Monitronics DO NOT USE MONITRONICS: Pay a little extra and go somewhere else FAST ripoff Dallas Texas

I moved to the Charlotte area into a new home several years ago. As the neighborhood was still being built up, we had numerous alarm companies stop by to solicit offers for monitoring/free installation/etc. Of all of the companies who paid us a visit, Monitronics seemed to be the most reasonably priced. We had already had our home pre-wired for a security system, so our installation was a breeze, and since both of us had previously worked in monitoring centers for two separate alarm companies we asked every relevant question possible regarding response time, panic alarm procedures, etc. Every question we asked was answered in a satisfactory manner and after a bit of discussion we decided to go with this company. As we were new to the area we did not know enough people to ask around regarding experiences with Monitronics. Ok, fast forward two months. Our alarm goes off SHRIEKING at 3:00 am. Why? Low battery. Of course, we couldn't reach anyone to tell us that, luckily we have the internet to help us out after we googled the trouble code. Service tech comes out, examines it, new batteries put in, all is well. Two days later, we have a message on our answering machine to inform us we had a low battery. I think the early morning wake up did that. This happened two more times in the last year and a half.

I have a key fob for my alarm activation/deactivation, when I opened my front door I accidentally pushed the wrong button and my alarm activated. LOUDLY. I couldn't get it turned off for nearly a minute, then I just waited by the phone. And waited. And waited. NOONE called to ask for a passcode. No police arrived. Finally we called Monitronics, and were told that they don't call if the alarm doesn't go off for over a minute. I'm sorry, that is not what I was told previously. A burglar can be in and out of your home in under 3 minutes. Other alarm companies pride themselves on 30 second or less response time, this one seems proud that they will let your alarm go off for minutes before responding. Ok fine, let's test it out.  While we were on the phone with Monitronics, we activated the alarm and waited for our signal to pop up in their system. It took over 4 minutes. 4 minutes of us outside with our dogs while our alarm is blaring. We finally shut it off and then the monitoring rep said that our alarm had just come up. This is absolutely unacceptable. We have spoken with management there, had service calls, etc, and we are getting the runaround.

After reading the reports on here I sincerely hope noone else chooses to go with this company; I think we will be with Time Warner monitoring or CPI for our next system. At least they will call you to make sure you're not in danger. Although we would love to cancel our contract, from what I can see it would not do any good to go ahead with a buyout of our contract as it seems they will continue billing us. A bad alarm system is not worth ruining our credit over. However, this has to be the most poorly run alarm company in North Carolina, if not the country.