Let me begin with a disclaimer – we are totally satisfied with our current security system. We’ve been with it for nearly 20 years and it covers both homes we own. But there have been…well incidents, shall we say? These events have made us question the system, customer service in general, and our sanity.
First, the system at our second house is digital. The home is a one-story, ranch style and there are a couple of places the alarm might sound. When the alarm does go off – and we discovered this the scary way – it’s impossible to shut it down. Well, it’s impossible when you forgot the password because you haven’t used it in over twelve years.
Our son lives in the house and one night the fire alarm went off. This was because the microwave malfunctioned and was pouring smoke into the house. He had unplugged the thing (which subsequently made the trip to the dump) and attempted to cancel the alarm. Meanwhile, he was opening windows and turning on fans. Also meanwhile, we got the “back-up” call and raced to the house. The fire department likely also got called. Our son was on the phone trying to tell the representative to cancel the fire department as nothing was aflame.
Thankfully, he accomplished that. But she kept insisting he put in the code, which he didn’t remember. Neither did we. FINALLY, my husband remembered what it was and told her the password, so she could end the screeching alarm. It took almost as long to get that alarm silenced as it did for us to wave the smoke out of the kitchen.
The good news on that horrible event is tri-fold. We know the alarm system works. We know the back-up call works. And I got to go shopping for a new microwave.
Then we began to get calls and emails about upgrading our own system to digital. We happily had the technician come out to install it, as digital has to be better, right? Well, maybe so, but it turns out that digital technology is no match for 18-inch thick stone walls built in 1811. The digital system was “iffy” in terms of covering our whole house. So we’re stuck with a landline system (that works just fine, so no big deal).
But the calls and emails continued, telling us our service will end if we don’t address this upgrade. So we had a second technician come out. He, too, could not get the digital system to work, so we’re off the list to notify about upgrading.
Not. We still got calls and emails, with that scary little “service will end” clause. Finally, my husband got a call and asked to speak to a supervisor. He was put on hold and transferred after about ten minutes. This was not a supervisor, but he told the person the whole story and was put on hold and transferred. The third person was also not a supervisor, but he told them the whole story…you’re getting the picture, right? He was on the phone for an hour (listening, while on hold, to the pre-recorded message of “your time is important to us”). I do love me some irony.
The fifth person finally told him we’d be okay with our “old” system and we wouldn’t get any more calls. Then they sent us a survey.
That was fun.
Actually, the survey resulted in a wonderful representative calling us to explain everything, assure us we’d get no more phone calls or emails, and assure us our “old” (but reliable) system would continue to work forever. Or at least for our lifetimes, which is just as good.
made the awful mistake of trying to get mortgage insurance from USACC for vets –
they said they had several contacts and would have them get to me – I hated that, knew what was coming – and it has over a dozen calls from folks who do not even have the info I gave USACC, so that is a bummer – after one or two attempts= could not find anything due to my improving but too low credit score – yet, I keep getting the calls from others – finally have started to text them back on their number begging them to stop calling – no such luck there either, getting ready to use my plastic whistle and let them hear my current feelings on their great customer service!!