Due to my wife’s ongoing walking difficulties, I recently purchased a personal alarm for her from Personal Alarms Australia. Because of the inadequacy of information provided with the alarm when it arrived, I tried to contact them. The only form of contact they have is an in-house contact form, to which I have sent two messages and not received a reply. They provide no phone number, which is bizarre for a personal alarms business. Some research established that this is a sole proprietor business for whom I can find no contact details either.
Has anyone else had dealings with this company and what was your experience? Are there are other affordable systems you would recommend?
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I see many red flags with their website.
Firstly, the address they give is Office 2 / 1-5 Arkley St Bankstown NSW 2200. A quick Google search reveals that it is a mechanic for vehicles and the building isn’t an office space. The mechanic activities appear to be current as their Google was last updated 2 weeks ago. Their business address doesn’t match what is on the ground.
The second is that they list https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/ when making a consumer complaint, which seems very odd for a business that is trying to make consumers think that it is Australian.
Thirdly, the business has only been registered since July 2024.
Fourthly, online reviews aren’t overly good. Some give glowing endorsements or while others are highly critical. As reviews are mostly either end of the spectrum, this raises suspicions to the genuine nature of the glowing reviews.
Product Review does have a phone number: 0493 442 671. Don’t know if this is genuine.
The PO Box they they use may also not exist as there are comments on Product Review that a product returned by registered mail was never collected from the nominated PO Box. This seems suspicious and strange a business would not be collecting their mail.
Fifthly, photos on the website appear on other personal alarm retailers, including Ebay, Amazon and a business based in Melbourne. They appear to be stock photos easily sourced from the internet.
Sixthly, On the website, the only way to contact them is my email. No phone number and the business address appears to be not as what is on the ground.
Finally, their website has a familiar layout/design and looks similar to sellers which aren’t Australian, masquerading as being Australian. These have been covered in the community and are often foreign sellers selling cheap, poor quality items through to websites set up to harvest credit card details.
It doesn’t look good for you and I would be keeping a close eye on your card statements to ensure that no future unauthorised transactions occur.
Just on personal alarms, Choice has looked at them in the past and doesn’t recommend them. It is worth reading:
Does she have a smart phone? Maybe look at some of the SOS apps which can be installed and possibly work similar to the claims of many of the personal alarm sellers.
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The current address on ASIC is 20 Ninox Close, SALAMANDER BAY NSW 2317. Google maps shows this as a suburban house. Rang the number on Product Review. Voicemail said to leave a message and they would call back but it would be quicker to use their contact form, which I have already done twice. In retrospect this seems to be a classic case of drop shipping i.e. ordering from an international supplier then on-selling to local buyers. I am going to attempt to get my money back but I am not hopeful.
I will look into phone apps.
Thanks for your herlp.
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The first thing I noticed is the suburb on the PO Box is Salamander Bay (close to me).
Regarding the companies who sell these personal alarms that are triggered by falls or by the person pressing the alarm button - I would say beware. My elderly Dad has a personal alarm watch which was provided to him by his Homecare agency. The company selling these alarms and watches (personal alarms.org) are terrible to deal with. When you need assistance, you call a 1800 number which goes to an answering service. If you’re lucky, they’ll call back within 48 hours. Recently the company had an issue with alarm watches constantly going flat within 6 hours, so elderly clients stopped wearing the alarms. I was advised a new SIM was required to fix the battery issue which the company would send me. The existing SIM was only 2 weeks old. This issue was known in the company who decided not to contact clients, it was up to clients to call them. I also found my Dad’s alarm watch was offline for over 3 weeks which meant the alarm would not call emergency contacts in the event of a fall. As the watch was offline, the GPS function that would show where the fall occurred was also not working. Every time I raised these safety issues with the company, they showed no concern or care. The specific alarm watch this company sells is from China, imported and sold from a variety of Australian sellers with very little ongoing support.
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His middle name is Stephen and I think the address you have is spot on, as it matches the map location of items he has sold on Facebook marketplace. Wondering if you could send him a letter indicating you will start the process with Dept of Fair Trading if a refund isn’t provided. These small operators who on-sell these safety devices need to be held to account.
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Update: * Finally managed to get the device to work today. After two written messages and two phone calls, Mitch rang me today at around noon. He told me ‘they’, meaning he, are only available during office hours, which is odd for a business being run in a suburban house.
I told him the instructions provided were very unhelpful and he said he would change them. I also told him there was no explanation as to what the side buttons do and he said he wasn’t sure if the direct call button was operational on that model. Finally he asked me to take down the negative review I’d given on Product Review because it might affect sales. I said I’d think about it. At the end of the day, this guy is simply drop shipping a product he doesn’t really understand. Good luck getting any after sales service.
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This seems to be a universal problem. Contact details are hard to find, if at all. My solution so far is to buy through Ebay and use Paypal for payment. That way, I’ve always got my money back if the product was inferior, did not arrive or had problems from the start. Plus, you leave feedback.
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Not so sure about PayPal. They automatically authorise a selling company’s subscription, where the small print cannot be seen on an initial purchase (Domestika) and then argue the toss for the company when when challenged. Huge community on Facebook who have been duped. Some get their complaint upheld while others don’t so I have cancelled PayPal. Much easier to deal directly with a bank when it comes to disputes in my experience.
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Hi Dougj147 Purchased a Personal Alarm 17/3/25valued at $369.00 for 91 year old recently widowed mother. Item arrived relatively promptly, also purchased watch band for it, which straight away knew that it was far too big to be of any use and quite obviously made in China, shocking quality. After several emails (the only means of communication) backwards and forwards we are no further along to getting unit working. Greatest waste of money on a scam product, I’ve taken videos, followed every bit of advice I could obtain to get this waste of a product working to no avail. I reached out in many forms to no avail. I went on their fb page to voice my concerns and dissatisfaction only to be blocked and my post removed. Tried via my husbands fb page today and exactly the same response, post removed and blocked.
- Invoice Number : Order 6066
- Return Claim Made: Yes
- Warranty Claim Made: Yes
Product Quality
Shipping
Amanda As a follow-up, I placed a review on the companies FB page last week and went to check it this morning, they have blocked me so went in through my husbands fb page, and sure enough removed my post.
Hi Just letting you know as another unsatisfied customer and $400 out of pocket by my 91 year old mother, that the number listed on product review has a message bank that is full and you are unable to leave a message!!!
Sorry to hear that, ajmouse 52
I bought a watch for my mum from Personal Alarms Australia and we had nothing but issues with sensitivity, battery running out and false fall alerts. I returned the watch and they said that nothing is wrong with it and they would send it back to me. I am now raising with consumer affairs because they stopped communicating and have sent the watch back to me 6 weeks later with zero communication.
Out of pocket $400 as well. This company needs to be shut down!
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