Leasecomm Took our money and gave us no protection. We signed up for ADT Home Security in 2000 and just discovered that we do not have any protection. Woburn Maine

About that, a lot of people seem to be getting "ripped off" by door to door sales in the security industry. Well this is both true and not true. The fact is that a lot of home security companies (most out of Utah) do a lot of "summer sales" around the nation. It so happens that they are very manipulative and aggressive companies. They harp on your weakness, reap on your lack of knowledge and take your money. Now they do provide a service and it is your options to use it, however a majority of these companies that are door to door sales do have higher rates than ADT or Brinks and to lock you into a 3 to 5 year agreement. If you feel you have been pushed into a lie, a cheat and a flat out scam.

Well perhaps you should also take a look at what you have done to get yourself into this situation. Both sides are to blame, a majority of sales reps are pushy, a majority of customers are not educated enough to understand what they are doing. The truth is that they look for "handsome" young men and women to sell their product because they know you are more likely to open the door and hear what a good looking person has to say. You yourself need to take some of the blame as a consumer, because once you are in a contract of any sort, well you are in that contract. It so happens that security contracts happen to be some of the worst contracts to sign and get locked into.

About these contracts, a majority of these contracts are for 39.99 - 49.99 to be paid monthly for 3-5 years. They are very tricky because you rarely will hear the words "contract" come out of anyones mouths that work for these companies. in fact they say agreement (a nice way to say that you are in this for the length of this contract). Doesn't it sound much nicer to say you are in an agreement with a company than you are in a contract!

About these "lies". Well the truth is that most of them are lies and truth intertwined so that you can easily get confused. A rep may say that you can cancel at any time, and that is true. However you only have 3 business days to cancel the contract without penalty. I have seen several different cancelation policies from alarm companies and if you want to get out of the "agreement" early it will cost you anywhere from 70% to 100% of the remaining monthly payments to get out of the contract. Also another common mistake that is made is when a sales representative will tell you that you are on a monthly billing cycle and the contract goes from month to month, again there is truth as well as a lie. The truth is that you do pay per month, the lie is that you are in this contract for 36 to 60 months and therefor it is not a monthly contract (otherwise you would be signing a new contract every month). Another half & half is the common misconception that you are doing advertising for the company and you are getting a deal in return. The truth is that yes by having a sign you are advertising this company, and the lie is that you are not getting a deal. The company doesn't care north from south and east to west if you keep their sign for "advertising". In fact they use this as one of their sales tactics, they tell you that you will get the system for free by having their sign in the yard. Well let me explain this one, the "system" is referring to the equipment that they install and yes you do get that for free. Then again if you call any company that does home security you can get the same offer.

About you! If you feel its too good to be true, well then it is. If you are looking for something as a consumer it is then your duty and goal to search it yourself. When is the last time something has been dropped into your lap and you have "loved" it!? My point is that as a consumer in a world caught up in lies and deception it is your responsibility to confirm and understand what you are getting yourself into. Take some time to find out what is true and what it not, good things come to those who wait. If you feel pressured than chances are that you should not be doing what you are. Take this as a life lesson and learn from this. You can control what you have as long as you are willing to stand strong and be educated. Remember that you are the consumer and they are the company, its not a 50/50 "agreement" when you don't know what you are agreeing to.

Thanks,

Truth

Unless the alarm system had a radio(RF) or Cell backup then the police would never have been notified. If the phone line is cut the system can not dial out and no signal will be sent, however the alarm should still make noise if they entered the house.

Most alarm companies will require that you test your system either weekly or monthly to make sure everything still works and that signals are being sent.

If you do have a radio or cell backup then it could be the fault of the alarm company's monitoring center if there was no backup device then the system did what it is set up to do.