Urban Alarm

Beware the website says no long-term contracts required. However, they will present a 3 year evergreen contract and then drop it to 12 months after the issue is brought up. Top it off with a snarky reply when declining the bait and switch. Not a good sign.

I specifically sought out a smaller, local alarm company because I didn't want to have to deal with long holds and lackluster customer service from a big company like ADT. I kick myself everyday for going against my instincts and signing a contract with Urban Alarm. I have never experienced such poor service from a professional business. From the very beginning (sales) I had to send repeated emails and call to get any response from Urban Alarm.

And now here we are more than a year into my contract and I have had countless issues with this company. Most recently, I have been waiting for more than a week for someone from UA to respond to my request for simple support - instead of apologizing for such poor customer service, UA blamed their contractor for failing to get the message to them. To date, other than responding to blame the contractor, no UA employee has called to provide the support needed or rectify the issue.

So essentially my system does not function and yet I am sure they'll be expecting to collect payment for a service not being provided. The worst! I am counting down the days until my contract is over. I strongly discourage anyone considering an alarm company to remove Urban Alarm from the list of potential companies. Do not walk - RUN away from Urban Alarm. Yelp should permit a ranking of "0" starts for a business like UA because there is absolutely nothing stellar about this business.

The equipment can be purchased anywhere online (and cheaper) and installed by a professional for a reasonable fee - there is nothing UA offers that cannot be sourced elsewhere by a company that actually knows how to provide professional service.

The company has improved its customer service considerably since the date of the original review.

Unfortunately, Yelp requires one to award at least one star to post a review. Urban Alarm's product & customer service doesn't even deserve one star. More than two years ago my 9-unit building sought to replace an admittedly old 'buzz-in' system and were comfortable paying whatever appropriate for a new system. Urban Alarm held itself out as a cutting edge, high-tech solution.

After installing high-speed wifi to support Urban Alarm's product, paying Urban Alarm's installation fee and two years of $200+ annual service fee, none of my neighbors have been able to make Urban Alarm's system to work reliably. Customer relations at Urban Alarm are all but non-existent and when they do respond their tone suggests their customers aren't sufficiently tech.-savvy. As someone who makes a point to try to support D.C. businesses, Urban Alarm's being based in D.C. is a discredit to the many, reputable D.C.-based businesses.

Showed up on the wrong day for service that was scheduled after it took 3 weeks for them to call me back to set up the appt. Installation was a disaster and took them several tries to get the cameras to work. Over priced monthly service compared to the newer companies.

Absolutely horrible customer service and maintenance. We are a mid-sized condo building in DC and had security cameras installed. When someone was assaulted in front of our building, we discovered the cameras had not been working for some time. Urban Alarm made no effort to apologize or comp us monthly fees for the months the cameras had not been working. Then, they billed us for installing new cameras that were never actually connected to the online camera viewing system. All along the way, every question or appointment required multiple follow-ups and emails. I strongly discourage anyone from considering working with them.

Took a while to get them to schedule and get the system up and running but was done sucessfully. Then we find out more details like they charge fees ($100) to change buzzer caller information-- this wasn't mentioned until after installed. After 2 years of having the system, they seemed to forget how to update it, therefore no new/changed residents could be added to the front door buzzer/security system.

After over 3 months of emailing weekly to check into the system while they continued to say they were "working on it, " we cancelled and found another company- FORCE Security. Wish we had gone with a more reliable and component company instead of wasting time.

All around amazing! Extremely quick to respond from sales, proposal, install, and service when needed (which was not often). I highly recommend Urban Alarm for both your home and office. It's also great that they are local. Thank you urban alarm!

Fantastic service - have been a customer for 4 years and Urban Alarm always performs above expectations. We've added multiple new services and Urban Alarm is always on budget with installations and on time for appointments.

Have worked with urban alarm before - Miles (owner) is personable and intelligent - a pleasure to work with. I decided to use them for commercial application to move our existing access control system. It was difficult and there was a lot of time pressure, but they came through and everything works great! Kudos to John there, who documented, moved, reconfigured and tested the system, then trained us on it. He's great!

I've used urban alarm on three occasions. They are superb. - GREAT ALARM INSTALLATIONS - COOL HIGH TECH ROVING PATROL - RESPONSIBLE EASY TO WORK WITH OWNER They do an excellent job installing the system, and the installers are trustworthy. I've used ADP and similar services before, and the installer is basically the cable guy (which always left me with an insecure feeling).

Urban Alarm is a small company that is much more buttoned up. My installer was a meticulous guy who radiated trustworthiness and professionalism. The system works. I've had the alarm triggered a few times, and the police are there shockingly fast. We've also had experience with their roving patrol when we needed to beef up security. They were very professional and thorough and did a great job for us.

I needed a quick response to security issues regarding several commercial properties in Montgomery County. First and foremost, Miles (Wendy and Charlie) provided me with a first-class solution, correspondence and got me online immediately. This company is the real deal.professional, local and totally BIG in expertise and did I say.reasonable costs. I highly recommend Urban Alarm for your security needs. Margaret

This is a quality organization. The owner is hands on with the day to day and has a strong customer centric operations manager to handle your account. I highly recommend Urban Alarm as your security provider, they are top notch.

Urban Alarm Customer Experience is top notch. I own several rental properties in Columbia Heights and when my tenants asked me my recommendations for alarm companies there was no question in my mind that Urban Alarm was the company for them. Even though I knew Urban Alarm would be the best, I gave them the option of researching a few other companies and allowing them to make the final decision.

After a ton of research, interviews and sales calls from each alarm company they called me and said that they decided on Urban Alarm. I could have save them a ton of time at the beginning by just telling them to go with Urban Alarm, but wanted them to make the decision. Long story short the installation was very easy and my tenants are so happy with the service.

The owner of the company Miles is great! Miles is hands on and always available to answer questions. If you are looking to secure your house I highly recommend reaching out to Urban Alarm.

I recently had Urban Alarm install a security system and access control in my office and am very happy with the service I receive and the quality of the system. I bid the job to three companies and found that Miles was the most knowledgeable and the only one that gave me a proposal on my actual needs. I found the bigger companies tried to sell me more than I needed and services I did not want. Working with them was easy, communication was good and the end product is exactly what I wanted.

I was a little disappointed in this company very recently. I called over the weekend in the hopes of signing up for this service and haven't gotten a call back for over a week. In some ways I'm glad that this happened BEFORE I actually signed up for the service because it really shows how little they must care about their clients.

I just had an alarm system installed, and the whole process was fabulous. I was going to sign up with a different company, but Urban Alarm was more appealing because you don't have to sign a long-term contract (and we all know how transient DC is!). Miles helped me feel confident in my choice, and the technician did a great job. Their customer service people are top notch, too, and their equipment is easy to use. All around, a great experience! I would definitely recommend checking them out.

My parents' house's alarm was going off, and from out of town, I was able to reach Urban Alarm quickly and have a technician come over quickly. Miles was professional and prompt. Thanks for making a high-stress situation better.