Brinks Home Security Continues Charging Monthly Fee for Discontinued Messaging Service, Lawsuit Claims

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The companies that operate as Brinks Home Security face a proposed class action that claims they’ve continued to charge customers a monthly fee for a text messaging alert service that is no longer being provided.

Filed against LiveWatch Security, LLC and Monitronics International, Inc., the 14-page lawsuit out of New York explains that the defendants offer home security alarm systems and alarm-monitoring services. As part of these services, the case says, Brinks Home Security has represented to customers that if their alarm system is activated, they will receive a text message to their cell phone containing a link to a portal that will allow them to deactivate the alarm.

According to the suit, however, the Brinks Home Interactive Messaging system, powered by ASAPer, failed to work as intended and was internally discontinued or deactivated by Brinks Home Security “no later than March 2019.”

Despite discontinuing the messaging service, the defendants continue to charge customers monthly fees to receive alert texts, the case alleges.

The plaintiff says he first entered into a LiveWatch Monitoring Agreement with Bolster LLC (which did business as SafeSmart) in 2011. After Bolster became LiveWatch and was then acquired by Monitronics, the plaintiff discovered in 2018 that his monthly alarm monitoring invoice, now under the Brinks Home Security brand, included an additional $2.95 charge for the Brinks Messaging service, plus tax. The man claims he was unaware that Brinks Messaging had been added to his monthly invoice until after he was charged.

The plaintiff alleges that although his alarm system was activated on at least three occasions since he began paying for Brinks Messaging, he never received a text message containing a link that would allow him to disarm the alarm. After the most recent occasion in February 2020, the plaintiff contacted Brinks’ customer service, the case says, and was informed by a representative that the Brinks Messaging system had been discontinued/deactivated “for some time” due to technical problems.

The lawsuit argues that the plaintiff and proposed class members continue to be charged for Brinks Messaging even though the service has not been provided since at least March 2019.

The case looks to represent anyone who paid fees to Brinks Home Security in connection with a property in New York for Brinks Home Interactive Messaging powered by ASAPer after the service was discontinued.

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