Get Gephardt helps homeowner being charged two bills for one security system
Feb 29, 2024, 10:50 PM | Updated: Mar 1, 2024, 8:36 am
SALT LAKE CITY — Terry Hutchings loves how her security system keeps her home protected.
“It tells me if my garage door is open, if all my doors are locked,” she said as she demonstrated some of its features. “I can look at the cameras.”
What she doesn’t love is having to pay for two home security systems when she’s only got one home.
“They are billing me for my previous home, which was sold,” Hutchings said.
She said the billing for her previous home initially stopped when she sold it, but when she got a new security system from the same provider for her new place a year later, “They started billing me for both,” she said. Two bills, but just one home.
Hutchings didn’t realize it until an expired credit card triggered a call months later while she was on vacation.
“They told me it’s got to be paid right away,” she recounted. “Otherwise, we’re going to cancel your service.”
She paid up. After all, who wants an unsecured home while out on vacation? It was when she got back that she discovered the double billing which the home security provider, Vivint, seemed willing to fix.
“She said, ‘I can see the whole thing, why it’s going on, we’ll fix it,’” Hutchings said of a Vivint representative she spoke to on the phone. But the company then apparently changed its mind, saying there was no error.
“They charged me on that same credit card bill for the same amount that they refunded,” Hutchings said of several reversed chargebacks.
The double payments that Terry Hutchings has been getting from Vivint Smart Home. (KSL TV)
Out over $530 and not getting anywhere, Hutchings felt she was up against a wall.
“I just threw my hands up in the air and I said, ‘I don’t know what to do. I’ve got to Get Gephardt.'”
She did, and we contacted Vivint to ask why Hutchings should have to pay for two systems when she canceled the system for her old home a year earlier.
In a statement, Vivint said Hutchings “opted for a 12-month deferment, rather than a cancellation,” and that when she started service for her new home, she “did not indicate that she already had an account on a deferment plan,” so a new account was set up. Billing for the previous home started back up “when the deferment expired.”
Now, Hutchings insists it was never explained to her as a deferment. She only wanted to cancel. Regardless, Vivint said it cleared “her prior residence’s account” and expedited her refund.
Just like that, she has her money back. Even better, she’s back to only paying for one security system.
