Alarm Relay - Pricing Discussion

[GadgetBoySI]

I own a GE Caddx Alarm that I installed myself and I use Alarm Relay as my monitoring service.

I noticed something on my renewal bill and wanted to make everyone aware of it.

Alarm Relay clearly charges (as seen on their website) $8.95/month (paid annually) for their monitoring service. The also impose a $35 setup fee (kind of silly, but I get it). One would think that after the first year, you would simply pay $8.95/month.

Wrong.

The bill I just received shows $10.45/month. Apparently, there is another link at the bottom of their website for "Pricing Policy":

• Initial yearSecond yearThird year and beyond

So apparently, in year's two and three, they MAY increase the cost. Well, there is no "may" - it goes up - and with no notification other than their invoice with the updated price. They claim that "Even in a scenario where a customer sees a nominal increase in their monthly fee during the second and third year, the net cost of their service is actually going down in that same period."

I have been happy with their services, but I find this method of billing shaky...

Just thought I would point it out to others that may be considering their services.

[Person]

I have Vista 20p and was looking at changing my monitoring company (system was installed 6 years ago by Monitronics). They have been increasing price almost every year by $1 and they charge about $40.

So alarm relay seems like much cheaper option even with those tricky pricing.

Anyone who has moved existing system they did not install themselves?

Anyone suggesting another monitoring service instead?

[GadgetBoySI]

Honestly, for the price I am very happy with them. They also include fire monitoring (if you have smoke detectors) included with the price.

Setup was fine. They just dialed into my panel and made the necessary adjustments.

From my perspective, if they posted the correct prices I would not have an issue - it's primarily an issue of principle. I think it's only right that if they are, in fact, going to raise the prices in year's one and two then disclose it.

[TomTom]

I signed up with them about 6 yrs ago and the very same thing happened. Six yrs ago they didn't even mention it in the terms or say that on the phone. I think after they got a lot of flank on the online forums n charge backs they tried to be up front about it. Now if u specifically ask the sales folks when u sign up they will tell u their pricing policy. If u don't ask they lead u to believe its always gonna be the intro price. It's kinda of bad business's move but still it's one of the cheapest and most reliable monitoring services there is. Again as u said they monitor fire at no extra cost. Many other charge extra for fire monitoring. Overall great value, reliable, and no long term contract.