Recently I’ve received comments on my Firstline Security posts here and here saying that Firstline Security (Orem, UT, NOT Anaheim, CA) has gone out of business. Tonight’s comment was posted along with a pitch for APX Alarm.
I can find no evidence whatsoever that Firstline Security Systems is out of business. In fact, they appear to be thriving. However, I did find a good bit of evidence that APX Alarm uses many of the same marketing techniques as Firstline. This article from SecurityInfoWatch details consumer complaints about marketing techniques that are remarkably similar to Firstline.
No Sales Material/Pressure Sales Pitch
The story reported the instance of Linda Husted, who had been approached by an APX employee. “He didn’t give me any ID,” Husted told WMC-TV 5. “He said he didn’t have any brochures that I could look at.” Husted added that the sales staff came back three times, not accepting her “not interested” as a final answer.
Asked about the incident, and why an alarm sales person would be out on the streets approaching homeowners without business cards or brochures in the evening hours, Inbar said that he didn’t know the specifics but that the salesperson “could have just been out of brochures.”
Slamming Techniques
According to Dave Simon, the senior manager of industry and public relations for Brink’s Home Security, they’ve heard from around 50 customers who have been hit by misrepresentation. Simon said the usual methodology is that the competitor will scour neighborhoods for signs from other alarm companies and then will knock on the doors of those customers under the auspices of upgrading their alarm systems. Then, says Simon, they’ll try to change their monitoring contract.
APX flatly denies the accusations, claiming that their rapid growth has caused the larger and more established security vendors to “put them on the radar”.
APX Alarm is listed with the BBB online, and you can find the BBB report here. It’s worth noting that there are a significant number of sales complaints, resolved and unresolved or unreported as resolved, and that many complaints seem to be filed in the summer — a product of more summer sales student recruiting, I’m sure.
The Security InfoWatch article points out that there are no industry standards for conduct of sales representatives or the content of their sales pitches, so I would once again reiterate the following:
- Don’t be pressured by the salesperson
- Request written sales material and a business card
- Research the hardware and monitoring package they’re selling — COMPARE prices
- Read the contract thoroughly and know exactly what you are agreeing to before you sign it. Make your own interpretations — do not rely on the sales person to interpret the contract on your behalf.
Related:
- GoFirstline.com: Evil, Deceptive Marketing to College Students
- Firstline Security and The Prodigy: The Unreal Lure of Reality
- Firstline Followup
- Firstline Security Cost Comparison
Technorati Tags: firstline, security, door-to-door sales, summer sales, apx alarm
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