Abode Reviews

The system is pretty straight forward, if you have had previous experience with alarm systems. We have a pretty large house and all of the devices seen to be connected without any problems. Poor instructions come with the doorbell camera. I have the camera working ok but can't get the doorbell to chime or alert when someone is present. It appears that that I have followed all instructions. The system is pretty expandable. Started with 10 door and window sensors, two interior motion, 3 cameras, and smoke detector monitoring. All have been working well and I have ordered 3 more window sensors and 2 keypads. The phone app is nice and allows you to do most things. Making groups is still easier on the website on a desktop. I have ordered the professional monitoring, NOTE TO ABODE: Contact information for the monitoring center should be very clear and supplied in writing with the system. I should not have to go online and search for the number. Some of the complaints you have received from others has been the inability to find your monitoring center phone number. The time to go look for it is not when you are having an alarm go off or the police or fire department are on your front door. I have 3 complaints. The first two are listed above. The third is that if I'm installing over $1000 worth of equipment I should get more than 1 sticker to place on my windows. I'm advertising for you that my home is protected with your equipment. If you are so friggin cheap that you only supply one sticker, either you don't think much about your system or you don't understand word of mouth advertising. Stickers are cheap. I live in a nice neighborhood. I would think that you would want my neighbors to know about your product.

After MUCH research, I decided to go with Abode, and am VERY glad I did. There is no mandatory monthly fee, although you can add professional monitoring if you want to in varying lengths of time. I went away for a 3 day weekend, and put my house on professional monitoring for the 3 days, and had no problems either trying to get talked into anything longer, or billing or anything related to starting or stopping monitoring....it's all done via web, although on the one occasion I had to call, I got a person (in America!!) right away. Their products just work the way they're supposed to, and setup is simple. The app works very well, too......one iphone and one android in our house, and no problems with either. If I had to gripe a tiny little bit, Abode is more expensive initially, but to me, it's well worth it...while I spent a bit more up front, I have no monthly fees. I had an IRIS system at my old house, and was leery of trying self monitoring, but IRIS could take a lesson or two from Abode....no false alarms, no complicated set-up, and Abode LISTENS to their customers about enhancements to their products. Abode integrates seamlessly withNEST products, and they have lists of other zigbee/zwave produtcs on their website that work also....so far, everything I have wanted to do they have had a device for. Completely satisfied.

This is not the system for someone who expects it to be set up for them by a third party. But, it is by far the most flexible system I have found. There is almost nothing you can’t do with the system. It allows you to program an almost unlimited number of actions. You will be happy if you have the patience to work your way through the setup. I had a problem with pairing a monitor and a technician spent 20 minutes helping solve the problem and last but not least, 24/7 monitoring is only $200 a year.

We had a security system with our internet provider, Spectrum until Spectrum announced they were discontinuing their security systems and recommended Abode or Ring. We ordered equipment from Abode and they sent someone to install the system. The installer, while good at installing, knew nothing about how to operate the system and could not orient us to our new system. We set the away alarm the next morning when we left. When my husband returned that afternoon the system alerted the medics and EMTs came to the house. We are unable to reach anyone at Abode and want them to remove the system and refund our $179 paid upfront. I cannot find an address or a good phone #. Beware!

They subcontract with TalkTech for the installation. After waiting a month no one could be scheduled to install my equipment. Still fighting to get my total refund. No one answers the phone calls. Emails are answered after weeks go by. Now they gave me a gift card for their store instead of refunding my money to my credit card.