Saturday, September 20, 2008

More ALARMFORCE REVIEWS

NOT Alarmforce anymore.We have had Alarm Force for 10 years and now we are going away from it due to their one-man service. "Free"is good until you have a problem. their system shorted the phone line ( relay locked open probably) and cooked the high speed modem ($79.95 plus tax) but the fellow refused to admit any problem, and insulted my friend the phone line fellow. then he said we should have been running a full test of the system every month. then he suggested over the phone a "hard reset" of the system. I wanted another unit; he didn't want to do that and said again that "you can never be too sure with the phone system"I'm going local with the ADT all in one price, and they have a line check they do every month for problems. AND no extra charges for battery service.AlarmForce, the main unit, which they own, has to have the battery replaced $100 plus sooner or later, 3 or 4 years max.If we were broken into would they say the system was not at fault because we didn't test it every month?There are problems getting calls back within 2 days, and I heard it cost one older lady $200 to have him come and check and replace her batteries throughout the house.Certainly something similar I know of happened to my folks, $100 plus to check the batteries.I'm not happy with service, a one man show.Me? I'm an Electro-mechanical research gadget builder and know a little bit about this over the last 30 years, so to hear it passed off on the phone company again when I was there with the meter in my hand- well that's just crap.- Unknown

4 comments:
Anonymous said...
This guy is a moron. I do not have an alarm service yet and was doing some research to see if there were any issues/complaints about the company. I want to add, that I worked for a security company for 14 years as a service technician. The way an alarm system works is a sensor connected to the main control panel triggers an alarm event when armed. This in turn, activates the dialer inside the control panel. The dialer does a couple of things then. 1 - The dailer relay which is a dry contact NO VOLTAGE what so ever, changes position/toggles to check for dial tone. When the control panel senses the dial tone, it then dials - hence the name - a preprogrammed number, just like a redial on your phone. The monitoring center is then called, again just like your phone at your house. Data is normally exchanged between the Control Panel and the Monitoring Center and then the Control Panel hangs up. The more likely cause is that the phone line probably took a surge that back fed the Control Panel, fused the relay shut and continued to the next device, the modem. This guy probably doesn't realize this but the alarm probably took the brunt of the surge and slowed it down. He is lucky that all his phones in the house were not damaged. You see in order for the alarm to have priority over other phones in your house, it is usually the first in line if installed properly. In 14 years, I have seen my share of cooked phone lines and equipment. NEVER was it the cause of the alarm system. IT IS A LOW VOLTAGE SYSTEM! It operates in most cases at 12 volts DC and pulls realitively no noticeable current unless the siren is sounding during an alarm. The a/c transformer is usually 12-18VAC. The same as a cordless phone. Come on you Thomas Edison want to be - Don't talk about things you don't understand.
June 28, 2007 5:40 AM

Anonymous said...
ADT Isn't the Greatest Solution either. They are just as bad when it comes to scamming the consumer... They just do it on a larger scale.As far as Dialer tests go, they are useless unless they are done daily. With how overleaded the receiver lines at ADT are, they generally ignore 1 fail to test, sometimes even 2. In this scenario, you will not find out about a buggered panel for up to 3 months. Yes, some panels will indicate a failure to communicate trouble, however ADT disables that on most of their panels because they do not want extra service calls.In addition, ADT has a 30 to 45 second Abort Delay STANDARD. What this means is if a crackhead breaks into your home, they have the initial 30 seconds to do whatever. Once the alarm starts to ring, they have up to an additional 40 seconds to find your panel and destroy it. This is not difficult as most ADT Systems are wireless and the whole alarm is on the keypad, or the panel is right next to the siren.... Not hard to find that with the siren ringing and the panel doing squat for 40 seconds. That is over 1 minute of useless alarm people. Think about it.
May 19, 2008 7:07 PM
Anonymous said...
I have worked for an security alarm compeny for a little over 5 year 3.5 as tech 1.5+ as an inspector. Alarmforce should be called Alarmfarce. The sytem they use is antiquated by design. What i mean is the technoligy is at least 20 years old. Also most of their customers use the phone to arm/disarm system (can you say redail!!!!!) also they do NOT have phone line siezure which means that if the phone is off hook it can NOT call out or if the Bulglar calls in it can NOT call out. Placement of the panel is another story. The kichen counter or behind a couch is good enough?? Next most devices are 2-way taped on?? Also for the first 30 to 90 seconds the "operator" you hear is a recording until a live operator can get to your alarm. Next and most important Joel advertises his 2-way as a good way to confirm alarms only thing is if the bulglar is queit the it goes the same way as any other alarm unverified. Next if it is a robbery in progress and the operator comes on after you press your panic button i really hope you are wearing a bullet proof jacket>>>>
June 20, 2008 12:37 PM

Some Alarmforce Stories

Hopefully this information keeps others for falling into the Joel Matlin Alarmforce trap
Source: http://blog.eagleinbc.com

AlarmForce Annoyance
Published by Cameron at 7:54 am under Business, Customer Service, General, Technology
Since I seem to be on a bit of a rant this morning, I figure, why stop at toy recalls!
I have had an alarm system from AlarmForce for a couple years now. Overall, I’m not very impressed with there alarm system. They advertise a free alarm system, but there “free system” doesn’t include much, so you end up buying lots of add-ons to actually make it worth having an alarm from them. Without getting into the technical details, I’ll just say
that in my line of work, I’ve seem considerable better equiped systems out there. But until my contract is up in another 2 years, I’m stuck with them.
Back to my point though. About a week ago, I started getting a message from my system that it has a low system battery. So, I called up the Technical Support line, and was told that for $19, they’ll mail me a new battery. Maybe it’s me, but this seems like a load of crap. I did not have to purchase the system itself, I have not done ANYTHING to the system that would cause this “rechargable” battery to not hold a charge, and yet, after 2 years, it won’t charge. Personally, I think that they should replace it free, and send someone out with it. If the power goes out now, and someone breaks in, I don’t have an alarm. You’ll be sure that I’ll be holding AlarmForce accountable then.
Maybe I’m wrong.. But I don’t feel like a “valued customer”.. certainly not a satisfied one.
3 Responses to “AlarmForce Annoyance”
# AlarmForce - The Follow-Up Post! « Cam I Amon 03 Oct 2007 at 8:17 pm
[…] I’d leave a follow-up comment on AlarmForce. A few weeks ago, I put a post up about my disatisfaction with how AlarmForce handled my back-up battery replacement. The battery arrived, about three days after this post. […]
# Jonon 17 May 2008 at 12:30 pm
In April, 2008, Alarm Force stopped my wireless line cut protection without notifying me that they required a system upgrade, yet continuted withdrawing money from my account for both April and May 2008. They told me I wasn’t being monitored at all. So for two months they were stealing my money and providing no service!
Alarm Force refuses to release me from the contract even though they broke their end of the contract! I have contacted the Better Business Bureau, my bank is investigating, and I am also going to contact my State Attorney General’s Office.
Alarm Force is a total fraud. They stole my money for two straight months and did not provide the service I signed for. Further, they tried to extort me into paying for a system upgrade at the same time they told me I was not being monitored!!! Either I pay more money than I signed for in the original contract, or I am not monitored! Yet, they want to lock me into this contract for the remainder of the term or force me to pay the remainder of the contract which would be almost $550. Yea right….. they’ll never see a dime. And if they put it on my credit, I will fight them to the bitter end in court.
Alarm Force is OUTRAGEOUS.
# Fredon 24 May 2008 at 8:57 am
Alarmforce ?Duh !.I complained to the installer that the cat would trigger the motion detector. He ignored me. The cat did set off the alarm and I got a $75 bill from the municipality for a false alarm call. I called Alarmforce - they were RUDE, and said “how can we know why it happened, we weren’t there”.
They are still sending invoices with GST at 6% for services received in 2008 !.
Joel Matlin - “Mr. Cardboard Cut-Out” - you suck, bite me !