Complaint Review: Protection and Audio/Video By Design - Williamsburg Virginia

 Fellow Consumers,

Hopefully by reading this, it will save you some headaches and frustration.  Be aware of this company, their products and read their written quotes in detail.  Do not assume you are receiving the latest electronic equipment, fair pricing and look at all of the numbers very closely.

I recently purchased a Ryan Home and as a part of that project, Protection By Design was subcontracted to do our alarm system, the wiring for our entertainment systems and the window candles in our new home.  They were awarded a contract through Ryan Homes and NVR mortgage for a total of $19,010.88 to do just that.  This $19,010.88 was the initial part of the contract, there is another piece of the contract called the post-close or close-out which finishes the setup.

I will attach some documents for your review, these documents include the Ryan Homes contract with the $19,010.88 price dated April 03 and two other documents.  One of which is a quote for the post-close items dated May 30 and the other document is another quote dated July 03.

Here is one example of mark-up.  One window contact for an alarm system is costing us $68.90.  This is the plastic piece that goes on the window.  For 19 windows that totals $1,309.10.  There's no package alarm system, no deal for ordering a certain number - a flat charge of $68.90 per window contact.  That $1,309.10 charge is only covering some of our windows, not all of them and that's only a piece of the alarm system, that's not the doors, the garage, motion sensors, smoke detectors, those are additional costs.  What do you think the cost is for a window contact?  There are 42 different models from $3.00 to $9.00 and high quality models from $25 at the homesecuritystore.  With that in mind allow me to break down some other items:

Attached is Protection By Design post-close proposal for 30MAY, the new post-close proposal received on 03JUL and the Final Mortgage Inclusion on 03APR.  I requested changes to the 30MAY document that involved additional sensors, a window candle addition to the extra window and an additional window contact for the extra window, instead I was provide with a proposal that added items that were not requested, and put us well over our $5,000 post-close budget.  The total price on the post-close contract went up from $5,243.50 on the 30MAY document to $10,871.94 on the 03JUL document.  You can imagine the frustration when I saw the 51% or $5,628.44 increase in the proposal, but the real frustration came when I saw more ridiculous price increases on equipment.  More examples as follows:

Yamaha A730 Receiver: Protection By Design price is $687.94 as listed on the 03JUL proposal.  Best Buy price is $518.99.  This is a 25% or $168.95 increase.

Sony Bluray 5100: Protection By Design price is $179.14 as listed on the 03JUL proposal and is an older model.  The updated 5200 model at Best Buy is $99.99.  This is a 44% or 79.15 increase for an older model.

Misc Equipment: Line item #7 for packages on the 03JUL document indicates "Misc Equip 25 Wire Labor Materials" it says; "See comment section for details" with a charge of $225.00 yet there are no comments or details provided for what the charge is, yet there's a charge for $225.00.

Bluetooth Ext/Adpt: Protection By Design price is $74.20 as listed on the 03JUL proposal and they're charging for 2 devices for a total of $148.40.  Best Buy price for the same device is $49.99.  This is a 32% or $24.21 increase.  I could technically buy three of these devices for what Protection By Design is charging for two.

Yamaha SB YAS201: There is a charge for a 2.1 Soundbar on 03JUL proposal for $338.14  We didn't request this item be added, but it was included in the 03JUL proposal.

Intercom System: From the very beginning we requested an intercom system be included in the home however, Protection By Design sales tools were not configured to allow that as part of the original quote and on 03APR, only rough-ins were added for $950, this was the cost of the wiring.  On 30MAY, our assigned salesman asked again to have the intercom trim-out added to the sales tool and that quote didn't include the intercom trim-out and we were told the costs wouldn't be too much of an increase.  On the 03APR Final Mortgage Inclusion the intercom rough-in totaled $950, when the 03JUL proposal was presented that price totaled $2,608.66 for an 8 station setup.  This is a 63% or 1,658.88 increase in the proposal.

Media Closet Cooling:  Bottom line, a lack of communicating the requirement to add additional cooling both to the customer and to Ryan Homes by Protection By Design has resulted in a $634.94 increase for an equipment rack that will be installed inside the closet to support equipment ventilation because Protection By Design didn't let Ryan Homes know, in advance, they would need significant air circulation in the closet in order to prevent a fire or equipment meltdown.  Ryan Homes submitted a last minute change order to the home construction for louvered door and vent opening above the door.  Protection By Design passed off this cost for the STRONG Rack System: SR-FS-System-150 to the customer.  This is a cost to the customer that should've been presented well before 03JUL and a design issue that should've been communicated to Ryan Homes well in advance of the construction meeting and it was not.

The frustrating thing is, the customer is blamed for being unreasonable.  The customer is reminded by Protection By Design that they're reputable and have been in business for 25 years.  The customer is not correct here, their prices are fair and reasonable and when Protection By Design is put on the spot about it, it is the customer who is out of line.  All we wanted was a fair deal on a post close contract, not to be ripped off.  Looking through the Mortgage Inclusion and the costs with alarm system and other items, we've been ripped off.  Please avoid this company.  I will be posting on other sites, twitter, face book, better business bureau, angies list, consumer reports, will print and post flyers - I am on a mission to ensure this type of thing doesn't happen by this company again. 

It's gone beyond just a difference with the quotes, it's the fact of the arrogance with the company to apologize, admit they could do better and dialogue professionally with a customer who had already invested almost $20,000 in a contract.  Instead, they did just the opposite and not once did I get a call with an apology or an honest attempt at resolution.