I feel REALLY stupid because I normally check stuff like this out really well before I sign up, but I guess the sales guy was a really smooth talker or something.
This guy was going around the neighborhood this weekend selling security systems from a company named Firstline. I don't know if he's still canvassing the neighborhood or not. One thing he did when he first showed up was mentioned one of my neighbors and said that "she had sent him." I know this neighbor very well and trust her a lot. I knew she hadn't bought a system from him because she had recently had an alarm system installed from another company. This neighbor even came over while he was at my house and had a short conversation with him. I figured that if he was OK with her he must be fairly decent.
He started on his pitch about their service which uses cellular technology for the connection to the monitoring station, so if a burglar decided to cut the phone line it wouldn't affect the alarm since it's wireless. This sounded great to me as I don't have a landline anyway. That's one reason I had never signed up for an alarm service even though I was interested in one.
He said that because my yard was so nice and it appeared that I kept the exterior of my home in excellent shape, they wanted to consider me for an "advertising home". He said they only select one or two homes on each block to be advertising homes. The advertising homes keep a sign in their yard and stickers in their windows, and "in exchange" Firstline gives free installation & activation, free equipment, and a "discounted" monitoring rate of $44.95/month (normally $70-something/month according to the sales guy).
I thought the $44.95 seemed just a tad steep, but figured it was more due to being cellular rather than wired into a regular phone line. I also got the impression from him that this Firstline company was run by GE.
I decided to sign up, so he filled out some forms and called the office to get things going. When he called in, an installer "just happened to be in the neighborhood" and could be at my home in 35 minutes to check things out and do a "survey" to determine where to install all the equipment. I was also told that if he happened to have the proper equipment with him he might even be able to do the install right then.
The installer showed up in the promised 35 minuted and also had all the necessary equipment, so he went ahead and did the install. When he was almost done with the install he started talking about how he was from Utah and had been working in FL and had just come here to NC and really liked it up here in NC. He mentioned something about being "kicked out" of FL. I didn't question him or ask him to elaborate, so don't know if that meant the State of FL kicked Firstline out, or if Firstline had moved him from FL to NC for some reason.
It did set off a red flag in my head though. At the completion of the install he had me fill out a quick survey that asked questions like "did the installer clean up after himself to your satisfaction", etc. The last question on the list asked me how much I had tipped the installer! I was like "huh?" I've never in my life heard of tipping someone that installed equipment like that, so that set off another flag. It had a statement that they requested you not tip more than $100, although they had checkboxes on up to $200. I checked the "$0 - $20" box and didn't tip him anything.
After the installer left I started checking into Firstline, and they are not affiliated with GE in any way. The alarm equipment they install is manufactured by GE, but that's as far as it goes. The Firstline company is just a name, and all they do is resell other company's services.
They resell high-speed internet (not sure who's service or if it's cable, DSL, or what), satellite TV service (Dish Network), digital/voice over IP internet phone service (not sure who's service), and alarm services (Alarm.com and others).
From what I can tell, Firstline does not have any services that are actually their own. I've heard of Alarm.com and checked them out at one time a couple years ago, but didn't sign up with them because I was on a tight budget at the time. I checked out Alarm.com's web site again. The "almost $900" worth of equipment that Firstline gave me for "free" actually costs $479 directly from Alarm.com.
On top of that, if you're a Vonage or SunRocket customer you get $100 off making it $379. This is for the exact same control panel, sensors, etc that Firstline installed. Going directly through Alarm.com requires no contract and Firstline has a 3-year contract.
Also, the exact same monitoring that Firstline was giving me at a "discount" of $44.95 is only $35.95 directly from Alarm.com. This was all for the same equipment and same cellular service.
This morning I called the North Carolina Alarm Licensing Board which is a division within the NC Department of Justice (Attorney General's Office). All alarm companies are required to be licensed by the State. The very nice lady I spoke with stated that Firstline has applied for a license, but they have not yet been approved and they do not have an appointment set at this time to appear before the Board for an approval hearing. She also stated that they have no record at all of Alarm.com.
I asked her "what if" someone had signed a 3-year contract with Firstline and had an alarm system installed. Her response was that if Firstline is signing contracts with people then those contracts are illegal, and nobody in North Carolina should be doing business with Firstline at this time due to their not being licensed.
The contract has a 3 business day cancellation clause in it where you have until midnight of the third business day after you signed up to cancel without any penalties and get any money refunded to you that they collected. I don't know this for sure because I'm not an attorney, but I'm guessing that since the contracts are illegal because they're not licensed you could probably cancel at any time without penalty.
I didn't want to take any chances, so I faxed my cancellation request to them today at lunch time and also sent the cancellation request via next-day express mail so I'll have proof that they received my cancellation request within the 3 days stated in the contract. I guess I'll see what happens.
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