I get home a few nights ago and Katy tells me that a security consultant came to see her – as part of seeing everyone in the building today – about installing a free alarm system. O.o Just that same day, the whole principle of TANSTAAFL came up at least 3 times while I was at work, so I was a bit dubious to start with. As Katy was telling more of the story, more and more red flags came up. The guy insinuated, without actually saying, that they’d been contacted by the Régie who administers the building about a rise in burglaries (THEY TRIPLED IN THE LAST YEAR!) and how the visit was without obligation, and they’d already been around to all of the neighbours, and the only thing they wanted was for us to put stickers on our mailbox, and how they only had a limited number of free systems to give away…. you get the picture. Katy had Ben (literally) hanging off of her, and the guy was talking in French, so she told the guy to come back one evening next week when I was in.
Cue me doing a bit of internet snooping, to find that most of the elements that came up in his pitch have been reported by others as part of pressure sales tactics, and that, from asking the Concierge, no official (or even officious) referral was given from the Régie. You might get a “free” system, but you had to sign up for a multi-year monitoring contact.
Even their website is rather dubious. Look at these 2 screencaps:
and contrast them with the Protectron website, which I used when I was living in Montreal:
Slight difference in tone.
Hell, even their facebook page only has 3 likes (compared to the 4000+ for Protectron).
I was pretty much convinced that this wasn’t for us, but the clincher came when I tried to cancel the appointment. Classic pressure-sales tactics. “But we’ve already talked to all of your neighbours”, “we only have a limited number of free systems”, “the crime rate has tripled” yada yada yada. I took me 4 tries to cancel the appointment, and at each time there was “but go see apartments 28 A,B,C,D and E!”, “if not this week, can we arrange a meeting for next week?”. In the end, I told him in no uncertain terms that I had his details, and I would talk with my multiple neighbours, and if I was interested I’d call him back and take my chances if all the “free” systems were given away.
A coworker who was sitting next to me almost pissed herself throughout the whole phone call.
