13 Comments on Nomore Alarm Force

Anonymous on Thu, 28th Jun 2007 05:40


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.

homesecurityalarminfo on Sat, 2nd Feb 2008 14:43


Whether or not the Alarmforce “panel” was at fault, fact of the matter is, Alarmforce is crap. The Alarmforce system consists of a shoebox sized plastic box with a tiny transistor radio sized speaker mounted right next to the microphone. This box is usually placed on the kitchen counter and plugged into the phone line and power there.

As for the “$100″ battery, this is a tiny $5 battery (at most). Alarmforce is NOT a service company. Their whole purpose is to obtain as many monitoring contracts as possible. With that much emphasis on sales and “alarm systems” which require little or no installation skill it is no wonder Alarmforce customers have problems getting service.

Anonymous on Mon, 19th May 2008 19:07


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.

Anonymous on Fri, 20th Jun 2008 12:37


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>>>>

AF Just Kicked Your A%$ on Wed, 12th Aug 2009 23:24


Alarmforce customer for 7 years now. ADT for 3 years prior, Brinks 2 years before that, and Monotronics 1 year before that. Let me just say that these are some nice fish stories. As far as the phone line issue, think that was covered by the guy who actually knows what he is talking about. Now for the batteries. The battery in the main box is a backup battery which is used when your power is out. Eventually with power outages, surges or any flickers in your electricity it will drain just like any other backup battery. $100 charge, that's a big fish. Mine cost $20.24 after tax. That was 4 years after having the system. I was told about the batteries in the sensors prior to installation. They recommend changing them once a year. How hard is that. Yes if you can't change your own batteries they are going to charge you. The cost of the batteries is a little higher than retail. That's the point, they can't do it at retail or the poor guy who is doing it isn't getting paid then. Go with ADT and get a wired system. No battery changes, but heaven forbid you need service there. ADT $35 and hour and $20 every 15 mins. after. I would much rather pay a guy $25-$30 to change the batteries that I am just too damn lazy to do myself. As far as the two way. It's not crystal clear, however I am not making my phone calls from the box. The point is to let who ever is in your home know, we know your there and the police are on the way. It is not a recorded voice, unless the 15 times I have accidentally set mine off in the past 7 years has just happened to be a different recorded voice each time that happened to sound just like the operator I was speaking to. Yeah if the intruder is quiet they won't hear them, but guess what moron, if they don't hear YOU it's obviously not you in the house. I won't even mention the 4 times I have been broken into. The first I had ADT. They didn't even know anything happened and that was that. The past 3 times over 7 years, yeah that's a lot and apparenlty people want my stuff. Guess what, 1 break in with ADT cost me over $6000 in loss and damages, they were there a while while I was on vacation. Not to mention the over $350 in service charges from ADT to check and fix my system which didn't work. 3 Break ins with AF have cost me $500 total and that was to fix a broken window on #1 Broken Sliding door on #2 and a door frame on #3. Hmmmm who's the winner. Go with another alarm company and see how quickly the awww of the bells and whistles wears off. I was there. The grass is always greener on the other side. You people are all stupid and are the same people who would sue McDonalds when you spill your hot coffee on yourself. Does the cup really need to say HOT…..It's F'in coffee.

Anonymous on Fri, 11th Sep 2009 15:00


Put in a new alarm system and it works great, we've set it off a few times on purpose just to see…ha Our batteries have a 4-5 year life and we can replace all of them ourselves. Great customer service too. Alarmforce is nothing but old equipment that doesn't work half of the time and that you are responsible for testing once a month or so they say. They put our box in the cupboard, we could hardly hear it! The techs installing our new system looked at us like we were nuts when we asked them how often we should be testing..a good alarm system will let you know via keyboard when a sensor battery is low..alarmforce never did, just stopped working and one of our door sensors never worked no matter what we did to it. The charge for them to come and look at it was crazy so we just left it and put our 130-pound Rottweiler and his bed there instead. Alarmforce is not very pet-friendly either. In general I am not a tech geek or anything but this alarm system is a bunch of crap and a ripoff. I would not recommend it to anyone! I only remain anonymous 'cause I don't have a google account, I would gladly give my name…

Anonymous on Thu, 17th Sep 2009 15:38


I have recently finiahed with a 3 yr contract and returned all equipment. I have my termination letter and UPS proof of delivery. Alarm Force claims that i did not return everything. I wish i took a photo of the box to prove i did. Now i have a bill for missing eqiuipment for $291.36 and sent me to collections. This is stealling and harrassment. I have filed a complaint with BBB, Market Place and other blogs. Please do not get Alarm Force get a real security company. Also, customer service reps are rude and this usually comes from top down management. After researching this company I wish I never game them my business and hard earned money.

Not Happy With Alarm Force on Thu, 12th Nov 2009 23:26


Alarm Force is cheap but there are some serous bugs in the system. I initially went with Alarm Force because of the commercials, the low monthly cost, free instillation and that the system is wireless so I would not need to run wires. When I had mine installed about 6 months ago (I paid an additional $700 for extra sensors, smoke detectors and 2 keypads so I don’t use my cordless phone to operate the system). The installer placed the receiving unit right beside my wireless router (at the time I was informed the Alarm Force receiving unit needed to be close to where the phone line comes into my home). The system seemed to work fine until I came home from work about a month later and my front door was kicked in. I called alarm force and they had not received an alarm. After 5 calls to their technical department, we figured out the wireless router was preventing the receiving unit from receiving signals from the sensors. I moved the Alarm Force receiving unit to another room and away from the wireless router. The Alarm Force installer had already been to my home 2X to repair my system previously. The components have obviously been used before they came into my home. I argued that the installer should have tested the system before he left and questioned his qualifications. Alarm Force backed their installer. I also questioned why the installer did not wear a uniform, did not have anything showing he worked for Alarm Force and why drove a rusty old car that leaked fluids on my driveway. I tried to get out of the 3 year contract but Alarm Force refused and no one would let me talk to a manager. Then, last month my back door opened around 3 am (I have no idea how it opened). The door chime woke me up but the alarm did not go off. To be honest, walking through a dark house ½ asleep looking for an intruder and waiting for Alarm Force to come on with 2 way voice communication as back-up that never happens is really crappy. The door that opened is set for instant alarm in the “home” mode and the alarm was definitely on. Also, I pay for cell back-up and if my phone line is cut Alarm Force informed me that they will notify me immediately. Well, the cell back-up does not work because the cell signal isn’t strong enough (ironically I live in a major city centre) and the phone line cut option does not work either. My wife accidentally unplugged the phone line from the wall to the unit for 4 weeks. Alarm force never notified us that the phone line was disconnected. Alarm force is still not sure why this option doesn’t work but they continue to charge me the extra fees. So basically, the only thing worse in my opinion to not having and home alarm is having a home alarm that you think works and actually doesn’t. I’m new to the home alarm thing and when my contract expires I will be looking for another provider. Maybe skip experiencing Alarm Force and roll the dice on another company.

Etobicoke boy on Fri, 4th Dec 2009 11:44


Alarmforce is a great marketing company, but a poor alarm company. The equipment is rented, minimal, and poor quality. The 2 way voice is a gimmick that is easily defeated. Listen to the words carefully when they advertise…they have good lawyers and just barely avoid false advertising. I think I will stick with reputable companies like Sears that installs real branded equipment that I own, and they care about my business because they have a lot more at stake than my monitoring money.

George Root on Sun, 9th May 2010 18:39


I was interested in Alarmforce because of Joel Mattlin’s statements. So, I called and spoke to a Damian who turned out to be a high pressure salesman. I wanted a technical body to come to the house to discuss what they would be doing and answer some questions I had about equipment placement and the cat as well as other situations. Damian was damn near rude in trying to tell me what I needed, he could answer all questions from there. But, how could he without seeing the situation here. He has no idea of the house size, door/windows etc. I also wanted to ask about having the contract voided if the house should become inhabitable due to fire for example, or if my wife or I died. But reading the other testimonials, I would suggest that Joel dump Damian as he is certainly no asset to Alarmforce. I’ve gone with another company.

Robert Campbell on Thu, 27th May 2010 18:20


Give me a break ! How can you seriously compare an AlarmForce “installation” to any real professional installation. Their junk is unsupervised re-boxed Linear hardware that the security industry abandoned 30 years ago. Their two way voice is a joke. They are a marketing company out to “cream skim” the industry by fleecing unsophisticated consumers looking for something for nothing !
They seem to believe that “the more dung you throw up against the wall, the more that will stick! ”

For crying out loud, call a small, professional installation company in your area. Do a modicum of shopping rather than allow yourself to get fleeced by any of the large companies with their long term contracts, expensive service and inflated prices. And above all, don’t believe you can get something for nothing in this industry or any other……

Bryan Hendin on Wed, 2nd Jun 2010 08:57


Alarmforce,ADT,Brinks or protectron all these companies are excellent examples of Marketing and promotion – I am surprised to find so many people who are trying their level best to Depromote other companies and who are desperate to push the company they support I guess you guys should utilize it in a right way and try to market your companies in a good way no by negatively trying to sabotage the image of other companies….

Robert Campbell on Thu, 3rd Jun 2010 17:31


Sir, Alarm Force is as close to a scam as possible without actually being one. Those who speak in negative terms do so primarily because many are professionals in the security industry and see things as they actually are, not how they are advertised. And as professionals, it rightly bothers them when “money machines” take over giving clients little or nothing for their money. It’s not a matter of promoting who they work for; it’s a matter of trying to keep gullible people from making a major security mistake.

It seems with this company, the more dung they throw against the wall, the more sticks !!

People, do your research before buying into this nonsense…

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