Alarm Force Nice
Alarm Force was founded over 20 years ago and is the fastest growing alarm company in Canada. I have family that has Alarm Force and have been satisfied customers for over 12 years. The nice aspect is their personal relationship with customers, the man who installed their system 12 years ago is still the man who services them, its nice when you are not another number.
Nomore Voxcom
Voxcom (Reliance Protectron since 2008)… very interesting company that does splatter advertisements that they are looking for you… they care, the service they offer…. I had no complaints also until I moved out of the province… for the past 5 months I have phoned, emailed, trying to make arrangements to originally move the equipment to now refusing to pay. They seem to find my phone number to offer promotions etc, but each time I speak with them, they tell me someone has to call me back, it’s not their area. Today I received another bill for service that I am not receiving – when I called again… I was told that it is not their problem that someone has not called me back. It is my problem, my responsibility and all bills for service at an address that they are aware I moved from 5 months ago – I still have to pay for. I was also advised that I have to now pay an additional 23 months worth of contract if I cancel. The man that I spoke with told me he spoke with people all day who had stupid problems, and accused me of not dealing with this and that although they had record of speaking to me – it was still my problem that their company does not return phone calls to get my account moved. They have enjoyed taking the money from my account for service they are not providing.
It is interesting that their big plug when they were selling the system was the ease of moving the contract with you…. I guess they have it right – the contract moves with you but the security service you are paying for doesn’t….
I would not recommend Voxcom to anyone at all!!
Nomore Alarm Force
NOT Alarm Force 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.
Alarm Force, 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.
Free Installation
Be careful of the adt free installation and holiday package u still need a adt installer in your house before any free system or installation begins. your looking at plenty of extras that dont come with the free system and install. Alarm Force one has no hidden fees. alarm force one(24.99)adt(30.00)plus 100.99 registration fee, adt may be better but alarm force one is alot cheaper.
Phone Line
I used ADT at my office, my phone line was cut and they didnt know about it for 1 week. I even had to tell them about it and they said that they see a trouble indicator but they do nothing about those. at least Alarm Force answers as soon as a phone line is cut. and try to get a price from adt over the phone…good luck…voxcom (Reliance Protectron since 2008) has a good service over the phone and seems good.
Voxcom Contract
Hey
I was a Voxcom (Reliance Protectron since 2008) believer for years until one day I sold my home and was moving.. They told me that I signed some sort of revolving contract. So in other words after my 3yrs were up they just keep adding year after year on the contract with no way to cancel it. Have you ever heard of such a thing? I suggest everyone beware.
I’m still fighting my battle. I was told if the new people buying my home signed their contract I could get out possibly. Imagine that they want me to recommend them..
I recommend all Voxcom users read their contracts and if u have 90 days left in your 3yr contract please take my advice and start canceling now. Or you may be in the same situation as me..
Concerned for anyone thinking Voxcom is the way to go.
Alarm Force has Best Value
Okay, so one’s a playmate, another is a queen and the other is my lover? How does it all add up? I mean, I haven’t done the research on Voxcom (Reliance Protectron since 2008) yet, but if you made a comparison chart, who is the best when it comes to value? I don’t mean to toot their horn, but I think Alarm Force would come out on top. Basic installation is free, there’s no “up-front” cost (which often turns away young people who have debts ie: most of the Canadian population) and they don’t over-sell options. Also, if the installer works directly for the company as in the case of Alarm Force, I think there tends to be a little more respect for the customer that way. Ever get store-bought furniture delivered from an out-sourced delivery dude? “Uh I don’t really know what color the sofa’s supposed to be man, I just deliver, man” Trust me, better to deal with less out-sourcing. Mind you, I haven’t gotten an alarm system put in yet, but I would consider Alarm Force over others. Yes Joel Matlin is obnoxious at times, but his presence is made. When’s the last time you heard an ADT or Voxcom commercial on the radio? And how easy is it to get help when you need it, be it technical or intrusion based?
- Claude Bussieres
ADT Company
ADT has over 100 years history. This single fact values over all competitors. If you ask me which brand’s decals I will put on my house windows, I don’t think I will put other colors other than ADT blue, fatal temptation.
ADT is good at building brand. On the other hand, you can never be able to find ADT dealer listing on ADT Website. Externally, ADT stresses that ADT is ADT; ADT dealer is ADT dealer; ADT is not ADT dealer; ADT dealer is not ADT. To be a dealer of ADT you need to be super smart since you have to learn a lot of things on your own. That’s the reasons why ADT dealers are smarter.
Compared choosing alarm company to dating, I would say, ADT is a professionally positioned and packaged queen candidate.
Voxcom Company
I can’t write so much about Voxcom (Reliance Protectron since 2008) as I do to Alarm Force, because their wind is not as hard as Alarm Force and I don’t have a direct experience with them. However I find the following three points can be addressed.
Their slogan is “we’re looking out for you”. They are looking out for you, customer, dealer. It sounds caring. I’m told to be a dealer of Voxcom you get superior support. You don’t need to learn everything all on your own. They don’t invest too much on their brand but they do invest on internal support.
On their Website you can easily find security dealers link. They do care about dealers. As a customer you can easily find a local dealer near you.
They don’t build brand too much. In order to compete with competitors, they have to focus on “VOXCOM is a Canadian security and alarm company”. This is not a wise point to make though.
Compared choosing alarm company to dating, I would say, Voxcom is a lover who is silently and anxiously anticipating your glimpse.
Alarm Force Company
They are not new (since 1988) but their wind is blowing hard. Their president’s image and voice are all over the market. His name is Joel Matlin. I’m contented to see Joel Matlin has his stage in some way.
The only concern is the way how he compares with his competitors. He never forgets his competitors in all his speeches. I suppose he is very stressed. In order to firm his position he tends to devalue his competitors. Everything has two sides. We need to see both sides. It’s called “all-round”. It’s not necessary for him to devalue his competitors by picking what they have, enlarging it and making it sound “only” something customers cannot live without. In this way, what customers see is his one side and they assume he only has one side, too good to be true. Remember, competitors also have A LOT he is not able to build since 1988 and it’s never necessary for competitors to give fuss about. What do his debates bring us? Personally I’m not against Joel Matlin and contrarily I appreciate his courage.
When Alarm Force focuses on their “only” something they eliminated monitored smoke detector since it’s the only way to help them control cost in order to promote their other “only” something at their affordable rate. But if you think twice, you will be easy to understand, actually the cost for all alarm companies is not much different. Price war will only invade profit margin and affect service quality in the long run although they assert life time warranty how are they able to guarantee if their company was only born in 1988? How much profit is supporting them to guarantee? We are all able to say sweet words, however, a listener should be able to think, filter but not be emotionally caught. Protectron is relatively straightforward at this point. They simply shout out “we are the most aggressive”!
I’m still not too negative till Joel Matlin started to devalue his competitors to this extent: “our competitors outsource their services to installers, so you never really know with whom you are dealing” Outsourcing installation or partnering with best suppliers are a more professional way. Some giant enterprises outsource human resources. Because they are much more specialized in and focus on their industries and therefore can ensure world class quality. “All-in-one” is not a small company can do and at the same time be able to guarantee the quality. Compared the best brands of alarm systems – DSC or Honeywell with Alarm Force’s new born “insourced” product which one will you choose to protect your home and family? If Joel Matlin didn’t shout out this point, I wouldn’t have picked it out, since as I said, everything has two sides, you can’t say what you have is definitely the only way and what others have is definitely supposed to be devalued just because of the difference! Customers will find it the most convenient when they are taken good care of individually by installers at initial period. Based on what I know, to run a company like Alarm Force taking all the risks on their own when it’s still small, financially it’s a huge burden and I believe Joel Matlin is trying his best to provide customers with quality services, however, it’s not guaranteed since he is over confident. Sometimes seeing a bit far and thinking about customers a bit more are not always to one’s disadvantage.
Joel Matlin is trying to promote his company based on a niche – they are “only” installing wireless systems. As I mentioned above, cost is obvious. He’s going to be able to import some cheap while quality material to produce equal quality products? Then he focuses on one motion detector to waive contacts. Why not simply tell customers there will be extra cost for extra devices? Why try to smile in front of people when you are so stressed in your dreams? Now it’s Customer’s choice. Customers understand there’s NO basic package that covers ALL. Alarm Force promotes their line-cut tech (cellular backup) at relatively low rate however they can’t cover basic contacts and monitored smoke detector. Which one is more basic, more important and more frequently happening? Once their company is getting more customers are they really able to take care of all customers with their current all-in-one manpower?
Compared choosing alarm company to dating, I would say, Alarm Force is a playmate.