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

["Danny Kewl" <bwana1SPAMMENOTREMOVE@xxxxxxxxx>]

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.
>
>
>
>