Firstline Security Declares Bankruptcy:
Firstline Security (founded in 2001 and based in Utah) is now seeking protection from various creditors, the twenty largest of which are owed appr. $12 million USD. According to court records, they owe GE Security nearly $5 million, Alarm.Com $4 million, and Secure Wireless is owed appr. $800,000.
Chapter 11 bankruptcy is usually filed by corporations that need time to restructure their debts. It gives them a "fresh start", subject to the filer's fulfillment of its obligations under its plan of reorganization. So technically, Firstline is not yet officially out of business. Because Firstline subcontracts their monitoring services, your security system's monitoring should not be affected. We suggest that for now, you contact the company who is actually monitoring your system if you have a service issue, not Firstline. Hopefully you can find this in your alarm system's documentation.
Firstline is well known for their door to door sales methods, usually performed by college students recruited for employment during the summer months. Mainly because of the commission-based pay structure of these employees, we have received reports of some high pressure sales tactics used to get the customer's signature on the dotted line. Are these methods the cause of Firstline's problems? Or is it the customer service that was the problem?
If you are with Firstline, or work(ed) for them, please use the review submission page and tell us about your experiences. We'll post them here as we receive them.
Chapter 11 bankruptcy is usually filed by corporations that need time to restructure their debts. It gives them a "fresh start", subject to the filer's fulfillment of its obligations under its plan of reorganization. So technically, Firstline is not yet officially out of business. Because Firstline subcontracts their monitoring services, your security system's monitoring should not be affected. We suggest that for now, you contact the company who is actually monitoring your system if you have a service issue, not Firstline. Hopefully you can find this in your alarm system's documentation.
Firstline is well known for their door to door sales methods, usually performed by college students recruited for employment during the summer months. Mainly because of the commission-based pay structure of these employees, we have received reports of some high pressure sales tactics used to get the customer's signature on the dotted line. Are these methods the cause of Firstline's problems? Or is it the customer service that was the problem?
If you are with Firstline, or work(ed) for them, please use the review submission page and tell us about your experiences. We'll post them here as we receive them.
We've received many emails and reviews for Firstline Security lately, many complaining that it is impossible to reach Firstline's customer service departments. They may not be aware that Firstline Security filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in January, 2008.
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"I worked for Firstline part of summer 2005 as an installation technician. With previous electrical experience I was quickly proficient (even received a higher pay per job), but even with my background experience and after a couple dozen jobs the installations were still taking, on average, twice as long as they were supposed to (according to what we were told during training).
I did have some houses that were "quick" but most were not. I couldn't see how some technicians could do more until I started getting called to fix problems created by other techs through poor installation. Personally the little training we received was inadequate to say the least and if it weren't for my own experience, I would've been at a loss on several occasions (I had other techs call me for help on several occasions). I constantly tried to help customers and answer questions left unanswered when they signed up, or correct false statements made by the sales person.
Yes, there were good people working for the company, but there were some unethical ones. There were some sales reps I liked to install for because I knew the customers had been well informed, and there were other reps who I dreaded doing a job for (even though I'd often be requested because of my thoroughness and professionalism).
I quit after a little more than 2 months - long days (9 am or earlier until 9 pm Mon-Fri and until 6 pm on Sat - that was our on-call time, though I ended up working much of that), poor pay (since it was a pay per job I probably averaged $6-7 per hour not including hours I was waiting for a job), and having to work with customers who'd received questionable sales tactics (there were some sales reps who would do anything they could to get the person to sign up and then I'd come and have to clean up their mess, sometimes losing the sale because the customer would discover the sales rep had lied to them). Because I quit, I ended up losing a couple thousand I actually earned but would only receive if I were work through the summer. I was asked by supervisors locally and at corporate to stay on. Not worth it to me. so I moved on. I would've brought much of this to the attention of Utah state, but the agreements I signed (I still have them) limit just about any recourse a former employee can have on the company, especially if that person terminates the contract. It was a case of not reading too closely before signing. They actually withheld money on my last check due to me leaving early and terminating my contract. According to the contracts they could've required me to reimburse them for expenses that I had no choice on (like rent - I had to live in the apartments they provided).
If I could do it over I would not work for the Firstline as it was a waste of time and money, and the installation techs were underappreciated.
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"I am writing a review based on the request for ex-employees to write a review about Firstline. I was a sales manager there for a good 3 years and I think most of the issues the company had in terms of customer service and complaints went back to 3 things:
#1- Poor training of sales reps: The reps were commission-based, they were college students, it was a competitive environment, so this produced a "fake it till you make it," do anything to get a deal type of atmosphere so you could keep up with your peers and their sales.
#2- Poor back office support (financially and therefore administratively): The back office was never strong, mostly due to the heavy emphasis the owners and leaders of the company put on recruiting and sales over quality of service and retention.
#3- No leadership: The company was lead by men that were "visionary," but had no realism to their visions. It was very flashy, very enticing to a recruit, but very much a "Big hat, no cattle" operation. This is the foundation of the company's suffering.
It's a shame because it was a blast working for Firstline minus those key elements. If the infrastructure were there and the reps were trained to be honest before producing by all means necessary, there would have been no stopping this company".
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"I will never and have never worked with a company that is more unorganized and unresponsive as Firstline. If considering an alarm system then you should stay away from Firstline. Do not do business with them".
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"I worked for Firstline. Their intentions were good, all it really was is the managers that pushed the reps to do what they did. Most of the reps are truthful obviously some are not.
People are worried about their systems not working, but they do if you got your system between May of 07 and on, and you are probably being monitored by a company called SAI. SAI was one of the factors of Firstline filling for chapter 11. SAI is the worst monitoring station ever. While i was a technician for Firstline, I never had problems with other companies we used besides SAI and they promised Firstline they could hold all of our accounts for us. We told them we planned on getting about fifty thousand accounts and they didn't believe us, obviously because they couldn't support all of them. For people with an alarm system from Firstline: If you want to see if it works, simply set off your system and see if anyone calls. If not, then it is probably SAI's fault. If you want to find out who you are being monitored by, I know they sold accounts to COUNTERFORCE, SAI, MONITRONICS, and a few others i cant think of off hand. Just call the monitoring station and give them your account number, located on the top right corner of the contracts. The number assigned to Counterforce is 8008753974. (I don't know the others, but I hope I helped someone).
The equipment in your home is produced by GE or Honeywell and is the best out there, especially if you have a cellular system. So you should feel safe with the equipment. As for Firstline, they screwed a lot of people. They owe so much money to people I know personally, that totals over $200,000 (just to about ten employees alone). I hope I helped someone".
I did have some houses that were "quick" but most were not. I couldn't see how some technicians could do more until I started getting called to fix problems created by other techs through poor installation. Personally the little training we received was inadequate to say the least and if it weren't for my own experience, I would've been at a loss on several occasions (I had other techs call me for help on several occasions). I constantly tried to help customers and answer questions left unanswered when they signed up, or correct false statements made by the sales person.
Yes, there were good people working for the company, but there were some unethical ones. There were some sales reps I liked to install for because I knew the customers had been well informed, and there were other reps who I dreaded doing a job for (even though I'd often be requested because of my thoroughness and professionalism).
I quit after a little more than 2 months - long days (9 am or earlier until 9 pm Mon-Fri and until 6 pm on Sat - that was our on-call time, though I ended up working much of that), poor pay (since it was a pay per job I probably averaged $6-7 per hour not including hours I was waiting for a job), and having to work with customers who'd received questionable sales tactics (there were some sales reps who would do anything they could to get the person to sign up and then I'd come and have to clean up their mess, sometimes losing the sale because the customer would discover the sales rep had lied to them). Because I quit, I ended up losing a couple thousand I actually earned but would only receive if I were work through the summer. I was asked by supervisors locally and at corporate to stay on. Not worth it to me. so I moved on. I would've brought much of this to the attention of Utah state, but the agreements I signed (I still have them) limit just about any recourse a former employee can have on the company, especially if that person terminates the contract. It was a case of not reading too closely before signing. They actually withheld money on my last check due to me leaving early and terminating my contract. According to the contracts they could've required me to reimburse them for expenses that I had no choice on (like rent - I had to live in the apartments they provided).
If I could do it over I would not work for the Firstline as it was a waste of time and money, and the installation techs were underappreciated.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I am writing a review based on the request for ex-employees to write a review about Firstline. I was a sales manager there for a good 3 years and I think most of the issues the company had in terms of customer service and complaints went back to 3 things:
#1- Poor training of sales reps: The reps were commission-based, they were college students, it was a competitive environment, so this produced a "fake it till you make it," do anything to get a deal type of atmosphere so you could keep up with your peers and their sales.
#2- Poor back office support (financially and therefore administratively): The back office was never strong, mostly due to the heavy emphasis the owners and leaders of the company put on recruiting and sales over quality of service and retention.
#3- No leadership: The company was lead by men that were "visionary," but had no realism to their visions. It was very flashy, very enticing to a recruit, but very much a "Big hat, no cattle" operation. This is the foundation of the company's suffering.
It's a shame because it was a blast working for Firstline minus those key elements. If the infrastructure were there and the reps were trained to be honest before producing by all means necessary, there would have been no stopping this company".
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I will never and have never worked with a company that is more unorganized and unresponsive as Firstline. If considering an alarm system then you should stay away from Firstline. Do not do business with them".
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I worked for Firstline. Their intentions were good, all it really was is the managers that pushed the reps to do what they did. Most of the reps are truthful obviously some are not.
People are worried about their systems not working, but they do if you got your system between May of 07 and on, and you are probably being monitored by a company called SAI. SAI was one of the factors of Firstline filling for chapter 11. SAI is the worst monitoring station ever. While i was a technician for Firstline, I never had problems with other companies we used besides SAI and they promised Firstline they could hold all of our accounts for us. We told them we planned on getting about fifty thousand accounts and they didn't believe us, obviously because they couldn't support all of them. For people with an alarm system from Firstline: If you want to see if it works, simply set off your system and see if anyone calls. If not, then it is probably SAI's fault. If you want to find out who you are being monitored by, I know they sold accounts to COUNTERFORCE, SAI, MONITRONICS, and a few others i cant think of off hand. Just call the monitoring station and give them your account number, located on the top right corner of the contracts. The number assigned to Counterforce is 8008753974. (I don't know the others, but I hope I helped someone).
The equipment in your home is produced by GE or Honeywell and is the best out there, especially if you have a cellular system. So you should feel safe with the equipment. As for Firstline, they screwed a lot of people. They owe so much money to people I know personally, that totals over $200,000 (just to about ten employees alone). I hope I helped someone".
Comments From Firstline Employees: