A few years ago, when I first moved into my home, a door to door man came with his "deal" for a free home alarm system. All I had to do was advertise for them by putting a sign up in my front lawn. I was aware that it was not going to literally be free, that I was to pay a monthly fee, but no installation or activation fee. This man was from APX Alarm. I decided to try it out.
In the beginning there were a lot of false alarms. It was a pain. After some time I figured out that my DOGS are a much better security system than this will ever be. It would be very easy to get past APX system. There are much more advanced alarms out there these days, and I feel I am paying for something that does nothing.
I called about getting out of the contract over a year ago, and they told me that I would have to pay out the remainder of my contract in full. at that time it was over 1,500.00 I did not have that kind of money. I have a student loan, and a house full of people to care for, so I just allowed the monthly payments to continue, because it is a lot more affordable than the full price. In this phone call I was told that when I do decide to cancel service that I need to submit it in writing, because otherwise at the end of the contract, it will automatically renew for another year.
I called them again 2 nights ago, when my daughter was playing roughly in the hall, and accidentally banged into the ac adapter bending the plug badly. I told them I was afraid it would be a fire hazard, and when could someone take it out, and how much would I owe to pay off the contract. I was told I still owe about 700.00, and that I would have to pay it BEFORE they come to disconnect it. Fat chance, I don't have 700.00 to do that, I still have a vehicle that requires 1,000.00 of work! I told him That I didn't want to pay that, and end up sitting around for a month waiting for someone to take it out. He transferred me to tech support.
The man in tech support was very helpful, and walked me through how to get the unit safely out so I would not have a fire. I finally have that stupid thing out, but I am still paying until July 2012, because I can't afford all the money at once to "cancel" service.
Just to let everyone know, APX alarm has changed their name, and are now known as VIVINT
