Something TERRIBLY WRONG In The Home Security Industry

Simply safe is like a "novelty" or "AS-SEEN-ON-TV" item...like those POS radio shack motion detectors or DIY alarm systems they sold back in the 90's. People double face tape the junk to the walls, are excited and use it for a while then stop using it because the stuff is falsing too much or falling off the walls. Heck, even radio shack knew their stuff was junk because they at one point had ADT displays in their stores selling ADT systems...and that didnt last long either.

A real, true alarm system that is professionally installed looks professional and is properly maintained by a professional when issues pop up, and it is always used on a daily basis.

If people wanted to pay hundreds of dollars up front for their security system, and still pay $25 a month w/o a contract, the industry never would of went to a "Free" system in the first place. The market drove this.

Wonderful that they are cheap and unsecure. Link: SimpliSafe Alarms Cracked

Worked for ADT out of college - The Smal Business contracts at the time were for 5 years and the home contracts were for 3 years. It was HARD to sell someone a 5 year contract with zero "outs." If they cancelled early, they owed 90% of the remainder of the contract. This led to sales people glossing over the contract terms, which led to pretty dirty tactics. In no way do I think SimpliSafe is the same as a full, professionally installed system, but they are right about the contracts. That being said, locking in a contract is the only way to make your money back after giving away a system at a loss (mostly on labor costs).

Something TERRIBLY WRONG In The Security Sales Article.

This article is fairly long. Longer than the ad it attacks.

Yet I defy you to find a single refutation of any of the points in the ad. Actually there is not even a single denial of any sort. Check it out, please.

On the other hand, there is no shortage of bodily fluid metaphors, for instance:

1. Blood Boiling
2. Pulse Raising
3. Coffee Spitting
4. Venom Spewing
5. Bile Pedaling

To be fair, I may have missed a couple, let me know.

SimpliVulnerable and other DIY systems are for apartments and homes valued under 200K. Once you get into nicer homes, people don't want to do it themselves; they're too busy working to pay their mortgage and taxes to deal with installing a security system. I am in front of homeowners every day; people would rather have a professional install the system. Selling against SimpliVulnerable is a walk in the park. I have yet to lose to ADT or Simpli. We're not a billion dollar company, but we're doing just fine. ;) This magazine needs to relax. Our average customer stays with us for eight years; they have no issue signing a contract. If they want a month to month, I give it to them. They just need to buy the equipment outright and pay a little more/month. Only 30% of homes in America have a home security system. There's plenty of market share to go around for all types of business models.

We do offer a DIY solution that is reliable and secure unlike Simpli, but 99% of the people we speak to would rather have us install it.

I would like to play devil's advocate here and share my own experience. I have been working in the security industry for over 25 years and my first reaction when I decided to have an alarm system was to go with ADT. We signed a 5 year contract for $65 per month. Over 5 years we paid $3,900. When the 5 years expired we keep paying $65 per month since it was in auto paid.

One day my wife asked about this $65 while she watched an ad on TV for simply safe. While i was traveling she called ADT and asked about our old equipments, that we couldn't connect to remotely, and asked about the price and why it was so expensive. The answer, we so better than simply safe, their technology is not reliable. She told the agent on the phone she could get a system monitor for $25 per month. The agent offer to lower cost to $45/month with no upgrade of the equipments paid for 5 years already.

Long story short, she switch to Simply Safe. I got home she had the new system installed and it was up and running. Total cost forecasted for 5 years: $395 initial system + $25*60=$1500. Total cost $1895 versus $3900.

So John analysis is correct, Simply Safe doesn't have all the functionalities of other "professional System" but it will do the job for most standard homes in the US for a far lower cost.

Bottom line is: Simply Safe is probably not the right solution for high end monitoring needs but for standard house monitory it will do the job with no contract and for lower cost. Taxi got disrupted by Uber, Hotel by Airbnb, home monitoring by Simply Safe...adapt or die.