Vivint

The salesman promised us buybacks, but there was an aggravation trying to get the buyback out of our first company and my husband also had problems trying to get a buyback out of the second company. It took months, which didn’t leave a good taste in our mouths. But once we pushed the salesman out of the loop and dealt with the corporate support, we were able to get things resolved. It wasn't done quickly, but they finally took care of things and it is running smoothly now.

The quality of the system is good, but one of the issues we had with the Florida house was not good. We were in New York on a Saturday night and we got the call at 10:00 that the alarm was triggered. They said it was the motion detector. My neighbor came over and checked it out but didn’t call the police. A week later, we had the same incident. We also had an issue with the garage sensor. We got a phone call and they told us that our garage door was open, although it wasn’t. It was closed. So, we came back down to Florida and Vivint had a technician come to the house.

They wanted to charge us, but we said, “This is ridiculous. You have problems here.” They found out that the motion detector was not even connected in my house. It was somebody else’s house and we were getting the alarms based on the motion detector on somebody else’s home. We were alerted for someone else’s alarm three times. The solution for the garage door was we just had to disconnect the sensor.

In New York, a guy came to the door and said he was the district manager. He told me to call him if there were any problems. He said, “Yeah. Call me. Don’t bother going into the corporate. I'll get there right away. I'm local.” I called him twice because I had issues where the system wasn’t working with my thermostat. The keypad in the house wasn’t connecting with the thermostat. However, there was no way to contact him anymore and again, I had to go back to the corporate office. The system is good when it's working. I love the idea of being able to have the app open and close the doors. I like the touchpad for the door rather than having to use my key. I could have had it with my old company, but I was told that Vivint was gonna be cheaper, but it still remains to be seen because we've just gone through the buyout.

During the installation, I asked the installation team about different things and they were helpful. They set up a couple of motions sensors and door sensors so if the door is open, it will let me know. They also detect glass breakage if something breaks so they put several motions sensors in. But, they could not help me out with my 20-foot square shipping container that I am using as a workshop. I asked them if there was any way to put a motion sensor. I was told that because it is a metal shipping container, it would block the signal. I also asked them if they can put like a contact system outside of it but they still said no. They would not be able to do it. I told them that if they put a system on the inside, all they need is like a little lead wire off of it for the antenna, drill a small hole through the wall, stick the antenna wire through the wall, then put a little silicon around it. It should go ahead and work for them.

I was told that they will talk to their technical support group and see if that would work. I never heard back from them so I got one building in my property that’s not protected. But I have installed my own security cameras inside and outside to help bolster, that I can bring them up on my phone and see what’s going on if I get an alert. I was originally very satisfied with their service but right now, not so much. I am having problems with my control pad in the house and if I leave the house, it’ll beep once at me. It won’t say whether it’s armed away. I have to reset it, disarm it then rearm it, and then it’ll say, “System armed away”. I also keep getting error messages on one of my key fobs. It says that it’s low in battery so I put new batteries on it but it still says that. I don’t know whether the key fob is going bad or not registering.

When I called Vivint, they told me that our panel is obsolete and when they get someone in the area, they’ll come by and will upgrade our panel. Since then, I haven’t heard back from them. However, when we get to speak to an actual person, it is not too bad. They try to help and they are very courteous and very professional. But I gotta go through several different prompts to get to an actual person on the phone and that could be improved a bit better. They called me a while back though saying they received an alarm when I left the house. I didn’t have my back door secured properly and when we had some strong winds, it blew the door open. I have their phone app on my phone that tells me that the back door is open and that it needs to be checked out.

I was about five minutes away so I went by and the police were just pulling up. They asked me if I wanted them to check the house. I told them I just forgot to shut the door real tight. They came in with me, no one was in the house and nothing was missing. They were prompt in contacting the police and I got a notice almost immediately on my phone. I also received a follow-up phone call from their reps about 30 seconds after I got the phone message. Their service, in that aspect of it, has been good.

The first installer was a lady who was very pleasant and she asked for permission before cutting into my wall. She asked me where I wanted it. She was very engaging and asked a lot of questions. Then we had to coordinate a follow-up appointment for my smoke detector. I was in the process of working on installing my doorbell and I didn’t exactly get what I wanted but I wasn’t unhappy with what I got. I have a two-story, and they wanted to do one thing, and I wanted to do another. It all centered around my doorbell but I finally said fine.

At the end of July, I had a problem with my equipment. After being on hold for a very long time, I finally got someone. After multiple calls, we couldn’t fix it and the lady said we needed to add something. I told her I didn’t need any more equipment and if we couldn’t get it resolved, then we need to take it out and I need to cancel my service. After three calls, I finally got a guy and he said he needed to push a software update. After they did that, my online cameras still weren’t working. So, I called back and the girl I talked to said that I was gonna need new cameras for upstairs and downstairs. I was going out of town so I would be getting the equipment after I get back.

I was delaying on installing it but in the meantime, I happened to check my bank account and more money than my normal monthly bill came out of my checking account. Vivint billed me without telling me that they were charging me for shipping to mail me the equipment. I told them I didn’t agree to it so they made it right. I wasn’t asking for anything other than for them to remove the charge because I should’ve known about it in the first place and I should not have been billed in the first place for their equipment because they pushed the software update, and it was their equipment. Aside from that, I haven’t had any problems and I love the new cameras that I got. They are great. Vivint has always been good and they were very responsive.

My biggest complaint is I had a problem with the battery in the panel. It said it wouldn’t charge. I kind of ignored it for a while and it would kind of come and go. So I finally called them about it and they said they would get a tech out to look at it. They said the battery was under warranty but they would charge me a service call that would be $99. But because it was still new they would make it $35 instead. Then it took them a month or so to get somebody out here.

The closest tech they had is out of Thompson, which seems kind of strange being a small town. He seemed very knowledgeable. But when he checked the panel he said it wasn’t the battery. It was a software problem. He told me that he would replace batteries and check all my sensors while he was here, which he didn’t do. He said he checked them through the panel and they were all working fine.

Also one of the features had changed. When somebody came to the door, it would record it and save it for a period of time. After a certain length of time it’s deleted, unless you promptly save it. I thought that was a nice feature if somebody stole a package on your front door or something like that and now, it had changed to where it didn’t record unless I ring the doorbell. But if it was live, you can watch it live. I asked the tech about that and he said they were having a problem with the sensitivity of the camera, which is adjustable. I had adjusted it to where I wasn’t having that much trouble. A little bit, once in a while, from either too sensitive and too light of a field, and it will pick up the wind blowing, whistles and things like that and see it as somebody approaching.

He adjusted that from the panel and then later on he said just to fix the battery or just to reboot the panel, which is not a big deal but it’s not supposed to be the way it works. Also it turned out that they billed me both the $99 and the $35. By this time I thought they really shouldn’t bill me at all because it wasn’t my problem. It was their bad but I haven’t called them about that. Every time I called them about something, they seem to be very responsive, friendly and cooperative so I expect that to be resolved without any problem. Other than that, the price of monitoring is high compared to others. I haven’t called them yet on that billing but I'm expecting that to be resolved because if it isn’t resolved, it’s gonna be a real sore spot.

I'm very satisfied with the features and I like the package that I got. I could've opted for more sensors though and I might add them in the future, but I think what I have now is attractive. I have the video doorbell, the smart thermostat, the front and back door sensors, and a smart lock on our front door. I really like the design of the home panel. It's the sensor for the system and it has the screen on there. I like how it tells the weather and how I can change the chimes, the sounds when the doors open and close and the alerts. I also like that I can change the names on the different sensors. I renamed the motion sensor 'The Eye of Sauron' so any time somebody steps within the path, it says, "The Eye of Sauron is active." It's funny.

I like how the smart thermostat raises the temperature when I leave, and then it brings it back down when I come home. I have it set to 72 when I'm here during the day, and then 68 when I'm here at night. It keeps the house nice and cool. However, for some reason, it jumps up from 68 to 72 at 5 am and by the time I wake up, I'm sweating already. I have to wake up and turn the temperature back down, which is a pain in the ass. I'd like for it to stay 68 for a bit longer. It's supposed to be able to predict your usage and adjust it to what you like. Maybe the smart thermostat could be a little bit smarter.

Since the box can already make noise and port the audio from outside the door inside, making it able to play normal music would be cool. Also, if there was a software update where I could download my own chimes or access them from an online database, that would be cool too. There are 16 choices and some of them were cool and some were dull. It'd be nice to get a few more options. Vivint's package is very well-designed. Plus, I haven't had any buyer's remorse with it, which is rare. I'm pleased with it.

We never secured our home because we thought it would be too much and out of our budget which honestly sounds ridiculous now that I type it out. Of course we should have budgeted it in long ago but Vivint was VERY accommodating and Affordable. I was lucky enough to get the Tech guy to come the same and after a few minutes of signing with the company, my home was fully secure with a really cool 4k cameras, autolock for the front, video doorbell. The whole package. Give these guys a second of your time. You won't regret it.