Firstline
Deceptive, Predatory Sales Approach

My problem with Firstline matches other consumer complaints. The company appears to employ college students with a compensation model that has a major emphasis on commission. They have (as an employee has already
detailed in a rebuttal) a sales strategy that is incredibly deceptive but somehow rationalized in the minds of their door-to-door salesreps, which they call Advertising Directors.

The pitch starts off with you've been selected to get a free security system because you are one of the first installations in the neighborhood and your home has great traffic pattern. If you let them put the sign in a good spot, I get a free system. They drop the company name "GE" enough and in such a manner that you are led to believe that they are somehow associated with GE.

The second approach is to push the cellular connection as much more reliable than the landline your current security sevice uses. I went back and forth with them a lot on this point because my landline enters at
roof level and the security system I have is in a strong, locked metal box right next to the landline's first stop in an attic closet. What is clear to me
now is that the salesrep really gets very little (if any) training on home security systems - they don't technically know much about the products and the technology underlying them. But, they are very willing to say anything that will result in a sale.

So, somehow the salesteam got into my house and to the dining room table where they started filling out forms. I was sort-of agreeing to a sale, but not completely convinced. They totally ignored any negativity on my
part. They kept asking me for information, which I ridiculously continued to provide. And then this point of a $44.95 monthly amount that covered the cellular connection came up. I immediately jumped on this and said "So, this is how you make the money!" Remember, we have been going back and forth on this "FREE" system I was getting, for this sign in front of my house - advertising Firstline. At this point the salesrep lied, saying absolutely not; this just covered their costs. I remember this distinctly because we argued that $44.95 is to much to be just covering costs.

After all of this, I told them I was going to check out a couple of Internet sites they had given me links to. I also planned on using Google to check the whole thing out better. I had not signed any paperwork yet. They
left the paperwork with me. I guess what we agreed upon was I'd probably go with them, but I'm not yet ready to commit at this moment. They said OK and that someone else, a technical person would stop by in a bit to put
the sign in front of my house and that he could answer the technical stuff I'd countered the sales stories with.

Well I got back to this project I was working on, really into, and about twenty minutes later there's a guy at the door. Oh yea, placing the sign. NO - he's here to install my system... It's 8:00pm at night! This is not
normal business hours. My mind is still thinking about this project I'm on and for some reason (and I just can't imagine why I did this) I let him in.
I show him the current system, making sure to point out how robust it obviously was. Within minutes he has my old system disabled and is swapping the new system in. At this point I start to become concerned and went to my computer to see what I can find. The first link that Google brought to my attention had a title that just made me sick. When I clicked on it and started to read the page things just got worse. At this point I was getting the feeling I'd just been scammed. Now I'm really starting to feel ill. The tech guy notices what I'm doing and when he looks at the link, he suggests that I read more about my new system on the GE website.

Even though I at this point I was pretty sure that letting the install go forward was a mistake, I had not signed anything yet and I had also noticed a 3-day cancellation policy. When he finished, I signed a couple
of forms - he was actually a pretty nice person. Oh, and at about this time I also realized that Firstline was the actual company and these guys had nothing to do with GE.

So, the next morning (having not slept well) I started to try to get to the bottom of this mess. I found that Firstline had nothing local - this is important to me since this is my home security system - Internet presence
does not cut it with me when it comes to home security.in fact, the only way to get in touch with Firstline is via the (866) number they have. I called and demanded to talk with a manager to get to the bottom of what
I had just been put through. No matter what I said, the call-center person would not direct me to management. I did get an e-mail address out of him and proceeded to write a multiple page letter that detailed all I had
been through. I wanted to talk to someone that could relieve my concerns or they were to come and get the system they installed...

The next day came, no reply to my e-mail. I called the call-center again but still was refused when asked to talk with management. At this point I had had it. I started to look into getting my original system re-installed and the GE/Firstline system out. I've heard nothing from Firstline. I did fill out the cancellation notice and faxed it in and sent it certified with return
receipt requested. But I don't think this mattered because I never signed a contract before the installation took place. There was no salesrep signature
on the paperwork, nothing was dated, and all the boxes I was to initial were unchecked (like the one "I have personally autorized an Alarm System
purchase..."

This whole thing turned out to be a nightmare... I had to pay my existing service company $200 to reinstall their system and make sure everything was working again. I've filed complaints with CA Dept. Of Consumer Affairs, the Better Business Bureau, I've written to local Oakland government folks that license Security System companies, copied my local councilperson, and
now hopefully getting the story out via complaint. I also talked with one of my neighbors that also signed up and he said he was: "licking my wounds." He knew, too late, that he was ripped-off.

Firstline has no right to be selling the way they do. Copying from a prior usacomplaints.com (Scot in North Carolina), an employee of Firstline made the
remark:

"The sales tactics are very smooth, but they have to be otherwise this wouldn't be a booming business. Would you even think about saying yes if someone came to your door and said 'Hey I am selling alarms, the equipment is free, but you just have to pay 45 bucks a month for three years?' We'd be starving if we did that all day long."

My reply to this is, if you don't have a value-proposition that's worthy of selling, you shouldn't be taking people's money for nothing!

Company: Firstline
Country: USA
State: Utah
City: Orem
Address: 370 West Center Street

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