Re: Just bought, am I getting a fair deal? Apex/Honeywell/Monitronics

["Danny Kewl" <bwana1SPAMMENOTREMOVE@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks again Crash, I'll be scouring the yellow pages later today.
Hopefully, Apex won't be quite as hasty to take the equipment out as when
they put it in, and take a few days to come. That will give me time to do my
research in the event I would want to cancel my cancellation and keep their
service, or if we re-negotiate a better price. However, again, my hope is to
find, as you said, a reputable, local outfit. Do you know of any lists on
the web that recommend security companies by city or state? I may call
Monitronics directly again, and tell them I'm willing to keep the installed
equipment if they can hook me up with someone different than Apex, and
hopefully a little more reasonable in price. Or will Apex still want their
equipment back vs. getting compensated by another company? Thanks much
again.


"Crash Gordon®" <webmaster@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:0TUke.110$y96.14056@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
They're both made by Ademco/Honeywell and are very similar. The ADT one is
"take-over-able" except for the fact that it's not remotely programmable by
anyone except ADT. The Vista 15P is standard fare...except I'm not familar
with the "MT"...it may be a proprietary version of the 15P made for
Monitronics. Mark Leuck (a poster herein) would know for sure.

Don't get to hung up shopping for price on the net. I'm sure you could find
some idiot to monitor  your system for 2 bucks a month if you looked hard
enough.

Find yourself a local company that's been around a while, one that has
experience and a good rep. - someone who charges a fair price. After all if
someone is only charging 5 bucks a month...will they be around in a year to
take care of  you? You want someone who cares, who will respond, who knows
the product...and wants to keep you as a customer..not by enforcing a long
term contract because the HAVE to to stay in business.


"Danny Kewl" <bwana1SPAMMENOTREMOVE@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:At-dnYoJ1vJhiwnfRVn-rQ@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> To answer Crash Gordon's question on which ADT panel was removed, the
> front
> says Safewatch Pro. The back cover, if I have the right one matched up,
> says
> Ademco 6128ADT LCD  Keypad. It seems like they left all or most of the old
> hardware laying around. On my new one, it says Monitronics on the outside,
> and I don't want to pull it off the wall to see if anything's on the back.
> However, inside the flip lid where your zones are written down, it says
> Honeywell. My owner's manual states it's a Vista-15PMT, however mine don't
> have the Message and Microphone LED's as illustrated in the owner's
> manual,
> just the Armed and Ready LED's.
>
> I took Bob Worthy's advice, and yesterday faxed Apex the filled out Notice
> of Cancellation, and made  copies of the Notice plus fax receipt and sent
> both, certified with return receipt to both Apex and Monitronics. I didn't
> see much "fine print" and the only reference to cancellation was on the
> Notice itself that had Apex's address and fax number, and stated must be
> cancelled no later than midnight of May 24. I hope that actually meant by
> 12:00 am of May 25. So both fax and mail are marked posted May 24.
>
> A couple more questions, a web search did bring me to the site of
> http://www.americandigital.shoppingcartsplus.com/page/page/1690276.htm,
> where they have Take-over monitoring services seemingly dirt cheap, like
> $5.95 a month etc. thru firms such as Half Price, AMS, and
> saveonmyalarm.com. Are any of these reputable, or "do you get what you pay
> for"? If any good, since I have all the old hardware, it may be worth it
> for
> someone to re-install it for me to get these prices. Or is that asking for
> trouble. Then again, when Apex was installing, the wires from the old
> wired
> motion sensor was bad, and they gave me a wireless, or else they would
> have
> wired one in. So maybe better to get new stuff? Or do it myself, is it
> worth
> it? I found a couple other sites that says service starts at $29 a month
> (greatalarms.com) but it seems they give you less free equipment than
> Apex,
> no glass breakage detector mentioned. I seen a similar offer by ADT at $33
> and up per month. I plan on making some calls to these companies in the
> next
> few days. But then again, I have to rely on their cellular monitoring
> service, which may drive the price closer to Apex's. Would it be worth it
> to
> get Apex out to save under $10 a month since I'm now wired with them? Now
> if
> I can save more than $10 a month, worth switching. I now noticed Apex
> installed an alarm "horn" in the basement, is that considered a "point"?
> Or
> battery back-up? If I kept Apex, or any other company, can I add more
> things
> such as window detectors for the same monitoring price? I realize I may
> need
> to pay for the extra hardware. Another thing I found out, is after the
> first
> year, Apex charges $30 a trip to come out to fix/replace faulty equipment.
> Is that standard industry practice or only Apex? Also, not mentioned
> earlier, the original sales person quoted me $39.99 a month, which I
> signed,
> but when the installer came, he made up a new contract saying the $39.99
> price was wrong, as cellular is $3 more a month.
>
> If I do negotiate with Apex, and I'm owed 2 more "points", I want them, as
> I
> said in an earlier post, they may have already included my 2 existing door
> detectors as their points. But then what I heard about Apex worries me.
> The
> control panel also looks different than the one they showed me in their
> brochure. At first I was told I had 2 way communication, but then when I
> brought that up after installation, I was told I don't have that because
> it's a cellular connection, so I'm not getting all the services, which I
> feel should knock a couple bucks back off my bill per month. It does have
> the Duress mode, in which they said I put in a special code, which alerts
> the police directly, bypassing the monitoring station. Is Duress mode
> pretty
> standard with anyone? Again thanks much for all the help.
>
>
> "Danny Kewl" <bwana1SPAMMENOTREMOVE@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:Haadne4K7Yoo5Q7fRVn-jA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >
> > Hi, I just bought a Apex/Honeywell/Monitronics alarm system last
> > Thursday
> > evening (5/19/05) from a door to door salesperson. I believe Apex is the
> > middleman selling the systems. The alarm system was installed that
> > evening
> > also. I just bought my house about a year ago, and it already had a
> > control panel for an ADT system, but I never had it connected to a
> > monitoring service. I took them up on their offer, as I was meaning to
> > get
> > some kind of security system going here, and kept procrastinating, and
> > felt if I didn't go for it, I'd procrastinate more and never get a
> > system
> > going, and be unprotected in a Cleveland, Ohio neighborhood that's just
> > starting to become a little rough.
> >
> > What they said is they install free equipment, based on a point system,
> > and I'm allowed 6 points, each item chosen worth one point. I have a
> > small
> > bungalow style house, so I got one wireless glass breakage detector (was
> > told it will detect to a 25 foot plus radius), one wireless motion
> > detector, one wireless smoke alarm, and there were already two door
> > sensors from the last system that they counted as one point each I
> > believe
> > (front door and side door), and a key fob for a point. I was told 6
> > points
> > were worth about seven or eight hundred dollars of equipment that they
> > installed free, but looking at this now, I already had the two door
> > sensors. I was told window sensors were unnecessary as I just had new
> > vinyl replacement windows installed a month ago, and was told on the
> > newer
> > ones, they are impossible to open from the outside without breaking the
> > glass, which the breakage detector would pick up.
> >
> > I don't have traditional wired landline phone service, I use only my
> > cell
> > phone always. They told me I would have to use their cellular back-up
> > network in this case, which is $42.99 a month, $3 more than if I used
> > their landline service. I tried searching the Net to see if I am getting
> > a
> > good, or at least a fair deal. My contract is for three years. I could
> > not
> > find anything that lists what companies charge for monitoring, however I
> > know I'm probably at a disadvantage with some companies not having a
> > landline. All the sites want you to sign up first, I'm sure that's the
> > way
> > it would work with calling them also. I did find a site just now (
> > http://www.policealarm.com/ ) that says they monitor starting $2.95 a
> > month, but my old control box, etc. has been taken out and the
> > Monitronics
> > installed, plus a new box in the basement, whatever that is, with all
> > the
> > wires, etc.
> >
> > I signed up Thursday evening about 7 PM EST, and since the weekend was
> > coming up, the salesperson told me I had 5 days to change my mind and
> > cancel the contract instead of the usual 3 days. This is about up, and I
> > don't want to cancel a good deal if I do have one, and have to start
> > from
> > scratch looking for a security provider, etc. and maybe, again, never
> > get
> > it done. On the other hand, if it does not sound like a good/fair deal
> > what I got, what are my options to negotiate? Thanks much in advance.
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>