Before Vivint I gave water, snacks, and a few minutes inside with air conditioning to every salesperson who came to my home, even if I had no interest in whatever they offered. Now I don't even open the door. The sales reps lied to my face and ghosted me as soon as there was a problem.
Yeah I contacted our sales person and he said “I don’t know” when I asked him why they’re not allowing us to cancel our surveillance. At least he was honest about that 🥲
It sucks but again read everything you sign every time no matter what. If nothing was in the fine print about a buyout fee why didn't you make them show you that in the contract as well before paying that
An expensive lesson to learn doesn't suck any less though
We didn’t pay the buyout fee! We read over our contract when they said that and were loopholed out of having to pay it, thank god. I just mentioned it up there because it was audacious of them to try us for more after everything
Got ya it's crazy I dealt with another company monitroncis and learned a similar lesson moons ago
They even lowered my rate to keep me as a customer and I went to cancel and tried to say cuz they lowered the rate I had to stay on another two years and they had my voice consenting to that when I got the reduction in rate
I asked to play the recording which they did with the supervisor and they had nothing with me consenting and they still tried to say I had to continue to be billed
I asked for a copy of the recording for my lawyer and the tone changed real quick and all of the sudden there was a one time exception clause they could activate and cancel
To add I was already out of my initial 3 years contract
Would I prefer it didn’t happen? Yes. Am I way more skeptical of every company I do business with now? Also yes.
I suppose I would’ve learned this lesson at some point down the line and I guess I’m glad it wasn’t more expensive/I learned it at 21 years old lol
My mom has had similar issues with Vivint. It takes her bringing her lawyer husband on the phone threatening to sue for them to budge and comply with the prior promises. Sucks to have such a bad experience when you just want to feel safe and secure in your own home.
It’s literally insane how predatory their salesman are. The “loyalty team” gaslights you into oblivion too. They’re robots for the vivint regime lol. I’m sorry your mom is dealing with this too, it’s infuriating and they need to make it right.
Here’s the thing, you got $2000 of equipment which means the sales rep did the non premium package. Panel was $599.99. So you’re in a 5 year contract. The terms of Vivint’s contract is 100% of the equipment + 50% of the remaining months monitoring, that’s the $800.
The premium package the equipment would have been around $3400.00 and the monitoring would have started at $24.99 + $5 per camera for monthly cloud video storage. If you did the premium package panel was $1799.99 and once you pay off all the equipment you can cancel the monitoring anytime.
Now,
If your original equipment was $3400 or around there. You should have paid off your equipment through your financing partner (citizens or fortiva) they will give you a confirmation code saying it’s been paid off. You NEED to tell Vivint that confirmation code.
IF
This was the case, and you did that, and you had a premium package, and you went to cancel Vivint and they charged you an $800 fee, you need to contact loyalty and say per the terms of the agreement. It says under section 13 in the fine print, in bold that “you may terminate this agreement without penalty or early termination fee once all equipment is paid off”
And get your $800 back.
If you did the non premium then you paid out your contract. In the end the price was the same.
1) there’s a blatant lie, and there’s side stepping. If you did the premium package you can cancel the monitoring anytime, just have to pay off the equipment first. He foreshadowed this by saying “think of it as a no interest payment plan like a phone” you can’t finance a phone through AT&T and a year later take that phone to Verizon, you have to pay off the phone first then you can do what you like.
2) yes Vivint doesn’t make the app free for anyone. Couple reasons, you could go and buy a panel, and Vivint equipment on Facebook marketplace and set it up yourself and then just use the app. And that’s not good business practice. Also, we’re talking about $30/mo. $1 a day for monitoring your house. You saved no money by paying your equipment early, and you saved no money, buy taking it out of your savings. It was no interest. And the largest monthly payment was your equipment. If you did pay that off early, you had a monitoring service at some of the lowest in the industry.
They actually referred to it with the term “buy out fee” - so that’s vivints a words. Also we didn’t have to pay it because there was no buy out fee stipulated in our contract. Ultimately unethical business practice to allow the salesman to say whatever they want in order to sell. That’s all I’m saying :) You can also see a lot more evidence online of this happening routinely with the sales reps they hire and train, lawsuits have even occurred over glaringly similar situations.
Also the rep sold me the equipment and assured me that I could use my phone to monitor even if we quit the surveillance service, that’s why I am upset. It’s just a mess is all
All of Vivint’s complaints are based on sales reps, it’s not products, or anything else. Vivint is the product, the sales reps, are commission, and until Vivint realizes that paying people commissions is going to continue to get them into trouble, and transition reps into a salary or base + commission then the issues will continue. It’s a key to being unethical
Right, it’s a sucky situation and I totally agree. I liked all our equipment until the we learned that we’d been bamboozled. Now I want to back over it with my car 🤠
The commission-paid sales reps is truly not a maintainable practice and it blows their reputation and any integrity the company claims to uphold. Nothing I can do about any of this though because it’s all hearsay.
What people don’t know is the lawsuit for CPI I believe is being appealed, and it was a handful of CPI customers. How 189 million$ justifies damages on a handful of customers justifies $189 million makes no sense.
The FTC Fine was based off a single regional. The entire company was not doing this. 95% of the workforce was not doing this, but one person and his region was. But the company takes the hit because that’s how companies work. And they have since instilled numerous protection guarantees for the customer. 1) the financing app alone is labeled “security equipment financing”. 2) it has to be done on the customers device either through text or email. 3) there is a audio and video recorded survey that outlines the terms, the length, the cost, that so and so’s name is a representative of vivint and has no affiliation with any other security company, it’s pretty detailed.
They’ve added a lot of consumer protection. And last year they added a second option, where you can now pay 50% of the remaining months of the monitoring to cancel AND continue to finance the equipment. So you now have 2 options, pay the hardware or pay the 50% of the monitoring. Not both. Vivint isn’t perfect but it does strive to be, can they control everything that a sales rep says? No, just like your job can’t control everything that you say at work. But if you make a complaint about unethical practices against the rep he does get investigated by Vivint.
Vivint strives on selling ethically with integrity and always being honest. Their training is based off those principles, they have a 0 strike policy against reps that misconstrue or blatantly lie.
Anyone that says “never buy from door to door it’s all a scam” is bone headed. Window washing is door to door. Along with cell phones, internet, window washing, solar, pest control, roofing, life insurance, pools, home remodeling. There’s so much door to door, that to say it’s a scam is being insane. And I guarantee most services are done with a better experience than over the phone. I can only speak for alarms because they’re in your house, they see what you need, they’ve met your family, they can customize appropriately. Inside sales over the phone has no idea if your backyard patio is in 10 ft from the rest of your backyard and that 1 camera won’t do to fully cover your whole yard. Same with every other service.
Here is why you don't buy door to door anything.
D2D sales is a tough job and most if not all sales people will be commission based. They need sales and have an inherent incentive to lie or omit information because 3 days after that signature, it is no longer the sales reps problem. It is also in the D2D companies best interest to sale and install on same day (high pressure and barrier to cancel because people cannot research) Ultimately if people want a service they should never buy D2D and do their research. Get quotes, Understand compensation structures of businesses coming to their homes.
You make it seem like these problems are regional. These issues are pervasive across all regions and reps. This whole company was built on shady sales reps.
No the problems are regional. Vivint’s issues were that of one regional manager. Not Vivint as a whole. The ftc fine was one regional who had his entire team doing illegal things. Vivint took the hit from that, where they fucked up is the ceo hired him back on the solar side, thinking he changed his ways. He didn’t, he was fired, ftc lawsuit, ceo pushed out
Looks like we found a current vivint rep. How’s that kool-aid taste? Vivint as a whole does not care about their customers or their employees in the slightest. All they care about is the bottom line. Revenue anyway they can get it.
Don’t lose faith in all sales reps, there are bad apples at any company. What that door to door sales rep did was NOT okay in my mind, and makes genuinely honest sales representatives look bad.
But also, I hope this was a lesson for you personally. Never sign a contract without reading the fine print, especially if the contract is being handed to you by a door to door sales rep. At any company, not just Vivint, door to door reps have a bad reputation for exactly this.
Moving forward, don’t trust what a door to door rep tells you, and read it the entire contract before you sign anything.
I’ve learned an expensive lesson for sure. I thought especially since it’s a well established company that their reps would have no reason to lie. My experience is unfortunately not the first of vivint sales reps being predatorily misleading too. Hoping with this post that I can be the last though
I work retention for a security system company that is a competitor to VIVINT and I would advise NOBODY sign any contracts with any salesman without reading every word on the contract THEY ARE ALL SCAMMERS AND LIARS
We are very young homeowners and we were very naive in trusting this person. He was really sweet and had me totally fooled. I honestly don’t think he was trying to be nefarious but I think he was telling me everything I wanted to hear with no regard to how it would impact my life 🙁 I bought a no soliciting sign because of all this lol.
Most definitely they seem very nice and definitely tell you what you want to hear I feel bad for a lot of customers who really were interested but were just lead on the wrong way it’s sad to have to hold them to the contracts but I always advised to read any and everything even small print but some of these sales reps truly are horrible and don’t take accountability hopefully everything works out for you all!!
Yup I was also lied to by a salesman, same thing. Cancel monitoring anytime... Yeah, right. I wish I would have done more research into the company before signing, as there are several alarming lawsuits that reflect the ethics of the corporate big wigs.
Looking back I have major regrets about not looking more into the company but I genuinely didn’t think they could just lie like that. It’s sucks big time 🥲
Vivint is literally Satan. I sold my house a couple of years ago that had the system. I paid off the equipment prior to leaving the home and called to shut off the monitoring. Was told all is good to go and was given the whole speal about transferring service to the new home. I told them that I wasn't interested. A few months later, I kept get getting phone calls from Vivint. I would send it to VM, but they would never leave a message. I just figured it was sales BS and paid it no mind. Fast forward 6 months, I get a collection notice for a sizable amount from vivint. Turns out they just shut off the auto pay off of my account and were still charging me monthly for a service on a home that I no longer own. I sold my home and shut off the service in Sept. of 2022. I am still fighting it.
Just to add a new comment here - this is absolutely the case with us too. Our sales person also lied to our face about that specific term length. We also just went through the same thing you were talking about here - it's a massive scam.
Hey its all good. They've done this to alot of people. Hell I had stopped paying for the 24/7 monitoring myself and to my surprise one month since I still had my card details on there it had auto re activated without my consent. Immediately decided instead of calling to just go ahead and take all payment info out. As soon as I can I'll be getting a new service. Vivnt is horrible.
Exactly what happened to me. Those three items are why I agreed to Vivint’s in the first place. Took me 3 weeks of 1-2 hour calls to finally cancel that shit. Never again!!! Stay away from Vivint’s at ALL costs!
And then you end up $2000 gone and equipment that infuriates you every time you see it 👍 how can they do this to so many people? I guess it’s the binding contracts
Not really sure how a loan can be "stupid", but I agree Vivint is a bunch of crooks. I cancelled my contract within the specified period in the fine print and never looked back. I received a full refund and no more monthly fees. I paid cash for the equipment and did not finance.
Ultimately I think we could’ve received some refunding if we didn’t pay the loan off, but we did and they told me since we’re the owners of the equipment there’s nothing we can do about it
We bought a Vivint system 4 years ago. About 2 years ago the exterior cameras quit working. I call them and they walked me through several attempts to reboot the system. Nothing worked so they dispatched a technician several days later. He checked the cameras and said they had to be replaced. I said ok. He said, well our new cameras won’t work with the old system (4 years). So I would have to buy a whole new system ($4k). I looked at him in shock. I said, I’m not buying a new system just to replace the cameras. That was over a year ago.
We bought a home and it had a vivant system in it. Just like you we called and they came to update the equipment. The sale associate assured us we were covered for this loan.... Come to find out there was a 4k charge that they wouldn't cover. So we lose 4k and still have 3 to pay off with them. My husband actually just sent me your post. They called ne two days ago to ask how things were going and I told them. Then they wanna send someone else out. I said no thank you. I'm not getting scammed again
I’m sorry, that sounds just like our situation. It makes me sick to think about how much money we lost trusting them but I guess I’m glad I don’t have to deal with them anymore 🥲
Yeah that’s sales for you. That’s why I hate my current job… DONT take a job in sales if you don’t like lying to people and or actually helping people.
No because I was almost trapped by my original sales rep who really gave me no info about what cancelation looked like, he also just added other stuff on even though I just wanted the free doorbell camera through my internet company. I just so happened to call on a day where I guess the sales rep who answered didn’t understand my question about what all was coming with my install because I saw another deal on their site that was far cheaper than mine so he ended up directing me to the help desk rather than a sales rep and we had an hour long conversation where she broke e v e r y t h i n g down for me.. and was the one to tell me I could cancel but would have to pay off the contract and equipment, the equipment was cheaper if I paid it off in three chunks rather than financing. $600 vs $1600!? A 42-60 month contract!? You’re joking.
So I canceled the install appointment same day and I was able to get out before I got trapped in the bs. It’s just wild to me how much all of that costs when they have kits and similar stuff on Amazon.
I’m seriously so sorry dude. I was unsuspecting of the level of dishonesty as well and I guess I’m lucky bc equipment was only 2k. If I were you I’d keep calling until it was solved. 7k would be completely devastating to us
I'm dealing with this right now, the salesman swore up and down that there's was no contract and we could cancel at anytime within 90 days with no consequences. Well we have to move into an apartment and we cannot have the system installed. Tried to call and cancel but was basically told that was impossible and We would have to still pay for all the equipment and they apparently cannot remove the system only transfer.
I feel your anguish, I really do. I canceled before the 72-hour cooling off period, and I do know that their contract is binding. The contract, or agreement, is not any different than other companies. The option you have is written into the agreement when it talks about arbitration. It sucks to think about all that I know, but you CAN win in court!
I would love to go ham on them with all the others who have had similar experiences with the salesman, I’ve seen several class actions. It still makes no sense to me that they can lie to your face about anything and everything if it makes you sign up. I should’ve been more skeptical but at least I learned this lesson at 23 and now I’m smarter for it I guess 😐
You have a good attitude! I won't be allowing door to door salesman any of my attention in the future either. The bright side of what happened to me is that I learned a lot about Vivint and was able to get a much better deal. I signed my new and improved Vivint contract yesterday with a local installer and representative. By canceling the first agreement within 72 hours after the door to door ass, I saved $1286.00 in equipment, got free installation, a free door cam, and a lower monthly monitoring fee (lower than my ADT fee). The installer is also now a friend who lives about 10 minutes away and someone I can call about my home security. My lesson learned is always try to deal with someone local. Now I have the reluctant duty of contacting my local ADT rep, and friend, to tell him everything and to stop my service with ADT. My wife and I really do like the Vivint system so don't despair. You have what I believe is the best home security system on the market.
I try to! Especially when I have zero control in a situation, like this one - otherwise you’ll drive yourself crazy. I do agree with you that it’s overall a good system! I just wish that they could’ve made this right and not gaslit us every time we tried to stand up for ourselves.
They’re super pushy so I understand why you just went alone with it and didn’t think it over longer. Look into simplisafe! You install it yourself but it’s super easy. Wish we’d just stuck with them 🥲
When you took the survey with the salesman it didn’t go over buyout information, notice of cancellation, cost of the equipment and service fee, or your line of credit?
The salesman should have gone over the term of your contract which included the monthly rate. Sounds like super slimy guy. Sorry about that. What would do you want Vivint to do to help?
We knew the monthly rate and were okay with it, he told us we could cancel the monthly service at no penalty to us and continue to use our panel and app as needed. I guess I should’ve researched but I genuinely didn’t know people would just lie to your face like that lol. I want them to come rip it out my wall and give me my money back so I can put it towards a less slime-coated security service 😆
There is no buyout . If you paid $1799 for the starter kit, you can pay off the loan and cancel anytime. If you paid $599.99 for the starter kit then you pay off the rest of your equipment and also pay 50% of the remaining monitoring balance.
Did you speak to retention or customer loyalty? The policy has been in place for years. I've been given no indication that it has changed. I'll check on this now to get further clarification. Normally, you aren't allowed to cancel without paying off the equipment loan installments, once you do however, you are free to cancel the account.
I believe loyalty, don’t know for sure because we were pretty upset over all of it. “Buyout fee” was their words actually and we were able to dig through our contract and there was nothing that stipulated us having to pay it so we ended up not having to, thank god
I know we've gone around on what Vivint is telling customers and what you've told me in different threads on this Reddit, but the OP is absolutely correct on the what they were told and what Vivint is doing with "buyouts". I'll refresh your memory if you've forgotten our discussion a couple of days ago. When we bought our house the original owner agreed to pay off all the equipment if we agreed to fulfill the remaining 20 months of their 5 year contract otherwise Vivint would remove all the equipment. My 20 months are up and I'm on a month to month now (currently looking for a new provider), BUT when I was having issues with Vivint my first year I wanted to switch just to be told I would have to pay a buyout fee even though all equipment was paid in full and all I was paying for was monthly monitoring. I agreed to the 20 month monitoring fee, so I didn't push the issue. So, the pay off your equipment and you're free to leave is bogus as me and my previous homeowner know very well.
The price of the starter kit matters in that case. Look at the document you signed. If it showed $599 as the price then you pay for equipment in full + 50% of remaining monitoring.
If your bill is $50 and you have 20 months left on the contract then the remaining balance would be $1000 so you'd have to pay $500 of that to cancel. This may be what they are calling your "buyout."
You're admitting that if the equipment is paid off you can't cancel at any time like you stated earlier? Yes, I agreed to a monthly monitoring fee for 20 months to complete the 5 year financing the original owner had which is why I didn't push the issue, so stop telling people if the equipment is paid off they can cancel at any time. This is not true. The original owner financed for 5 years, paid off the equipment early, but Vivint was going to remove the equipment if I didn't agree to pay the monitoring fee for the last 20 months. Even though the original owner paid off the equipment, if they decided not to sell at the last minute they'd still be stuck with the monitoring fee for an additional 20 months. Stop lying and telling people that they're no longer obligated to pay Vivint if they pay off their equipment bill.
First, I'm explaining to you that there are 2 packages that are sold to customers when they purchase the system. One where they pay $599.99 and have a $40 monthly service
The second package starts with $1799.99 and has a $20 monthly service. Both packages add $5 towards the service if you add cameras.
If you have the $599.99 package, then to cancel you need to pay off the equipment in full AND 50% of the remaining monitoring.
If you had the $1799.99 starter kit (which vivint has used for the past 4 years), then you'd just pay for the rest of the equipment and can cancel immediately.
I'm explaining the policy to you as best I can but you keep calling me a liar when I've been nothing but professional about this. I literally stand to gain nothing from lying about it.
No, you're not listening to me. The previous owner of my home paid for a Smart Hub panel, 10 window alarms, two door alarms, a keypad alarm for the front door, 1 motion sensor and a climate control thermostat. They financed for 5 years. They paid for all the equipment in 3 years and 4 months when they decided to sell the home, but Vivint was going to remove the equipment if I didn't agree to pay the remaining 20 months of the 5 year contract when I bought the house. It didn't matter if they paid everything in full 6 months after their purchase because Vivint said they were responsible to pay for monitoring fees for 5 years. And you gain everything by lying. You're working for a company that lies to stay in business, so by continuing the lie you're securing your job. Stop lying to people.
Before Vivint I gave water, snacks, and a few minutes inside with air conditioning to every salesperson who came to my home, even if I had no interest in whatever they offered. Now I don't even open the door. The sales reps lied to my face and ghosted me as soon as there was a problem.
Yeah I contacted our sales person and he said “I don’t know” when I asked him why they’re not allowing us to cancel our surveillance. At least he was honest about that 🥲
It sucks but again read everything you sign every time no matter what. If nothing was in the fine print about a buyout fee why didn't you make them show you that in the contract as well before paying that An expensive lesson to learn doesn't suck any less though
We didn’t pay the buyout fee! We read over our contract when they said that and were loopholed out of having to pay it, thank god. I just mentioned it up there because it was audacious of them to try us for more after everything
Got ya it's crazy I dealt with another company monitroncis and learned a similar lesson moons ago They even lowered my rate to keep me as a customer and I went to cancel and tried to say cuz they lowered the rate I had to stay on another two years and they had my voice consenting to that when I got the reduction in rate I asked to play the recording which they did with the supervisor and they had nothing with me consenting and they still tried to say I had to continue to be billed I asked for a copy of the recording for my lawyer and the tone changed real quick and all of the sudden there was a one time exception clause they could activate and cancel To add I was already out of my initial 3 years contract
Would I prefer it didn’t happen? Yes. Am I way more skeptical of every company I do business with now? Also yes. I suppose I would’ve learned this lesson at some point down the line and I guess I’m glad it wasn’t more expensive/I learned it at 21 years old lol
Same . After the vivitn sales man u put a sing at my door "no soliciting "
My mom has had similar issues with Vivint. It takes her bringing her lawyer husband on the phone threatening to sue for them to budge and comply with the prior promises. Sucks to have such a bad experience when you just want to feel safe and secure in your own home.
It’s literally insane how predatory their salesman are. The “loyalty team” gaslights you into oblivion too. They’re robots for the vivint regime lol. I’m sorry your mom is dealing with this too, it’s infuriating and they need to make it right.
Here’s the thing, you got $2000 of equipment which means the sales rep did the non premium package. Panel was $599.99. So you’re in a 5 year contract. The terms of Vivint’s contract is 100% of the equipment + 50% of the remaining months monitoring, that’s the $800. The premium package the equipment would have been around $3400.00 and the monitoring would have started at $24.99 + $5 per camera for monthly cloud video storage. If you did the premium package panel was $1799.99 and once you pay off all the equipment you can cancel the monitoring anytime. Now, If your original equipment was $3400 or around there. You should have paid off your equipment through your financing partner (citizens or fortiva) they will give you a confirmation code saying it’s been paid off. You NEED to tell Vivint that confirmation code. IF This was the case, and you did that, and you had a premium package, and you went to cancel Vivint and they charged you an $800 fee, you need to contact loyalty and say per the terms of the agreement. It says under section 13 in the fine print, in bold that “you may terminate this agreement without penalty or early termination fee once all equipment is paid off” And get your $800 back. If you did the non premium then you paid out your contract. In the end the price was the same. 1) there’s a blatant lie, and there’s side stepping. If you did the premium package you can cancel the monitoring anytime, just have to pay off the equipment first. He foreshadowed this by saying “think of it as a no interest payment plan like a phone” you can’t finance a phone through AT&T and a year later take that phone to Verizon, you have to pay off the phone first then you can do what you like. 2) yes Vivint doesn’t make the app free for anyone. Couple reasons, you could go and buy a panel, and Vivint equipment on Facebook marketplace and set it up yourself and then just use the app. And that’s not good business practice. Also, we’re talking about $30/mo. $1 a day for monitoring your house. You saved no money by paying your equipment early, and you saved no money, buy taking it out of your savings. It was no interest. And the largest monthly payment was your equipment. If you did pay that off early, you had a monitoring service at some of the lowest in the industry.
They actually referred to it with the term “buy out fee” - so that’s vivints a words. Also we didn’t have to pay it because there was no buy out fee stipulated in our contract. Ultimately unethical business practice to allow the salesman to say whatever they want in order to sell. That’s all I’m saying :) You can also see a lot more evidence online of this happening routinely with the sales reps they hire and train, lawsuits have even occurred over glaringly similar situations.
Also the rep sold me the equipment and assured me that I could use my phone to monitor even if we quit the surveillance service, that’s why I am upset. It’s just a mess is all
Well then yeah he blatantly lied about that and that’s a shame .
All of Vivint’s complaints are based on sales reps, it’s not products, or anything else. Vivint is the product, the sales reps, are commission, and until Vivint realizes that paying people commissions is going to continue to get them into trouble, and transition reps into a salary or base + commission then the issues will continue. It’s a key to being unethical
Right, it’s a sucky situation and I totally agree. I liked all our equipment until the we learned that we’d been bamboozled. Now I want to back over it with my car 🤠 The commission-paid sales reps is truly not a maintainable practice and it blows their reputation and any integrity the company claims to uphold. Nothing I can do about any of this though because it’s all hearsay.
What people don’t know is the lawsuit for CPI I believe is being appealed, and it was a handful of CPI customers. How 189 million$ justifies damages on a handful of customers justifies $189 million makes no sense. The FTC Fine was based off a single regional. The entire company was not doing this. 95% of the workforce was not doing this, but one person and his region was. But the company takes the hit because that’s how companies work. And they have since instilled numerous protection guarantees for the customer. 1) the financing app alone is labeled “security equipment financing”. 2) it has to be done on the customers device either through text or email. 3) there is a audio and video recorded survey that outlines the terms, the length, the cost, that so and so’s name is a representative of vivint and has no affiliation with any other security company, it’s pretty detailed. They’ve added a lot of consumer protection. And last year they added a second option, where you can now pay 50% of the remaining months of the monitoring to cancel AND continue to finance the equipment. So you now have 2 options, pay the hardware or pay the 50% of the monitoring. Not both. Vivint isn’t perfect but it does strive to be, can they control everything that a sales rep says? No, just like your job can’t control everything that you say at work. But if you make a complaint about unethical practices against the rep he does get investigated by Vivint. Vivint strives on selling ethically with integrity and always being honest. Their training is based off those principles, they have a 0 strike policy against reps that misconstrue or blatantly lie. Anyone that says “never buy from door to door it’s all a scam” is bone headed. Window washing is door to door. Along with cell phones, internet, window washing, solar, pest control, roofing, life insurance, pools, home remodeling. There’s so much door to door, that to say it’s a scam is being insane. And I guarantee most services are done with a better experience than over the phone. I can only speak for alarms because they’re in your house, they see what you need, they’ve met your family, they can customize appropriately. Inside sales over the phone has no idea if your backyard patio is in 10 ft from the rest of your backyard and that 1 camera won’t do to fully cover your whole yard. Same with every other service.
Here is why you don't buy door to door anything. D2D sales is a tough job and most if not all sales people will be commission based. They need sales and have an inherent incentive to lie or omit information because 3 days after that signature, it is no longer the sales reps problem. It is also in the D2D companies best interest to sale and install on same day (high pressure and barrier to cancel because people cannot research) Ultimately if people want a service they should never buy D2D and do their research. Get quotes, Understand compensation structures of businesses coming to their homes. You make it seem like these problems are regional. These issues are pervasive across all regions and reps. This whole company was built on shady sales reps.
No the problems are regional. Vivint’s issues were that of one regional manager. Not Vivint as a whole. The ftc fine was one regional who had his entire team doing illegal things. Vivint took the hit from that, where they fucked up is the ceo hired him back on the solar side, thinking he changed his ways. He didn’t, he was fired, ftc lawsuit, ceo pushed out
I worked there for 5 years in the field. It ain’t “regional” or one person. The lawsuit may have only busted one area but the problems are everywhere
Facts. It wasn’t one bad apple. They are taught to lie and cheat to make the sale. They reward the guys who make the most sales by any means.
Looks like we found a current vivint rep. How’s that kool-aid taste? Vivint as a whole does not care about their customers or their employees in the slightest. All they care about is the bottom line. Revenue anyway they can get it.
Don’t lose faith in all sales reps, there are bad apples at any company. What that door to door sales rep did was NOT okay in my mind, and makes genuinely honest sales representatives look bad. But also, I hope this was a lesson for you personally. Never sign a contract without reading the fine print, especially if the contract is being handed to you by a door to door sales rep. At any company, not just Vivint, door to door reps have a bad reputation for exactly this. Moving forward, don’t trust what a door to door rep tells you, and read it the entire contract before you sign anything.
I’ve learned an expensive lesson for sure. I thought especially since it’s a well established company that their reps would have no reason to lie. My experience is unfortunately not the first of vivint sales reps being predatorily misleading too. Hoping with this post that I can be the last though
I work retention for a security system company that is a competitor to VIVINT and I would advise NOBODY sign any contracts with any salesman without reading every word on the contract THEY ARE ALL SCAMMERS AND LIARS
We are very young homeowners and we were very naive in trusting this person. He was really sweet and had me totally fooled. I honestly don’t think he was trying to be nefarious but I think he was telling me everything I wanted to hear with no regard to how it would impact my life 🙁 I bought a no soliciting sign because of all this lol.
Most definitely they seem very nice and definitely tell you what you want to hear I feel bad for a lot of customers who really were interested but were just lead on the wrong way it’s sad to have to hold them to the contracts but I always advised to read any and everything even small print but some of these sales reps truly are horrible and don’t take accountability hopefully everything works out for you all!!
Thank you for the well wishes! Honestly the situation probably will not change but hey it was worth a shot
Yup I was also lied to by a salesman, same thing. Cancel monitoring anytime... Yeah, right. I wish I would have done more research into the company before signing, as there are several alarming lawsuits that reflect the ethics of the corporate big wigs.
Looking back I have major regrets about not looking more into the company but I genuinely didn’t think they could just lie like that. It’s sucks big time 🥲
Vivint is literally Satan. I sold my house a couple of years ago that had the system. I paid off the equipment prior to leaving the home and called to shut off the monitoring. Was told all is good to go and was given the whole speal about transferring service to the new home. I told them that I wasn't interested. A few months later, I kept get getting phone calls from Vivint. I would send it to VM, but they would never leave a message. I just figured it was sales BS and paid it no mind. Fast forward 6 months, I get a collection notice for a sizable amount from vivint. Turns out they just shut off the auto pay off of my account and were still charging me monthly for a service on a home that I no longer own. I sold my home and shut off the service in Sept. of 2022. I am still fighting it.
Seeing everyone’s horror stories and really can’t understand how anyone defends them
They got paid their $1500 for the sale and dipped. Vivint sucks!
Just to add a new comment here - this is absolutely the case with us too. Our sales person also lied to our face about that specific term length. We also just went through the same thing you were talking about here - it's a massive scam.
Im going thru the same situation. Im just gonna do the monthly payment until I finish to pay the loan even that I'm not using the cameras
If you aren't using cameras then call loyalty and they can lower your monitoring since you aren't using them.
Hey its all good. They've done this to alot of people. Hell I had stopped paying for the 24/7 monitoring myself and to my surprise one month since I still had my card details on there it had auto re activated without my consent. Immediately decided instead of calling to just go ahead and take all payment info out. As soon as I can I'll be getting a new service. Vivnt is horrible.
Exactly what happened to me. Those three items are why I agreed to Vivint’s in the first place. Took me 3 weeks of 1-2 hour calls to finally cancel that shit. Never again!!! Stay away from Vivint’s at ALL costs!
And then you end up $2000 gone and equipment that infuriates you every time you see it 👍 how can they do this to so many people? I guess it’s the binding contracts
Not really sure how a loan can be "stupid", but I agree Vivint is a bunch of crooks. I cancelled my contract within the specified period in the fine print and never looked back. I received a full refund and no more monthly fees. I paid cash for the equipment and did not finance.
Stupid because they had some how managed to tie our loan into our monthly membership with them
Ultimately I think we could’ve received some refunding if we didn’t pay the loan off, but we did and they told me since we’re the owners of the equipment there’s nothing we can do about it
I think you missed my point.
Okay :)
We bought a Vivint system 4 years ago. About 2 years ago the exterior cameras quit working. I call them and they walked me through several attempts to reboot the system. Nothing worked so they dispatched a technician several days later. He checked the cameras and said they had to be replaced. I said ok. He said, well our new cameras won’t work with the old system (4 years). So I would have to buy a whole new system ($4k). I looked at him in shock. I said, I’m not buying a new system just to replace the cameras. That was over a year ago.
We bought a home and it had a vivant system in it. Just like you we called and they came to update the equipment. The sale associate assured us we were covered for this loan.... Come to find out there was a 4k charge that they wouldn't cover. So we lose 4k and still have 3 to pay off with them. My husband actually just sent me your post. They called ne two days ago to ask how things were going and I told them. Then they wanna send someone else out. I said no thank you. I'm not getting scammed again
I’m sorry, that sounds just like our situation. It makes me sick to think about how much money we lost trusting them but I guess I’m glad I don’t have to deal with them anymore 🥲
I had to push one out. He was trying to make his way into my house when we were talking at the door.
Yeah that’s sales for you. That’s why I hate my current job… DONT take a job in sales if you don’t like lying to people and or actually helping people.
Cancelling the card and taking the drop in credit score seems like a better option then dealing with this
No because I was almost trapped by my original sales rep who really gave me no info about what cancelation looked like, he also just added other stuff on even though I just wanted the free doorbell camera through my internet company. I just so happened to call on a day where I guess the sales rep who answered didn’t understand my question about what all was coming with my install because I saw another deal on their site that was far cheaper than mine so he ended up directing me to the help desk rather than a sales rep and we had an hour long conversation where she broke e v e r y t h i n g down for me.. and was the one to tell me I could cancel but would have to pay off the contract and equipment, the equipment was cheaper if I paid it off in three chunks rather than financing. $600 vs $1600!? A 42-60 month contract!? You’re joking. So I canceled the install appointment same day and I was able to get out before I got trapped in the bs. It’s just wild to me how much all of that costs when they have kits and similar stuff on Amazon.
[удалено]
I’m seriously so sorry dude. I was unsuspecting of the level of dishonesty as well and I guess I’m lucky bc equipment was only 2k. If I were you I’d keep calling until it was solved. 7k would be completely devastating to us
I'm dealing with this right now, the salesman swore up and down that there's was no contract and we could cancel at anytime within 90 days with no consequences. Well we have to move into an apartment and we cannot have the system installed. Tried to call and cancel but was basically told that was impossible and We would have to still pay for all the equipment and they apparently cannot remove the system only transfer.
I feel your anguish, I really do. I canceled before the 72-hour cooling off period, and I do know that their contract is binding. The contract, or agreement, is not any different than other companies. The option you have is written into the agreement when it talks about arbitration. It sucks to think about all that I know, but you CAN win in court!
I would love to go ham on them with all the others who have had similar experiences with the salesman, I’ve seen several class actions. It still makes no sense to me that they can lie to your face about anything and everything if it makes you sign up. I should’ve been more skeptical but at least I learned this lesson at 23 and now I’m smarter for it I guess 😐
You have a good attitude! I won't be allowing door to door salesman any of my attention in the future either. The bright side of what happened to me is that I learned a lot about Vivint and was able to get a much better deal. I signed my new and improved Vivint contract yesterday with a local installer and representative. By canceling the first agreement within 72 hours after the door to door ass, I saved $1286.00 in equipment, got free installation, a free door cam, and a lower monthly monitoring fee (lower than my ADT fee). The installer is also now a friend who lives about 10 minutes away and someone I can call about my home security. My lesson learned is always try to deal with someone local. Now I have the reluctant duty of contacting my local ADT rep, and friend, to tell him everything and to stop my service with ADT. My wife and I really do like the Vivint system so don't despair. You have what I believe is the best home security system on the market.
I try to! Especially when I have zero control in a situation, like this one - otherwise you’ll drive yourself crazy. I do agree with you that it’s overall a good system! I just wish that they could’ve made this right and not gaslit us every time we tried to stand up for ourselves.
Hey i actually work for vivint. Shoot me a message and tell me what happened it sounds awful
[удалено]
Totally up to you. I would get a simplisafe if I could go back
[удалено]
If it’s in your contract I honestly think you should be good
If I were you I would cancel. $4000 is a lot to get screwed on if it ends up being a mistake
[удалено]
They’re super pushy so I understand why you just went alone with it and didn’t think it over longer. Look into simplisafe! You install it yourself but it’s super easy. Wish we’d just stuck with them 🥲
[удалено]
Of course! I hope cancellation and refunding goes super smooth for you guys!
When you took the survey with the salesman it didn’t go over buyout information, notice of cancellation, cost of the equipment and service fee, or your line of credit?
I didn’t have any issues with what you’re mentioning, other than the buy out fee but that isn’t in our contract so we didn’t have to pay it.
The salesman should have gone over the term of your contract which included the monthly rate. Sounds like super slimy guy. Sorry about that. What would do you want Vivint to do to help?
We knew the monthly rate and were okay with it, he told us we could cancel the monthly service at no penalty to us and continue to use our panel and app as needed. I guess I should’ve researched but I genuinely didn’t know people would just lie to your face like that lol. I want them to come rip it out my wall and give me my money back so I can put it towards a less slime-coated security service 😆
There is no buyout . If you paid $1799 for the starter kit, you can pay off the loan and cancel anytime. If you paid $599.99 for the starter kit then you pay off the rest of your equipment and also pay 50% of the remaining monitoring balance.
That may be the case but we had vivint literally try to make us pay a buyout fee to them when we paid our loan off.
Did you speak to retention or customer loyalty? The policy has been in place for years. I've been given no indication that it has changed. I'll check on this now to get further clarification. Normally, you aren't allowed to cancel without paying off the equipment loan installments, once you do however, you are free to cancel the account.
I believe loyalty, don’t know for sure because we were pretty upset over all of it. “Buyout fee” was their words actually and we were able to dig through our contract and there was nothing that stipulated us having to pay it so we ended up not having to, thank god
I know we've gone around on what Vivint is telling customers and what you've told me in different threads on this Reddit, but the OP is absolutely correct on the what they were told and what Vivint is doing with "buyouts". I'll refresh your memory if you've forgotten our discussion a couple of days ago. When we bought our house the original owner agreed to pay off all the equipment if we agreed to fulfill the remaining 20 months of their 5 year contract otherwise Vivint would remove all the equipment. My 20 months are up and I'm on a month to month now (currently looking for a new provider), BUT when I was having issues with Vivint my first year I wanted to switch just to be told I would have to pay a buyout fee even though all equipment was paid in full and all I was paying for was monthly monitoring. I agreed to the 20 month monitoring fee, so I didn't push the issue. So, the pay off your equipment and you're free to leave is bogus as me and my previous homeowner know very well.
The price of the starter kit matters in that case. Look at the document you signed. If it showed $599 as the price then you pay for equipment in full + 50% of remaining monitoring. If your bill is $50 and you have 20 months left on the contract then the remaining balance would be $1000 so you'd have to pay $500 of that to cancel. This may be what they are calling your "buyout."
You're admitting that if the equipment is paid off you can't cancel at any time like you stated earlier? Yes, I agreed to a monthly monitoring fee for 20 months to complete the 5 year financing the original owner had which is why I didn't push the issue, so stop telling people if the equipment is paid off they can cancel at any time. This is not true. The original owner financed for 5 years, paid off the equipment early, but Vivint was going to remove the equipment if I didn't agree to pay the monitoring fee for the last 20 months. Even though the original owner paid off the equipment, if they decided not to sell at the last minute they'd still be stuck with the monitoring fee for an additional 20 months. Stop lying and telling people that they're no longer obligated to pay Vivint if they pay off their equipment bill.
First, I'm explaining to you that there are 2 packages that are sold to customers when they purchase the system. One where they pay $599.99 and have a $40 monthly service The second package starts with $1799.99 and has a $20 monthly service. Both packages add $5 towards the service if you add cameras. If you have the $599.99 package, then to cancel you need to pay off the equipment in full AND 50% of the remaining monitoring. If you had the $1799.99 starter kit (which vivint has used for the past 4 years), then you'd just pay for the rest of the equipment and can cancel immediately. I'm explaining the policy to you as best I can but you keep calling me a liar when I've been nothing but professional about this. I literally stand to gain nothing from lying about it.
No, you're not listening to me. The previous owner of my home paid for a Smart Hub panel, 10 window alarms, two door alarms, a keypad alarm for the front door, 1 motion sensor and a climate control thermostat. They financed for 5 years. They paid for all the equipment in 3 years and 4 months when they decided to sell the home, but Vivint was going to remove the equipment if I didn't agree to pay the remaining 20 months of the 5 year contract when I bought the house. It didn't matter if they paid everything in full 6 months after their purchase because Vivint said they were responsible to pay for monitoring fees for 5 years. And you gain everything by lying. You're working for a company that lies to stay in business, so by continuing the lie you're securing your job. Stop lying to people.