APX Alarm Customer Review: Problems With Billing And Installation

To start off, we feel that we have also been scammed!

We got a knock at the door, on 5/31/10 from a guy by the name of *****. He stated he was out promoting thier alarm company Apx, and wanted to speak with people in the neighborhood about displaying their company's sign in their front yard. At absolutely no charge to have an alarm installed in their home for free of charge. My husband and I both looked at each other and asked him what was the catch. He said there wasn't one. Of course, we all know that you don't get anything for free these days. So after he talked a little bit more about the alarm we invited him in to talk to him and learn more about the system.

He explained to us that it cost the company a certain amount of money just for a day for a salesman to come out to each home because of the scams that have been going on lately, the amount may be a little bit more. We checked out his ID, which later you could not enter the ID number on their website. My husband had to get ready for work, so I continue to talk to the salesman. Once we decided where the 3 free sensors would go, he also included a free smoke detector and the alarm panel.

The items on the contract stated:
1 free Go! Control Siren 699.00 no charge
3 free door/window $99-no charge
1-Free Motion $195.00-no charge
1-Free smoke $195.00-no charge
1-Free solar light
0-installation charge reg $195.00

After I signed the contract, not aware of the monthly fee extra that they took out of our account. I was told that there would be a $99 activation fee later. While my husband was in the back continuing to get ready I text him and ask if it would be ok to pay that amount. When he didn't text me back I assumed it was OK. But after he was out of the shower he text me to come to the back And I explained it to him, he wasn't very happy he asked why was there a charge, when the salesman stated more than once, that everything was free. So I told him that we needed to have an alarm, because he's in the military and is gone most of the time, and also a police officer. Before he left he spoke with the salesman and told me to give him a call as soon as they scheduled an appt to come by the following week. I told him that there was a installer on the way by to install the alarm. We were both shocked how soon it would be installed.

The salesman called to have it all confirmed over the phone in which I spoke with his supervisor (or the lady that pretended to be his supervisor). The questions that they ask are were a little tricky, which i didn't realize until later. The salesman asked me several times about the solar light as if I was going to change my mind about it, I told him if it was free then yes i wanted it. The installer showed up and introduced himself, he got to work installing the alarm. I asked how many alarms had he put in that day and he said, he installed three of them up the street from where I lived. So that made me feel a little better, he worked on the alarm, took him almost an hour, 35min after he arrived there was another salesman that arrived. I guess this first guy didn't know what he was doing so he called for help.

After an hour and 30min they were finally done, he also had to confirm the alarm was installed and they asked me questions about the salesman, they asked if he cleaned up any mess that he made and I told them yes and some other questions that I can't remember. He walked me thru the alarm and showed me how to enter the pass codes and some other information and if I need help I could read it from a sheet of paper that he left. After they were done call my husband to let him know that they had finished, before they left they stated that it would be 4hours before the system would be monitored. I asked them why would it take four hours to monitor the new alarm and they stated it was being tested for signals.

Later that day I checked our bank account and they had taken out more fees then what they told us. There was an extra $47.59 additional to the $99.00 activation fee. So I called and spoke with ******* and she apologized for the miscommunication and would refund the amount back to our account. It took more than 5 days and we still haven't receive a credit to our account. With the amount that they took out it caused us to have seven OD fees to our account. I told her that my husband wasn't to happy about the miscommunication. And if everyone knows when you have a certain amount in your account they always pay the higher amount first and then whats left. I explained to her that it caused our account to go negative and she assured me the problem would be taken care of, all I had to do was fax her the information and they would credit our account. My husband spoke with her, I faxed the information to her the next day and it took two days for her to get back with us. We called several times and was put on hold, sometimes for more than 10-15 min. When we called her back several more times, the line would be busy or it would just ring. When I finally spoke to her again, she stated she needed to speak to her boss to make sure, and that we needed a letter from the bank stating that it was Apx debit to our account that caused an OD on the account. This went on for days and she told us it was credited back to our account @ 6:36am that next morning. Needless to say that never happened. If they can take it out in one day, surely they can put it back in the same day.

Things were getting worse: by Tuesday our alarm was completely dead. there was no signal no nothing. We called to let Apx know and they couldn't tell us why it was not working. My husband checked the battery, we took it out of the plug on the wall and we tried it in the 2ND plug, no connection. Little did they know my husband worked for an alarm company some years ago and knew that the salesman installed it wrong. He was leaving for military school on that Friday and told them he would feel better if they came out before he left. The earliest they could come out was on Sat. The installer got there and was there for more than 45min and told us that he just took it from one outlet to the other and it was back on. He was so lying, I watched him completely undo some wiring he did the first time, he took out the wire that was in my front closet and replaced it. Left nine staples on the floor and didn't staple the wire back on the wall. I can't believe how this guy covered up his mistake by saying he changed it from one outlet to the other. I call to report the mess the salesman left and they could not know who was scheduled to come out to the my house to fix the alarm, it took them almost 20 min to find his name. This gets worse, it's now 1:04 in the morning and I will post the rest of this (later).