Guardian Protection

But I had some new stuff put in because my smoke detector wasn’t hooked up to the system and it kept beeping. I’ve got vaulted ceilings here and it’s right at the top. I’d had to get a ladder that was 15-foot tall in order to get up there. And I had changed it once, a couple years ago, but a little bit younger then and I did not feel like climbing up ladders. So, I had called Guardian, had them put in a new smoke detector which is hooked up to my panel, and it’s at a place where if the battery needs to be changed, I can just get on a stool and take it off.

But they also put in a carbon dioxide checker too. And they put that where if there was carbon monoxide in the house from my heater or something, it would show up. And I’ve never had a problem with carbon monoxide, but you cannot take a chance. So, I had them put it in. It was expensive, but I could afford it. I knew it was gonna cost me because they told me ahead of time what it was gonna cost, which was okay. When they put the system in, they didn’t charge me anything. It was one of those advertisement things where they come around all the time. All you have to do is pay the first payments and that is it, which is fine.

So, now, if something happens where I got smoke and it sets the alarm off, I can go to the panel and put my code in and have the thing shut off because I have had smoke in here one time. I had oil in a cast-iron frying pan and I was curing it, so I had it on fire under it. And I forgot about it and went to the bedroom, and I was talking to my wife. So, all of a sudden, the siren goes off and I came running in there and the house was full of smoke. I then went ahead and opened the doors and everything else and tried to shut the thing off. It took me a couple of times before there was no smoke.

I called up Protection 1 and told them, “I just had a little problem with smoke on my stove.” My wife said, “Everything’s taken care of. Please, don’t send anybody out.” The fire department come over, however, and parked out in front of my house, and I told them what happened. Overall, Guardian has been good. If I’ve had something wrong, they’d come out and fix it. Also, the guy who did the installation did a good job and he took care of business. He was very pleasant to talk to as well.

I am in a wheelchair, and I have mobility and physical issues, and I also have hearing problems. I like the fact that I can take the panel from room to room with me and have it at hand where I can deal with it instead of having it up. The system I had before was on the wall and I had to stand up out of my wheelchair and reach above me to use it, which was quite inconvenient. But with Guardian, it's wherever I need it to be. I can also do the same way with the strobe and siren system, which is a little plug-in thing that goes into the wall like your system.

The other system that I had would announce whenever there was a tornado warning for my particular area. There was a kind of a beeping tone that would come across to let me know, and a message that appeared on the screen that there was a tornado within my area. I needed to be aware of that as a safety feature. I do miss that and I wish Guardian does that too. Also, I really wish there was a manual that came with it. I have a great deal of difficulty figuring things out by guess and by gosh, and I'm very good with electronics. I wish it was a small six-page pamphlet that explains, "If you want to do this, this is how you do it or this is what this feature is," type thing.

The strobe light makes me feel very much more secure. I have a feeling that several times people come to my door and I don't even know they're there. I have had a few times when people have tried to deliver packages and I've had to call them to come back two or three times and told them they have to call me and let me know that they were at the door because I would not come to pick up the package because I wouldn't know they were at my door. That was a little bit scary.

The tech set up the system in the main room, so it's where it is most of the time, but when I go to bed at night, I take the strobe and the pad in my room with me as well as I have a wristband. He also was able to hook it up to go through by telephone and internet. With the other system I had before, I had a wired house internet. They couldn't put that through which didn't make much sense to me. So now, I feel much better because I've got this band that's on my wrist that I can take with me. I can access it with my cellphone as well as I can move the pad around where I am.

I had fallen twice in my house when I had the other system. I had really stumbled and my footing ran away from me and I ended up sitting on the floor, and I couldn't get back up. I had to crawl to my cellphone because I couldn't even reach the security pad since I had to stand up to hit it to make it go off. But with Guardian, I feel much more secure that I've got enough systems if that happened again.

The only issue I've had was with the motion detector in my living room. It just was going off for no reason and we couldn't figure out why. So, they ended up moving it away from the heat vent figuring that maybe something was being blown in front of it. That didn't fix the problem, so they came back again and put a meter on it and found that there was something in there that was draining the battery. And when I got a low battery, it was sounding the alarm. It was a minor issue, but I wish they had put the meter on and checked that the first time that they came out. It went on for a couple of weeks. When it went off once, they came out to check and then moved it, and then it was fine for a week. And then it went off three times in four days. And I said, "This can't go on, you guys gotta come back," and that was when they replaced it, and it has been fine since then.

The other issue I had was with smoke detectors. I got this new generation of smoke detector that has a 10-year battery in it, so you don't replace them until you replace the smoke detectors. So, it went off one Saturday morning for no reason. Nobody was cooking in the house. So, they came out and they checked it, and the guy told me that there was a recall on the date codes that I had installed. So, he replaced all three of the smoke detectors in the house. But about a week later, another one went off, and they found that that was the same issue as the motion sensors. It was draining the battery, so they had to replace that. So far, the people have been very nice and very easy to deal with. I'd recommend Guardian Protection.

By now, I've had Guardian for almost six years and I would definitely recommend them. I love it. I'm an elderly person and I’ve got my little grandson that I’m raising. He was only 6 at that time and it was a little difficult for me. All the bedrooms and stuff are upstairs and I slept little at night because we were having some problems with some children. They were mostly breaking in to elderly people’s homes for the stuff they thought they could find. But that got all figured out. There were people right here and they took care of the situation. I felt really secured and I sleep well at night knowing that the system would go off if it’s necessary.

We also had an incident where there were kids who thought it was fun to go around and hit people’s windows. When they hit one and knocked it off, Guardian came right out and fixed it for me. They didn’t even hesitate. Their reps have also always been wonderful. Every time I set the system off, they would always call in to check on me and they were always right there to do whatever I’ve needed. Plus they’ve always been very sweet. I couldn’t ask for better.

The system's features are also wonderful and the smartphone features are really good. If I’m upstairs and I forgot to turn the system on, there’s some notice and it lets me correct the problem without having to come down the stairs, which is a little difficult sometimes since I’m 76 years old. The only problem I have is that I can’t reach the fire alarm to change the battery unless I climb up on the ladder. But the fire department is right next to me here. Then one time, for some reason, I had the system go off in the office or wherever it's supposed to go off but it didn’t go off here. Guardian had to call my sister, who was on the list of emergency contacts, and they called the police station. The next thing I knew, my sister was breaking in. I thought that my alarm wasn’t going off but Guardian had them here and they were checking in, and I appreciated that. Guardian came, checked the system and fixed whatever was wrong with it.

He also put in a call for someone to come the next day to set up the repair. It was very stressful but they did a good job and took care of me. I was very pleased with the service. I have my home with D.R. Horton Homes and it was actually Guardian's system that was in there. Guardian was a better deal too, as far as cost. The guy gave me the list of all the different options and told me that they have a very basic one. I told him that was what I wanted to start with. I'm not into all the technology and being able to turn my life off and on from my phone. So I really just have the basic service and I'm happy with it. It serves its purpose. It does what I want it to do.

I'm single. I just have me and my little dog so I feel much safer having the Guardian system. I don't arm it at night because I have actually set it off before, getting up in the morning, opening the door and letting my little dog out. But I do arm it when I'm gone for work then also if I go somewhere for a weekend. It makes me feel better knowing that I have that extra level of security.

The installer was grumpy and difficult at first, and then did a mediocre job that required ANOTHER installer to come back the next weekend to fully activate the system. One of our glass break detectors keeps going offline, setting off a warning alarm at varying times of the day - and night. This is four months into our time with Guardian. And the company charges $2 extra per month for a paper bill, but won't allow me to go paperless without also forcing me to enroll in autopay. That's a rinky-dink way to do business.

So, in all, the system is good, the control pad is the best I've used (although I've only ever used two other companies, and the technology has improved in the 7 years since I last installed a different system). But I bet I (and you) can find a company who's monitoring service is at least as good AND who is committed to excellent customer service. Which is too bad, because the sales experience was excellent...