I own a real estate storefront in the West Village.
I was having trouble with other brokers approaching potential customers looking at my window and trying to steal my leads.
In one of these incidents , I confronted the scumbag that was trying to steal, and it almost got violent. The other broker put up his fists to fight me, but I was able to defuse the situation and was able to protect myself legally.
I stopped by the spy store to get cameras and microphones to have proof just in case these idiots were making a problem. I knew my staff and I could buy the equipment at Home Depot or on Amazon and install it our selves, but we were busy with our regular work. I thought that if I hired a professional, I would save time and avoid any learning curve mistakes. I also wanted to support other small businesses.
So, I went to the Spy Store and payed them $1250 to install one camera, a DVR and a microphone. They promised me it would be no problem for me to watch the videos from my laptop. They then asked for the complete payment upfront.
The first guy they sent was terrible. He drilled holes into my storefront but did not clean up the sawdust after he was finished. He stared at women walking by the store in a very awkward manner. He would stand at the front door and smoke cigarettes and the secondhand smoke will come inside my office. Despite his hour and a half long installation, the video feed still would not work.
So, they sent someone else, and this person took multiple computers in my office without asking my permission and downloaded applications and other things. The told me that everything was finished, but it wasn't.
I was still unable to access the video remotely. There are still numerous problems with the security video, which after more phone calls they came back to fix. The biggest problem is that the fast-forward function did not work and it it took well over 40 seconds to watch 60 seconds of footage in fast forward mode.
When I called to complain about this, they said that was the best anyone could offer. When i mention that the fast forwarding could be quicker, in a similar manner to fast forwarding with YouTube and Netflix, instead of making things better, they responded rudely and unprofessionally by telling me in a sarcastic tone, that I should call Netflix and ask them how to do it . Then, after many phone calls, the Spy store said that I needed a cord to go from my DVR box to my computer. They told me that they don't have this cord and they refuse to finish the job.
They also said it was OK to set up a microphone and listen to people on the street as long as you put up a small sign that says that you are audio recording them. My lawyers said that this is not true and that anyone who gets audio recorded can sue me for violating their privacy on the street. They gave me wrong legal information that could have potentially caused me or my business to get sued.
I tried to save myself some time by hiring professionals and I chose the wrong company. When I told them I was going to write an honest bad review on yelp, they threatened to make up fake profiles and wright bad reviews about me to ruin my business. So, as it stands, I completely regret setting foot in THE SPY STORE. My personal experience could not have been any worse. read more