Calin Day

Review of ALERT Protective Services

Avoid Alert Protective Services. If I could get ou...

Avoid Alert Protective Services. If I could get out of my contract with them today, I would, and happily at that.

Here's why:

A drunk driver hit a car on Thursday night in front of my home. We pressed the doorbell to record the incident, and it failed to record. Thankfully, no one was badly hurt and they caught the driver who left the scene. This could have gone another way, badly, and we wouldn't have had video of it. To troubleshoot the issue, we called Alert to find out why a system we pay for wasn't working, and were told a technician has to come out. (Pro Tip: this involves a 100 service fee that wasn't announced up front. The word "service fee and parts" may or may not have been used.)

Here's why Alert is totally fired now:

1. A five minute service visit whereupon the technician logged into the wireless doorbell and rebooted it solved the problem. I then learned that the 100 dollars I was charged for this "service" could have been done remotely, (and according to Howard whom I spoke to at Alert to question this "service visit" charge), it was supposedly tried and failed when the initial call was made. This does not change the fact that it took a tech five whole minutes to charge me 100 bucks with something that could have been fixed remotely.

2. It took 40 bucks and 7 days to get a battery for a system (that I had to install by the way) that should have arrived in 1-2 days. (On a system that shouldn't even use a regular non-powered non-recyclable non-chargeable battery for.)

3. I was not told to call their offices to put our system in "test" if work is being done on the house, lest it call the fire department because hanging a ceiling fan set it off and did just exactly that.

4. If you bother to go with Alert, make a note that you cannot get out of your contract unless you pay 80% of it, and - here's the kicker - email in writing notice of cancellation 30 days before it expires. Oh, and apparently notice can only be given 30 days in advance, as I attempted to give them notice now and was rudely told "I can't put a cancellation note on your account for next February."

5. Their techs couldn't get my Comcast Business wi-fi network to extend to my garage for sensors or cameras. I had to install my own cameras for the whole place. (Thankfully my cameras are better and cheaper than their exorbitant prices anyway.)

As I sit here, I contemplate my legal options for cancelling a service that has caused more headaches than it has solved.

As someone who works a help desk myself, the abysmal customer service I receive up front and on callbacks (or no callback at all in one case) is enough to find another vendor for your home security needs.

Stay Safe, Dear Readers! It's stupid out there.