APX Alarm Security Solutions Questionable sales and service tactics; Free never means FREE ripoff Provo Utah

A young man came to our door at like 8:30 at night and my husband foolishly let him in. He gave us this song and dance and used scare tactics to get us to sign up for the free trial (I requested the night to think about it but "he may not be in this area tomorrow, he goes where the company sends him"). Against my gut we signed up for the trial. He had someone there yet that night to install (was supposed to be out of our house by 10:00, didn't leave until about 11 pm!).

The next day I went to work and on break did my homework. I read the contract more thoroughly, I made calls to our local fire and police stations to see if they've ever heard of them, to check on false alarm fees, etc., checked the internet for bad PR (found plenty) and immediately realized we had made a mistake. When I got home that night guess who just happened to be not only in our neighborhood but still on our block. He asked how we liked the system so far, and I said that after having time to really look at things and weigh it out we had decided not to keep the system. He went from friendly to gruff and I politely asked what our next course of action was. He told me it's on the bottom of the contract and just walked away without so much as a thank you or good bye.

They only give you a 3 day trial, and you have to mail (or fax I found out) the cancellation in by midnight of the 3rd day. What if we had actually decided to use it 3 days? We'd be stuck in a six year contract (they said we had the choice of 3 or 5, but he chose 5 for us and it automatically renews another year). I started keeping records of everything. I faxed in the cancellation, printed a report to prove it made it safely and called to get confirmation.

The next struggle was trying to get the system removed. It states in all caps on the contract that they have 20 days from my notice of cancellation to remove the equipment or it becomes my property to do as I please. I made two appointments (missed work for them) and both times the tech never called or showed. Very frustrating! The third time I had to call about it they only had a couple of days left and I had kind of a busy schedule.

I had to fight with 4 different people on different levels because they claimed they had 20 days to contact me after I canceled to set up an appointment to remove the equipment. I was not backing down. I told them they could send someone between 5 and 8 PM that next night or they weren't getting it back and I was no longer obligated to anything with them. After playing phone tag and fighting some more they finally agreed to send someone out then.

I was told it would take up to an hour to remove the equipment. It took him 5 minutes. It took me weeks to get credited for the 1st month's service fee (which they charged to my credit card before the trial was even over!). Plus, I'm still fighting to get back the other $99 that they call an "activation fee". Someone had to type my info in a computer to setup the account and I'm charged $99? That doesn't seem like a fair deal OR a free trial to me!

I have warned all my neighbors that this is not a company you want to be dealing with. Only one customer service person was personable when I called with all these problems. That's one out of almost a dozen I had to bicker with. They use high pressure sales tactics, scare tactics, and the salesman can say something but it may not be in writing. You have to dig in their website to find out some of the less spoken of details that can be very pertinent. I now have many holes in my walls that are a constant reminder.

Don't make the same mistake!

Mrs t
South Beloit, Illinois
U.S.A.