I'm thinking about getting a security system. Those of you with them (or not) ... what have you got, who monitors it, and are you happy with it?

 

Guardian always did well for me at tha last house...now we have Questron(localish)...I'd say it probably doesn't matter who does it, as long as it's a fairly common name...brinks, adt, guardian, etc...

And more important than anything else:
1. Keep the length of contract short, ie: 12 months or less. Tell them you're notinterested in a contract & bulk at the idea...they will waive it. Shit is worse than a cell phone contract if you need to get out early.
2. Make sure...whatever you do...that you get the basic package &&& SMOKE DETECTOR. You can replace stolen shit...but, your home burning down with no one to call the fire dept is the worst thing...or, God forbid, you're asleep and there's a fire. Frankly, that's the main reason I have the system...to protect my house from fire. A few minutes notice may be the difference between a small contained fire & no house

 

How much did you pay for everything and monthly Chris? I've gotten those standard 3 yr $99 install deals but thanks for telling me I can negotiate.

 

I paid $25/month. 2 days after I had it installed, someone broke into my house...in the middle of the afternoon...alarm scared the shit out of them & they went running.

Just play them against each other...someone will give you a good deal or month/month contract. Frankly, I'd rather pay a few hundred for installation if I could get out of the contract. My last episode cost me $475 to get out of 8 months early... So, no more contracts for me.

 

Brinks and they're great. We probably didn't need it, but with all of the construction still going on (workers, etc) and us moving to a new area we did it. I actually called to disconnect it and they gave me a discount on the first year service, so I decided to keep it Paying $17.99/mo for the first year, then it goes up to the regular $24.99/mo.

We have the whole first floor wired plus heat detectors on both floors in addition to the smoke detectors installed by code.

 

Yeah good idea with new construction around. They robbed my boss twice.

 

Wow, I'm going to have to push on them. The advertised deals around here are $100-$600 for installation depending on what you want, a 3 year contract, and about $35-40/mo for monitoring.

We live in a fairly good neighborhood although on the very cheap end. With all the construction going on and the fact that all the neighbors seem to be installing systems I'm worried I'll become a target if I don't get one.

 

Worse comes to worse you could always have a sign shop make a sticker or two for you with the ADT logo

 

We have had our alarm ever since we built around 12 years ago. It has been monitored the entire time for $25/month. Twice it has really come through for us, once we were out of town on the 4th of July and a firework landed in a gutter and lit part of the house on fire, the fire dept. was at the house before we even knew that the alarm had sounded and then another time my son and daughter were home alone and some crack head broke into the basement, my son hit the silent panic button on the alarm and then left the house and watched the cops arrest the guy, turns out he was wanted for a string of robberies in the area. I guess that I don't mind paying the extra money for piece of mind. Whatever you do make sure you get Fire monitoring (and have a good setup of smoke detectors, both AC powered and battery powered), it very well might have saved my house.

 

Got Ranger American coming out at 5 today to check out my place.

 

I had ADT at my last house and liked having it. $100 install and $19/mnth for monitoring with a 2 year contract (which I had to get out of when I sold the house and paid $$$). I traveled a lot for my job and it was great peice of mind for when the wife was home alone. If I start to travel again I'll install it on my new house.

 

Sorry for the thread ressurection, but I have had Brinks for the last 21 months. Monitoring is $27.99/month. We are moving from Maryland to Florida. They said they would install a new basic system for free, (three windows/doors taps, premium keypad, crap like that) but we have to sign up for another three year commitment, which I fucking hate. Any ideas of how I can sign another contract for 12 months or less?

Also, we still have 15 months on our old house. If the new owner doesn't sign up for the service and we opt out of the free new installation of the new system, we are liable for the difference at $27.99 month times 15 months. I fucking hate brinks now because of this "locked in" crap. What would you do?

 

I'd go talk to ADT or TimeWarner! lol.

That's fucking bulllshiiit.

 

3 years is a long time. I'm scared to sign up so that I don't get locked in since I could move. How much is the regular install?

 

No kidding. Any ideas of how I could back out of the deal or anything like that? I want to have all the basics covered when I call Brinks to complain to them about this. What should I say to try and get out of it?

 

No idea. I suck at that kind of thing.

 

Hmmm. The what good are you?

 

I wound up going with a local company for about $22/mo. My choice was pay for the equipment and no contract or don't pay for teh equipment and 3 yr contract.

They also pretty much said they won't go after me to keep the contract if the reason I break it is becasue I am moving .... though they said they would appreciate it if I try to get the new owner to continue using the service.

I get better customer service, a lower rate, and freaky fast response time with these guys. The call center is about 20 miles from here.

So, I'd say, try to get a local company for your new place. If you aren't having luck finding one, try calling your utility company and see if they offer it or contract it out.

 

I've been wondering if the monitoring is really worth it. Supposedly police response to home alarm is VERY low priority, since 9/10 times its user error.

What I'd like to do, and I'm sure it must be possible, is get the system to phone my cell instead of the security company and not pay for monitoring. If I'm home, well then of course I will hear the alarm and react accordingly, and if I'm not home, I will be notified via my cell and I can either a) go home or b) call my neighrbor or relative to check it out or c) call the cops.

 

I support the NRA stickers

 

My dog set off my alarm one night... security company called here... no answer... they dispatched police... they called my cell... by the time I hung up the phone the security person said the police had arrived on scene.

I was only 2 blocks away, I rushed home, the cops were sitting on my porch waiting for me to arrive.

The cops were at my door in 3 minutes.

Granted, the nearest police station is only .5 mile away... but still... not bad.

On the flip side, I used to have a Xanboo system that I monitored myself (notification went to my cell phone). It worked fine, but now that I've gone the monitored route I'm much happier with the added security... especially with the risk of home invasion.

An un-monitored system isn't going to help you if the bad guy is already in your house.



Yesterday, some kids lighting off fireworks set a fire in the garbage behind an apartment building next door... a neighbor walking past noticed the fire and told me to call 911. The police were there in under 2 minutes, the fire in about 4.

The speed of my local police/fire coupled with the speed of a monitored system really gives me ALOT of confidence when leaving the house.

 

Oh, and P.S., I think the "slow response" thing is an absolute myth since the monitoring company fields the calls. If it's an ID10T error (for which I've had many) then the police/fire are never dispatched.

Granted, I'm sure there alot of false alarms (like my dog somehow managing to open an alarmed interior door), but I highly doubt they're 9/10 and I doubt police intentionally respond slowly.

 

Interesting thought. I do like the added peace, and so does my wife. But damn! A three year contract? Why the hell does it have to be so long?! I'm going to try and convince them (and the new owner) to sign up for Brinks, so I can get out of the contract.

 

I would just call them and tell them you want them to roll the 15 months to the new house. If they give you a hard time just explain that you will have an alarm system in the new house regardless, and if they don't let you roll it over, tell them you'll just go with another security company.

I'd also see if you could get a lawyer to look at their contract. I know I looked at ours and it seems like there are some loopholes you can use to get out of one. I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know for sure... but if you know one I'd go for it. It seems kind of BS that if you move you either need to get the new owner to sign up or sign a whole new contract at the new location. There has to be some verbage on the contract that addresses moving.

Worse case scenerio when you sell the house you just tell the new owners that the alarm system will be hooked up for another 15 months, then after that they can either cancel or renew. Kind of don't give them an option... that way you're covered

 

Home security? I change the batteries in the smoke alarms every 6 months and keep a baseball bat on each floor There are ADT stickers on the windows and doors from whoever used to live there though

Once kids and/or stay at home wife come along im sure I'll upgrade though.