RCMP who broke a window to get into my house to check to see if anyone was hurt inside. api alarm did nothing. It cost me $100.00 dollars to replace that broken window. What kind of service is that? We had an different phone number when we first called to cancel our account. My wife called and talked to someone named ******** who hung up on her. She called back and a second ******* apologized, but said there was nothing he could do. This was back in September of 2022. We are more than willing to return api's equipment, but feel that they didn't provide the service we had been paying for. Someone from apr even told my wife that our alarm didn't even to off. The RCMP will vouch for the fact that it did.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ****** ******

  Business Response

  Date: 15/05/2025

  This account was cancelled at the end of February , the final invoice was also cancelled 

  the only email to cancel api ever received was Feb 4th the customer was attempted by our retention team and circled back the customer care team to cancel at the end of Feb

  ****** was also asked for the original email to cancel, they advise they have received none to date 

  the account is cancelled with no invoices outstanding 

  Thank you 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 18/05/2025

  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  

  Thank you for your assistance in this matter.

  Sincerely,
  
  ****** ******

• Initial Complaint

  Date:30/11/2023

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  We were clients of API Alarm Inc. from Oct. 31 1989 to oct 31 2020. In October of 2020 we decided not to avail ourselves of API Alarm services and indicated such by not prepaying the service charge that would normally be required. Over the course of the previous 20 years, as clients, we received calls from API monitoring during any alarm activated event most of which were smoke related. Since not prepaying in 2020 we never received smoke alarm calls from API (we had several over this period but did not expect calls as we believed we ha not been clients since October 2020) until this October under quite suspicious circumstances. This past spring, I explained all this to a secretary in customer service during a call I made in response to a request for payment for the period since October 31, 2020. She refused to let me speak to someone with authority so as to state my case insisting that the invoice had to be paid. In October I received a call from someone in API accounting. I made my case with her concluding with the fact that since 2020 there had been several smoke alarms for which we received no calls from API Alarm Inc. indicating that we were not being monitored. Some two weeks later my sister who I used as an emergency contact for API, called to let us know that API monitoring had called about a smoke alarm at the house. Our missed calls record showed we did miss the call. I was out in the yard. My daughter and her husband who both work from home, did not take the call on the house phone as the normally don’t. I called the monitoring station. I explained confusion regarding the call. I explained that the alarm DID NOT sound, and that the consul showed no alarm had occurred. I asked that we no longer be contacted. API Alarm Inc. tells me that we did not cancel in writing 60 days in advance. It’s interesting that every invoice we received over the years was dated “date sent Oct. 1” and “date due Oct 31”— that is, 30 days prior making the 60 day requirement unlikely. The second last invoice we received in October included yearly charges since Oct 2020 plus other charges AND some $350 for 2024! When I emailed national operations manager **** ****** and asked how it is that after stating our position that we do not nor have wanted API Alarm Inc. services since October 2020 they would send an invoice including a charge for next year? Some weeks later we received a new invoice excluding 2024. We chose not to purchase API Alarm services in October of 2020 buy not PREpaying for their service. Whatever direction API ALARM chose to go in response was their choice. We did not prepay for their dervices and bear no obligation for their choices. This smacks of negative billing. We will not pay for something we did not agree to purchase.

  Business Response

  Date: 30/11/2023

  Hello 

  Customer failed to cancel his services he assumed not paying would get the account cancelled, this was explained to the customer in multiple communications this past week. 

  Customer failed to make payments for monitoring from oct 2020 onwards, multiple attempts were made to contact the customer for payment, messages left , customer was advised of the cancel process, which is written notice by email, this was never received. The alarm system repeatedly was actioned by our dispatch team from 2020, the alarm is not on a pay per use basis, it was also explained to the customer we cannot simply cancel an alarm at the end of an agreement. The agreement goes into a month to month status and the customer can cancel at any time.

  We attempted to work with Joe and offer a no charge service call which he declined, he owed October 2020-October 2023, Customer was advised the account would be cancelled and we would bill for services rendered not the full 3 years , we would bill for 2 only which is more then fair , a final invoice was sent for $657.66 which covered 24months. 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 30/11/2023

  
  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because: To my knowledge I was never made aware of the need to cancel in writing AND to do so 60 days prior to term end.  The company failed to advise me of this, their policy, prior to the term end.  I never agreed to be an API client in perpetuity.  Their approach amounts to negative billing which is unlawful in the province. Thus I am under no obligation, nor will I pay this invoice. 
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *** ********

  Business Response

  Date: 05/12/2023

  The cancellation policy is clearly laid out on the back of the customers agreement

  Thank you

  Customer Answer

  Date: 08/12/2023

  
  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:   API’s position applies to an agreement that started in the fall of 1989. Since that time, for the past 30 years, we received an invoice dated “sent Oct. 1 … due Oct. 31…) each year. Invoices were paid until we no longer wanted their services. Please note that the invoices did NOT contain any reminder regarding THEIR CANCELLATION POLICY.  Is it reasonable to expect any customer to recall a line on the back of an agreement of 30 years ago?  The company also failed to provide the 60 days prior to the invoice due date that it required for cancellation. 
  Sincerely,
  
  *** ********

  Business Response

  Date: 12/12/2023

  The account regardless of status in contract or month to month clearly stipulates the cancel process

  The customer owed 3 years, we attempted to work with him and only billed for 2 , the amount is owing 

  We will in good faith take it down to 12 months to put the matter to a close , a new invoice will be issued 

  Thank you

  Customer Answer

  Date: 14/12/2023

  
  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:  The company has a duty to advise the customer, in a timely fashion, of their policy regarding cancellation, on a regular basis. Never, over the 30 years that we were customers did API Alarm inc. do so.   After not having received payment for 2021 in October of 2020 the company should have enquired with us as to why and we would have advised we did not want its services any longer. As this is a prepaid service anyone in such a position would have done so lest they provide services without payment.

  As we have previously stated, since October of 2020, not once did API Alarm Inc. call our home on any of several smoke alarms we had—until the curious one of this October as we have previously reported.  Thus, we had no reason to believe API still considered us a customer.    Given this, we find it at the very least, disappointing, that a company to whom we were loyal customers for some 30 years would continue this effort to extract money from seniors citizens.  We will pay what we owe—NOTHING.

  Putting this aside for the moment, we wish you all a very happy Christmas.

  Respectfully,

  *** *** ******* ********

   

   

  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *** ********

  Business Response

  Date: 20/12/2023

  The customer will be billed one year of service as opposed to the total amount, this is more then fair , the cancel policy is outlined, there were several attempts made Customer will be billed one year for services rendered we consider the matter now closed

  Thank you 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 21/12/2023

  
  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:  I have been quite clear and thorough as to the several reasons why we do not owe anything to API Alarm Inc. I consider any further attempts to extract money from us as **********.  

  Respectfully,

  * **** ********