The Monitoring Center

I had a new door installed. Its about $4000.
Called in TMC to reinstall the door sensor. Instead of drilling a straight hole, the installer drills a hole going to the bottom of the door. So now the beautiful door has a big chunk missing. Called the service manager (Derek). Let's see what happens.

We have been with the Monitoring Centre for about 10 years. They have given quality service for a very reasonable price. Once, they were not able to reach us in time to call off a false alarm, but it was more our fault as we are not dedicated cell phone users.

We have been with the Monitoring Center for 10 years and are completely satisfied with not only their service but also the price! For the first 5 years, it was $9.99 per month and is now $12.99. We still occasionally trip the alarm and within minutes, Monitoring Center is checking with us to ascertain what the situation is. Our house insurance is significantly lower because of our alarm system.

Contacted TMC to get the details on their $9.99 alarm deal. They promised timely/professional onsite service. They came, got me to sign the contract, and said they will finish up the work at a later date because they were not prepared to do the work. Subsequent appointments cancelled last minute due to very lame reasons. No staff even though the appointment was confirmed. No ladder to do work. Part was not available. They even had the nerve to tell me they re-evaluted the work and it would cost me another $800. TMC told their staff to walk away from the work if they did not get the additional funds. Called their monitoring center to speak to someone in charge. What a surprise, no one with authority was available. They don't even reply to voice mail. Now I am trying to get this one year contract cancelled.

I've had some experience with alarms, having worked in two different Canadian Monitoring stations (neither of them were TMC) and having installed alarm systems for a living.

I was well aware of the markup in alarm monitoring, and really just wanted a central station watching over my alarm system (burglary and fire). I didn't want fancy monthly/weekly reports as to activity, and didn't want the station to keep track of whether the system was armed or not.

TMC has delivered on their promise. Their technician was professional and pleasant, arrived on time and tested the system fully.

We've had a few alarms since (legitimate false alarms, mainly due to pets) and TMC has always been prompt in calling the keyholders (or in one rare case, dispatching the local police).

We moved after 11 months of service and TMC was right on the case following up on when the system would be active at the new address, ensuring that the zone list was correct and that our emergency contacts had remained the same.

Frankly their service is much better than companies that charge 2.5X the money.

I'm a satisfied customer.

Updated: 30 March, 2014 - I am still a satisfied and current customer of TMC years after writing the review above, but should note that I did recently get my monthly rate increased without explanation from the posted and highly advertised $9.99 a month to $12.99 a month (Keeping in mind that I did enjoy the $9.99 rate for 5 years) which I found a little disappointing. We do not generate many alarms and you would think that customer loyalty would be rewarded, not penalized.

Update: We've changed monitoring stations. We were able to arrange monitoring at the old $9/mo rate somewhere else.

TMC will not refund any portion of your annual fee, but will keep a "credit" on file that you can use later or transfer to another customer. Not happy with this, but frankly it's been the only disappointment (aside from the rate increase) in the time we'd been with TMC.

I'd still recommend TMC, but would warn people that they will inevitably raise your rate after a few years at the $9.99/mo level.

We have been with TMC for almost 3 years and just renewed our contract. Overall, we are satisfied, but we find the service is sometimes hit or miss; for example, we do not always receive a phone call after a false alarm or after a power failure. But they are so much cheaper than the other companies we considered that we just haven't made a change.

We have had the monitoring centre for over 12 years in our home. They came and checked the alarm and modified and put us on fire and alarm monitoring, 24/7.OUr insurance rate was then lowered. Very reasonable and when the alarm goes off they call and you give them the code number they gave you so you can id yourself and then tell them if it is a false alarm or not. The cost is well below other companies who monitor at $25 per month and they have servcie people who can assist with all alarm needs.

Dealt with these guys for several years and then they jacked up the rates for me as an existing customer. $9.99 is not for long-term customers according to their customer service and so I cancelled when I was advised my new rate was $12.99. Nice to see a company try to take a 30% increase in a time of recession and not give additional value for services received. I found a local guy that matched their increased price to take over my system and he will also service it.

Cost for new customers are $9.99 per month but for repeat customers it is at least $12.99 per month. This cost is cheaper than bigger companies but only if false alarms and other alarm events rarely occur because there are charges for almost everything.