BUYER BEWARE! WE HAVE HAD OVER $50,000 OF DAMAGE BECAUSE OF URBAN ALARM'S INSTALLATION ERRORS! We paid Urban Alarm over $15,000 to install a new system in our new house. We have had HUGE issues with the work. First, the sales rep and owner, Miles, touted the ability of the system he was proposing as being able to be iPhone and iPad controlled. The system was installed and paid for, and when he came to install the app on our devices, the passcode function (where you put a code in before you can access your alarm system) was non functional. The system could be i-controlled, but the app was totally not secure! Miles acknowledged that this was a huge problem, uninstalled the apps from our devices, and said he was meeting with the developers and would make sure they address and fix it. He would then reinstall it when they fixed the problem. Fast forward 3 years of having no ability to set/disarm, etc. the alarm by iPhone or iPad as promised -- and after a panel upgrade, we were finally promised the upgraded app (with the security added) would work. It did not. Urban Alarm finally told us that we will need to pay to UPGRADE OUR ENTIRE PANEL in order to get iPhone and iPad functionality! We did not feel that we should have to pay for something that we had been told we would be getting with our $16,000 system, which caused a huge back and forth. A second problem arose when our insurance company did a premium assessment on our house, and our life safety and other monitoring device credits were being discussed. They asked for the receipt for, and photos of, all of our water sensors (that sense water in case of a leak). After we submitted that, they informed us that the devices on the invoice (which were listed as being over $100 apiece) were in fact not the ones used. What we had were $15 sensors that could be bought at Sears. We were assured that the devices we got were as good as the ones spec'd, but asked that they be tested to be sure they worked. We discovered that most of them HAD NEVER BEEN HOOKED UP TO THE PANEL. In fact, numerous devices were found to not have been connected to the panel! If they sensed a problem, they would not alert ANYONE! Another problem we had early on was a false alarm from a device that was installed in a semi-outdoor area. Not only was the wrong device installed (we were told that the device is sensitive to dust -- and should not have been installed in a pool mechanical room), BUT THE WIRES FROM THAT AND ANOTHER DEVICE WERE CROSSED! The fire company thought it was responding to a carbon monoxide alarm, so came through the entire house in a huge rainstorm, muddying all new carpeting -- when it was really a heat sensor that was local to the (outdoor) pool mechanical room (that got dusty and so went off), and was mis-wired and mis-labelled in the panel as a carbon monoxide sensor. Yet another issue was discovered when our air conditioning unit filters were being changed. The HVAC contractor brought me a photograph of what had been done to the custom overflow pan that was there to prevent water damage in case the heat pump in a crawl space malfunctioned and leaked. Urban Alarm's installers had DRILLED HOLES INTO THE SHEET METAL CATCH PAN in order to install a water sensor! They ruined the pan; if water were to leak, which is what the pan is there for, it would now leak through the drilled holes and soak ceiling, walls, floors. Their techs came out to look, and agreed that they had made a mistake, and assured us they would pay to replace the pan. Not surprisingly, they went back on this -- saying that plastic pans at Loew's are about $40 - $70 (this was a custom one-piece sheet metal pan made for the equipment it is sitting under) -- and they refused to pay for the labor to replace the pan. Did they expect me to remove and replace the equipment to get the new pan in? Last but certainly not least, they installed a water sensor in our mechanical room clear across the room from the big water bearing equipment (boiler and hot water tank). When one of the pipes leading to the boiler had an issue last March when we were away, the water went out the mechanical room door, down the hall, and into all the surrounding spaces, under tile, under new wood floors, ruining walls, baseboards, moulding, etc. -- and the water sensor never sensed it because of where they put it, clear across the room (and beyond a floor drain). We had $50,000 worth of water damage. We asked UA to reimburse our deductible and non-covered expenses. Their response: we did not CAUSE the leak. I agreed that they did not cause the leak; but added that they typically don't cause the fire that their equipment is there to sense, either, and if they negligently failed to hook up the fire alarms in a house and that house burned down, killing the family of 4 and their dog, I doubt anyone would agree that they did not bear any fault. read more
