Vivint Home Security

[BokCh0y]

Originally posted by dj_rice



You have to threaten to quit and play hardball to get stuff. If they don't give me a good deal. Hang up. Try again with a different CSR till I get what I want.

As for the Skyview Panel, pretty sure its free with all the new people signing up and same goes for install, I've seen numerous free install advertisements.

I was told the skyview panel is free with a new contract for those who will be paying full price. For the rest of us who are looking for upgrades, either we pay the full monthly price or we pay the difference with a huge discount like 997TT did.

[Skyline_Addict]

Just spoke to a Vivint sales rep on the phone.

The way they are pricing the service is:

1) $49.99/month is the standard service/monitoring fee
2) plus an additional $X/month for the equipment on a 60 month term or pay the full equipment cost up front. my understanding is the equipment portion of the payment is separated from the service portion, so you are not locked in a term contract for the service portion.

They say it is 0% financing on the equipment, but didn't offer any incentive for paying the equipment cost in full up front.

Based on previous posts, there is not much talk about equipment costs; they are sort of significant on my quote. All I see are posts about monthly costs, longer contract terms and even some free equipment thrown in. The rep mentioned their business model changed earlier this year to what I explained above.

So, with that being said, what did you guys pay for your upfront equipment costs? Or how were these built into your monthly cost and contract terms? I am probably not going to get all the equipment on my quote as I just wanted to see the pricing, but here it is ("free install"):

Vivint SkyControl Starter Kit 1 $549.99

Vivint Motion Sensor 1 $0.00

Vivint Motion Sensor 1 $0.00

Vivint Smart Sensor 2 $0.00

Vivint Yard Sign 1 $0.00

Vivint Outdoor Camera 3 $899.97

Vivint Smart Drive 1 $249.99

Doorbell Camera 1 $229.99

Deadbolt Door Lock - Nickel 1 $159.99

Element Thermostat 1 $149.99

Smart Garage Controller 1 $99.99

Total 17 $2,339.91


Based on the previous posts in this thread, this doesn't seem like a great deal unless you guys are inadvertently leaving out info about your overall equipment costs, upfront or aggregate.
I also feel that there should be further negotiating room on the equipment costs, especially if paying up front. Like 20% off the cost, or a lower monthly service/monitoring fee.

Thoughts?

[Darell_n]

You can buy the SkyControl panel and shop online/install yourself all the sensors/cameras/door locks yourself. Anything z-wave is plug and play.

[dj_rice]

For mine, I paid $99 activation fee only and $50 extra for the garage door tilt sensor since it was an add-on and not included in my 9 points alarm system. Everything else was included in the "free install". They used a points system back then, each door sensor 1 point, garage tilt was 2 points etc etc. 9 points was the included basic plan.

I looked at my contract and it says 42 month contract, I would of paid $3,317.58 for all services when contract ends.

[Impreza]

BUMP!

I'm looking at Vivint as well. @dj_rice , how much was your monthly cost including the cost of equipment? or was that included with in your monthly cost of $49.99/month?

[dj_rice]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

BUMP!

I'm looking at Vivint as well. @dj_rice , how much was your monthly cost including the cost of equipment? or was that included with in your monthly cost of $49.99/month?

Monthly cost $49.99

Install Free

Equipment I have

Go Control Panel
3 Door Sensors
2 Motion Sensors. Main and basement
1 Garage Door Tilt Sensor (only paid $50 upgrade for this)
1 Smoke/Carbon/Freeze Sensor

When I originally signed up, all equipment was free/based on points system.

Seeing as all the new systems now offer the new Sky Control Panel and Door Bell Camera/Outdoor camera (included free in new signups), if they won't offer it to me as I'm already a year over my 42 month contract that ended, I'll be cancelling. They were only willing to give me the Sky Control panel for $30 and the door bell cam for $260.

[ShermanEF9]

$49.99 is downright brutal for monitoring fees. vivint is making a killing on that alone.

[dj_rice]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Found this post before calling Vivint. My 42 month just expired.

Called them and they lowered to $34.95 on a 36 month contract. Gave me doorbell (which wife wanted)and upgrade to sky view panel for $160 (said it was $660 for both incl install and most he could give me was$500 off).

Not the best deal ... tried to get equipment free but guy wouldn't budge and I wasn't really looking to quit to begin with. Just wanted a better deal.

I realize the $160 will take me a yr worth of saving $15/month to pay off but oh well.

Just to bump this since I didn't get around to calling them till now. This is exactly what he offered. Said he can give me the Sky Control panel free, but the door bell camera, I'd have to pay $150 for. Said it was $600+ and that hes giving me $500 off as well. I didn't get any lower monthly payment thing though. I said put a note on my file about this offer and I'll call Alarmforce to compare pricing. He did say, $500 is the most his dept can offer, and that if I call back with a competing offer, they might be able to do better but that it would be another dept taking that call and they might have the power to do more discounts.

[Mitsu3000gt]

So what actually happens when the alarm goes off, and it isn't deactivated or they call you and you don't answer? Are police dispatched ASAP or is there a 10-30min window or whatever it is where it's pointless to even have the system and the sound of the alarm is the sole deterrent? My assumption has really been that police response times to home security systems are pretty much last priority, but I really don't know for sure.

[dj_rice]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

So what actually happens when the alarm goes off, and it isn't deactivated or they call you and you don't answer? Are police dispatched ASAP or is there a 10-30min window or whatever it is where it's pointless to even have the system and the sound of the alarm is the sole deterrent? My assumption has really been that police response times to home security systems are pretty much last priority, but I really don't know for sure.

In my case, I had armed my alarm, left for work, and when I was leaving my house, I guess I tapped my garage door open and set off my alarm. They had tried calling my cell, I didn't answer. Then they tried calling my emergency contact. She didnt answer. So they dispatch a guard from the local Paladin Security company to come to your house and take a look. They finally got a hold of me, and I headed back home, the guard was waiting there for me. $75 charge

[Mitsu3000gt]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

In my case, I had armed my alarm, left for work, and when I was leaving my house, I guess I tapped my garage door open and set off my alarm. They had tried calling my cell, I didn't answer. Then they tried calling my emergency contact. She didnt answer. So they dispatch a guard from the local Paladin Security company to come to your house and take a look. They finally got a hold of me, and I headed back home, the guard was waiting there for me. $75 charge

Ohh so they use companies like Paladin? Do any of them actually call the police or someone who will do something if there is a crime taking place? I feel like that's pretty useless, $75 for the equivalent of asking your neighbor to check on the place.

And what if your emergency contact answers? Do they wait for them to go check out your place long after it's already been cleaned out?

Is Alarm Force the one that actually calls the police for you or are they all the same?

A family member's house got robbed recently which is why I am so curious.

[SOAB]

back when i had Vivint, i was out with my wife having dinner and i received a call from them telling me my alarm was going off. i told them i wasn't home and hadn't been home in a few hours so they sent the police over to my house. i met the cops there and it turned out a windstorm and blown open a window that wasn't quite latched shut. cops cleared the house and i wasn't charged for it.

[Mitsu3000gt]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

back when i had Vivint, i was out with my wife having dinner and i received a call from them telling me my alarm was going off. i told them i wasn't home and hadn't been home in a few hours so they sent the police over to my house. i met the cops there and it turned out a windstorm and blown open a window that wasn't quite latched shut. cops cleared the house and i wasn't charged for it.

That is how I expected them to work. Real police, house clear & no-charge seems way better than $75 for a rent-a-cop to drive by.

[Kijho]

Anyone recently join? Monthly price? I'm interested but not sure how I feel about a 2 year contract.. Anyone know what happens if you wanna cancel before the 2 years?

[ShermanEF9]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Just spoke to a Vivint sales rep on the phone.

The way they are pricing the service is:

1) $49.99/month is the standard service/monitoring fee
2) plus an additional $X/month for the equipment on a 60 month term or pay the full equipment cost up front. my understanding is the equipment portion of the payment is separated from the service portion, so you are not locked in a term contract for the service portion.

They say it is 0% financing on the equipment, but didn't offer any incentive for paying the equipment cost in full up front.

Based on previous posts, there is not much talk about equipment costs; they are sort of significant on my quote. All I see are posts about monthly costs, longer contract terms and even some free equipment thrown in. The rep mentioned their business model changed earlier this year to what I explained above.

So, with that being said, what did you guys pay for your upfront equipment costs? Or how were these built into your monthly cost and contract terms? I am probably not going to get all the equipment on my quote as I just wanted to see the pricing, but here it is ("free install"):

Vivint SkyControl Starter Kit 1 $549.99

Vivint Motion Sensor 1 $0.00

Vivint Motion Sensor 1 $0.00

Vivint Smart Sensor 2 $0.00

Vivint Yard Sign 1 $0.00

Vivint Outdoor Camera 3 $899.97

Vivint Smart Drive 1 $249.99

Doorbell Camera 1 $229.99

Deadbolt Door Lock - Nickel 1 $159.99

Element Thermostat 1 $149.99

Smart Garage Controller 1 $99.99

Total 17 $2,339.91


Based on the previous posts in this thread, this doesn't seem like a great deal unless you guys are inadvertently leaving out info about your overall equipment costs, upfront or aggregate.
I also feel that there should be further negotiating room on the equipment costs, especially if paying up front. Like 20% off the cost, or a lower monthly service/monitoring fee.

Thoughts?

That kind of money could buy you an excellent intrusion and camera system, and probably find another company to monitor it for much cheaper.

[shadowz]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Anyone recently join? Monthly price? I'm interested but not sure how I feel about a 2 year contract.. Anyone know what happens if you wanna cancel before the 2 years?

With the contract you must pay each month owning if you want to cancel

[Kijho]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

With the contract you must pay each month owning if you want to cancel

Just signed up last night actually! So my monthly "monitoring" is $39/Mo. and the "equipment" is + $15/Mo. I got the Skyview Panel, door sensors on garage entrance door, front door, and balcony door, and then window sensors on the bottom level window, and then also a motion sensor for in the Garage, and the doorbell camera ofcourse. The Garage has a window so I am going to have to see how they set that up to avoid potential false alarms of someone driving past outside.

Total equipment buyout fee is $919. So I asked: what if I want to "cancel" today? The contract says you just pay the remaining balance owing on the equipment ($919), and that's it. It's cancelled.

I asked if it can be transferred/ sold to someone else? Answer was yes.

I asked what happens if tomorrow I pay the equipment remaining balance out of $919? They said I just pay the $39/Mo. monitoring fee after that. No term of contract on that. You have 60 months 0% to pay off the equipment which is the $15/Mo. portion. That number goes up/ down depending on your equipment. I checked pricing if I added an extra security camera in the Garage and it was then a total of $70/Mo. total.

I asked if I can add third party cameras into the software - Answer no.

I asked if someone breaks in what happens - They explained someone will come on the skyview panel to see if it's false alarm and then if not, dispatch Police.

I asked if there's a fire what happens - They explained again they'll check with your on the skyview panel, then send fire dept.

Ohh I got a leak/ water sensor too which I think added to my price just slightly. I wanted something near the aquarium if it ever had a major malfunction and overflowed/ broke/ etc.

Overall I compared against ADT on similar items and price and actually ADT on the phone said this would be about $50/Mo. But, I imagine that would end up being slightly higher once they do it and everything is setup - So really, it's very comparable.

Is the $919 a bit expensive for the type of equipment you get? Maybe so. You can setup your own sensors, cameras, and get a Ring doorbell etc. for cheaper than that. You can probably find equipment that can all integrate with google home or something similar on your phone. But not sure if it has 24/7 "security".

[bigbadboss101]

That make sense. You are not 'hooked' to the monitoring but you are paying for the costs of the equipment over X number of months. Once contract is over and you paid for the equipment you can cancel. Good chance they will lower the cost for you to keep you. At least that is with some other security company from friends I talked to.

[Kijho]

The only thing I'm thinking of maybe changing I'm not sure though is the Garage sensor. It's a motion sensor so I have to disarm the alarm from my phone before I open the Garage door when I get home. I asked if the app had any form of proximity sensor that could disarm when I approach - but it does not unfortunately. If I forget my phone or something though I would need to open Garage, park, run inside, upstairs, and disarm from the keypad, which doesn't sound fun haha..

Alternately, I could NOT monitor the Garage and then buy the deadbolt automatic lock which when unlocked, also disarms the system... But then I have zero sensors in the Garage at all. I'm not sure how else you can incorporate the Garage into the system except these two ways, unless you just want a camera in there but that doesn't do much in terms of alarm/ security.

[CLiVE]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

I asked if someone breaks in what happens - They explained someone will come on the skyview panel to see if it's false alarm and then if not, dispatch Police.

I'm a vivint customer and had a break-in recently (February). This is how it works in theory, but there was a lot of confusion as to whether or not it was a false alarm and they were very slow to dispatch.
I ended up activating panic mode from my smart phone from work and dispatched the police myself. I was not happy with Vivint customer service in the event of a break-in at all, and will likely change providers.

As for the Vivint hardware. I would strongly recommend against the standard Vivint locksets. Convenient - yes. Secure - no. A crowbar was used on my front door, and then it was kicked in in the middle of the afternoon. The light duty locks / deadbolts they provide did nothing to prevent entry. Pics attached. All the vivint hardware has since been removed and significantly upgraded.