American Alarm and Communications, Inc.Reviews of americanalarm.com

After 19 years as a customer, we left American Alarm for another company. Several years ago we were asked to upgrade & buy a new system despite our existing system having never had any major issues. Immediately the new system had problems which persisted through multiple service calls. Finally during a multi-day service call fortunately our son was visiting and offered to assist their technician who had not been able to identify or fix things. Our son (who is tech-savvy, but certainly not an alarm system tech) analyzed the internal network traffic and was quickly able to identify the source of the problem as originating from the main system motherboard. Once that board was replaced the problems ceased immediately. The best financial remedy that American Alarm offered despite their own inability to trouble-shoot after multiple service calls was to split the cost of just the most-recent service calls, rather than own up to their inability to recognize "infant mortality" in the new system right from the start. In 2026 suddenly the cost for our annual monitoring with American Alarm went way up, prompting me to explore alternatives. When I called them to inquire regarding using our existing hardware with another service, and made it clear that I was considering an alternative, they offered a new contract at a lower cost. I thanked them, accepted their new proposal, and paid for the entire year's monitoring in full. Several weeks later I received a phone call from them stating that I was delinquent in paying my bill. I shared with them the previous contract discussion (when, and with whom), the date and details of the payment in full (confirmed with bank records), and made it clear that I had the names, dates, and physical documentation for everything stated. I encouraged them to please verify everything with their own (named) people. I got a hint of "attitude" in response, as if they were expecting me to be wrong about everything. That night, despite no issues with the system since the replacement of the motherboard in the system long ago, at 3:20AM the system's fire alarms started blaring. Despite it being confirmed to be a false alarm after physically going through the entire property, the alarms continued to blare, and nothing would stop or override it. When American Alarm's monitoring person called, and I went through all normal procedures for how to get the ultra-loud alarms to stop, nothing worked! I was told that one of their technicians would call to assist. After another 15 minutes of the relentless blaring alarms and no call, I called again, and was told that someone would contact us "soon". When they did call back, they walked me through how to physically disconnect all power and battery backup from the system. When I completed that effort, the alarms finally stopped. When I reconnected the power later in the morning, the system was normal, and had been ever since. Later that day they called to schedule a service call to examine the system which - you guessed it - not only would be at my cost, but would require a minimum charge that was almost exactly equal to the difference between the original price quote and the new lower cost contract that had been signed by both parties. I declined the service call. Was it just "coincidence" that this all happened within hours of my pushing back with facts and evidence to challenge American Alarm's attempt to get me to pay them for something that I didn't owe? To add insult to injury, several days later I received a bill in the mail from American Alarm again with the year's original quote and ignoring the signed lower-cost contract that they had consummated with me months earlier, and had been discussed directly with them days earlier. I am now a happy customer of a different security company, using all newer technology with broader coverage (cameras, water sensors, temperature sensors, intrusion detectors, etc.) all at a lower cost than American Alarm. To answer the question posed by Trustpilot of "How can they improve?": By not aggressively selling a new system that didn't improve things over the old one. By hiring and training service techs that are skilled at fixing what they sell. By owning up to their own limitations and "doing the right thing" by their customers. By communicating better internally to get facts instead of assuming that their customers are wrong. I feel that I gave them every opportunity to keep me as a customer, and they eventually simply failed me too many times. They get 2 stars instead of 1 for eventually politely refunding my annual pre-payment balance, although it took several calls and weeks to make it happen.

I would not recommend this company due to my experience with them.

Response was great, the tech was nice and seems knowledgeable. 'However, he told me he would have the part in a day or two and it has now been 9 days since his visit. I have a bill from American Alarm but my issue has not been resolved.

Multiple alarms for the same fault over numerous days. Would have expected a call to discuss versus receiving calls at 11pm and after midnight...

A contractor mistakenly put a screw through one of the alarm wires. Caused my alarm to go a bit crazy. When I called for help (at least 5 times over 12 hours) I would only get pieces of information - I.e. What does putting your system in test mean? How long, do I need to continue to request test status for long renovations, etc. I was uninformed until forwarded finally to the on call tech who was able to disable the affected wire segment. The service reps did not give me the required help, didn’t seem to communicate on hand offs, didn’t read notes, talked about having to get into two systems, etc. It was a nightmare. One guy suggested I (a 66 year old single woman) get a ladder & put plastic over the devices around 11:30 pm! Your on site tech, once again - was the one bright spot. Found & fixed the problem, communicated on a timely basis & completely.

Confusion with day and time of appointment making it very inconvenient for us

I have already completed this survey.

I should of left the old call signaller it was a lot better. The Tech that installed it had bare minimum extra parts needed two trips to get the right parts to his office taken three to four hours. I would not recommend to anyone the call out panel you installed for me.