Link Interactive

They walked me through the installation process and it felt like they were familiar with the system and they knew what should be in the box. One time, we were looking through the box and I couldn’t find something. There was a piece that goes on the back of the monitor like a little mainboard. They did a really good job. I found the installation really easy, although I ended up using Command Strips instead of drilling through the plastic parts to put in the motion detectors. They wanted me to put a screw hole through the plastic in the back.

I have four houses and I know each house really well. We did custom security plans for each house since some plans have more floors than the other. All of the houses there, they are very similar as they all have a garage that you drive into, but they all have different floor plan layouts. I kinda knew what I was looking for because I’ve always tried to have very secure homes. I’ve used lots of equipment, whether it was with the other security companies. And Link is the top, at least for now. Everything changes and you have to change with everything because usually, there’s something that can be improved. Some of the security features are really updated too. Link has the app and it’s a lot more proficient. The app is good and user-friendly which is really important because I’m trying to have renters who have a variety of computer skills to do it too, not just me.

The cost for Link was really wonderful too. This was the lowest cost in systems that I’ve had in my 15 years of putting them in my houses. That’s really good savings for somebody out there and for me, in particular. I was very impressed by that. It’s made up in the contract, but that is a really good thing. But I had to send one of my Link systems back because my renter was in love with the routine of what she is doing now. Sometimes people don’t wanna try something new, but if they do and they’re okay with a commitment of a two or three-year contract, they will like it. They’ll actually buy the system and they’ll want to have it in their house.

With Link, if customers have any questions or they need to send the system back in the first three days, that has been made really easy. In my case, Link sent me a form to sign and I sent all the things back. It was really nice. As for the other systems, I'm gonna keep them at my other rental houses. My renters are enjoying using them for locking doors. It makes them feel safe and makes me feel good. Link's system could really help people. The cost of having some break-in in your house and also just the feeling you have if you don’t have anything in place and then afterward, you’re like, “I should have done this,” Link is definitely a system that's well worth it. I’m happy to tell my family or friends about it.

Link Interactive's customer service was good and fast. As soon as I made a request, they immediately sent me a text message. On the very same day, we closed the deal. So as far as sales were concerned, they were good. On the customer support side, some of the instructions they sent for the do-it-yourself installation were not very clear. Still, when I called, they kinda walked me through the setup. Although I figured out the instructions after a couple of weeks, there’s a little room for improvement in terms of making the instruction guidelines clearer. We were getting false alarms but overall, the reps were very responsive. Once you get them on the call, they're very knowledgeable and helpful. Whoever is on the phone, they know exactly what kind of issues you’re running into, and they can guide you through settings.

I got the four sensors plus the motion from Link Interactive. Everything was pretty much installed and paired, so it was ready to go. Installation was easy as all I needed to do was to put some sticker and it was all set up. Then I just attached it to the door. One of the neat things about the system is that they've got this interactive feature where, in case of emergency, they actually talk through the panel with you, just so they can actually listen to what’s going on in the house. Also, it's nice that they can also determine if there is an emergency or it's only a false alarm.

The additional feature though is really the mobile app that you can arm. That’s really neat. The only drawback of the system compared to the old traditional ones is that when you’re trying to set the alarm to "away", you need to make sure all the doors are closed before you click the arm. If the door that you’re trying to get out from is open, the system is not smart enough to realize that. That door will be bypassed and that is pretty bad. Other than that, you can always arm the system from your phone, which is really nice.

The other disadvantage is that the system comes with a receiver and sender. Everything should be attached to the door and it has to be within a certain distance. Sometimes, the way your door is set up may not allow for a nice installation, so there are some limitations there. The systems get confused. All of a sudden, it sends some signal today that something is going on when there's actually none.

All the settings are very conservative, and the system can easily sense if somebody is tampering with it. At the same time, however, it can put the settings such that they will confirm with you through the phone or message before it will send the officers out. So, you can kinda filter some of those false alarms, but not too much because sometimes it could be some problems and you may wanna need assistance. Good thing Link Interactive also has a support system during the weekend, so in case there is a false alarm, they can fix it for you. It’s almost like 24/7 help for emergency situations. Overall, I am very satisfied with Link Interactive. I really like the installation. I could ask somebody to come and install the security system who will ask me for thousands of dollars, but Link Interactive’s system is something I could do myself. I strongly recommend Link Interactive.

The sales rep was standard. He was trying to sell a product and plead his case. He seemed to not understand certain aspects of the technology and he almost put himself on the line. He was rapping something that he didn't understand and not really giving the full truth. I was testing him to see what he would say and he was pushing some jargon or lingo, “Oh, well, we do encryption on the ply.” I asked what that meant and he just said something. I asked him to explain it, but he couldn’t fully explain it. During the installation of the system, I got all the stuff and put it together. I didn't look at the instructions too much. I just knew what to do with it and I knew that the panel needed to be linked. I needed certain information and it was very easy. There was a packet that came in that told the passcodes and gave the basic rundown. I just followed that and it was perfect.

The features are good and the system offers what you would expect. There are both cell and wireless communication. There is a backup battery in it and I really like the touch screen panel and the fact that there is a motion detector in there. It is cool. That provided me one last motion detector I had to purchase. There is also a glass break detector in the panel, so there was a lot of bang for the buck in the system. I use the Link Interactive smartphone features and I have it built into Alexa, Echo Spot, and Echo Show. From the phone, I can tell Siri or Alexa to arm the system. There's an added benefit that I can link it with Alexa and I can do everything with my voice.

The cost is good and I'm getting a quality product although there is nothing special about it. The panel is nice because it is a touchscreen and the sensors operate at the distances that are needed. They communicate well but when I link up my smartphone to the panel, it is supposed to auto-disarm when it knows that I'm near, but sometimes, that doesn’t work correctly which is one little quirk in the system.

Since having Link Interactive, I feel like I have more vision and idea of what's happening at the house. I travel a lot, so I'm always worried about my home and what's happening. It is good being able to have vision into your home and knowing that there are sensors 24/7 working to let you know if someone has triggered some sensor in your house. If a friend is interested in a security system, I would explain to him my current set-up, what I have and what my experience is, although there are other options. I like what I have but maybe he is looking for something different.

My wife was the one who did a lot of the pre-work and interacted with their sales team. She was very happy with their team, with the functionality and the support on the website so we paid a little bit more. The monthly cost is fairly expensive and we spent 500 bucks on all the parts and pieces. When I installed the system, the directions that came with it were very easy. I'm fairly technically savvy when it comes to working with my hands and hang pictures. I work in the construction industry, but I'm a manager so I'm not afraid to dive in and try things. I was fully installed on a night and the only thing that was challenging about it was the stickers that hold some of the sensors on. I gotta go figure out where to find some more of that double-stick tape. And there are some tricks that they could put on there that might help people figure this out.

A lot of times with our windows, if I put them a little bit too close to each other when I go to shut the window, especially if we have a heavy glass door, it’ll pop that thing right off. Then if I put it in the wrong spot a little too close and my kid shuts it a little too hard then it makes contact with the frame and breaks it off. So, a little bit of heads up on that maybe on the website or on the instructions would have been helpful.

Also when the thing showed up, if I have animals in the house, I'm supposed to point it a little bit more up or down. When I walked past a sensor and I thought it would set it off, it didn’t register so there's something going on there that I haven't been able to figure out. But so far all of the perimeter locks and everything seemed to function very well and it gives us peace of mind. Also, I keep my phone next to my bed if we forget to set the alarm and just one touch on my phone and say arm away or arm stay. It's just hitting it and I don’t have to get up and go to the panel. Link Interactive is very user-friendly.

So far, everything is going very well and we're happy with the panel including how it works. The Z-wave technology is very handy also. And we're thinking about having a camera and it will be nice if that camera system interfaced with the security system we have. We have one in our house that was there when we moved in but that’s 10 years old so it's a separate DVR and I don’t think it’ll work together. Overall, we're very happy with the decision we made. There is some night time burglary in the neighborhood and we feel more secure knowing that at night, we can lock the house down and that the alarm on the panel will wake us up if something happens.

After that, I had a couple of interactions with him because of some problems with the system. It wasn't syncing properly with alarm.com, so some of the data that I've entered with the local device wasn't going after the web and I wasn't able to access it remotely. It was giving me false reports of doors opening and closing. It wasn't getting the accurate sensor information or which sensor was activated because the alarm wasn't feeding the data properly. I had to make a few phone calls to follow up on that and send it through email messages. I got a very good response quickly from customer service. They corrected the problem and said that there was a problem with the syncing in the alarm versus Link. So, I didn't have to do anything about it and that was very positive.

The third interaction I had was also with the sales rep initially because there had been some problems with shipping. I had asked for a specific count of sensors and I received several additional sensors I didn't need, so I wrote to him and I asked him what to do and he sent me a label to return them. And then oddly, a couple of days later, I got another shipment, an additional sensor, that I hadn't asked for. I told him I needed to return this as well, so he got me a second label and I shipped both of them back.

The only downside or the only criticism I had of that was that I didn't receive a refund promptly. It took several weeks before anything happened. I had to write to him and ask him what was going on with the refund and he responded quickly. He said he spoke to someone in that department and the refund was going to be processed the next day. I saw the refund a few days later on my credit card, but I had to remind him of that. Apparently, the department that was processing it didn't take care of it as promised. He corrected it but that required several communications from me to prompt him to follow through on the last step, which was the refund. It was a minor complaint but it definitely could have been handled more efficiently.

After I had installed the data, I had named all the sensors on the panel. Apparently, those names were not going up to the alarm.com system when the alarm goes off to my phone and also to the human monitors. I was getting, "Zone 3 is open. Zone 4 is open,” on my phone. I got a phone call from the monitor saying, "We had a zone 3 open alert.” I wondered what was that because I wasn't at home. I armed the systems and a windstorm blew through my neighborhood and blew a window open just by the wind. A tree crashed in front of the house and it set off a glass break detector on the inside of the house which was rather surprising. The alarm went off and I wasn't that familiar with the system. I saw the alarm activated two different zones that sounded not like a false alarm to me but I couldn't tell what they were.

The person on the phone couldn't help me because it said, "Zone three, zone four". I said that wasn’t what I put into the system. I had just turned it on two hours ago and I was 45 minutes’ drive away from the house. He was asking me if I could go to the hall and I said that I was in the middle of dinner. It was very stressful. When I got back, I wrote a long email to customer service. They looked into it and they said that what I put into the sensor naming didn't block the alarm, so the alarm was communicating some generic zone stuff to the monitor. They fixed that. It was a syncing issue between the device and alarm, but it was very frustrating and upsetting to me that the first time I turned it on, I got a false alarm and I couldn't correct it.

The police had been called to the house and they were gonna give me a fine because it was a false alarm. I didn't have the alarm registration on file. There was a permit needed that I had to sign to Link and when I paid for my permit, I was given a certificate but there was no information on the certificate. Link told me afterward that the police couldn't come out to the house right away because I didn't have a permit on file and I told him I paid for it and I emailed it to them. They said that the receipt number for the permit was actually my permit number. I asked how I would have known that and he said they were sorry and that it's a Los Angeles issue they didn't know. It wasn't Link's fault but was LA City's. But Link wasn't able to correct it in time before the police came out and they threatened to fine me that. And even though I paid for it the day before, I didn't have it on file.

It was a miscommunication that had occurred after I installed it, during the time that the alarm went off and break down and transferring communication to different parties. There was a systemic problem between Link alone, the permit, and the monitoring people that created a lot of unnecessary stress for me that first night. I documented it and emailed it to the company and they were very responsive. They took care of it, but it took several days to sort it all out.

The installation process of the system was straightforward and clear. I had to call a couple of times because the sensors were not being picked off by the panel. And over the phone, someone walked me through taking the battery out and putting the battery back in. That re-established a connection between the sensor and the panel, although that wasn't clear to me in the instructions. The instruction basically said they don't show up automatically and two of the sensors didn't show up and I thought they might be defective. It turned out they weren't defective. There were some problems with the signal not linking up and the only way to re-establish the signal was to remove the battery. All in all, they were able to take care of it so I don't fault them for that. They did a good job in walking me through it.

The other issue I had was the door/window sensor that was re-assessed. I had to drill into the door frames in order to create a hole for them. I found that process was quite difficult. It required a lot of complex tools including an auger and very unusual large drill bit, a level, and several different depth-finding tools. It was a complicated process. I would probably have to hire a professional to install something like that if I didn't have access to those tools and had professional advice from a carpenter. That was a really far more complex installation than a do-it-yourself person would be expected to know how to do it. Drilling it, ¾-inch diameter, 2.5-inch depth round hole in solid wood without any other type of tools and doing it properly was unreasonable. I would not have ordered them if I had known. It took me about six to eight hours to do that for four doors.

Since that first disaster and all those problems that were corrected because of it, the system has worked flawlessly. There has been no false alarms and no failures to connect. The only other issue I'm having right now is I am finding that when I try to access the video feeds through either the website or my phone connecting to the alarm.com website, the video feeds tend to shut down after five or six seconds. And if I try to click “live feed”, and then once they stop, there's no way for me to restart the feed for two or three minutes. I can't click “play” again and get the video feeds to restart. It's almost like there's a lockout.

I have three cameras and if one of the cameras stops, I can’t restart that camera for a minute or two. I can only look at the other camera. I find that to be a consistent problem and it has been ever since I started the system. It's something to do with alarm.com speed. It’s disappointing because I am paying for that access. It's $10 a month to have that video feed and I'm getting poor service. The service for the video portion of my contract is not being fulfilled based on what I was told.

The quality in relation to the cost is fair. There are systems that are cheaper but the quality is probably not quite there. Link Interactive’s systems are more expensive but other companies aren’t offering anything more than somebody had to come in and install it as opposed to do-it-yourself. It's not worth paying more for two or three years from now. I've compared prices for different systems of what's offered and I found that even though this isn't the cheapest plan, it probably is overall the best value in terms of price for what I received, so I'm happy with it in terms of value.

A lot of Link's sensors and cameras are based on alarm.com. And the cameras are horrible because you have to buy. I bought seven cameras because if your home wouldn't pair, they just don't pair. And then, I got two panels from Link. I looked at their homepage, what kind of accessories the panel supports, what sensors, what cameras, what model, and I ordered stuff on eBay for that system. And when the system came, it wouldn't pair. They told me they had sent me a panel with an older or different system linked to it. It was not according to their homepage. They took the panel back, and sent me a new one. So, the initial set-up was a little bit bumpy. But when it comes to setting up sensors, pairing sensors, that works quickly.

In the older system I had before, they had the key fob. The system would detect when you arrive at the house. By itself, it would turn it off and on. The current one here has manual ones, which is to press the button. The old system had the functionality to turn the system on and off at a certain time you programmed it. But for Link, I have to pay extra for that, which I refused to do.

And one thing that's misleading is the geofencing. I understood that you have cellphones linked to your account and when the system sees when the cellphone is not in the house, it will then do something. It can turn the light off and it can turn the temperature oven down, but it cannot arm the alarm system. That is something so simple to add there. For me, it's not a big thing, but my wife forgets a lot to arm or disarm. We were used in the past that when the vehicle arrives with the key fobs in it, the system would disarm automatically. We didn't have to worry, "Oh, we forgot it." Here at Link, it's not possible. They send you a text message saying, "Oh, by the way, you forgot to arm your system." That's what the geofencing does. But that's not state-of-the-art.

Also, Link's system is too expensive. The Iris Lowe's system had a monthly charge of $15. I had 18 cameras on the system. The geofencing was not available, but they had the key fobs which were detected by the system. There is a lot of functionality to program in with different rules and scenes to say, "Well, if the key fob arrives, not by 4:00 then please send a text message to the parent." Let's say if your daughter doesn't show up at 4:00 after school, you get a notification. Link is below that level. They don't have that, and I'm paying $35. So, I'm paying more than double for less functionality.

Each four cameras is another $5. So, if I add 20 cameras to it, I'm having a 56-dollar system. That is outrageous. So, I only have four cameras with Link and 15 other ones with different companies. I had to split up because I didn't wanna pay extra. Plus, the exterior cameras do not have interactions. In the Iris system, if the camera detects movement, it turns on the light. The Link does not. Link can do an alarm or not, but they do not turn the light on with the camera sensor. So, you have to buy another extra motion sensor next to it that would do that. Moreover, Link has no support on Sundays, which is unacceptable too. I'm paying more than double than what I had before, so I expect a better service. But that's not the case. Still, I'm satisfied with Link.

Another thing is that I can't have the system working how I need it to from the internet and the application. The security system is not able to be automated on turning on and off. My sister-in-law lives with us and she leaves at different hours than we do. So, if she was to leave earlier than I was to get up to disarm the system, the alarm would go off and it would wake my 15-month old daughter up. At this point, I haven't been able to arm the system at night because she leaves a half hour before I wake up. The system is a great idea if that wasn’t happening but for right now, it's kind of $36 a month for nothing.

But other than that, the installation was good, as well as the doorbell and inside cameras and the thermostat. And I liked the app. It was all-in-one and I liked that it integrated with Google. It’s the extra step of saying, “Hey, Google, talk to Alarm.com.” Then I go from there and try to work it in as much as I could. The quality of the equipment is solid. I give it a thumbs up on that. It didn’t feel cheap and when I installed it, it definitely held up.

Also, it was a really good price. But I don’t like paying for monitoring and when I canceled that, the monthly price went down just a little bit. I wasn’t really happy about that because I'm paying for the app access and video streaming. To me, compared to other companies, that was a bit much. Then, when I tried to purchase the same sensors for the same equipment, the same frequency, and it was through Qualisys, it didn’t work. I didn’t connect at all. So, I just left it alone. I canceled Link Interactive and I turned in all the equipment. For it to be that low on price, it was a good experience. It’s just certain things didn’t work right. I tried to further solve problems and eventually they would have been solved. But I didn’t wanna go through all that and I didn’t wanna pay that much.

I did the installation by myself, and everything went well. I always press the wrong button on the backside of the quickset lock. But other than that, it went easy. The overall quality of my system is good. I’m having some range issues sometimes. And I do have a repeater, but I'm having some range issues from the brains to one of my exterior locks. I have two motion detector batteries. I chose one of my motion detectors, and when they sent me a new motion detector, the issue has gone away. Being able to do things I wanted to remotely is great. It’s definitely one of the few pluses.

Our new system seems to be working perfectly. The cameras have been working really well. And we can adjust our thermostat and do all kinds of stuff with the smartphone features. I’m completely impressed, and I would tell anybody to use Link. Also, I’m saving over $20 a month over that. I like that. Link needs to be very nice to their employees because their employees are very pleasant to deal with. I’ve talked to more than one of them, and they’ve been outstanding.

They called the cops, then the reps called me back in, although they should have just known that. Link didn’t follow up with me, which I thought was part of their process. The cops didn’t follow up with me either. Nonetheless, we've only had the system active for about a week and my experience with Link has been good so far. The cost was better than the competition even though there is a three-year commitment. The initial upfront cost was a lot less and the monthly cost was just the same, so it is a better deal.

I wanted something I can control on an app and it worked out really well. We open in the morning and my trainers have log-in information. I like that I can disarm the system and when it is being disarmed. I know when the class is over, so if it was ever disarmed when I know there is not a class, it is easy for me to know what is going on. If the trainers forget to turn it off, I do, too. I have it connected through the Bluetooth, so when I am supposed to see it, it disarms, which is another great feature. I wish more people knew about Link Interactive and I wish there was a way I could dually have it at home as well without being double the price. Knowing how easy it is and how comfortable I am knowing that the studio is armed, it is something that interests me as a home user because it is relatively inexpensive and easy to know. Our dog doesn't tell me if someone comes through my house.

In addition to that, the customer service was impressive. I know that if I have a problem with the system, there’ll be somebody to talk to that’s engaging and who understands. They stayed on the phone with me for two hours getting all that stuff hooked up and didn't give up. Since it was an existing system, I just had to plug the panel into the wall and then go through the identification process. I did a lot of climbing around ladders though and getting serial numbers, but in the end, we got all the points up and running. The only part that I don't wanna do again is hooking up all my stuff. Somebody with no technical skills might struggle with that.

I had a sensor that I know that they knew I had, that they never put into my system which was weird. They sent me a water sensor for flooding, so I figured if they sent it to me they would have already programmed it into my system. They program it remotely. Since I bought that sensor from them, I expected it to come plug and play but it wasn’t because I don’t see it on my sensor. It has been that way for a long time. They need to make sure that they get all those sensors on my system hooked up. But other than that, Link is good to deal with and they get back to me quickly. My system got off several times and the response time was excellent. This system does a good job. Link Interactive is an excellent company.

The installation of the system was somewhat easy and manageable. However, it took a while when it was out of the box as I wanted to make sure I understand everything since I never had a home security system before. It also took a little trick to actually physically find a good way to attach the sensors. But once it was all done, the system was installed and the actual guide to start using it was easy. I'm happy with our new security system from Link Interactive and we have noticed a change in our sense of security.

I was also looking for a camera and they said that the camera they got now needs to be hooked up to the WiFi. Another thing, when the doorbell rings, I can see the inside camera working but I need a doorbell for the outside too. Once I get a strong WIFI, it should work. Other than that, everything else is working. And once I get it going, it would be great because I know who is at the door. The equipment lights up good and everything is very well. I like that it is easy and slim. Moreover, the equipment’s quality is good and the cost is so good in relation to the quality. So far, my sense of security has been pretty much the same since having Link security system as there are people coming in and out all the time. People will notice when they see the stuff. Overall, I'm satisfied with Link Interactive.

Once the equipment had arrived, they had a call already in place to make sure everything was working properly and make sure I was able to install everything. The doorbell camera was far the most challenging thing I had as far as installation. But that was because of the break of the house than anything else. Other than that, I get text notifications whenever there’s motion detected on one of the outdoor cameras, or if I leave the house, and don't set the alarm. The fact that I can log into the app at any point in time, and just check on things around the house is convenient.

What they should do is get the door names, the door knocks, and then send a pack that has the sensor name, like which is for the front door or for the window. Anyway, the system is a few years old now, but it’s perfectly fine. One thing, however, is that there’s no volume dial on the speaker. If an emergency happens, the speaker that the operator speaks to you through is unbelievably loud. You wanna stay away from it, but you also have to communicate with it. It’s already stressful when the alarm is going off, and you try and enter your code. And then the kids are crying because the alarm went off, and then this really loud speaker goes off, and you’re trying to communicate. They’re so loud, I can’t even think straight. There is a volume control, but not enough for that, like there’s no way that you can turn the volume down. Overall, they're a decent service, but there’s a lot of other systems out there where you can get monitored for a lower cost.