A young college aged kid showed up at my door today and boy did use every pitch in the book. In fact it seemed like he wasn’t even keeping his pitches straight. I even let him sit at the dining room table with me. He thought he had me bagged but ultimately a phone call to my wife helped me come to my senses.

He starts up bringing up recent headlines about the “Ring Controversy” — quickly shifts gears to — I am not a salesman… I am just canvasing the neighborhood making contacts because the real salesmen are coming 2 weeks (as sleazy as that was — I actually thought it was a good strategy because that made me let him in the door for the “non sales pitch” Ha Ha). My guy then proceeded to say something like if you help us be an ambassador for Vivint we can give you a couple pieces of equipment for free but we can’t give you everything to free . Can I show you a video? We will cover everything up front.

As someone who works in I.T. — I was honestly impressed by the technology aspect of it. Specifically the 1) window triggers (glass break sensors),2) the dual cellular system (he said Verizon + ATT sims), and 3) some kind of electrical sensor that can detect excessive heat in the wires ( my house is old).

Then he asks me if I am “cool” (Huh??) he said something like instead of getting priority service whenever a tech comes out here, that I would be placed on standby priority for tech support and also if I could post a sign in my front yard for 60 months. I said go on tell me the price

He wanted me to guess the cost of equipment. i think he really overvalued it to like $4000. Then he said my price was $99 a month for 60 months. Lets call it 6 grand. (39 a month after that) i felt really uncomfortable about that. My wife had just left for work. I was able to get her in the car. She said don’t sign at that price. My wife countered with 36 months @ 99, then 39. Salesman came back and said — best he could do was 36 months @ 130. I told him no deal and he walked. Apparently he got my neighbor up the road to sign up.

So where can I go for a high tech system — with some of those features without the slimeball approach? My wife and I want to look at the Costco ADT / Nest deal. It seems much more honest. $799 for equipment, $50 a month for Costco members. 2 year commitment. However, I don’t know if it has all the technology of the Vivint equipment or cellular backup.

Advice please?