BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) – Who hasn’t seen that commercial: “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!” showing a senior citizen lying helpless on the floor, stuck in a place where they could be for days or even weeks.
They are advertisements for emergency medical alert devices that could bring life-saving help, and they are turning into a new industry that is bursting at the seams.
But as Jean Sedita now knows, you’ve got to be careful when shopping for one of these devices. The elderly Town of Tonawanda widow has a Life Alert pendant hanging around her neck that is hooked up wirelessly to an electronic box that sits on her living room floor.
Life Alert was supposed to give Sedita freedom to go anywhere she wants, inside or outside her home. Instead, the device is only useful inside her home, and she is stuck paying a subscription for Life Alert’s monitoring service, and her equipment, every month for three years.
The Tonawanda grandmother said, Life Alert’s representative who came to her home did not tell her clearly what she was committing to, “Hurry up and sign, goodbye,” and when Sedita called the company that is based in Encino, California to cancel the service, she was told she had signed a three-year contract.
At the time Sedita signed that agreement, last year, her husband of 65 years, Herbert had just passed away, and as a recently widowed former stay-at-home mother and grandmother, Sedita said she misunderstood.
“When my husband died, I was a mess. Sixty-five years together and you have to do things for yourself, it’s hard.”
Peggy Penders of the Better Business Bureau told News 4 that when you buy or lease a product in your home, the law entitles you to a three-day “cooling off period,” which could have helped Sedita, if she had known about it.
“It really does pertain to purchases that are made in your home, that are in excess of $25, or if you are dealing with a business that is at a temporary location – not their permanent place of business,” said Penders, who pointed out Life Alert has a very good record with the Better Business Bureau.
The Bureau in Los Angeles gives Life Alert an A-plus rating.
With the aging of the “Baby Boomer” generation experts say more Americans are looking at these kinds of potentially life-saving products, but Chris Clark, co-founder of the website TheSeniorList.com, says sometimes buying the equipment – the push button pendant and electronic signal box – can help a consumer avoid long-term contracts.
“In a lot of cases, it makes sense to buy the equipment, if you are not locked into a three-year agreement where you can count on being out a lot of out-of-pocket expense,” said Clark, who offered tips on shopping for a medical alert device.
News 4 contacted Life Alert, and a spokesperson said they understand Jean Sedita’s predicament, and they are allowing her to cancel the remainder of her three-year contract.
Life Alert is even sending a package delivery service to Sedita’s home to pick up the equipment, later this week, free of charge.
Date: September 08, 2014