‎Automatic payment keeps declining, going on over a year now, constantly told it is my fault..... | SimpliSafe Support Home
 

3 Messages

Thursday, May 14th, 2020 1:50 AM

Automatic payment keeps declining, going on over a year now, constantly told it is my fault.....

So, back in early 2019, I received an email from Dave/Simplisafe saying my credit card on file declined the automatic monthly charge. I called Simplisafe right away, and told them to just try it again as I have had no issues with that card, and it was immediately approved. I figured it was just a glitch, no big deal. The next month, same email. Again, I called Simplisafe, they ran my card again, all is good. I explained that this was the second time, and they advised I call my bank to see why they rejected the automatic payment. I called the bank, they had no record of the charge, so nothing the bank could do. Again, maybe just a glitch, forgot about it. Next month, same email. Called again, told the same thing, explained the bank did not even see the transaction, must be something on Simplisafes side. They manually ran the card, approved, they will look into it. To cut a long story short, this went on every month, many, many calls and discussions, always coming back to it's my fault. Simplisafe rep deleted the card (as you cannot do that on the website), and re-added it, no change, the same old automated email from Dave from Simplisafe... In November 2019, after numerous "I need to speak to a Manager" requests (every month), I finally spoke to Evania, who seemed to actually care and listen instead of just blowing me off and insisting it was my issue. Evania looked into it, and called me back the next day saying that she found the problem, for some reason my card on file was only authorized for refunds, not debits. Evania assured me the issue was fixed, and even gave me 3 months free for all the troubles! Roll on after 3 months to February 2020, and guess what, I get an email from "Dave" saying my payment was declined & to update my payment method!! I respond to the email that this is a really frustrating ongoing issue, and to speak with Evania or check my notes. No response. I get the second email, so call Simplisafe, and am told again it is my bank, even though I explained I already called them and they do not see it. I ask to speak to a supervisor again, and someone calls me back the next day. In the meantime, I call my bank yet again just to make sure, no record of the transaction. The supervisor (didn't note her name) insists it is my fault, tells me my card is bad, even though I explain it works everywhere else, it cannot be the card, etc... She then tells me I need to just add a new card, no one is available to escalate above her, and hangs up on me.... Roll on April, same email. Call and spoke to Lornie, very nice, very apologetic, deletes and re-adds the card as assures me it won't happen again. Just got the email, card declined. I am sure I am not the only one experiencing this issue. I could add another card, but I don't have another card to add, and to be honest, I shouldn't have to. Anyone else experiencing this problem or the inefficiency of support? I am a Customer Support Manager for a major software company in Boston myself, I just wish there was a survey option after every call, as I have made a lot of calls with dissatisfied results....

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1 Message

4 years ago

Oh my... every single month our card supposedly gets declined.  It has been at least nine months.  I am ready to call it a day and switch.  Just as you mentioned, calling customer service just give you the run around and you have to start at the beginning every single month to explain that it is problem with Simplisafe.  If you look at past invoices, the ones that don't go through show a truncated card number.  The last four digits are missing.  Somehow their software truncates the last four digits of the cards they are trying to run.  I am so tired of explaining this to the customer service individuals every single month.  There has to be someone that can fix this!  There does not seem to be a way to contact Simplisafe other than their phone number which feels like the move "Ground Hog Day"  every month!

1 Message

4 years ago

I am currently going through this right now. I have spoken to them multiple times regarding this. They try to say that my card is expired or some excuse but I work at the financial institution that I bank with so I can see that SimpliSafe isn't even attempting to send the transaction through. I just get the email saying it failed and need to update it. This is super frustrating!

Captain

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6.3K Messages

4 years ago

@nlthomas4 want to save time, aggravation and save a few bucks? Call SS and tell them you want to prepay 1 year in advance. They will give you, I believe, 1 month at nc.

Community Admin

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991 Messages

4 years ago

Hi all,

Our account engineering team is currently working on a fix for any customers that are having this issue where the card on file for payment needs to be re-added to the account each month. We're hoping that we can have this fix ready soon. We'll make sure to post any updates once we have them.

SimpliSafe Social Team
SimpliSafe Home Security

Captain

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6.3K Messages

@Team S, great that you responded to this thread but (and please, don't roll your eyes) wouldn't it be great if there was a place where this could be easily found by customers so they wouldn't have to wander around in the dark not knowing that SS was aware of the problem, proactively working on it and could call support to more easily pay for monitoring in the interim.

Here's the point: The forums are next to useless for information like this and can be more than adequately addressed with a single webpage in the Help Center with "Known Issues" title, a short description and status of date.... this is not rocket science and can be done in an hour by a high school intern. Please, while you are building a real nice CRC can you please put up a simple interim page? Thank you, end of commercial.

1 Message

4 years ago

Same here.  This has happened on and off in the past couple of years, but it seems to have come back.  I received the same notice last month (early Jan 2021).  Spoke to a customer service rep that showed the CC info was correct, re-entered it, ran the card successfully.  He verified the CC info was correct on the profile.  Just received another notice yesterday, just one month after the last one.  Again, spoke to customer service, CC info was correct, she re-entered it and re-ran it.  Success.

This is going to become tedious and not at all worth it if this continues.  Starting to eye Google Nest Security these days.

Community Admin

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991 Messages

4 years ago

Hi all,

We're happy to announce that we do have a fix for this issue where the customer's card will automatically get declined each month until the card has been added to the account again. For anyone still experiencing this issue, next time that you have to add your card to your SimpliSafe account again, please call our Support Team at 1-800-548-9508 from 8 AM to Midnight ET, 7 days a week. This will allow our team to add the card again and then make an adjustment to the payment profile that will prevent this issue from reoccurring.

SimpliSafe Social Team
SimpliSafe Home Security

2.8K Messages

4 years ago

That's not a fix, that's a band-aid on SS' part.  Customers should NOT have to be inconvenienced have to call to add a payment method, nor to request the entire issue be fixed over and over and over.  The reason for card payments on retailer sites is for the convenience of customers, that is, when the company has a working and sufficient card payment system.  Lastly, since it's been what, nearly 4 years now without a search engine, this post, among hundreds of others, is just going to be lost in about a day.

1 Message

4 years ago

I too have experienced the "Dave" emails.  I'm beginning to believe "Dave" does not exist it's just an automated email.  i responded back to "Dave" both times and never got a response back until the next "Dave" email saying I needed to update my card on file again.  Now they are threatening to suspend my service in 7 days.  I have always paid my service through my Chase billing app for every three months at a time.  Now after talking two customer service agents (the first one left me on hold forever and I had to hang up and call back) I'm being told that I can no longer pay through my banks billing app - that they no longer accept that type of payment.  Where was the notification about this change?  I never received anything explaining that change.  I did not want to have a CC on file and have my card charged every month.  Now they are leaving me no options.  Not very satisfied at this moment.  Might consider going back to ADT instead.  Sure would be nice if they would offer some assistance our incentive to continue my service.

Community Admin

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991 Messages

4 years ago

Hi @cccsocop,

While we have never accepted payments through any type of app, we have previously accepted checks in addition to our standard method of having a credit or debit card on file for automatic payments. In May of 2020, we sent out an email to all of our customers who paid by check that we would be no longer accepting checks as a method of payment. If you'd like to discuss this further with us, please give our Support Team a call at 1-800-548-9508.

SimpliSafe Social Team
SimpliSafe Home Security

2 Messages

2 years ago

I am going through the same thing right now.... never ending loop. three cards were added and were declined. At the end one customer rep said a prepaid card would do the job. That didn't work either. The technical support duplicated my account as a new account in case there was a glitch with the account itself. Guess what? Same issue persists! 

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