It must be summer, the APX "kids" are roaming the streets going door to door. They stopped by my mothers home yesterday and were using scare tactics. They told her that her neighbors home had been burglarized and several others down the street recently. Fortunately he explained the 5 year contract and the $39.99 fee AND the 3 business day to cancel without penalty.
Of course they showed up moments later to install the system (in the middle of the night), but they didn't test it. After they left, she activated it and it told her that the basement door was open (it wasn't). She tried again and it still told her it was open. She called customer service and they walked her through how to turn the sensors off and only use motion detection (while she's in the house?)... but they didn't offer to send anyone back to fix it.
Then I started asking her questions that she should have asked them - about how the system works, how it knows if a sensor is bad, how you know if the system isn't working properly, if the system isn't connected, battery backup, etc... I happened to know Brink's rate of 29.99/month and 3 year contract (I checked into alarms not long ago) and told her that her 5 year contract at 39.99/month was going to cost her $600 more and even more than that if she continued to keep the service after 5 years.
Finally, I asked her if she talked to her neighbor about a burglary and she said no. So I told her to call the non-emergency line at the police department and ask them if there had been any recent burglaries in her area. She called this morning and was told there have been none reported. Fortunately she is still well within her cancellation timeframe and she immediately called the company and told them to cancel her contract and that she was signing the cancel papers and sending them today. She wanted nothing to do with a company of dishonest people (and she told me that if they had just been honest she probably would have just kept the system. Now she has it on her mind and will likely go with another company.
I told her to contact Brinks, ADT, or someone local so that she'd have someone to talk to that might have an interest in keeping her satisified as a customer and not some college kid on summer break just trying to make some quick cash and will never see her again.
Of course they showed up moments later to install the system (in the middle of the night), but they didn't test it. After they left, she activated it and it told her that the basement door was open (it wasn't). She tried again and it still told her it was open. She called customer service and they walked her through how to turn the sensors off and only use motion detection (while she's in the house?)... but they didn't offer to send anyone back to fix it.
Then I started asking her questions that she should have asked them - about how the system works, how it knows if a sensor is bad, how you know if the system isn't working properly, if the system isn't connected, battery backup, etc... I happened to know Brink's rate of 29.99/month and 3 year contract (I checked into alarms not long ago) and told her that her 5 year contract at 39.99/month was going to cost her $600 more and even more than that if she continued to keep the service after 5 years.
Finally, I asked her if she talked to her neighbor about a burglary and she said no. So I told her to call the non-emergency line at the police department and ask them if there had been any recent burglaries in her area. She called this morning and was told there have been none reported. Fortunately she is still well within her cancellation timeframe and she immediately called the company and told them to cancel her contract and that she was signing the cancel papers and sending them today. She wanted nothing to do with a company of dishonest people (and she told me that if they had just been honest she probably would have just kept the system. Now she has it on her mind and will likely go with another company.
I told her to contact Brinks, ADT, or someone local so that she'd have someone to talk to that might have an interest in keeping her satisified as a customer and not some college kid on summer break just trying to make some quick cash and will never see her again.
Recent Customer Review For APX Alarms:
APX Alarms have been in business since 1999, with clients nationwide. APX will install your alarm, but your monitoring will be provided by Security Associates International (www.sai-inc.com), who operate two monitoring centers in the U.S. (Pompano, FL, and Arlington Heights, IL). Please remember that APX Alarms has thousands of other clients that may (or may not) be happy with their service, and this review is only a small sampling of the opinions of their customers. If you have had a good or bad experience with a particular alarm company, please submit your review! Reviews are only edited for spam and/or vulgar language.
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