APX Alarm | Customer Review: Customer Defends Company

I just purchased an APX alarm system from a young man doing door to door sales. Historically, I would not opt to buy anything from a door to door salesman. On his first contact he spoke with my wife, who told him I would have to be consulted/involved and could he return the following evening. Yes, he could, and yes he did.

I won't re-iterate the sales pitch, you can read it re-told all over the place. I will say this about it, and this is MY opinion:

1. The sales pitch and method is SMART.
2. I am not home during the day, so coming in the evening is the ONLY time they could contact me directly.
3. I hate telephone solicitations, deeming them invasive of my privacy, and respond to them accordingly. Paper flyers are more unlikely to be read by me. I want to be face to face.
4. The salesman was well trained-- No high pressure, no scare tactics, best of all, no exaggeration or hyperbole, just the facts about their system --both equpiment, monitoring, and cost.
5. His sales pitch, identification representations made are the verified by telephone by YOU, the customer, with another company rep, who confirms that you have not been given any other representations than those the salesman is authorized, and required by the company obviously, to make. Also verified is that he told you what he is supposed to have told you.
6. The young salesman did not know at the time that I am a lawyer of 28 years experience in contract law and litigation.
7. I questioned him about parts of the contract and he demonstrated that he in fact knew what his company's contract meant, what the terms were for, and wasn't just making a rote pitch. Yes, the pitch contains a whole lot of "free" goodies to entice you to purchase. This however, is a very AMERICAN, marketing tactic because the US marketing culture has been developed such that (it is believed to be) best if the buyer thinks he is getting a good deal or a freebie in order to sell product. The reality however is, that nothing is free. SOMEBODY has to pay for this equipment or else the manufacturer and suppliers would go out of business very soon. They need to make a profit to stay in business. If you want your monitoring and/or equipment warranty to be of any value to you, you want this company to make money so that your service can continue. SO,you have to pay for what you get. The question really is, are the products and services what you want at a price you are willing to pay?
8. I have had and used alarm systems at my places of business for years. They do not hold a candle to the APX system. It is SLICK, full featured and easy to use. Being wireless and utilizing cellular and internet technology, it is light years ahead of anything I have used before. Installation was immediate--same evening-- and took about 2 hours. The installer's work (and training of you, the buyer) was also verified over the telephone with another APX employee.
9. The short evaluation of their sales system by me, appears to be that, because this electronic equipment can be mass produced so cheaply, effectively, your $200 installation fee probably pays the salesman and the installer; and your equipment cost is amortized over the contract term in the monthly monitoring fee. Because this stuff is electronic, for the most part the company's downstream cost is really negligible, so it is VERY profitably for them. EXCELLENT -- I want them to be around for the next 3 and 1/2 years to fulfill their end of the bargain!
10. AFTER this was all done, I reviewed APX on the internet. YES, it looks like they have had some problems in the southern states a couple of years ago with salesman making misrepresentations. I can certainly say however that their present sales and service system is obviously designed to prevent that AT THE OUTSET. It is a VERY well designed sales/quality assurance/verification system.
11. I'm impressed! There are some real brains behind this business model and in the result this company is going places.
12. THE BOTTOM LINE-- remember folks, you only get what you pay for; NOTHING IN THIS WORLD IS FREE. You should expect to pay a reasonable price for what you get.
13. I am located in BC Canada. The quality of YOUR local state/provincial laws will affect the quality of the companies, their business systems and the people working for them accordingly.