#2 – The Ads say the alarm is free, yet my quote is for hundreds of dollars!
We've all seen the ads for a "free" alarm system, but by the time we get the quote from the salesperson, it involves investing hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. The "free" alarm system is the classic bait and switch. These alarm systems are extremely basic, usually one of the "all in one" keypad/control panels with 2 door contacts and a motion detector. Once in your home, the salesman proceeds to design a system that includes much more than the "free" alarm system does, as he should. However, they charge huge markups for the equipment, and the monthly monitoring rate is too high as well.
So, maybe you decided to go with the "free" alarm system and pay the inflated monitoring rate. First of all, the "all in one" alarm systems (i.e. Lynx, Simon, etc.) are not recommended because an intruder breaking in through the front door will immediately here the keypad/control panel begin beeping an entry delay warning that allows you some time to get to your keypad and disarm your system when arriving home. He can merely go directly to this panel, and rip it off the wall before it has even gone into alarm, thus defeating the security system completely.
The second problem with the "free" security system is that the protection it provides is completely inadequate. When arming the security system while you're at home, the motion detector is generally bypassed, so your only protection is in the event that the burglar should come through one of the 2 contacted doors. The worst part is, now you're stuck paying for monitoring of a security system that you can't and shouldn't feel confident about.

#3 – My alarm went off and nobody called me!
I hear this complaint quite a bit from customers of the "giant" companies. The fact is, these companies have so many customers, that they try to reduce the amount of calls that come in to their monitoring stations by programming a delay into the control panel that keeps the panel from dialing the monitoring station for 20-30 seconds after an alarm has gone off (in fact, often their control panels are special ordered from the manufacturer with this delay defaulted into the programming). That way if you get to the keypad and turn it off before the 20-30 seconds is up, then the monitoring station doesn't get the signal. Amp Alarms always sets up their alarm systems' control panels to respond immediately, even if you turn it off in a split second. Why give an intruder an extra 30 seconds to run through your house, especially if you and your family are at home. Our UL listed monitoring facility is there to respond to customer's alarms, that's what you're paying the monthly monitoring fee for. Why pay monitoring fees to a monitoring station that's taking steps to delay or avoid getting your alarm signals in an emergency?