Cancellation of monitoring

@davey_d​ 

Account setting changes are a highly sensitive topic given that they can impact your level of protection, and it’s not difficult to imagine a situation where this type of request may be made under duress

I'll say it again, this is dumb and poorly thought out at best. If I, under duress or not, have access to the mobile app I can literally disable notifications. I can remove every single sensor. I can change payment information so you all turn off the service. There are numerous ways in which having access to the mobile app already gives someone the ability to effectively disable their service completely.

It's 2023 now and your customers (and honestly, everyone else) expects to be able to handle these sorts of things (account changes and cancellations) via a mobile app or website. Having to pick up the phone and call someone, and face the inevitable attempt to retain the customer somehow, feels archaic and a bit shady. Even without there being a legal requirement to add this functionality there's plenty of good reason to add this functionality.

I'm replying publicly instead of sending a direct message because there's no reason not to have this conversation where everyone can see it. It's been almost 8 months and there's been no concrete response to the very simple question, does SimpliSafe intend to comply with CA and Federal law regarding this requirement or not? If not, why not? If so, what year/decade can we hope to have this change implemented?

@davey_d​ 

"If you are looking to cancel your subscription, you can always call our customer service team at 1-888-783-8441."

Actually, this is also not true. You can't ALWAYS call and cancel. You can cancel during designated business hours that are convenient for Simplisafe and not Simplisafe customers.

I was on the fence before, but after seeing how difficult it is to cancel - I agree - this is some shady business practices being masked as "customer's security first". Every other high security company in existence has managed multi-level identify verification online - except Simplisafe. So either SimpliSafe's tech and security is outdated or worse - their messaging is profit focused not customer focused. 

I'll be sure to call Monday morning during business hours to cancel my $30/month plan -- and report to the FTC. 

Until SimpliSafe chooses to comply with FTC, New York, and California policy, I highly recommend anyone coming across this post notify the appropriate agencies of this abusive practice:

FTC: Go here and fill out the form for 'Online shopping'. You do not have to fill everything out, but if you answer 'Yes' to 'Did you pay or send money', enter your subscription cost and payment method, and indicate it is a recurring charge, you can explicitly identify that 'I had difficulty cancelling a recurring charge'.

California residents: Go here and fill out the form to file a complaint with the Attorney General

New York residents: Go here and fill out the form to file a complaint with the Attorney General

@rgg​  thanks for sharing. I just submitted the form. 

Hello @worthing , thank you for calling this out. I'm working with our higher-level teams, so I can make sure that I have the most accurate answer for you.

@worthing​ While it is true I a am a very loyal SS customer, if you search my posts in the past, I do, without hesitation, call Simplisafe out for when I feel service, products, or a customer experience is not what I would consider satisfactory. Given my experience with the likes of an ADT, where I would say the California law was initiated for, the process I described in my original post was meant to say "not burdensome", and I gave a personal example and what their current policy is. Yes, I was definitely serious.  BTW, the links you provided were very informative and were clear what the points of the law are.

@davey_d​ 

Thanks so much! Government regulations aside, it's 2022 and y'all are long overdue to add this functionality. I know millennials who would rather text the fire department and sit in a fire and wait to be texted back than have to call someone. :P 

@captain11​ 

Ah, I think I get it now. I thought you were literally making the argument that SimpliSafe could ignore state and federal law because they have a policy that runs contrary to the laws which is why I was so astonished.

Nimbleness is as good a word as any for a company to be able to respond to customer, competition, economic or legal considerations. Again strongly recommend Simplisafe reach out to other companies outside their industry to exchange ideas, practices, poliices, processes etc. Benchmarking is a method that can improve all of the organizations involved.  My former emplyer, while in the medical device industry, has many similarities with Simplisafe, and would be an ideal candidate to benchmark with.

Now back to that elongated "safari search"of an answer.....

@davey_d​ 

Thanks and I'm sorry to keep beating you up but I hope you can understand my frustration when topics (and not just this one but the many others waiting for a proper, informative, useful response) go unanswered for forever. I get that you're the middle man for most of these questions/issues and not the person able to address or fix them and I genuinely appreciate your patience and efforts.

Also, still available for part time work to shape up y'alls knowledge base (fix current entries that need it, expand the amount of content greatly, etc.) and work with the community. I'm champing at the bit man, let me at it. :)

@cybergeistmrw​ You, and everyone else, should report this to the FTC. It will certainly get the attention of the higher-ups.