MARTINEZ, Calif. — To settle a civil lawsuit with the Contra Costa County (Calif.) District Attorney’s office for unethical sales practices, Pinnacle Security must pay $525,000. The latest announcement comes a week after Protection 1 said it had acquired certain proprietary IT assets from the firm.
In addition to paying the settlement and restitution payments to some customers, the summer-sales model company must upgrade its business procedures, Contra Costa Times reports. According to the civil judgment, Pinnacle representatives must refrain from making false and misleading statements during door-to-door sales presentations, immediately verbally identify themselves and their company.
Sales representatives must also disclose the total price of the alarm monitoring service and present Spanish language contracts for sales presentations done primarily in Spanish.
This is the second lawsuit within four months that have put a negative light on Pinnacle’s sales practices. In October, the same month that Monitronics purchased 93,000 subscriber accounts from Pinnacle for $131 million, the seasonal sales firm agreed to pay a $1 million fine in a settlement with the state of Illinois for allegedly hiring convicted felons.
