Beware 4te Medical Alert By Connect America, Bala Cynwyd, PA (2021).
By Paul Morantz
Medical alert buttons are a senior citizen’s best friend. For monthly fee, if you have a medical emergency, and cannot reach the telephone in your home, you just press the button on the medallion around your neck and help will come.
1st, a voice through a box tries to contact you. If they do not get a response they telephone you. If you do not answer the phone they send an ambulance.
My 1st problem with 4te Medical Alert was that it always was going off accidentally and that would result late at night in emergency responders in my home. Sometimes I would be aware it went off and then await the call. And then suddenly, four times in a row it went off and I received no call at all. If it had been a call for help, help would not have arrived.
So, I switched to Phillips Lifeline and never had a problem since. But my problems with 4te medical alert continued after my cancellation.
I was instructed not to return their equipment but to wait for their label to arrive. So we boxed it up, but they sent no label. Then I discovered they charged me, $354 for their equipment. I never authorized this, never agreed to it , and the fault was 4te Medical Alert as it never delivered the label. They profit by not doing so.
I telephoned the company and they said they would email another label. Again, I did not receive it. But I did after a 2nd telephone call. Immediately, I put their equipment in the mail. Not only have they not reversed the charge for which they did not have permission to make and fault of no return was the company’s, but 2 weeks later I found a 2 month charge. When I telephoned it was explained that they charge in perpetuity, ignoring the cancellation, until their equipment is received. Again, more profit for not delivering the label.
Under this scam a canceled customer can be charged in perpetuity if their equipment fails to make it back, even after they have taken the value of the equipment from the customer.
I reported this to my bank, Wells Fargo, which is processing a fraud complaint.
The service offered is an important one to senior citizens. Fortunately, there are many companies to choose from.
