We activated with United Alarm Systems approximately 6 months ago, after moving into a home that already had one of their systems. First off the salesman was a wonderful gentleman. However, It is by far one of the worst purchase decisions we have made due to the service, and regret that we still have 32 months remaining on our contract. In fairness, we opted to keep some of the existing equipment that was in the home, as the company audited the system and said it was in good working condition, as it had been operational with the former homeowners. We upgraded control panels, added some sensors, and have since upgraded the main control board for the unit. So aside from a handful of motion and door/window sensors, the system is new.
This system has been the biggest pain in the neck of any household utility since we moved in 6 months ago. We signed a new contract, yet United Alarms did not wipe the former owners settings and information from their system for 4 months, and the system would automatically arm itself per the former owners wishes every Saturday afternoon...the alarm would go off without warning while were home watching TV or just hanging out (it took us and the company months to figure this out). They would call us by the former owner’s name, when contacting us...
We had a technician out to do some testing of our phone line, because we were supposedly having some "communication issues" (Shaw phone) He did some tests and left at 5pm in the afternoon. He couldn't diagnose the problem, other than to say we needed a new control board...fine, I'll pay more. He left...well at 2AM in the middle of the night the monitoring station is calling us asking if we need an ambulance...apparently the tech never cleared his test signals! I tell the station no...everything is fine, a tech was out an must have left without clearing his test signals...I go back to sleep. 2:15AM the phone rings again...do you need an ambulance? I'm about ready to lose it.
In the interests of brevity, I''ll add that the control panel freezes when you enter, triggering alarms. Customer service is marginal, and I've not had a positive experience. They just don't give the impression that they really care. The tone is that they want to charge you for even the most basic of customer inquiries and what could be considered basic client service. You can try to communicate changes to their customer service and they either misunderstand or don't listen to you, but say they made the changes...things like adding in entry codes for people watching your house while on vacation...their entry code does not work when they come over to check on things, because the company never made the addition...and the alarm goes off. We have removed our friends as being emergency contacts, because we don't want to put them through the annoyance of dealing with United Alarms until they can prove that they have their act together.
And finally. The system did not come with any manual or documentation, and the model is not on their website. I had to download the manual from another alarm company. All in all, very poor so far.
