Ok so this comment may become long, so I’ll apologize in advance. I live in Florida, our home came equipped with an alarm system when we purchased it. It was a Safe Touch system, and they are recognized as one of the better alarm companies down here. Before agreeing to start my service with Safe Touch, I contacted a few other security providers (such as ADT) and finally decided upon having Safe Touch monitor the system. Admittedly I was fairly happy with them, except I couldn’t control the alarm via an app. We started reaching the end of the 36 month contract and during that time we were painting the interior of our house, when doing so I realized the sensors were looking “dingy”. I called them and explained that I’d like to swap out some sensors and I’d like to discuss routing the alarm signals through the internet (instead of the required home phone) and that I wanted to be able to access my system remotely. I was told that the sensors would cost however much (if memory serves they were running a 5 for $99 deal - with an extension of contract for another 36 months) but they would have to be professionally installed (note this was a wireless system), the installation rate was $125 an hour, furthermore for them to convert the system to VOIP and add the app connectivity it would be an additional $150 for that device and cellular backup, plus of course $125/hr for installation. My monitoring bill was $29. 99/mo plus taxes, but with cellular back up the bill would increase to $54. 99/mo plus tax. Needless to say I was rather frustrated and began exploring my options. I had Comcast/Xfinity for Internet, Phone, and Cable, I was paying $99. 99/mo for that and with the tv boxes, modem, taxes, etc it was around $158/mo total. I called them about adding home security and dropping phone, turns out they had a package for $99. 99/mo for cable, internet and home security with a price lock for 2 years. I took it and I was happy. During that two years I acquired a Ring Doorbell because my house is an odd design, you could not see the front door from any of the windows, nor could you see the front half of the driveway, Initially I had contacted Xfinity about adding a camera, but they wanted $199 for the camera and 9. 99/mo for cloud storage, which is what got me to turn to Ring. I got the doorbell, subscribed to the $30/year plan and was happy. Recently, my 24 month price lock ended with Comcast and my bill went from roughly $158/mo to $220/mo so I again started exploring my options. I was displeased with the look of the Ring alarm system, but found that the second generation was being released and found it to be much better looking. I upgraded to the $100/year plan, then pre-ordered the alarm system and some added components, with the Protect Plus plan, I even saved 10% on the equipment. So, obviously my long story made short, it was all about price that brought me to Ring over the competitors, but I have to say that I am loving the Ring 2nd Gen alarm system, I can add or remove sensors whenever I want, I can control the system with an app I already had on my phone, and I have maximum control. I will also say that I am surprised by the cellular back up, it is my understanding that Ring used AT&T for cellular back up, and everyone I know that has AT&T Wireless has no signal in my house, however, I placed the base station and it shows that I have 3 green bars of signal, so it must have a superior antenna/receiver. My only complaints are that when I ordered the system (I got the 14 piece set) it came with two motion sensors and there was no option to remove them or swap them out for different sensors, so now I have two motion sensors that I’ll never use sitting in the boxes collecting dust. I also dislike that glass break sensors are not available, and with large glass doors in my home I’d really prefer to have them, luckily I was able to integrate Alexa Guard to listen for the sound of glass breaking, so I opted to order some Echo Dots to add to the system. My complaint with that is when my dog shakes his head, his collar tags jingle and alerts me to glass break, which never happened with actual glass break sensors.
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