Reviews (1)

A Vivint salesman showed up at my door on a Friday afternoon. I had been thinking about a security system, so I was willing to hear his pitch. I have been in sales all my life and his pitch was the typical garb. He said he had to make sure I qualified…FIRST FLAG. Everyone qualifies. I had to sign up for a five-year monitoring service at $60.00 per month for the equipment I would choose…SECOND FLAG.

I had an option to purchase the equipment over five years by taking out a personal loan through Citizens Bank in Utah, where the Vivint HQ is located (more on this later)…THIRD FLAG. I indicated that I wanted to research the company before making the purchase. The salesman applied all the great reasons to sign up and told me I had the standard 3 DAYS to change my mind if I did not like the service and equipment…FORTH FLAG. I said that is ridiculous and he changed it to 30 days to cancel the contract. He said he had a tech that could install the equipment that evening…FIFTH FLAG.

I agreed to the installation and the tech arrived around 7 PM or so and did not leave until after midnight. Every salesman knows if they do not get the contract before they leave, the chances are less than 50% they will later.

I broke my first purchasing rule…do your research first! Once I started researching, I found a very large number of less than positive reviews. Every company gets bad reviews, but each negative review seemed to reflect the same issues…equipment failures, salesman not being honest, customer service horrors, etc. Even the better reviews seemed to have negative issues as well…STRIKE ONE.

I then researched the equipment. I found some of the exact items such as the door lock, Kwikset Smart Lock 888, and other items that were as good or better than what Vivint was selling. I chose the higher priced items I found for my comparison and discovered that over the five years of sending payments to Citizens Bank, it would cost me almost double the price…STRIKE TWO.

The main issue that was very negative to me was that I was taking out a personal loan from Citizens Bank for the equipment. So in two years, my equipment fails and Vivint does not feel obligated to replace it, I am still responsible for the payments.

I contacted Citizens Bank and they were not very knowable as to the situation. They did indicate that there is no interest on the loan and not even fees that they charge Vivint. I never heard of a back that would process hundreds of loans with no interest and no fees…STRIKE THREE.

Once my salesman called me about these issues, he only went over his sales pitch and really did not address any of my concerns. He then said he would later contact me to talk about my trepidations. One week later, no call or even an email. Needless to say, I canceled my contract and had the equipment removed. The tech did a nice job of removing the equipment and seemed to understand my issues of cost and reviews.

To sum it up…double the equipment cost, personal loan that has to be paid regardless if equipment works or not and the monthly monitoring service is very high. I liked all the equipment Vivint installed, but there were too many negative issues for me to consider keeping the service. Just do your research before you purchase from this or any other company that shows up at your door.