Complaint Review: APX Alarm Co.

Ripoff Report Verified REVIEW:

EDitors UPDATE: Positive rating and recognition has been given to APX Alarm for its commitment to excellence in customer service.

Ripoff Reports discussions with the company have uncovered an ongoing commitment to total customer satisfaction. You can expect to have any questions or concerns that you have with them to be answered and resolved in a timely manner. They have shown us their customer service process, and it reflects a desire to serve customers, as well as fix problems.

The company's management specifically told us about how their job is to simplify lives and help people to live intelligently. The management really wants every person who buys a system to feel valued. The concern for each customer's experience starts at the top, and is reflected in the action of every employee they hire.

The company also works to monitor their sales and customer support calls to see how they can be improved. They use these calls as examples for employees in training. Currently, Vivint is working to make changes to their contracts to make things easier for their customers as they have found that many of their complaints stem from feeling misled or customers paid fees they did not feel they authorized.

Ripoff Report Verified .. part of Ripoff Report Corporate Advocacy Business Remediation & Customer Satisfaction Program.A program that benefits the consumer, assures them of complete satisfaction and confidence when doing business with a member business..


Statements from company executives

"We are committed to making homes safe for families. With advanced early detection systems, many home fires are preventable and can be stopped in the beginning stages, saving lives. We have a plan for every family and every budget, and whether you choose our most basic or expanded services, you can be sure of our top quality technology and expert customer support.

STATED IMPROVEMENTS FROM THE COMPANY.

We have simplified our customer service process to decrease the amount of time that a customer has to wait before speaking with a representative. Our customer service will look at your contract, listen to recorded phone calls, and make sure to get to the bottom of your issue to resolve things THE RIGHT WAY. We want customer's to have a positive experience, and we understand that sometimes customer's fall on hard times. We're willing to work with all of our customers. Their experience and safety are our primary concerns.

Read more about why consumers should feel confident when doing business with a member of Rip-off Report's Corporate Advocacy Business Remediation & Customer Satisfaction Program. Yes, its a long name for a program that does a lot for both consumers and businesses alike.

Read about Ripoff Report Corporate Advocacy Business Remediation & Customer Satisfaction Program,.. A program that benefits the consumer, assures them of complete satisfaction and confidence when doing business with a member business. this program works.

As a matter of policy, when a business becomes a member of the Corporate Advocacy Programthey agree to allow Ripoff Report to contact every client who filed a complaint so they can make things right with them. In order to confirm that the complaints were resolved, Ripoff Report is copied on all responses so we can insure that the member business did right by their customer..

NOW TO THE ORIGINAL REPORT THAT WAS FILED

----------------------------------- setTimeout( 'openPopWin();', 1000);function openPopWin(){window.open('/apx-alarm/security-services/provo-utah-90f20.htm');}APX Alarm Co. This company provides poor installation and unreliable emergency service Provo Utah

I signed a service contract with APX Alarm Co., and the salesman said that installation would begin that same evening. Within one hour an installer was in the home, mounting wireless sensors and drilling holes for the alarm communication center. In conversation with the installer, he informed me that he had had two hours training in installing systems. The first problem he encountered was mounting a smoke detector on drywall. He drilled holes and put in screws, but of course they came out immediately. I suggested that he use plastic mounting inserts, which he had not seen before. I gave him a supply, but he could not figure out how to use them, thinking that the insert went on the face of the mounting bracket, and was simply a fancy nut that would hold the screw when the screw head was placed in the hole that he had made. And so I taught him how to use this elementary device.

Later in the installation process it was necessary to mount sensors on two metal sliding doors. He could not think of a way to do this, and phoned a "supervisor," who came within an hour. Their solution was to use clear glue to fasten the magnetic sensor to the metal door and the door frame. Unfortunately, the glue has failed three times since installation. When the glue fails while the system is armed, an alarm is triggered. This has led to puzzled and frantic calls from relatives on my "call list" wanting to know if someone is breaking into my house. APX uses a false name in its caller ID, so when I get a call from them on my cell phone about an alarm, I assume that it's a telemarketer and do not pick up, which leads to others getting involved and, ultimately, a "security" company being notified.

As another example of their installation know-how, the sensor on the door from the garage into the house was mounted on the garage side of the door, where an intruder would have complete access to the sensor and sending unit. This was resolved during the second day of installation--second day because the promised "two hour" installation had so many problems that the crew could not finish in one day. When they returned the second day, I asked that the garage sensor be changed. The sender was moved to the inside of the door, and the installer du jour placed a magnetic sensor in the top of the door, with the other part of the sensor inside the door jamb. Unfortunately, the hole was made too large, so that the magnet fell into the inside of the door, and so the "old reliable" glue was used to hold the magnet in place. Yes--the glue has failed, the sensor dropped into the door while the house was empty, and the entire alarm process was repeated.

A telephone complaint to the company resulted in a call back three days later from a "scheduler," who said that a technician could be dispatched, but that the company would pick the day and that someone would need to be home all day on the day that was picked. This was not acceptable--I'm not going to phone in sick to get a day when I can wait for someone to show up and re-glue a magnet, so I declined the offer, purchased my own replacement magnet, filled in the hole, redrilled it, and installed the magnet. I asked for credit for the days when my house was without protection because of the company's faulty installation techniques and unwillingness to schedule service calls to meet the customer's needs, but was turned down without recourse.

There is never another level of service available when phoning the company with a complaint or a request. Either the company is so small that it cannot afford supervisory staff with discretionary powers to settle disputes, or the company's bottom line matters more than providing service to its customers.

Today (June 2008) demonstrated the quality of APX's protective service. My wife triggered an alarm by accident, and was unable to reset the alarm center. Usually someone comes on the intercom line to ask if there is a problem, but no one did so today. There were no telephone calls to our home, to my cell, or to any family member, although when I called customer service with a complaint I was informed that the company had "tried calling three times, but the line was constantly busy." Unfortunately, no one was using the phone at the time they claimed that they called. When I asked about the intercom, the representative told me that "we listened through the intercom, but there was no sound," therefore no attempt was made to communicate through the intercom. Strangely, though, our dogs were barking at the alarm, my wife was trying to quiet them, and she and I were discussing how to turn the alarm off.

47 minutes later, the doorbell rang. It was a "security" representative from a local company I have never heard of. He asked if everything was OK, we said yes, my wife told the story about the alarm and the dogs, he filled out a business card, gave it to us, and left. He did not ask for ID. We will be charged $45 by APX for this visit.

When I called the company to complain about the response time, using the argument that if this had been an actual emergency, we might have been shot, the house ransacked and torched, and the dogs killed before anyone showed up to ring the doorbell, the employee's response was that APX had done what it is required to do, and if we didn't like the response time, we should complain to the company that responded. I suggested that APX might contract with a more reliable company, and was told that "APX has done what the service contract requires. If you don't agree with the service, complain to the responding company." I'd be happy to do so, if I knew that this company would be the one responding to future alarms, but APX regularly changes its service vendors. It is not possible to predict who will answer the next call, or how long they will take.

As a protective service, APX has demonstrated that it is worthless. They do not intend to provide reliable protection, but they do intend to squeeze money out of me for the entire length of the contract.

Any company that promises improved security, but cannot even install a system without customer assistance, and that cannot send someone to investigate a potential problem in less than 3/4 of an hour does not deserve my support, and they certainly do not deserve YOUR business. When a BYU student comes knocking on your door to sell you a system and APX's service, send them packing. My dogs do a better job of protecting the house than APX does, and they are far more satisfying to talk to!

S.D. henderson, Nevada
U.S.A.