OnDuty Systems

Called to canceled the service. Rep was so impolite on the phone, said they couldn’t accept cancel over the phone, they will send us a form to request. I’ve asked how long do we expect for the whole cancellation process, the guy said «it takes as long as it take» then he hung up the phone.
We’ve submitted the cancellation form within 30 min via email. No response from them, but 2 days later we found two monthly charges in our bank from On Duty.
Very bad service.

My HOA has a deal with On Duty and over the years I have been satisfied with their basic phone line service. However, after 3 attempts to get my system upgraded, I am giving up and finding someone else to install an upgraded system. I called a few months ago to schedule an upgrade as well as surveillance cameras. Their customer service representative told me their earliest appointment was a week and half away between 9 – 11 am. It was a long wait, but I went ahead and scheduled.
Attempt #1: The reps showed up about 9:15 and said that because I had not re-​confirmed my appointment, they cancelled my camera installation and the first available for re-​scheduling as 2 weeks away. Because of the inconvenience and the weird way they cancelled my appointment without letting me know in advance, I sent them away hoping I could find a cheaper company to come and do a complete package sooner.
Attempt #2: Unable to find a better deal, I called again a few days later and re-​scheduled. Again, I asked for camera installation and security system upgrade. They said A-​OK and told me the first available was a week and a half out again… Annoyed, I went ahead and booked. The next day, something told me to call back and MAKE SURE they had scheduled my camera install this time. After 15 minutes on hold being transferred from department to department, I find out that they HAVE NOT booked my camera appointment and I would have to make a separate appointment and take more time off work to get it done. I told them to cancel the cameras and just send the team to do the system upgrade. In the meantime, I called Lightspeed Security and they installed a better system with more cameras for the same price the VERY NEXT DAY.
Attempt #3: I had to schedule a doctor’s appointment on the day of the security system upgrade. My appointment with On Duty was 9 – 11. I called them to let them know I had to leave home by 10 and if necessary I would re-​schedule. They assured me that their team would be there by 9:15 and be done before 10, so I kept the appt, True to bad service form, they showed up at 10:05 and I had to send them away so I could make my appointment on time.
At this point I’ve decided it’s just wasn’t meant to be. I’ve used another company for the system upgrade.

I am very unhappy with On-​duty Customer Service. First, I can only call for scheduling during normal office hours from 8am to 5pm of Monday through Friday while I am at work as well. Only dispatchers will answer the after hour phone calls, but they are not technically knowledgeable to answer any questions. Whoever answers the after hour phone calls might transfer me to the on-​call technician for simple trouble shooting, but won’t be able to do any service scheduling or any other requests. The on-​call technician answers phone calls from home and is not connecting to the system for monitoring, so won’t be able to tell what is wrong with my system. Therefore, the phone call usually just ends up to have to call again next morning during office hours for further trouble shooting or scheduling an on-​site visit or anything else.
Second, there is no email or online web I can access to do the communications except making phone calls during normal office hours. There was one time I scheduled an appointment on the phone, and had to take one day off at home waiting, but the technician didn’t show up. So I called and was told it was scheduled to a different day. I am not sure whether it was my fault remembering the wrong appointment date or On-​Duty changed the date without notifying me. In order to prevent such thing happening again, I asked the representative on the phone to send me an email for appointment confirmation, but was told they don’t do emails or text messages or fax. Just nothing in writing to confirm to me. It makes me wonder that they can just change the schedules to whatever they want because there is no proof.
Third, I have experienced equipment failures several times in the first year. When first time activating the system, the technician finished the activation and left without testing to make sure it works. So I had to call for repair a few days later and the problem was some connection too loose. The repair guy even asked me to pay for his repair trip which I denied firmly because this is brand new system and service and I hadn’t used it yet. Another equipment failure was even more annoying that the alarm kept beeping every 10 – 15 minutes after I turned on the alarm system at night. I called and was told there was some tower failure causing the whole area problems and the dispatcher had no clue how long it would take to fix and even told me there was no way to stop beeping and no way to disconnect the alarm. Basically she was telling me I had to bear with the frequent beeping through the whole night without sleeping. Even though it was fixed the next morning, but I definitely don’t want to experience such service one more time.
Fourth, when I called to try to discuss terminating the service because I am not happy, I was told it was 3-​year contract and I have to pay 75% penalty of 3-​year service charge in order to terminate the contract even though I am totally unhappy with the service and the equipment failures without happy solutions.
I am writing all these, and hopefully nobody will jump into such contract and have bad experiences like me in future.

My neighborhood has a deal with OnDuty to provide alarm monitoring as a part of our HOA fees. As a result, every home in my community has an alarm system and it is actively monitored. While the system you get with your home is good, there are a few things that can be improved upon that OnDuty offers, so I called them up and had them come out to upgrade my home security system.
Firstly, the person I spoke with at OnDuty wasn’t the most friendly and seemed slightly inconvenienced to talk with a customer. However, I was able to make my appointment and had a quote.
When the day of my appointment arrived, the gentleman that came out arrived later than I expected, and I don’t know if he was running late or if the person I spoke with at OnDuty didn’t provide adequate explanation. I tend to lean toward the latter, as most services give you a time range rather than a specific time. So I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt in this case.
What impressed me was that the technician was professional, but also verified my current setup, and for example discovered that one component of my system that I was told needed replaced over the phone, ended up being the same component that I already had. He also climbed up in my attic to verify something that my builder had told me about the alarm system. He did all of this, as well as installing the upgrades that I did need, quickly and in a professional manner. He was here much less time than I expected, and the price was what I expected, minus the cost of the component that I didn’t need to replace.
Overall, I’m happy with OnDuty and I’m glad that upgrading my alarm system was so simple and convenient. They could improve by putting friendlier people on the phones, but that is not an unusual problem these days.