Monotronics Home Security

[Roanin]

Anyone have any information on this company who is a monitoring service for home security systems?

Quality of service, Reputation Customer service

Thanks,

R

[Roanin]

Yes I found that, but that site just totes the company line, so I thought maybe someone had personal experience with them.

R

[Ed Pawlowski]

Never heard of them and they don't give a lot of information on the web page. Do they have local coverage or nation wide? The only show a handful of states on the pull down menu where you request information. I did not get that worm and fuzzy felling of security from the web site. Just not enough information and details.

I'd call the local police/fire dispatch and see if they have ever heard of them. They should be able to tell you who is local and does a good job.

[trader4]

I don't see the issue of a monitoring service being local. Almost all home security systems just use a dial-up line or cell to phone a central monitoring station. Where that station is, hardly matters. Even huge companies like ADT use a centralized facility and have no local presence. The monitoring facility just calls you if it trips and if they can't reach you to find out if it's a real trip or not, then they call the local police number that you have given them.

[HeyBub]

Do a Google search for "monotronics reviews" (no quotes) and evaluate the

91,000+ comments. For example:

"When my mother died this week (July 2012), I found that Monitronics had gotten her to sign a 3 year contract in 2011 and they were deducting automatic payments from her bank account. For several years, she has been very confused and I've paying her bills, all of which are sent to me."

If you're not senile, there should be no problelm.

[Roanin]

No I am not senile, just did not use quite the correct terms when searching on google. I guess the word review wored better than what I used.

Thanks,

R

[Ed Pawlowski]

That is OK for most, but from personal experience, it can be nice to have a local outfit that knows both the customer and the local police and fire departments. You get more than just a call to a police call center. The police no the location of the zone, they will know who is going to respond, etc.

YMMV

[trader4]

Does such a thing even exist? Sounds like Mayberry, circa 1960. I mean there are lots of local security companies here in NJ, but I don't know of any that have their own call centers. All the ones I know just farm it out to someone else. Probably to some of the same places that you can engage directly for $9.95 instead of paying the local $35 and them then paying the $9.95.

You get more than just a call to a police call

The number of the zone that is tripped, if it's fire or intrusion, etc is normally passed on to the police by any call center. I don't know what more any sevice can do beyond that. As for knowing who is going to respond, have no idea what you mean by that. That would seem to depend on which cop is closest to the alarm location, what else they are busy with, etc.

[krw]

Or the Internet.

One thing to check out is your utility company. Some offer pretty good deals. Our power company (a cooperative, or something similar) wants $18/mo, I think.

[Ed Pawlowski]

I don't know how big an area they cover. It is not just one town, possibly the country or a region of the state. I never asked for details, but it is not nationwide like ADT.

I mean response from the place of the alarm. At work we have a few potential people so the police will know if Pete or Mark, or whoever is coming and about how long to get there. If a motion detector is tripped but none of the intrusion alarms went off, you can be pretty sure it was caused by something other than a burglar.

[George]

But you are confusing things with the drama. $35/month is the usual cost if you go for the "all this for $100" adt package. So you are paying for both the system and the monitoring.

There are at least two local alarm companies in my area that have their own monitoring. They definitely charge a lot less than $35 just for monitoring.