APN Alarm Systems

I purchased an alarm system for my business from APN on 5 year contract almost 5 years ago. They immediately sold the contract to the company TimePayment. On Wednesday June 8th, I arrived at my business and the alarm system indicated a "communications error". Called APN and after resetting the system I was told the error was because the system uses a 3G chip and the 3G towers were being fazed out.

I was then told it would need a new chip and it would cost me $299.00. I explained that I have a five year contract and the system is not functioning (without communication from the device, there is no alarm monitoring) and the repair should be covered by APN. I was told they would not. I asked to speak to someone concerning the contact. I was told they would have someone call. Waited until Thursday and did not receive a call.

I called again and the operator told me they would have someone call. On Friday I stilled had not received a call. I called again and asked to speak with someone about my service. Person who answered asked what my question was. I went over the above information. I was put on hold for 5 minutes. The person came back on the line and said they would not cover any of the repair cost.

I then asked what address to direct the cancellation letter to. I was told I need to contact TimePayment. Very poor customer service and lack of desire for for customer retention. APN will not service you account and also sells you account to a mainland company.

A month later, and I get an invoice. So I had to call to ensure my stuff is cleared regardless of being reassured that it was when I spoke on the phone with Zach on 4/1. While I did receive a refund for the bill not supposed to be charged on April I had a feeling something like this would happen so I asked my bank to block charges from this company. 5/9 This morning I spoke with Norma who cleared the invoice that remained there and ensured that I wouldn't be notified any longer. Let's hope that is so. Again, while in the intention is that jobs are completed and to provide customer service, it seems this company has a tough time completing that. It's truly unfortunate because they have potential to do so but based on my own experience and reviews that precede me, it isn't a priority to improve the customer service they provide to be seamless and at the very least, THOROUGH. Shame. Attached are photos of my correspondence.

As someone who's moved off island already and took care of business early on to prevent this, this truly shouldn't be happening. I did my part. DO BETTER. Please. This is a sign from here on out to just stick with Ring and avoid using headache private alarm companies such as these.

Braddah was nice and fast came in and did his thing explained how to use the system very good

Tyler was extreamely helpful, well knowledge, sincere, and totally wonderful! He's a great person into representing your alarm company. He went thru A-Z in checking and in answering my questions. Came with a great attitude, left with that same awsome personable character! Much Mahalo for sending over such a top choice in need! #goodworkersbenoticed

Josh came over to service our alarm system with APN and did an outstanding job taking care of all of the numerous fixes. He also followed up after the visit to make sure everything is working. Outstanding service and definitely 5 stars.

The technician Josh was friendly and thorough. He arrived early, called ahead, and fixed all of our problems! Many thanks!

Josh was a great help and provided excellent service. He upgraded the chip and got it running in less than 10 mins. Barely knew he was there.

Great Company! Great workers! Awesome & fast service! Luv how Customers are their #1 priority! Super happy and satisfied! Mahalo to APN

APN and Roger Van Ness is a joke. They play games with your account and will renew your contract for another five years without your knowledge or consent and bill you. I was dissatisfied with their service from the start. Imagine paying over $2250. for equipment that fails time and time again. Even the upgrades they make you pay for as well as the key fobs. Lots of sales talk about how great they are. MY ADVICE, RUN FROM STEVE VAN NESS OR ROGER VAN NESS AND NEVER GIVE THEM YOUR BUSINESS.

Josh was very polite, respectful, knowledgeable of products, and worked very diligently. Fixed all of our problems. Thank you

We had three sensors that stopped working and Josh came over to look at our system. He was excellent, able to troubleshoot and fix the problem within 10 min. This was the second time Josh serviced our alarm system and both times he did an excellent job.

Company is non responsive and will follow up on their own time. With the supposed 3G "sun down, " the company wants all customers to pay for equipment upgrades themselves. If you do not upgrade, you will still have to pay for service, even though your alarm will not be monitored. I purchased this product 3 years ago to keep my family safe. Now I am being forced to fork over hundreds of more dollars or risk my family's safety.

What a terrible business practice. Now I have to consider legal action because they won't release me from a contract they are presumably in breach of. Do not do business with this company.

I felt compelled to give this review a five star because Doeane was very professional and informative in installing my moms security camera's. I had some technical questions after the job was completed and he was very attentive in his response time. Doeane is friendly and honest and we became friends. Im so happy with his service and I highly recommend him for all your security needs! Da Best.

APN Alarm Company provides top notch customer service. Our experience from start to finish has been positive and I highly recommend their services if you're looking for an alarm company to help secure your property. My brother worked with Roger on the paperwork and details, and appreciated his quick response and action. Zach and Jayson were our on-site techs and they treated us like family, taking great care in ensuring that all of our questions were answered.

We had several cameras installed around our property and they were able to advise on the best placement for maximum camera coverage. They also took great care in checking our motion sensors and our entry/exit door sensors to ensure they were in working order. They also patiently provided multiple tutorials on our keypad, video monitoring device, and the corresponding apps that work with the security system.

Without having to ask, Zach also took the initiative to change out the 2 APN signs outside of our property as they were faded and weathered over time, and he also added a couple of signs about the video monitoring system. They were always patient, always helpful, and never made me feel like they were rushing through answering my questions. I also really appreciated how they addressed my dad as "uncle" - something that's indicative of the Aloha spirit they bring into their work. A warm and genuine Mahalo to Roger, Zach and Jayson for taking care of us!

Terrible experience! Repeated billing errors. Long term billing contracts that you cannot get out of. Similar services available at much lower cost. AVOID!

Customer service is terrible! They say a technician will call you back but never does. You either have to call them back or you end up figuring it out yourself and don't need their help anymore. When I think about it, it's rare to find a company with good service after they collect their money.so sad

Great service, love the coconut tree cameras. They can put cameras anywhere! They can do low cost and high cost security for your home and business.

Someone was supposed change the position of an alarm and I was told they'd come the next day. No one showed up

Someone has actually recommended this company to me. So grateful that they did. I had to get an alarm installed at the new Hilo location for Honolulu Spa and Wellness, i previously had alarm service with the other island alarm company, name of which shall not be mentioned on this review, and I absolutely dreaded doing business with them again. Thank goodness that Ernest at Mattos Electric has recommended this business to me.

You can tell there is a huge difference between doing business with a big mainland company who don't really care for you as a person, but treat you rather as an account payable. Not with this guys. I just felt welcomed and appreciated. Roger who came to do paperwork with me was super professional and easy to talk to. It also helped that he is a veteran like myself.

The installer came a couple days later, he was quick, professional, and really knew his job. I absolutely love the system that they have, it can actually detect a broken window without the need to install sensor on each of the 6 windows. I also love the fact that the system takes a picture of each person who arms and disarms the alarm, my previous alarm company didn't do that.

Oh and the fact that each user gets his own code: genius! I am glad that I chose APN alarm, and I recommend this company to anyone who is looking for a solid, 24hours a day alarm service.

I don't know if anyone else is having problems with this company but I have been a customer for 10 years plus and now when I need to cancel because I no longer reside at the residence it has been a battle for almost 3 months trying to cancel it. I called back in December and spoke to Kat told me I had to go down to the office to submit a written statement with my signature to cancel.

I go down to the office no one comes to the door but the office is wide open. I call while I'm there Kelly tells me to leave the letter on the desk and she will make sure Titus gets it. I call back and Kelly confirms Titus received it and will process in the system and not to worry. I call the next day to make sure it was cancelled and wait on the line for over an hour.

No response. Now today I get a bill with a late fee. I call again leave a message no one returns my call. I email explaining my situation, no one reply's or calls me back. I call again and wait on the phone 15 minutes get an answering I leave another message. No call back. I guess with them switching over to the new company they don't care about their existing customers and just want to continue taking my money. I would not recommend using this company.

Technician was supposed to come out however, did a no call no show. I had even called in the morning of, to make sure they were going to be here. I called the customer service number and the lady on the phone said "oh, the technician that was supposed to come out called in sick" and they should have called you. Wtf! Seriously? Sloppy company and horrible customer service!

Roger Van Ness from APN Alarm Co worked so hard to get my cameras working for me. He diligently came to the house until he could figure out what was wrong with my system. He knows what he's doing! Great company and staff! Highly recommend.

I want to give an awesome review to Alvin and Ben. Both are extremely helpful and professional. Alvin was great about explaining our options for the house. Ben did a wonderful install job and explained the system to us. We are a very satisfied customer.

Josh was my APN technician excellent customer services very friendly and informative and most important fixed my problem in a timely fashion Mahalo APN

Security sale team and part of owner showed up free quote for my place. Had experienced bitter/ sweet broke in few weeks ago. We realized no more safe feeling of my nice neighbors lots mainland drug head moving to hawaii started so bad staff all over this island. We ordered Ring but it's always nice to have actual person show up or if anything happen help fix mechanic issue.

We planing try this company after add Ring" Dylan and Steven are good attitude and try to introducing / explained to us that we can depend on them and there are lots positive points of put local security company. This company serving many many years also lots of franchises store and major store using them. I believe lots big stores such as target or first food store has choice yet they choose this APN that meant strong impression of this is "good security company " we can depend on their system.

I like to recommend to especially BIG ISLAND residents because I research and look for security company and did talk to one that also located office in Honolulu but sales guy's impression was pretty bad and reviews from customers are bad. So most likely this gonna be your choice if you want local security company to take care of your families safety. APN provides discount for recommendations and senior medical alert too.

We want to thank Zack Ching, the technician who installed the system for us. He checked over the work he did; explained the system thoroughly and answered our questions without hesitation and in a very courteous manner. APN should be proud of having an employee like Zack!

Just finished a 5 yr contract w APN. Install was great but support weak. Couldn't get remote access to remain working. They claimed it was my router. Even after I switched routers, still never worked properly. Tried to get this working for over 4 yrs. Finally gave up. Tried to cancel but was told I signed a 5 Yr contract and I woUld have to pay a huge fine to get out.

Then I waS informed that the cancelling had to be in writing/email. Then I was told they needed 30 days notice. Then I was told there was no prorating so basically, it took me an additional 2 months to cancel. They kept giving new "conditions" to get another month of maintenance. To top it all off, they tried to run my credit card yet again this month after officially ending my contract in December. Totally pissed!

I called to cancel my service and the agent said I would be able to cancel but had to provide a 30-day notice. A collector called saying that the American Express Platinum Charge Card declined and that I needed to pay an extra month. I read her the same card numbers again and explained that the agent said I was able to cancel through September. Absolute worst service and would NOT recommend to family or friends. Worst service ever and a total waste of time by incompetent service representatives.-

This is one of the worst companies to deal with. I have been talking to them since I moved out of my place in Sept. 22, 2018 to stop billing me and deducting it from my bank account. They have continued every month deducting the monthly fee even after I talked with the owner - Steven - and he told me he would look into it. Well that was 3 weeks ago and today they deducted another payment from me.

I have sent them many e-mails, made many phone calls to get them to stop charging or deducting my bank for the monthly fee. Till this day almost 8 months after cancelling they are still deducting the monthly fee and are not providing alarm service to my business. I might have to check with an attorney what recourse I have.

I'm sorry to have to write this as our up-front experience with APN was so positive. Overall, we have no complaints about our alarm system but the billing and how APN handles their business is forcing me to switch companies. I got a call a couple of weeks ago from someone in their office saying my account is past due. I was surprised since I always pay my bills on time and I don't remember getting anything from APN (I thought I was on auto pay actually).

When I asked what we owe, she said that we actually haven't paid our 2017 and our 2018 bill--WHAT?! She asked if the credit card on file is still active (it is) and then when I asked if they have my card, why wasn't it charged she said there's been some turnover. Seriously? I sort of recall that something similar had happened back in 2016 and I had to call them to remind them to charge us for the monitoring service. Anyway, I authorized a charge to pay for our 2017 and 2018 bills and they said they will send me the receipt. Then, just the other day, I get a notification that a charge for $900+ hit my account.?! It's from APN and I'm assuming it's for 2017, 2018 and 2019 but that's not what I was told on the phone.

At this point I need to call them to find out what's going on. I'm updating my Yelp review since I was in here writing a review for another company. UPDATE: I checked on my monthly monitoring amount and the $900+ is for the two years, so that's the correct charge--I should have waited before writing my review. I also see that someone from APN has reached out to me as a result of this review. I'm upgrading it to two stars because the charge was correct. It's only two stars because it's not cool to be billed for two years worth of services all at one time and I still haven't received a receipt for the charge.

I also looked in to other monitoring companies and I can get my alarm monitoring for way cheaper. APN doesn't have a local monitoring station anyway and it's not like they provide any customer service to make it worth staying with them.

Jeff and I were recommended to see Peter by our realtor. We reached out to Peter, let him know we just bought a house, and was able to have him do an estimate 2 days later. We were excited about receiving the Ring system (as part of their promo), and if you know anything about it, you know it's worth having. Peter was able to give us a detailed walk through of everything they were installing.

During his speech, I realized APN would be best for us because it was a local, family-based company. It just didn't make sense for us to choose a company who didn't have an 808 phone number. Ikaika came to do the installation of the alarms and panel and did a great job explaining how to use the panel and app. When they came back to install our cameras, we just felt such relief knowing our home was completely secure. It's been about a month since we chose APN and I don't have to worry about my home being invaded. We had one false alarm - forgot to disarm home before opening garage - and I'm so glad we know it works! Thanks so much Peter & Ikaika!