Ackerman Security Systems

I also signed up with Brent Sewell. He signed me up for 19.95 and I told him I wanted the POTS phone service. He then said he would give me some «months of credit on the back end»? Not sure what that meant but I had to pay $ 50 for the cell service and then a higher monthly fee. Come on man… just give it to me straight no bullshit

Bad customer service.
Ackerman sent out a salesman on May 28^th. He looked at my current system and stated we needed to add a cell receiver and a indoor camera. We scheduled the install on Tuesday the 31^st. The installer showed up without the camera that was agreed to in the contract. Frustrating but not the end of the world. He continued downstairs to look at the security system box and within 30 seconds he determined that I needed a different type of box that either would be free if I signed a 3 year contract or $ 299 if I only wanted a 1 year contract.
I told him no thanks to either option and they could refund my money. He called later that night and stated his manager approved the new box for free. The installer and I set up a date (June 10^th 12−3pm) to come back, with the camera this time, to install everything. I took a day off work again and planned my day around the installers time period. Needless to say he never showed up. I had his cell number and attempted to get a hold of him. He never contacted me.
Fed up, I called the main line and explained the issue to the poor lady who answers the phone but has no power to do anything. After being placed on hold for a few minutes, a manager (Malcom) came on the phone and I reexplained the entire story to him. He told me this was a regional issue and placed me on hold while he contacted the regional dispatcher. I explained my situation… again and she tried to schedule my service again. I asked her why I should use Ackerman Security to protect my home when they can’t even get a system installed in a timely manner and show up when they are supposed to. She placed me on hold awhile and said she was transferring me to her manager. After being on hold AGAIN I got the managers voicemail. I asked the person to call me back today however I apparently am not important enough to do so.
Go with ADT!

The «no contract» is suppose to be month to month… It is not!!! on the phone with them and they said it is a «YEAR» and that the month to month is only with your payments??? At any rate the customer service could not answer questions of course non of the supervisors/​managers were available… They have to call you back… Yeah right I’m still waiting on the call! Go with a more reliable company because this is not I! The salesman lied about the no contract and the coverage… Been having a low battery that needs to be replaced but no one has contacted or came out… This is a horrible «security» company!

As one reviewer said, you get what you pay for. The service was just okay. Not exceptional. It was difficult to get information from the website and calling them was a hassle. But they do provide basic monitoring at a low cost. The problem I have is when the contract ends — you have to submit a written notice within 60 days of the end of the contract. That’s fine. But you have to know when your contract ends! Set your own reminder! They will not contact you or send a notice. Instead they will automatically renew your service for another year. That’s right. Another year. Even though they tell you it’s month to month, it’s not. It’s a year. They are currently charging me for a year of service they are not providing. I choose not to do business with such companies.

I signed up with Ackerman over a year ago, and it has been good so far. The equipment is great, and my sales rep, Brent Sewell, was very knowledgeable about security. I have recommended several of my friends to Ackerman, and they were pleased as well.

I decided to switch from ADT which I had used for over 18 years. They never added anything to my system, except increases to my bill. My rate went up over $ 10 dollars a month above inflation, but my salary went down. When I called ADT, they said they’d update my system, but would continue to change me over $ 46 per month. Decided to go with Ackerman on the advice of a friend. The salesman was nice and the installer (Rob) was terrific. We decided after he arrived that it was not necessary for me to upgrade my system, nor use cell service vs. landline. He checked all my sensors, and transferred the system in just about an hour. Hopefully the bad reviews on Unilocal won’t apply to me. Here’s keeping my fingers crossed.

Ackerman is a pure SCAM. Please stay away from them.
They sent a salesman who came in a shiny convertible car and made all kinds of fake promises. We signed the contract for 3 years. After 3 years when we wanted to cancel, they told us our contract was for INFINITE YEARS… we cannot ever cancel it, it ALWAYS get renewed!!!
I am shocked!!! This is pure scam. They threatened to destroy my credit history by sending a large bill to collection…
Please stay away. Ackerman is a pure SCAM.
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These are my anonymous opinions.

We chose Ackerman security due to the low cost they charge for alarm monitoring. As the adage goes you get what you pay for and we would not recommend this company and will be looking for another alarm company. Recently during a wind storm one of our Ackerman signs was damaged and had to be replaced. It took over a month for Ackerman to replace the sign. My wife scheduled an appointment with Ackerman for Saturday, May 2^nd, at 8 am. She arranged her schedule to attend this appointment and I stayed awake after working a 12 hour overnight to meet the Ackerman representative at 8 am. No one for Ackerman ever showed up on Saturday or had the decency to call to reschedule the appointment. If you are looking for a company where customer service is a priority then do not chose Ackerman Security for your alarm monitoring.

Very bad customer service. I contacted them several times with no result.

My installation went smoothly, and the monitoring seemed ok. When I moved and needed to cancel their service I learned the incompetence, or crooked ways, of this company.
I called to cancel. A manager told me that the cancellation was processed and a refund for the future billing would be sent.
A month later I learned that the cancellation was not processed and I needed to make a written request.
A month later I learned that they sent the form — - to the wrong address. Someone e-​mailed me the form and I immediately returned it. I was told I’d get a refund in the mail.
A month later, no refund was ever sent. I had to contact them again.
A check was received for HALF of the amount owed.
I had to call them again. They agreed another error was made on their part.
A check was sent for the other HALF— to the wrong address.
Seriously? If you don’t hunt them down for the money they owe you it will never be seen.— Crooked practices.

THEY SUCK THEY SUCK THEY SUCK — need I say more?
I moved August of the previous year and have been trying to close the account and stop the charges working with customer DIS service. Have been unable to and finally closed the VISA account and have the credit card company trying to recover some of the money I could not.

We were being charged for the monitoring system but every time our alarm went off nobody called. When I would call to complain they would always send a technician and charge us more for hardware. I wonder if I made a mistake switching from ADT to Ackerman. So far they our monitoring my checking account and not my alarm.

I have had Ackerman for several years and will concede that the installation was not totally smooth, the service and monitoring has been good. I have a mountain home with the system and it works as well as the other big named system I have in town. And is really much cheaper for the same monitoring service.

I’ve had them since Apr 2012 and had no problems. The alarm has gone off accidentally 3 – 4 times and we do get a call right away about it. They installed a new central controller and used the existing sensors, no problems. I use wireless monitoring and internet control – no problems there. I’ve never had a serious malfunction that required a service call, but am otherwise happy. (at least as happy as I have been with ADT previously)

Where do we start? Service absolutely sucks!!! Customer rep (Kyle 181) is aggressive and continually spoke over me and cut me off.
My equipment does not work properly! The contract well that’s it own animal.
I will start with the 2 year contract that has magically become a three year contract. How does that happen. Service calls for things they did not properly install cost $ 90. This has to be the worst service ever.
I honestly wish I would have searched through the reviews first, had done that I would not be writing this review.
Please I BEG YOU DO NOT USE THIS SERVICE AGAIN DO NOT USE ACKERMAN THEY ARE INEPT AT BEST.
I could continue with this horror story however I stop and say read the rest of the reviews. If you get this service after reading any of these reviews you are getting what you deserve.

Prepare to be swindled! Were going to use this company for our church security system — were told a certain figure and promised to be worked with. When the finally offer came, the total was DOUBLE expected price and offered as an all-​or-​nothing, take it or leave it deal with no modifications allowed. We are now fighting to get our security deposit back — great company if you like getting lied to. Just lost a big customer.

Don’t fall for their sales pitch. Their customer service is beyond horrible. We have had them for 2 months and the system still doesn’t work right. The supervisor of one technician that came out had to fix the poor quality work that was done. Stay far away. There is a reason it is cheap. THEY SUCK.

Had a security system installed at the end of July by Ackerman. Initial cost to me was almost $ 900. Ended up getting the new Honeywell Lynx 5100 system (they charged $ 500 for the main system which online sells for $ 299. The commercials for them tout their low monitoring fee (starting at $ 18.95 a month) this is if you still want to live in the stone age (of alarms). Don’t have a phone line close by or a home phone service? That is ok you need to buy an additional GSM Cellular Communicator for $ 280+ then you need to pay an additional $ 6 per month. Want to control your alarm from your wireless device? Boom, another $ 8 per month for their Total Connect Package.
Their up-​charge on the products they sell are insane too. They wanted to charge me $ 80 for an extra keyfob and then $ 90 for a trip charge to program it. Bought one online for $ 32 and installed it myself in 5 minutes. Want a smoke detector or carbon monoxide detector? $ 60-​$ 80 online, they wanted $ 180+ installation. Want a secondary keypad for another room? $ 115 online, they want $ 270 + installation.
While the system it self is really nice, I’m not sure how the company will pan out in the long run, the rep tricked my wife into signing a 3 year contract, but I had that changed to 2 years prior to getting the system installed.
Ackerman Security is relatively new to the DC Metro area, but so far they have not shown me any reason why I should have chosen them over ADT or another security company.

I’ve had these guys since last November. I really don’t have any complaints about the service. They did call me the two times that I accidentally set off the alarm, so I know they are montioring things on their end.
The pricing is a bit different than other security systems. You have to buy the equipment upfront, but the trade-​off is that the monthly monitoring fee is lower. I also think its pretty cool that I can add the smoke detector for another $ 200, but my monitoring fee will stay the same. I’ll probably do that at some point.
I deducted a star because of the salesman. What he signed me up for was not what I got. I got much, much less than was explained to me. He also (in hindsight) wasn’t as knowledgeable about the different products as he seemed to be. I would have chosen other products that were more suitable for my situation if I had been given correct information (added another motion sensor, for example).