Smart Home Reviews
October 19, 2022
Founded in 1999 by Keith Nellesen and Todd Pedersen, Vivint is a public company focused mainly on growth through direct sales. Vivint has in-house monitoring and their own equipment line. They count on door-to-door sales for their growth and have been known to be dishonest in their practices. Like most smart home/security companies they do have a contract that can be expensive to cancel if you wish to do so before the end of the term.
Above all else, Vivint has been known to be unethical in their business practices. There is a current alert on the BBB for Vivint due to these unethical practices, and they found themselves in a large lawsuit in April 2021 due to sales representatives violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Vivint fired many of these representatives in response, but hired them back shortly after. Vivint was using credit reports from people with similar names to their customers to qualify customers that would otherwise not qualify. Those affected by this are still eligible for compensation from the lawsuit. This, along with other instances, has resulted in Vivint having a D- on the BBB.
Vivint has its own in-house monitoring. While this can improve communication since there is no gap between monitoring center and service provider, it also means that the monitoring isn’t as fast or reliable as a dedicated monitoring company.
In addition to providing their own monitoring, Vivint also makes their own equipment. In addition to potential security flaws, Vivint equipment is not compatible with other providers’ equipment. This means that if you previously had a security system, you will not be able to use any of your previous equipment with Vivint.
They do, however, offer a good variety of security and smart home equipment that work together to facilitate user experience.
Vivint has a well-organized website with a lot of different information available to customers. They offer pages for FAQ regarding the company, its policies, and its equipment as well. They offer a chat service on their website as well as customer service numbers that you can call for help.
Vivint’s prices are about average when it comes to security and smart homes. This is largely due to them doing everything in-house instead of working with other companies. The prices can be considered fair for the equipment received.
Vivint receives an overall score of 4/10 from us. While their prices may be decent, everything else involved with Vivint is far from comforting. Their unethical business practices worry consumers everywhere, their equipment isn’t the best available, and their monitoring isn’t exactly what you would hope for. The last thing you want from a security company is to feel unsafe, and Vivint is a company that causes worry in those who know their values.