Pinnacle representatives attempted to "upgrade" our current home alarm system after we agreed to a promotional upgrade. Our cost would be $99 and we agreed to have the Pinnacle signs in our yard.
The appointment was set for 12:00 on a Saturday. The sales reps arrived 2 hours late. As we were discussing my needs, I talked about how important it is for me to have two operating panels. I have a developmentally delayed child who and I no matter what part of the house I am in, I need to hear when a window or door is opened. Our current system has 2 operation panels and we can hear a chime whenever something is opened. This is also important because we have a swimming pool and different doors that provide access to the pool area.
The reps agreed to give us two panels and discussed the particular type of alarm we needed. They said one of the most experienced techs was coming out.in fact, he was a trainer for new techs - so they said.
The tech (Benson) showed up around 4 and another tech (Jay) showed up about an hour later. After taking down our 2 existing alarm operating panels, pulling out countless wires, and blowing an electrical outlet, the tech realized the system we currently have was "too advanced" for him to complete the job. It seems that any reasonable or "experienced" tech would really take a look at the system to familiarize himself with the system and to ensure that he could acutally do the job. But basically, the first tech just said he couldn't "do it".
At this point, it was 5pm and we were expecting guests at 7. The second tech (who seemed much more knowledgeable, intelligent and respectful) came and offered to give us a temporary set up which would basically disable most of the features we need. It would really only provide motion detection and sensors on the main doors. It would be another days before someone else could come and make things right. My husband told Jay this was unacceptable and that we wanted the alarm returned to its original status. At about 7:30, Jay sent Benson home and started trying to fix our alarm. Benson just left, no apologies, no goodbye - he just walked right out my door after he blew my electrical outlet and messed up my alarm.
The only good thing I have to say is that Jay stayed at our house until almost 11PM trying to fix our alarm. He called our current company. Our alarm went off so many times that I had to have the monitoring company place us on ignore for 2 hours. The entire time my guests were visiting, we were disrupted by the alarm sounding and Jay coming in to ask us various questions and to enter our password to stop the alarms. At some point, my husband spoke with our salespeople and they arranged for a different tech to come out from DC on Monday to finish the job. The bottom line is that alarm was far too advanced for the tech to work on. Every room has a different zone for window, glass break and sliding doors (if present). There's also zones for fire, motion and entry. There are 24 zones and the tech told my husband they were used to working with 6 to 8 zones.
So Jay left after trying hard to fix things. Wires were left hanging from our main control box (I guess because he knew someone else would be coming back). The tech came out and said it would be a lot to put our system on the Pinnacle system. We would have to pay an additional $150. For another control box which would allow the alarm to be compatible with our current zone set up. We said we would think about this and were given a $150 damage report. It was explained that we would receive a check in "about 30 days" to fix our electrical outlet that the tech blew.
Today, we realized that our alarm was never fixed back to the original status. The tech that "fixed" the system evidently did not fix the wires correctly. Some of our doors and windows no longer chime when opened. Additionally, the operating panel no longer provides the correct indicators. For example, when we open our family room sliding glass door, the panel may read "bedroom window". Right now, there are about 6 doors and windows that could be opened and I wouldn't know it - the chimes do not work for these points. Also, if something does chime, my panel doesn't display the correct location. It seems there are at least 8 different zones that are incorrect.
Not only have we wasted time and money dealing with Pinnacle, but our safety and security has been compromised. I had a house full of children today and was a nervous wreck trying to keep any eye on everyone for every single second. With my doors chiming, I had the ability to react every time something opened.
They say you get what you pay for so beware when something is offered for free. Also, if you already have an alarm that works great - you really need to think twice about upgrading. Is it really worth it? For me, the answer is NO.
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