Life Alarm
Is This Your Business?Author: Kaitlyn Short
Life Alarm is a fairly reputable company that offers landline based personal alert services. Their alarm services are referred through thousands of organizations, including public agencies, hospitals, community service groups, home healthcare services, and other referrers throughout the nation. They also offer a reputable affiliate service that helps individuals and businesses refer their products. They also have a generous customer service program, with email access, phone service, and the alarm system itself to help customers with personal alerts. They compare their alarm system to an answering machine, in terms of setup. It simply plugs into the existing phone line and gives customers two-way voice communication with the monitoring service. They also provide one auto check a month to help make sure that the system is working efficiently and correctly.
Top Ranked Companies
The Good
- Low Monthly Price
- Base Station Design
- Quick Response Time
- Free Monthly Auto Check
Low Monthly Price
One of the benefits of Life Alarm's system is that it has the lowest monthly price of many alarm systems out there. The system and service costs $39.99 per month. Life Alarm gives the client a considerable savings amount over competitors.
Base Station Design
Another thing great about Life Alarm is the simplistic and efficient design of the base station. A big red emergency light and a green power light indicate that the product is functioning effectively and efficiently.
Quick Response Time
The response time from when an emergency call is placed for a Life Alarm Product is a fast 25 seconds. 25 seconds is one of the fastest response times found in the industry. Some of Life Alarm's competitors could take up to one minute to respond to an emergency help summons.
Free Monthly Auto Check
The free monthly auto check of the system is also a benefit. Many major alarm services don't offer an auto check, such as ADT. In terms of customer service, Life Alarm has been in business longer than most of its competitors, for a total of 13 years. Another good feature is that Life Alarm is eligible for Medicaid assistance in some states. State and federal insurance programs do not cover most personal alarm systems.
The Bad
- Customer Service
- Two-Way Communication
- Manual Monthly Tests
- No Reset Button
Customer Service
There were many things concerning about Life Alarm, especially on the customer service side. A possible issue is that Life Alarm outsources their ordering and return services, potentially creating problems for customers and requiring a large return equipment fee.
Two-Way communication
Another concern came from the lack of two-way communication in the help button pendant. While Life Alarm answers their alerts very quickly, a customer who trips a false alarm might not have enough time to make it back to the base station to declare that the alarm was false. It is difficult to get any information about the frequency of false alarms, raising the concern about possibly purchasing this product. The lack of a warranty or terms of service printed explicitly on the website made it difficult to understand the contractual obligations of the product being purchased.
Manual Monthly Tests
Another troubling factor is the expectation that a customer performs a manual test every month, in addition to the system's automatic test. The manual test should also not be a factor, especially considering a client is paying for additional automatic tests each month.
No Reset Button
In terms of functionality, the base unit also does not have a reset button. The reset button is necessary for clearing false alarms quickly, as well as rebooting the system.
The Bottom Line
It is concerning to hear about Life Alarm's manual monthly tests, lack of reset button, and customer service issues. Due to this, Life Alarm is not recommended for alarm service. These points in addition to a few others don't seem to be worth it, especially as the manual test puts undue responsibility on the client. The system should be able to do automatic tests that determine if the machine is functioning correctly without the customer having to worry about it.
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