NOT AlarmForce anymore.
We have had AlarmForce 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. AlarmForce 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 AlarmForce 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 AlarmForce 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 AlarmForce 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.
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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……
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….
Sir, AlarmForce 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…
Had ADT install a system here in the Toronto area in 1999. Has worked perfectly up to tonight with false alarms and responsiveness etc.
Alarm sounded at midnight. I raced out of bed to secure the house and perimeter. Wanted to clear the house rapidly before I switched off the system to ensure it sounded in the ADT control tower and that the ADT call was coming.
It took me about 3 minutes to clear the inside of the house and then get to the control panel and try to shut the alarm off. It took me 6 or 7 attempts of the correct passcode to switch the system off which was very strange and I did not make fat finger errors.
I cleared the perimeter (we live rural) and then called ADT. They had no record of the alarm and said that even though I was clearning / securing my house, I should have taken time to notice the sensor message on the panel. Well, that was the last thing on my mind. Anyway, we did some tests and they tell me the system is working and it must be a phone issue. Spent 15 minutes on the line with Bell Canada technical support who confirmed that they are no technical issues in their logs for my home phone and that it must be an alarm issue.
SO I am stuck in the middle, leaving for 5 weeks international business trip next week and the earliest they can get a service agent to call to inspect the system is in 2 weeks time. That is not acceptable in my opinion. Also some of the above very helpful comments indicate that battery has to be changed regularly, we have regular brown outs here but never knew or realized that we had to change the battery.
For the technies out there…..could this have caused the issue?
cheers.
Sir, I am a small alarm dealer so I hope I can assist. ADT typically program in a minute delay before the alarm even picks up the line and makes the call. If you disarmed within that minute, they would have no record of the alarm because your panel didn’t send one.
It’s also possible that a bad battery can make the panel go haywire like you describe when in fact there isn’t an alarm at all. However,this should show as a trouble on your keypad. It’s not likely a phone issue otherwise your panel would normally indicate a trouble “no telephone line”.as well. Since ADT typically don’t program in an auto test for their panels, you are wise to check it frequently.
A two week delay is intolerable !! Every small dealer will give you same or next day service, especially if you are going away. I suggest you dump the “money machine” and find yourself a real alarm company……
Most modern alarm panels contain an event log of the last 256 things that have gone on. If you have a keypad that allows access to it, you could check what happened. Also, any alarm company can access this event log to check things for you….dunno if ADT does that sort of thing, but it’s usually possible.