I'm sharing my experience because it was extremely stressful and time-consuming, even though I was not the person who originally contracted with Smart Start. I purchased a used vehicle that still had a Smart Start ignition interlock device (IID) installed from a previous owner who had been in the MA RMV Interlock Program. I had no account with Smart Start and no contractual relationship with them. After buying the car, I worked directly with the MA Interlock Program, which issued written authorization for the device to be removed. Despite this, Smart Start refused to remove their equipment unless I paid over $2K in fees that belonged to the previous owner. I made it clear I was willing to pay the standard removal fee (around $345), but Smart Start did not respond to my request or legal action and continued to insist on payment of someone else's debt. Because of this, I was unable to register or legally use a car that I owned, even though the RMV had already approved removal. I even contacted the MA Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division, who advised that the situation would likely need to be resolved through small claims court due to potential violations of consumer protection laws. What made this even more frustrating is that the IID had already been marked as lost/stolen in Smart Start's system, yet they still refused to recover their own equipment -- even when I offered to pay the standard removal fee. I hope Smart Start improves how they handle situations like this, because no one should be put in this position over an account they never opened. read more

Court issued a removal i went with document then told i would receive a notice from corporate that i could COME BACK for remove in 3-5 days he FAILED TO TELL ME AT THAT VISIT that i had to enter document into system while there went today and did enter after a staff with brains fixed issue two wasted trips half the staff as useful as chimps read more

Very nice attendants and techs. Got me in early and out before I expected. I recommend the location highly. read more

Justin was awesome! Very young but a patient soul! Look for him. He is very kind!:) read more

Smart Start - BOO :) - Automotive Near Me - Irving, Texas

Smart Start Inc. is the biggest rip off ever and scam! They will take your money in a second and make you wait for months for their own f*ups. They design the whole entire thing to make you fail even when you shouldn't just to prolong you as a paying customer. Still waiting on over $300 in credits because they have complete non speaking english customer support. Go ahead and WAIT 2 hours on hold just to be transferred to another complete idiot then get transferred again. When it's finally time of that crap and get removed,, the "system" will get dates and times wrong for service for you to violate. DO NOT DO THIS ONE!! ,, of course unless you want to pay way over and have your time extended by years because of their incompetence and need you as a client business scam. Just remember, they lose money when you succeed, so they appear to design it around everything to make you fail and be a lifelong customer. GOOD LUCK!!! read more

This is a scam!! The hours posted are usually wrong , they are lazy and don't open 2 lane's when they are busy and make you wait all day!! Techs are just walking around outside working on their own vehicles and not helping customers!! The wait time is horrible!! read more

I'd give zero stars if I can. Extremely long wait times, multiple workers just standing around doing nothing while they stand and talk with each other - I can only guess about how badly they're purposely screwing with people's time, days and gas money as you sit in a line that goes thru 2 parking lots and onto the street. read more

Great customer service, all the guys are very friendly who work there and make things go smooth and fast at monthly calibrations for the interlock. I have had my interlock for 6 months now and have not had one issue! Not a bad price to pay compared to competitors! Would recommend to anyone. read more

Great customer service as far as ignition-interlock service goes. There are numerous private operators of these government required interlock services, and this is the best one I have used thus far, I have only used two, and between Draeger Interlock and Smart Start I choose Smart Start. They have remote unlocking capability and pretty damn sturdy head units, I have put mine through hell. The service technicians are what really set this place aside too. They are always fast, knowledgable and very willing to go a little further. Thanks Smart Start. read more

DO NOT use Smart Start if there are any alternatives possible. I have used Drager and Smart Start and only Smart Start stole $700 from me. My car was totaled in an accident and they had to send a technician to the dealer to remove the Smart Start device. I paid them $200 to do this and when I went back one month later with my new car they said "unfortunately we could not recover the head of the device and you owe us $700." It was documented by both Farmer's Insurance and the Honda dealership that the device was in the vehicle when Smart Start was sent to remove it. Not only did they not work with me at all, they were very rude and insulting about the issue. Even threatened me with "Legal troubles" if I didn't pay up. Avoid if possible!!! read more

this place is awful they treat you terribly just bc your a convict i feel bad for everyone having to interact with this messed up company. i also have a new car and they messed it up when removing the device. this place sucks and they treat you awful read more

Absolutely awful. I've been left stranded due to false positives many times, can't get help from the service # and no one will take ownership for their crappy product. AVOID THIS COMPANY. read more

One of the most unprofessional companies I've ever dealt with. BY CHOICE I installed their system in one of my cars for safety, yet every time something would go wrong there would be a "fee" to clear out some code which ended up racking up a few hundred dollars in a few months. The thing was always failing tests which of course locks up the car for lengths of time. The phone customer service is a JOKE. Called once to the 800-number and some kid (Andrew) sounded like he was straight from the hood, and even hung up on me...when I called back I got him again and he told me "I was done with our conversation." There are too many competitors out there for them to treat customers this way. read more

Stacey - you and I must have spoken to the same dimwit each time. I missed an appointment yesterday because my service center where I usually calibrate was closed for the holiday. Problem is, the holiday was the 3rd and when I stopped by on Monday I had no reason to expect they wouldn't be open (and there was no information on their answering macine to that effect) ! I was in the 48 hour grace period, again because of the holiday and money it costs to get to the service center when not on a work-to-home loop, so I immediately called the 800 number to get a code. The guy was impossible - condescending, unfriendly, and not very helpful other than to say I had 6 hours to find a center otherwise I'd have to have the car towed (which will cost $300). They also wouldn't give me information on other calibration centers that were open and since it was 5:30 PM by that time (and I finally made a couple of calls) they were closed for the evening. So I'm home waiting for 9 AM opening of my service center. This CS rep is the same one, BTW, who has given bad information previously and I'm hoping this is the case today. So I've done some online research and hope that now that I'm locked out that the service center will be able to unlock it remotely. And I'm losing time from work over this so I'm pretty PO'd. Yeah, the Smart Start people should really not refer to themselves as smart. read more

I live in Austin TX. I am still waiting to go to court but as a condition of my bond I have to have an IID installed on my vehicle. I had a Dreager Saftey IID installed on my truck for over a year without a single problem. I had one violation in the morning due to mouthwash. I usually give it 20-30 minutes before starting and I'm fine but I was running late one day and violated. I now require a camera enabled unit. Guess what? Smart Start is the only vendor in the nation that carries such a device. Tell me theree isn't some financial and political backscratching going on here. Anyhow, I had my unit installed on Aug 7. I left that evening to the coast with my family for a little weekend beach fun. The next morning after I got everybody loaded into the car, the device quit working. No lights, nothing. Within 24hrs of having the unit installed it failed. Their customer service representative, Miguel, advised me I would have to have the vehicle towed (at my expense) to the nearest service center, which was 45miles away. (Corpus Christi) I called the service center and they were able to talk me through bypassing the system to avoid having to pay a $250 tow fee. The tech, (Luis) advised me to come in to have them look at it. When I arrived about an hour later I found that he had gone to a car show and would not be back until Monday. Another gentleman at the shop (I neglected to get his name) was able to put in a jumper wire to keep the vehicle operating normally until I could bring the unit back in for service in the Austin shop. When I took the unit back in to be repaired I had to wait for almost 5 hrs because the installer had to put in several units until he found one that "worked". Within 48hrs the camera mount had fallen down onto my dash. Thus forcing me to hold the camera while taking a breath test. This means I have to pull over every time I have to take a test. Ordinarily this would not be a problem but in my case it is. This is because the device is asking for a breath test every 2-3 minutes. I have to pull over 2-3 times going to and from work because the device is asking for so many samples. I live 7 miles from my job and it takes me at least 30 minutes each way now. This afternoon I got in my vehicle and the unit was displaying the error message "Recall Cam Post" and would not let me start the vehicle. I called the technical support line and was put through to the "on-call service technician". He advised me to reset the unit by disconnecting the negative terminal of the battery for 30 seconds. I tried that but still got the same error. I called back to see if he could come out but he was not located in TX. There is no on-call service techian. He told me that I would have to wait until 9:30am on Monday before I could contact my local service center. This is extremely poor service coming from "the nation's premier provider of ignition interlock services and technology." The unit I had installed from Draeger Saftey never once had a single issue in over a year of service. I've had Smart Start for less than 3 weeks and this is the third time I'm having to have service on my vehicle. This is not only a hinderance on my personal travel schedule but I have to take time off of work to have this service performed. The unit has also given me 3 false violations when there is no presence of alcohol ANYWHERE in the car..and no I wasn't drinking the night before. Their equipment is just junk. I advise people to go with ANYONE but Smart Start. read more

Primatene mist is 34% alcohol and yet I was told to my face and in an email message by two separate Smart Start installers that inhalers will not cause a problem when using the Smart Start Ignition Interlock. Are they just liars or what you would call them good businessmen. The fact that Smart Start Inc. will not respond via written media tells something also. I called the installer (K-Bar) two days before I had to go in for the calibration to make sure I could bring it in the morning of 3/31 (today). I went out to start my truck this morning and the unit would not respond beyond "Initializing", after that nothing. I turned the key off and back on three times - same thing. I blew into it "Abort neg" and nothing else; btw what does THAT mean? Abort neg isn't listed on any paperwork I've got. I disconnected it and reconnected it twice, nothing. I changed mouthpieces, nothing. I called the installer who told me they had been trying to call me to tell me that the "girl" was leaving at 10 and had wanted to change my time - how nice considering I had called them to make sure it was going to work. They didn't know what to do with this "new" (improved?) model and would call me back. Called back and told me to try to start the truck and it finally started working. This equipment is obviously defective and if it is no more reliable in every other way is it really reliable as far as detecting alcohol? I doubt it. I haven't been convicted of anything so you can shove any idea that I somehow deserve to endure this. I am guilty of being impaired by Multiple Sclerosis but this unit won't detect that either. Smart Start needs to make a device that actually functions or take it off the market. At least tell the truth and actually give the customer service they so proudly advertise (falsely). read more

I have had a nightmare experience with smart start interlock in arizona,causing me big problems with the Arizona Motor Vehicles Dept.,(not alcohol related,mechanical failure of machine and inaccurate record keeping by both Smartstart and Az.MVD).Have read 100s of stories just like mine on line.Need anyone interested in joining me in legally correcting their situation,to contact me. thanks read more

Worst customer service ever! They answer right away when i needed an install (new customer), now whenever i have any issues with the device (which seems to happen alot) any attempt to get a live person on the line seem almost useless. Left numerous messages about issues but noone is responding back, their credit department line is a joke. Trying to get my reimbursment back is impossible, still waiting over 2 month now. Automated system on a loop that leads nowhere. I spent 20 min on the phone pressing buttons and kept getting back to the begining. DO NOT USE! There are other options out there! read more

Great customer service? Only if everything works the way it should. Unfortunately that has not been my experience. Last week my Smart Start interlock started having problems, and as a result I wasn't able to start my car. When I called Smart Start I spoke to a technician who was rude at best. I calmly tried to explain what was happening but was rudely interrupted numerous times and basically treated like a child. I was told that I have a bad head unit and needed to go to the nearest "authorized" service center and swap out the unit. When I told them that I had no transportation to do this they basically said that "that's your problem" and if I needed to tow my car it would be at my expense and that they might be able to reimburse me by crediting my account. So anyway, I eventually went down and swapped out the unit. This was last Thursday. The "new" unit worked fine when leaving the "authorized" service center. The next day I left for Palm Springs (from Los Angeles) for a mini vacation. On sunday when I attempted to return I once AGAIN had an issue with the unti. I called this SO-CALLED 24 hour emergency service line and it was nothing but a call that's forwarded to some guy who is at home and "on call." We went thru some troubleshooting steps where he confirmed that the unit was bad. Wow..AGAIN?! So here I am 130 miles from home in 100 degree weather and I can't start my car. I asked the "tech" where the nearest "authorized" service center was and he proceeded to tell me that he didn't have that information and that I would need to contact Smart Start headquarters during "business" hours which would be the NEXT DAY!!! I start to tell him that I am basically stranded and he cut me off ever so rudely and said "I have told you what you need to do (swap out the head unit) and as far as I am concerned this convo is over." He then hung up on me. So I had to tow my car 130 miles from Palm springs to los angeles (out of my own pocket) and now today I have to find a way to get to the nearest "authorized" center to swap out the unit. I work a full time job so this is not as easy as it sounds. Bottom line? DO NOT USE SMART START!!! I have heard of other companies such as Advantage and they have a way for you to start your car if the interlock is defective so that you can drive it to a servoce center and get it fixed. Smart Start is the worst company I have dealt with so I am telling all of my friends and leaving reviews wherever I can. read more

I chose Smart Start because they were referred to me by a friend and I was told they had good service. In general I have had decent service when I have brought my vehicle in to have my interlock services. However, on Monday around 2pm I visited this smart start and waited over 15 minutes for service. The technician on duty was TOO BUSY TALKING ON HIS CELL PHONE to service the three cars waiting for him. One driver honked his horn and they guy actually yelled at him to "WAIT UNTIL HE WAS FINISHED!" Are you kidding me? There are many other interlock companies out there to choose from, and had I not already committed to Smart Start I would have the system removed and would go elsewhere. As it stands, I'll NEVER return to this location. Management needs to take notice.... just because we have to be there doesn't mean we HAVE TO USE YOU! I can spend $80 anywhere I want to! Keep me waiting unnecessarily again and I will remove your system and go to your competition! read more