Protection 1Reviews of protection1.com

I am happy with Protection 1, except they have called 3 times since I started the service less than one month ago. Each time the person told me the same 3 things! Okay, I got it the first time. Then, I was charged for a service call which is free for the first 90 days and it was for a problem with their equipment! Why should I have to pay them to fix THEIR problem!! I had to call to question the charge...how many people would just pay it and not bother to call. The email didn't even say why the bill was so high.

Salesman was friendly and knowledgeable, told me I would receive 3 door sensors and a motion sensor with my package. Since there are 4 entry doors I was told by my salesman, which was verified by the person we were communicating with over his tablet, that I would be comped a 4th door sensor. I was billed 40 bucks for the extra sensor. I was told my 55 lb dog wouldn't set the motion detector off, she does. And we weren't told that our county requires a $100 plus one time permit fee to have a home alarm system. So we were shocked when what was supposed to be about a $107 start up actually cost us around $260 or so. Plus we were billed for 3 months of service. Didn't know that was gonna happen either. We cannot find our contract, I honestly don't remember getting one. I just remember signing his stupid tablet.

It took 2 times of coming out to get things done. The first guy did not have everything needed to complete the install. The 2nd guy came out over a week later for finish up the first install. He had to replace the first panel. He had to call someone to get help to get that done. It had been raining and he never covered his feet to protect my carpets. I run a daycare and had to tell him not leave his tools down where the children could get to them. In less then 2 weeks we had to replace a battery in the smoke detector. The way this is going I do not think I will renew the contract.

My sister recommended Protection1 to me. She's always had a great experience with them so I was confident I would too. Unfortunately we had a very rocky start. In short: it took many frustrating calls with rude customer service representatives, a technician visit (which ended up being unnecessary) and a total of about 2.5 weeks before our system functioned properly. The long story is below. When I called to set-up installation, the sales team assured me the motion sensor was "good for animals up to 50 pounds." I have a 25 pound dog and mentioned this several times to sales, and also to the technician who installed the system. My sister has a 20 pound dog and needed to have her motion sensor calibrated twice, so I was aware there might be some things we had to work through. Installation was fast and courteous - no complaints there. Unfortunately, the first time we "Armed Away" my dog set off the motion sensor just by walking by. I called customer service to have my sensor calibrated as this was something I expected to happen. The first woman I talked to insisted that I might need to pay a $25 service fee to have the technician dispatched - which I refused considering they promised the sensor was good for dogs up to 50 pounds, and I believe Protection1 has a 90-day service guarantee. My sister was never charged a service fee. Then she suggested I needed to just arm my system "Away" every time I leave - which I also told her was unacceptable considering I was paying for the full service, including the motion detector. She was incredibly rude, had a very condescending tone and insinuated my dog must be jumping on furniture to set off the sensor. I asked to be transferred to a supervisor who agreed to dispatch a technician without service charge. The technician came to our house a few days later. It's worth mentioning, btw, that Protection1 gave me a service window of 12-5 pm - 5 hours! - which is worse than Comcast and I find appalling since I work full time and do not have flexibility to "work from home." The technician took one look at the sensor and said "there's nothing I can do to change this." I was shocked given my sister has the exact same sensor. He suggested we try another sensor that might work better with my dog, said he'd have to come back (which means I'd need to wait for another 5 hour service window) and left. I think he was at the house for a total of 5 minutes. Needless to say, I was extremely frustrated. I called customer service immediately after he left, only to be told that the technician had put in an order for a new sensor and I'd have to wait until it came in to schedule another service appointment. The next day, I received an automated call asking me to take a satisfaction survey. I naturally indicated I was unsatisfied and was immediately transferred to customer service. The first man I spoke to on the phone was extremely rude and kept insisting "it's a motion detector ma'am, that's what it does, it detects motion" despite my explanation that the sale team promised the sensor was good for animals up to 50 pounds, and that my sister was able to have the exact same motion detector operate well with her 20 pound dog after a couple of calibrations. He continually interrupted me when I was trying to explain the situation and wouldn't accept that I felt like I was only getting half of the service I was paying for because I had to always "Arm Stay" when I left the house. I was eventually transferred to his supervisor, Emily Perkins. Who ended up being a godsend. Emily was apologetic and explained to me the differences in motion detecting sensors Protection1 offers (which the technician and every other customer service rep I spoke to failed to do.) She said the new sensor the technician ordered can be calibrated more-so than the current motion detector that was installed, but that it does not take photos. I thanked her for educating me on the differences so I could at least make an informed decision. She then explained the current motion detector installed in my home can only be adjusted for "high-normal-low" sensitivity, which is done remotely. I paused and told her the technician didn't call anyone when he was here to try different sensitivities. Emily was surprised and said perhaps it was because my detector was already set to "low" given that I have a pet. She double checked -- and sure enough my detector sensitivity was set to "normal." She preceded to change the sensitivity to "low" and asked me to test it. Sure enough - it worked. I armed the alarm "Away," rolled a ball across the floor for my dog to chase in front of the sensor and it did not go off. But when I walked in front of the sensor it triggered. The solution was so simple and it was implemented remotely by one, knowledgable, polite customer service supervisor. I wasted 5 hours of my day waiting for a technician who did not know about his own product, another 1 hour total speaking with extremely rude customer service representatives and many hours over the course of 2.5 weeks being frustrated in general by the entire experience. The alarm system, as a whole, now works just fine. I am a fan of the app and its notifications. It just took a while to get to this point.

The 2gig system seems to be the common system for most alarm companies. So should be evenly priced throughout, but it is not. I had another alarm company do all the pre-wiring in my home but I was not satisfied with their terms of their contract so I called Protection One. Their sales person was very nice and frankly I like him but when he showed me the numbers he was really taking it to me. Even though he was really taking it to me he made it sound like he was giving me a really sweet deal, I looked at the two contracts and told him I was going to go with the other company because they were over $500 different in the upfront fee but only $3 difference per month. He then went to his manager and ended up matching the price of their competitor, but acted like they were not losing money. I did go ahead and go with Protection One and everything seems to be working great except we have one window that has to be open and unlocked in order to show that it is closed.

I didn't want to leave a review. I didn't want to get the phone calls asking me to provide a verbal review either. I just wanted to pay for a product and be left the F alone! So how do you rate? Well you seem to harass and bother your paying customers to no end to get some positive reinforcement for what must be a poor self image or maybe you are just not feeling the love from your customers? I show my love by paying my bill. YOU KNOW SHOW ME THE LOVE AND QUIT EMAILING AND CALLING ME NOW YOU FORCED ME TO GIVE FEEDBACK I DIDN'T WANT TO GIVE. WELL YOU DIDN'T FORCE ME YOU JUST KEPT EMAILING ME AND CALLING ME OVER AND OVER AND OVER....... SO PROSPECTIVE CUSTOMERS YOU DECIDE HOW THEY RATE!

The customer service representative that came out to our home the first time left his trash everywhere and missed with personal items I have in my home. He was very shocked at the way he just made himself at "home". It also took three times before all of our hareware was installed, and we are still having some issues with the cameras. We were promised so much by the sales representative that he didn't follow through with. My list can go on and on.

(++) The installation was very smooth, and the local representatives are wonderful. (--) The internal/administrative communication at the sales and account management levels need drastic improvement. I've placed two phone calls that were never returned. Often, I feel like the reps are following a script and no one is listening to specific needs or corrections to their errors. (+) Technically this is a great system and service. I love the interactive interface. The text alerts are a great concept and are wonderful when working properly (currently is inconsistent with executing messaging triggers).