Complaint Review: Fluent Home

On August 8, 2017, I made the terrible mistake of signing a contract with Fluent Home, LLC, The contract I signed was to end on August 8, 2022. This was my mistake to get into a contract with Fluent. I didn’t do my due diligence to research the company to understand it’s reputation. I now know, most Fluent customers are frustrated with the service and cost. There are many scary reviews online that would have stopped me if I did my research. This was my first mistake.

On April 14, 2021, I called Fluent and spoke with an associate to have my panel moved from one home to another. I was in the processing of selling my house and buying a new house. Ideally, I wanted to get out of the contract. My only option was to buy out and I didn’t want to do that. Instead, I chose to move the service from my old home to my new home. I was offered a discounted rate to extend my contract. I told the Fluent associate that I did not want to add time to my contract, I would rather pay the same amount and end my contract on the upcoming noted date. 

Unfortunately, when the contract was sent over to move my panel, I signed without realizing that the associate had extended the time on my contract. Now extended from August 8, 2022 to August 8, 2025. This was my fault for not reading the fine print. But it is very disheartening after I clearly told the associate I didn’t want to add time to my contract.

Scheduled via the Fluent scheduling team, on April 28, 2021, Jeffrey Ross from Pelican State Protection LLC came to move my panel from my old house to my new house. He was also supposed to install a new thermostat, but one was never sent to me. He installed the old alarm panel crooked on my wall. It seemed to be working fine initially.

Unfortunately, within a few days, there were issues with the panel. It would go off randomly. I reached out via phone and chat and struggled to get in contact with someone who could help me. Days passed and the alarm kept going off. After many more frustrating calls, I finally got in touch with a tech that told me my battery seemed to be a faulty and they would send me a new one. I asked at that point if I could schedule the install of the battery as well as the thermostat that I never received. I had already gone through the pain of trying to contact the company with little success, so I was trying to minimize more wasted time on my end. They would not schedule my appointment since I didn't have the parts. It took a while for the parts to come in. Once they did, I reached out via chat, social, and phone to have an appointment scheduled. It took weeks for someone to contact me back to finally schedule the appointment.

Eventually I had an appointment on June 16, 2021, to change the battery and install the thermostat. The technician that was sent was also from the Pelican State Protection LLC, Max Cooley.  While he had the panel open and was pulling out the battery, the battery and panel caught on fire. He dropped the panel on the floor where it caught my floors on fire. Thankfully no one was hurt, and the fire was contained to a few pieces of the vinyl floors. Unfortunately, this did permanently damage my floors that were newly installed. 

When the technician left our house on June 16th, he told us we would be contacted by Fluent to resolve the issue. That never happened. We had to initiate all contact. This began a month long saga of phone calls, chats, emails, complaints via linkedin, and a report to the Better Business Bureau (complaint #15674012) to get a response.  It took from June 16th until July 27th for me to get paid $668 for the damages to my home.

Countless hours of my life wasted retelling the same story repeatedly. Begging to speak to a manager. Begging for call backs. Begging to get out of the contract. My frustration and anger were consuming. To get paid out we had to get 4 contractors to our house to give us quote. Again, so much wasted time.

Unfortunately, since getting the payout and trying to get the work done, we have been told by two different flooring companies that the quotes were all underestimated due to the way our floors were laid down. To change out the two damaged planks, they would have to remove potentially one full room of flooring. This would then make the job much more expensive. Because of this, we still have not had the floors changed out due to the potential increased cost and pulling apart of our living room and kitchen.

In the past few months, I have been contacted at least 3 times by Fluent, trying to schedule the same technician, Max Cooley, to come to my house. I have told each representative that I refuse to let the person who caused the fire, install a new panel. So, I have not had service at my home since June 16th.

On Sept 13th, I was charged for a monthly payment for a service I have not been receiving. I called twice (October 5th and October 9th) and requested a credit as I have not received the service, and no one has contacted me again to schedule the install of my panel. I was told that I would only be credited once my alarm panel was installed. That response is truly absurd. Why would I pay for a service I am not receiving? They told me someone from the “scheduling team” would be contacting me. But that has not happened. I’m now going to have to go through the process of disputing the charges with my bank.

Additionally, I contacted Fluent via email on October 11th and again on October 12th asking for a credit. I continue to get no response. On October 12th I filed my second complaint with the Better Business Bureau (complaint #16012120).

I have never been so horrified by the way a company treats its customers. The more research I do, the more I realize I am not alone in my frustration. It apparent that Fluent runs a company that is not ethical and is not looking out for the customer. Fluent is a company, that hides behind contracts, lawyers, contractors, and helpless call center associates. I am truly disgusted with the things I continue to read about this company. At this point, all I want is to get out of this contract.