Alarm.comReviews of alarm.com

Worst after service. They showed up at time of installation of Security system and then vanish

TERRIBLE. They are expensive and subpar. They make you pay when their own cameras don’t work. Wouldn’t give our money back after camera was down for more than a week. Would never recommend them to anyone.

A word of caution to those intending to use Alarm.com or continue using there services. Despite many efforts to portray the company as customer service focused it is apparent that they use there service providers as shields between them and the end users. As a case in point in Australia they use the 3g network to allow app communication with the home system and the 3g system is being shutdown in 2024. Alarm.com is charging through their service provider over $800 AUD to move to a 4g system. I tried to discuss this with Alarm.com but they continually feed you back to their service provider and refuse to engage with the end customer. I also found out that Alarm.com suggested in strong terms to the service provider that they should find an economic solution with me or they would suggest I go to another Alarm.com provider. This attitude shows a complete disregard for normal business, except for some rather “sharp” business practice that I would not expect from a global company. It should also be noted that standard 4g communications modules cost in the range of $20 AUD to $250 AUD. The Alarm.com cost looks to be excessive or just plain profiteering. Update: Well I received feedback from alarm.com where they again “threw” my service provider under the bus. They stated that they do not control the pricing except that the module comes from them. The service provider is installing at zero cost so the only person profiteering is alarm.com. If this is the model they want to pursue then they need to remove any reference to “customer service” from their website. As always they only give an email contact for them to facilitate contact with the service provider.

I am disgusted with this app, The alarm company I subscribe to claims it's a great app, easy to use, reliable, in other words, the greatest thing since peanut butter. I disagree, I have a house and an extra building in the backyard, both wired for alarm monitoring. I say "wired" but actually the alarm company recently "upgraded" the system to all wireless sensors. In any event the resulting system now depends on alarm.com for arming/disarming, etc. The screen layout is great, but trouble is the system itself lags and frequently errors out, leaving you to start over. Annoying.

EDIT: Thank you Jess - I am not an electrician, so I will not post the solution. I also won't change my review as it is ludicrous practice from this company. As others have reported, I want to start this review out by stating that I would absolutely give this company 0 stars or even negative stars as they have been an absolute nightmare to work with. Please read the entirety of this review before even thinking about contacting this company and putting yourself at risk. I am no stranger to smart devices and was asked by my mother to help fix her thermostats for this upcoming winter as they were "capped" at 65 degrees Fahrenheit. After contacting her previous service provider, her current service provider, and alarm.com customer support twice, I couldn't believe the immensity of the problem that was occurring. My mother had her furnace replaced her old local service provider who utilized alarm.com for her new thermostats, which were all paid for and installed (at a mark up, as others have stated). She was given an alarm.com account in order to utilize the mobile application/etc., which alarm.com confirmed twice over the phone existed. Herein lies the MAJOR issue - my mother "capped" the heating through the application/account at 65 degrees to limit the heating consumption at the time (this was towards the summer months). During this time she changed local service providers and the thermostats continued to work - great. However; when contacting alarm.com regarding the issue of not being able to raise the heat any higher, we were told that we needed to contact both our old and new local service providers to fix the issue. Alarm.com support staff told us that they can see the account, can verify it existed with the old service provider, but is not active with the new service provider. We were told they cannot give us any information regarding the account, cannot make any changes, and if we would like to speak with a supervisor it could be weeks. Calls to the new service provider indicated they do not utilize alarm.com's services - GREAT. However; this meant having to contact the old service provider as alarm.com staff told us in no uncertain terms that they do not handle these issues. Through these phone calls, we learned that the local companies seem to be using third party security companies in order to access alarm.com's services and provide them to the consumer. Both the old service provider and one alarm.com employee stated that this is a major known issue and has been a significant complaint from customers. The old service provider is in the process of helping to rectify this issue as I believe they are no longer using alarm.com, and the fact that this company that is no longer providing services to her house is willing to do this clearly indicates more red flags. Going back to the "capping" of the temperature - let's say it was summer and the heat happened to be turned down significantly lower - alarm.com CANNOT and WILL NOT fix this. You are a prisoner of their application and, if you are unable to access your account (which in this case happened based on a change in service providers locally) you cannot change the settings you may have previously set. She was unable to get her old account, a new account, or any help whatsoever from alarm.com and was told this is something that must be done through the local provider. Again, there appears to be a security firm in between the local provider and alarm.com as when you go to their website and search for local services, only security companies exist as options. As we continue to troubleshoot this, I felt the need to write this extensive review to warn anything even remotely thinking about using alarm.com's services to read the horrendous reviews regarding their technology and their customer service. It is truly appalling and the fact that they wish to wash their hands clean of this and only respond to 3-5 star reviews obviously throws up more flags. This practice should be illegal and I will either update or write another review upon learning more information regarding this "security company" that leaves you feeling extremely secured out and clearly has no concern for you feeling as though you are secured in. Abject regret would be the best way to describe how you will feel if you spend one penny on this company, or allow your local provider to install anything from this company. I do not trust anything about the security of this company, especially after learning that this is not new, is not something the company wishes to address, and clearly the safety and comfortability of the people who use their products does not matter to them. Do not use their services - I am sorry if you do.

Do NOT subscribe to this company or use their products. The system has been our house for 5 years now. I now see why it was FREE Equiptment with a 3 year contract. The Equiptment never worked properly. Every time the tech came out they charged us. AND every time they recommended a new piece of Equiptment to fix the issue. New Door bell the first time, Signal Extender the next, New Panel the next, Now on our 3rd door bell and it still does not work. The "TECH" installed a new doorbell, unhooked the chime inside and told me "I GOT YOU, YOUR GOOD TO GO" He unhooked the power to the chime and took it down. Then put up a door bell with no power running to it. Said I should hire an electrician to power it. He said I probably have a broken with in the wall, so he unhooked the power. the door bell power lines have worked for 17 years until we installed FLUENT now Alarm.com. He said the "TECH" who came out the week before was wrong. I asked about the chime. He said I could get a digital one. I asked him to write down one compatible so I could buy it. He wrote down " buy one campatible with alarm.com on Amazon" REALLY??? Currently I have a non working doorbell with no power running to it, again. 8/19 UPDATE Yet another tech just left. He tried a new module on the interior door chime. it did nothing. He git rid of that and wired the chime straight to the door bell camera. The interior chime and transformer got super hot and started to have a burning smell. Yes, the transformer is new and the exact one recommended for the door camera and chime. So, we disconnected the power and I removed the entire chime and transformer. He recommended buying the micro usb to hard wire the door bell to an out let. $150. It's only 3 foot long so would need to be extended he said. I could do it or a tech could come out for $125 to install it. Also There is no comparable digital interior doorbell chime. So we will still not have a chime. So, I said hold off Because I would rather put that $275 to buy out my contract. I have not done that yet but I'm considering it. It's completely unacceptable that the system does not work, that can't fix it, charge me $125 to keep sending a "tech" out who cannot fix this system HOWEVER will not let us out of this contract. This system DOES NOT WORK.

Who would be to blame for the doorbell camera overheating, rarely working, and not responding when I try to see live activity through the camera? Additionally, someone will activate the doorbell, I'll open the app to see who it is/talk to them, and I receive a message that the doorbell isn't accessible. Is this a product issue or somehow a provider issue? I can tell you that the provider charges me every time they are called out to fix an issue. What's frustrating is that this particular issue isn't one that I created AND, after having them come out here to fix it, the issue persists. There apparently is nothing wrong with it.

Absolutely the worst experience I have ever had with any company. We moved in our new house on 3-3-22. As of 4-1-22 (today) it has not worked properly not even 1 day, on the 1st day that nothing worked including my thermostat for over a week, finally a week later a tech finally shows up and proceeded to tell me that everything was a few generations behind and wont work properly, after he said everything he could do as he's walking out my door and i asked him about the thermostat and he's says oh I can't fix that you need to call a ac company to look at because the person that disconnected your service shorted out the system wich was Northstar/ Alarm.com (there own company, and it was actually the same tech that had disconnected the system and shorted it out. I called a AC company who I paid to come out same day and connected it. Northstar said they would pay for it but never did i was at my ropes end and told them to cancel the service, where they proceeded to threaten us, that we would be responsible for the 2 year contract $1700 what a bunch of swindlers!! They said that they would replace the old faulty system with new components wich they did but still didn't work (unbelievable) just got off the phone with tech support. My complaints today are, the garage open close feature doesn't work. The tech that was out the last time disconnected my master smoke alarm because it keep going off said he was going to come back but didn't (so no smoke alarm) my door bell is going off with no one there at took along time to bring up the video/audio app. We have never been able to talk to anyone or for that matter see someone standing there because they were already gone. Pretty pathetic right? I called tech support to another frustrating end. It seemed like we were having 2 separate conversations when he said ok thank you if anything else comes up give us a call. He hadn't fixed anything. I'm going to complain to the BBB and maybe 3 on your side news . I want it disconnected, my money back that I paid the AC company and not be charged anything for there horrible alarm system.