Vivint REVIEW: Vivint commitment to customer satisfaction proves they care about their customers. Vivint's past and current approach to business is about protecting families and providing the best customer experience from beginning to the end of the customer's time with the company. Provo Utah

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*UPDATE: Vivint pledges their commitment to Ripoff Report Corporate Advocacy, Business Remediation and Customer Satisfaction Program. A program that benefits the consumer, assures them of complete satisfaction and confidence when doing business with a member business. Vivint recognized by Ripoff Report Verified as a Safe business service.

Ripoff Report Verified REVIEW:

EDitors UPDATE: Positive rating and recognition has been given to Vivint 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, if any. 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.

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..

The information provided in this report is based on comments made by Ian Bell and Tim Izatt during an on-site inspection held by a third party verification company and with Ripoff Report with no biases toward Vivint.

Vivint is a full service residential home security company covering the US and Canada. Their sales process will start in a few different ways depending on where the initial lead comes from. When it comes to inside sales, the process starts when the company searches a region that might be interested in their services. The company sends their sales representatives to those regions to knock on doors to discover prospective clients. The company then has local technicians service the client if they are interested in doing business with them. Vivint also offers their clients customer support during this process and can even have a representative meet with them in person to answer questions and make sure that their clients are receiving the full benefit of their services.

Follow up is something that Vivint focuses on to ensure their clients are receiving proper customer service. When concerns arise depending on the level of severity, the company states that they standardly respond within 24 - 48 hours. Some issues do arise that take longer to settle and the company works to solve them within 72 hours. Vivints process for monitoring issues that arise on social media sites it to settle the concern within 20 minutes of it being posted.

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.

Vivint has found that the number one reason complaints do arise is because of the way the sales process is conducted. A sales representative knocks on the prospective clients door. The representatives are clean-cut, upright young men with hats, who are salesmen, and discuss why someone may need this product. Ian Bell from Vivint states that, We train our employees not to lie; we dont want to lie to the customers. Also, on top of the training we also have our phone calls to the customers to remedy concerns. However, there is pressure with a door to door to sales. Some people dont like the fact that someone knocked on their door, which I understand. People will be eating dinner and then someone will knock on the door, it can be annoying. We are aware that it isnt always comfortable. There always are complaints when you do door to door sales.

Statements from the owner.

"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.

This sales process continues because of the amount of people the company has discovered who respond positively. The fact that it is working the company feels they should keep the same processes. Vivint feels they minimize the number of misunderstandings that people have through their contracts. The company provides the phone calls to discuss contract length, price, renewal terms, cancellation window, and the warranty to provide clarification of terms. The client goes through an automated process to make sure that they know all that they are agreeing to and the people say, Yes to all the terms. If the client says No or that they werent aware of something, then they are brought back to the phone salesman who helps to clear up the terms. When it comes to clarity, the company feels they rarely have issues where a person doesnt know what they are agreeing to. They state that they go over all the contract terms with them and give a hard copy of the contract to them.

The company feels that the contract terms for the auto renewal after a year causes many complaints. If the client does not do their cancellation after the 30 days prior their instillation it can auto renew, which is in the contract. The company is in the process of modifying terms so that the transition is better. The contract has been their biggest detractor from their National Promoter Scores (NPS), but they have found that their other scores we are astronomically high. In that situation with the terms in dealing with clients, the company states they will do everything they can to help them but they are still working to remedy the problem, as they are committed to total customer satisfaction always making improvements to their products and services.

THE COMPANY MAY COMPENSATE AND GIVE DISCOUNT.. . Sometimes customers call with various complaints and the company states that they do their best we can to resolve them. The company has found they are able to fix 92.13% of problems over the phone. If they cant solve the issue over the phone, they send a technician to fix the problem. Depending on where they are in the lifecycle of their services the company may compensate them or give them a discount. If the issue is in the first 90 days then all the services are free. One example is that whenever Vivint receive a complaint from NPS they call the customer. Then, they work to try to resolve the complaints that the customer may have with the company and the company feels that sets them apart from others in their industry.

The company states that the biggest changes are going to come internally because of feedback they get from the customers in general. They state that whenever they hear of any problem they follow up and do what they can to help the customer. Then, they assess over time the different problems that have been raised and then implement measures to help them not to arise again. Ripoff Report has been helpful in helping them to know some of the problems because they feel it is hard to know how to help that person, but they do their best to find ways to help every customer who may have a complaint.

GOING BEYOND THE CALL OF GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE. An extreme example of their customer service is when there was a lady who had an alarm system in her home. She was signed up for a 60-month contract. When she was half way through her contract, she killed herself and her son. A family member was still getting the bills and called in two months later asking about them. When the company found out their situation they cancelled her account, which they feel was the right thing to do. Tim Izatt from Vivianr stated, We went above and beyond to help them. We sent flowers to the funeral and we compensated them financially.

Another example of their customer service would be with a client who was really struggling financially. She had gone to relatives and church not feeling comfortable to ask for money and didnt know what to do. The company paid for one month of her payments so that she could have light in her house for her kids. Furthermore, Mr. Izatt stated, That isnt always the case. We do what we can to stick to the contract and make sure that people understand the terms. They have an automated system that helps people to understand the contract. We try not to be jerks and help people wherever we can.

A common thing that the company has happen is when clients are outside of the 90 day free window. They call and say that there is a problem for something that normally happens within the first 90 days. If that happens, they let their reps make a decision about what to do. The company states that they would rather have their reps over take care of people and come back and get slapped on their hands then to not take care of the customer. Furthermore, the company has had a lot of auditing to make sure people arent abusing the system.

Tim Izatt states, That is why I like to work here. We take care of people outside of self. I know you havent been here but if you had you would find that we like to take care of others and protect people. It is called servant leadership. To say you are a servant leader is to take away from it. But, we try to serve others more than self. That is why I work here. I came from eBay and really enjoy working here.

Vivint feels that they are taking steps to doing whatever it takes to make the client happy by taking every reasonable means to fix problems. Sometimes they come across an unreasonable person and cannot accommodate them. However, Ian Bell states, We want to fix whatever problem there is, especially if it is our fault. Whether it is credit, cancellation, or things like that. We encourage our employees to be compassionate and aware. We tell them that we want to be personable. I interact with people who are online. One thing I always tell them is that we want to be real. We want to sound like a real person. We dont want to be robots. That is our number one thing, to be real and compassionate.

The company has used Ripoff Report as a tool to solve customer service related problems. They are willing to make appropriate changes as they go, including expanding their customer service department. The company states they do go on Ripoff Report and review complaints because they feel the customers voice can improve their day to day practices. Many customers dont bother contacting the company and just make complaints, a common problem says, ED Magedson Founder of Ripoff Report.

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. At Vivint 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 Ripoff 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 Program they 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 .. Ripoff Report is proud to state, that Vivint not only took care of their customers that contacted Ripoff Report back but, they went beyond the call of good customer service with comments. Many customers had already been taken care of. Customers even expressed to Ripoff Report they were sorry they even filed a Ripoff Report about them.

Check out their Solar testimonials (Vivint solar offering):

http://youtu.be/XX-tVOYJ9i8 http://youtu.be/Br85-AYpTAo http://youtu.be/XX-tVOYJ9i8

Check out Vivints Security/ home automation offering: .

http://youtu.be/dBRFRAdhOg8 http://youtu.be/lWthjOdAsss http://youtu.be/loc6LCFRJ3Y http://youtu.be/OHu-eLC4ovU

More at http://www.youtube.com/vivinthome

NOW TO THE ORIGINAL REPORT THAT WAS FILED

------------------------------------- Vivint APX Alarm Poor customer service, not calling after alarms, potential contract bait and switch Provo, Utah

I signed up for an APX alarm monitoring system in 2008.  I chose APX Alarm (the former name of Vivint) because they offered cellular alarm services and I don't have a landline at my home.  During the sales process, per the best of my recollection, I agreed to a 2 year term for the contract, with an automatic renewal on a year-to-year basis after two years.  I made a mental note to contact them prior to the contract renewing.

As the system was nearing 2 years of age, I contacted APX Alarm because they had not yet made a service call to have a promised fire sensor installed in my garage.  I had neighbors who lost their home to a garage fire and this was an important part of my decision to purchase from APX.  It took a number of calls to have the fire sensor installed because they (per the people I spoke with at APX, from memory) didn't have enough technicians who were able to install that part.

Last summer I had a (false) alarm and was not contacted by Vivint (this was after the name changed).  I had been busy and hadn't contacted them to find out why I wasn't called when I realized my account was past due.  I decided that I was going to get the problem with not being called resolved before I paid my bill, figuring it was a simple oversight and it would be solved immediately.

After making a fairly large number of calls, and never reaching a person who was able to change my account so I was always called on an alarm (the Vivint technical support person confirmed that Vivint does not always call on an alarm, which was the way my previous provider, ADT, operated), the account fell so far behind it was at risk of going to collections.

In addition to the alarm that I wasn't called regarding, the backup battery in the system failed and I asked the support person why I wasn't notified that I had a bad battery and needed it replaced.  At that time, I told the person I spoke with that I wasn't just unsatisfied, I was extremely dissatisfied, but that they were being given a chance to make things right and win me back.

In December, 2011 I spoke with a gentleman who promised to get someone from their technical support area to make the required change made so I'd always be called, and who also agreed to waive some of the past due amount.  The technical support staff never reached me and as a result the account eventually went to collections.  I explained, as I had several times before, that because alarms are known to have "secret" panic codes, which are often published or well known to criminals, I did not want to rely on cancelling the alarm as a way to avoid having a call made to my phone.

In February, 2012 I was contacted by a collections agency.  I told the person that Vivint had not fulfilled the terms of their agreements and had broken numerous promises.  It was at this time that I was told I supposedly had a 60 month monitoring contract.  This contradicts my best recollections (that it was a 24 month contract) as well as things I'd been told when APX installed the fire sensor about two years ago.

Today (2/8/12) I explained to the woman (Jessica) I spoke to in Billing that I was willing to send in 4 months payment (since they did actually monitor the system during part of the time and I'm always willing to pay for services received) and that I very much wanted my home monitored, but that they needed to keep their promises.  I also requested a copy of the original contract.

Unless someone actually needs a service provided by Vivint, I would not recommend them.  In my opinion, they provide very poor customer service and often fail to follow through on their promise.