When I applied for Vivint I was skeptical at first only because I was i’m familiar with the company, but my friend had their whole system hooked up in their house and I was amazed so I decided to give it a try. when I applied, they literally contacted me back within five minutes TOPS of me putting in my application. The customer service was amazing. Although the sales representative didn’t do a very good job at telling me the total cost of the entire equipment, the technician who came to hook it up broke it all down to me and explained everything to the T. The technician (Bronson) who came was the nicest and down to earth guy I could’ve asked for and did a amazing job at explaining how everything worked. He installed everything very quick and asked me questions about where I wanted everything and even gave advice on where the best place to put it was. He did little drilling to make sure there was no damage to the outlets to set up my outside cameras and made sure he cleaned up everything. He accidentally ripped his fingernail but of course we made sure he was okay but he didn’t let that stop him from getting the job done. I couldn’t of asked for a better person for the job. He gave me his contact info incase i had any questions and we both ended the day with a smile on our faces. Thank you Vivint!!!
The app itself is very useful and comes in handy all the time. I have the smart lock, the smart doorbell, and 2 cameras and they work perfectly. The cameras give me good quality pictures and video plus there is less than a 1 second delay with the live video when monitoring from my phone. The motion-activated sensor on the doorbell works very well during the day, evening, or night even when the front porch light is off. The microphone and speaker on the doorbell makes it easy and safe to communicate with people I don’t know who approach my door. If I see someone trying to break in from the camera, it gives me the option to take a live picture from my phone and it automatically records movement picked up by the cameras. The app gives me notifications without delay for everything that happens inside and around my home whether it’s the doorbell being rung, the door being opened, motion from the cameras, my alarm system being armed and disarmed, or even my door being locked and unlocked. They really thought of everything to give you the maximum protection against threats or otherwise. I highly recommend Vivint for your home security and the Vivint app for easy access and extra insurance for the security of your home and the people you live with. (P.S. the alarm noise is REALLY, REALLY LOUD!!)
I have been using the app now for a week and found some annoyances. Mainly in the dashboard. I feel like it could be more customizable. I would like to have the option of the dashboard returning back to the security screen when I open the app every time, or any specific screen the customer would want to see when they open the app. Secondly, the security screen should have the option to add light/ room switches to the security screen for ease of use. I have ten Phillips bulbs in six rooms and this app does not make me want to go to it to operate those switches. Which doesn’t really make this the smart home controller that I was sold on. Third, I believe camera notifications for people detection should have a link to the video recording. Makes no sense to read the notification and then have to go somewhere else in the app to see the video. Lastly, the administration portion of the app does not work well. Initially when setting up the camera to my specifications, the app would pop up errors of configuration failed, but when setting it up on the panel, there was no issues. Fortunately, I now have it setup to my liking. For a lesser tech savvy person, I could see this as ver frustrating. I understand the connections between admin trough the internet and admin through Zwave, but not all users are tech savvy. And I also understand that there is tech support that can be called, but why should I need them if the product was simpler to use?
I don’t usually write reviews on things. But I wanted to put it out there.
Sales guy came to my door and we said we had to think so he came back the next day and decided to make the switch to them. They were here until 2 am installing everything but then had to come back 3 different times to figure out wiring. I was not that impressed. They state there price only goes down however what they don’t tell you is your taking out a line of credit in your name for the equipment . it is not part of the bill at all so you get “charged” twice a month. They state you do not have to pay for the equipment however that’s what the line of credit is for.
Also I told the sales guy I did not want a thermostat he insisted that I have it .. we got it installed and my ac/furnace is only a year old and came with its own thermostat. When they installed Vivint thermostat they messed up the wires and my ac is now messed up and there is nothing any company can do. I had my ac company put on the original thermostat that came with it and now I’m paying for a piece of equipment I no longer use.
In all I’m happy with the security system. However lately my cameras have been glitching and when I go back to rewatch what happened over the night I can not and it just looks like a picture.
Not saying all this will happen to you however it happened to me so I would just like people aware
I love this system and service but I only have one complaint. I have an iPhone and early on when I first got the system this didn’t happen, but some time after an update on the app things changed where I now have a problem while trying to change the temperature in my home. I go to thermostat and when I click on downstairs this doesn’t happen, but when I click on upstairs and try to change from heat to cool or off, whenever I touch the button it doesn’t work. If I go over and touch fan, nothing either. Only after I go up to the top area and click on the 3 lines or to the sprocket and touch there and come back out can I then go back down to the bottom and click the temp or fan button and it then works. Consistently every time these are the steps I have to take in order to change the temperature but only on the upstairs setting, not the down. This never happens on my husbands Samsung phone. I’ve updated the app so many times through the hub and this glitch never goes away and it’s been well over a year now since this has been happening. I’ve changed cell phones to a new iPhone and still the same issue. I wish someone would fix this. Thank you for listening.
1. Lately all the cameras are “Tap to skip to the next video”, usually happens when we need the video playback the most. 2. Long lag on doorbell camera, by the time I get the doorbell camera to load on the app the people have already left. 3. The alarm started to count down on its own and we didn’t even set it(lucky I was home). 4. The “orange boxes” under detection settings constantly disappear and we have to reset each box for each camera two to three times a month. 5. When we call the customer service center they blamed me for not “checking on the detection boxes periodically” or blamed me cause “our panel wasn’t updated with the latest software?” I have more issues but this post isn’t going anywhere, as I have sent emails up the ladder only to be compt’ed for one one month of service, but it is still crappy service. I don't care how much you charge me monthly, just please make the system work like it is intended to. They have really gone down hill in the last year. Can’t cancel cause it renders the camera useless. They are charging me $35/mth just so I can use my own equipment, no vivint monitoring or emergency calls to the authorities, THAT is the real crime.
I have had Vivint since 2017. I have had roughly 30-40 different issues that required a technician to come out to fix. My house was deemed a 1 percent house. That means I have a team and a technician assigned to my house. They have replaced cameras several times replacing the wireless bridges several times currently they said they are having firmware issues and have given me free service since the features are not working. I have spent countless hours on the phone dealing with these issues. I have had a open work order for 3 weeks. I can not get anyone to call me back, so I emailed several contacts that were available online and still no contact from anyone. I have called the regional manager yesterday that is his last week there and still no response. I will be switching over to adt or different company soon. The problem is not all security companies have the options that Vivint does. The 5 cameras 2 doorbell cameras thermostat deadbolt locks the month of storage. I just wish they would figure out what the issue is so I can keep there service. I would just like to know if others are experiencing the same issues and the lack of wanting to honor the lifetime warranty. They are trying to make me purchase 2 new doorbells and 2 pro cameras. When there are nothing wrong with the new ones they put up last month. If I needed new equipment they should have replaced it when they put the old style doorbell instead of the version 1.
I’m sure this is a great company. I think they have done away with master electricians because the system is no longer being installed right with the electrical wires inside the walls. It is being installed with a plug. I have personally one on accident bumped the plug and it has been disconnected from the main monitoring system. I left and then the monitoring company called me to tell me it was disarmed and I had worked 18 hours that way and it was really inconvenient. I’m thinking about switching over to a company that will do a different job.
As far as the application, the menus are not at all user-friendly. For example I have brinks at home and I can program it very easily to tell me who is opening the door who is not opening the door. To give them certain privileges. On the Vivint Application it is so difficult to figure out where the setting is, even then you’re guessing because it is not clear in any way shape or form. I think this is something the company can work on as I think they already have a big customer base. It would be nice for me at least because I am legally blind and needed a more user friendly company to work with.
As far as a service, the people that work for this company are excellent people and have never had an issue so far to work with them.
I really love the Vivint security system. The installation wasn’t fast it took time. A lot of work. Even though it was pouring rain all day they still showed up and installed. The installer was a perfect gentleman full of knowledge. He took the time to explain everything I’m 60 years old and my husband is 68 years old not at all familiar with smart home devices. Because of the simplicity of the Vivint security system we also added google home devices. The smart home that was provided is easy to use and we feel very safe. The first time we left the house my Yorkie set the alarm off and I immediately deactivate it and within a minute Vivint called to make sure everything was alright. We have a complete view of the front of the house including our three driveways, both sides and the back yard of the outside of our home. I have one camera in the den and it’s wonderful to be able to see and talk to the grandkids when they visit and I am contemplating installing more inside cameras. We live on almost a acre of land and the video is clear, even at night. Thank you Vivint for making security affordable and our life simple.
The app itself is better than previous version, however connectivity is horrible. I constantly am being disconnected from video when trying to view my cameras, half the time the app does not load or takes more than a minute to load. What’s the point of having security cameras and alerts when you cannot load the video in time? We use a camera in garage for backing up the boat in the tight space and sometimes it takes me 15 minutes because the video would drop after 5-10 secs, then load again and then drop again and take 2-3 minutes to load. I would have to exit out of app and close it, then load the video again and then it would drop the video. Mind you this all happens while I have full reception of Wi-Fi because I purposely bought a strong enough mesh system and put one in the garage for this reason. I’ve tried to get an answer from vivint and they blame the app connecting to the garage door openers which is another problem in itself that sometimes shows that it failed to close the garage door, when I sat there in the car and watch the door close. And then sometimes the app works fine. Not really much help from Vivint other than them telling me to update the app, so every time I have these issues I look for an update that isn’t available.
We had a new Vivint system installed a week ago and could not be happier. The app has functioned perfectly for us, arming, disarming, viewing live cameras, play back of previous footage, search of old footage (we do have the sky monkey which allows 30 days storage), we use the app to lock and unlock doors and also we have connected our Hue Bridge and can control our lights with the app as well. We have set up custom actions that work like a charm. Things as detailed as, when system is disarmed from keypad, turn kitchen and living room lights in 50% for 30 minutes.
When I needed help adding the hue bridge, I used the support option in app and chatted with an agent. It was 11pm, I had 13 people ahead of me and I had about a 5 minute wait time. Not bad. They helped and resolved immediately. The next day when I needed help on adding a user I did same chat, I had 5 ahead of me and took maybe a minute. We are just completely pleased with our equipment, our sales person Mitch, our installer Ben, the customer service agents and this app. It has worked perfectly for us.
The application for Vivint is OK. It stalls a lot and that is not helpful when you need to have a more immediate response when you’re trying to see who’s at your front door. But the service overall has been incredibly disappointing. We have had over the last several years about eight different representatives, all of whom have not delivered on promises that were made when we first got the service. The customer service through Covid was unbelievably terrible and now it’s barely any better. No matter how many customer service representatives we have talk to they all make promises to make the right, the many wrongs of the service and not one person, including the supervisor has responded to concerns that we have registered literally for years. There are always Vivint customer service reps, crawling throughout our neighborhood, and we stop every one of them to share our experience. They all express their regret, take our phone number, and file to have someone to contact us immediately. We’re still waiting, and it’s been three years. I do not recommend Service to anyone. It is a support example of what excellent customer service should be, and it is far less than what any customer deserves. This is an expensive service with very cheap attention to the needs of its customers.
I’ve intentionally held back from leaving a review for months just so I could fully evaluate this app. I got their service in January. So, now let me share my experience. The app and cameras go offline every 1-2 hours per day. I’m very tech savvy, but my experience thus far takes the cake. I’m not impressed and I spend more time I. The phone troubleshooting the issue. Only to discover that I end up with a solution vs the reps. You guys have to hire a more competent staff and fix this app!!! Goodness, it’s so unstable. I can’t even look at the live view after updating to the percentage buffer when the video is loading via my doorbell. I met with constant error messages. Do more testing or get better beta testers to ensure the app will work before releasing it. This is ridiculous. I’m beyond annoyed at this point!!! 😤
Update 11/2
I don’t understand why you all would remove the ability to reset the panel from the phone. It was helpful having that feature. Now if the panel is down and I’m checking my home from the phone. Everyday I have to call you all to fix it because the panel goes offline every single day. Stop removing things and focus on making the app experience more stable. Apparently your beta testers and the app developers need to do a better job before releasing these updates because the app becomes more and more useless every release.
Aggressive Sales, Poor Product, Disappointing Customer Service
While the representative who sold us on this system was very compelling, our experience with Vivint has been anything but. The install process took over six hours— no information was communicated about the lengthy process involved when sold the system. There are frequent issues with the app requiring restarting. One of our cameras has not been working for over a month and technical support is very frustrating to deal with over chat, as they make you repeat previous troubleshooting steps that failed to correct the problem despite you telling them that. Then they have the audacity to upsell you on products when making an appointment for a specialist to come out to your house which is incredibly insulting— why would I want to buy more junk products that barely work from a company that clearly cares more about its bottom line than providing the functionality it promised its customers? The specialist no-showed for the appointment scheduled with a representative via chat, and when calling support we found out the appointment had apparently been rescheduled without ANY communication from Vivint. Extremely disappointed with the experience I’ve had with this company and I would not recommend it to anyone.
Customer Service is the worst I have ever experienced.
They sold us try to install it that night, but it was just becoming too late at night 10 o’clock is too late to install equipment said someone would come back the next day they showed later that afternoon and didn’t leave until almost 10 o’clock that night. Someone said they would come back tomorrow and fix the cord they had installed in the garage bring the smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector as well as my fathers life alert no one ever showed. I followed up a couple times a week was never able to get anybody to contact me until I literally was on hold being transferred within five hours at a minimum to get someone to finally come to my home, they never showed. The next day I called I was on hold with someone trying to figure out what happened for three hours promised someone would come out tomorrow between the hours of eight and 12 to deliver the equipment that was missing and fix the cord in the garage, No one ever showed. I called a few more times and felt like I was just getting a run around . Now I’m probably going to have to call again and be on the phone for five hours just to get somebody to come out. If this happens again I will 100% percent will get rid of this equipment and get somebody else more reliable.
Is there a reason that the app is not compatible with landscape mode on an iPad? It would be great to use it as a secondary touchscreen mounted in another room of the house. All of my other smart home apps have the ability to work in portrait or landscape mode. Please work on this, Vivint.
Thanks for fixing the issue I stated below regarding the cropped screen. Not sure yet about the Nest functionality. I updated the panel to 3.10 so I’ll have to give it a few more days or weeks before I can tell. I’m glad you guys added support on the app and the panel for Philips Hue lights but what about adding it for the Apple Watch? Any idea when this might be updated?? Thanks in advance!
I’m pretty sure the “fix” you guys did for the iPhone X has caused an issue with the resolution on all other iPhones. Whenever I pull up a camera now, the image is lowered at the top and cut off at the bottom. Please fix this for users who haven’t made the leap to the X. Also, I consistently lose connectivity to my Nest. I have talked to tech support and performed a reboot on the Sky Panel at least 6 times and it will work for a few weeks and then stop. It’s not my WIFI.
Initially when I got the system I thought the images were awesome and great but now something has changed. My daytime images almost look black and white I can’t even tell the different colors or shades that are outside which will be a problem when trying to describe someone to the police. I can’t tell what color they have on or what color a car is because there’s no color in my camera anymore. Also my system has disconnected from the Wi-Fi many times. The last time my system disconnected they could not get it to reconnect and had to come out and service my panel and that took a whole week to get an appointment . For that entire week I wasn’t able to view my security system from the app while I was at work or away from home it was a awful feeling. I got a $15 credit ... woohoo! Smdh My water sensor went out weeks ago and it takes at least eight weeks to get a new one so I haven’t had a water sensor for almost 2 months. Its exhausting to deal with this system and I’ve only had it about four or five months and I’m regretting purchasing it. About to call them again and try to figure out why I have Black and white images with no color on my camera.
I’ve had vivint for nearly a year now and I’ll say it’s not worth the money. The security is great with lock door features and the options of alarming the house when your away, however we really hoped the cameras would be better than Rings camera as they said it should, but it’s worse and lacking. We have terrible neighbors and trying to build a case against them we need our cameras to record any movement in our front and backyard. When we had ring we can save the footage whenever we went to live camera mode as well as talk through our back camera, and the detection sensitivity was so high it even start recording when a cat was detected in our backyard, but vivint don’t even have that feature let alone high sensitivity detection. Vivint never records whenever something is detected in our backyard or porch even when I put the settings to high sensitivity. We always have huge time gaps in our camera recording time. Even when using the app and we need to check the cameras it never fully work or we get a message saying the vivint system is having troubles. For the money and trouble we spent on this service I expected better at the end we still continue to use our Ring regardless of having Vivint that’s how terrible I feel it is.
This company is a scam and doesn’t deserve 4.5 stars
First off I just wanted to say that these people lie. I was home one day and a salesmen came to my door and presented me with Vivint, a cutting edge security system that can control your thermometer, lights, motion detector and has a doorbell that records videos. It all sounded amazing so I decided to purchase it. The very next day the system lost WiFi, so I couldn’t even access the system while I was at work. I was told it would still record even while it was offline, which was a lie. I called the service team and was told that they couldn’t fix it. I then had to call the guy would sold me the system and he came over, told me that apparently they received a batch of faulty panels from the manufacturer and they just needed to replace it. That night a technician came over to replace the motherboard, which did not fix the issue. After about 2 hours they decided to replace it with a brand new, “hasn’t even been released to the public” smart hub panel. The seller told me that this new model wouldn’t have any issues. Only a week had passed before another issue with the smart hub panel came up. It is an inconvenience on me to have to call multiple times a month to have any issues with this system taken care of. This security system is not worth buying and I wish I never had.
Let me start by saying, I wanted my comment nickname to be “frustrated customer” and it was taken…. Not a good start…. We recently had our system installed. It’s our first time having a Vivint system, and have had several issues. The installation technician did not put batteries in the thermostat, and when they were finally installed it caused all other devices (including the A/C) to crash, because the system had not been “calibrated properly”. No doorbell or cameras either. They wouldn’t send a tech out until they walked us through troubleshooting it over the phone. When I say I spent a FRUSTRATING hour and a half on the phone, it’s an understatement.. We were then told that a technician wasn’t available for two weeks. Which meant no air conditioning for two weeks, in August, in Oklahoma!! Then we were told they would wave the service fee and that we “probably won’t owe anything”. SERIOUSLY?? It was never installed properly. Why would us owing anything even be considered?? After throwing a big fit, they were able to get someone out in three days. The new technician showed us features and codes we had not been shown at installation. This company has some improvements to make.
I write and work using my IPad. I use a case with a keyboard. It is always with me. Everything works great and I love Vivint. Customer service is very awesome. My Doorbell Cam, indoor camera’s etc. all work with very little down time. Always easy to reset. I use one Camera to help take care of my Elderly mother who has severe Dementia. We can make sure she is alright and we can talk to her using the camera. She can’t answer the phone anymore. Vivint as a company gets 5 stars from me. But, until this app has Landscape mode it only gets a 1 from me. If some rings doorbell or I get a notification I have to try and get my IPad out of its case. Or flip everything to see it. Very irritating. I have an IphoneX too. The app is awesome for it I love it. I do not need the phone when writing on the IPad. In fact I often do not want it to disturb me. I have to keep it near me now. This app is basically useless to me. My Ipad is very new. I love it. I guess I expected it look like my panel. It is Landscape. Hopefully Vivint will fix this soon. I did give it a 1. It works awesome if my Ipad is not in its case.
I love this app it is so easy to use a is VERYYY helpful. My family and I use this. We have 5cameras and the doorbell. It works so nicely. When you watch the live camera or doorbell it’s less than 1 second delay which is amazing! It notifies you right away when there’s motion. Not just that but the people that came to put the cameras and doorbell on, are so nice, and they have great service. I definitely recommend this app!!! When you talk through the cameras, the audio is so clear and loud. You can lock your door easily even if you leave the house it will notify you and you can lock it from your phone. I love that it has the emergency tab. Or when someone’s in your house and they say to turn the alarm off there’s a button you click and put your passcode and the app will send help and it will look like the alarm is off but it isn’t. On the emergency tad they have three options panic, emergency , and fire. I love this app it’s a life saver..!!!!!!!❤️
We absolutely love the app when the Vivint system is functioning correctly. Mainly the video doorbell constantly stops working and the Sky Panel has to be rebooted to get the video functioning again which is very annoying. Technicians have been out several times, get it working only for it to stop working again sometimes hours, days or weeks later. My guess is that the Skye panel itself may need updating because my internet/WiFi works excellently. Only this time, the video is working on the Sky Panel but not on the app. So this issue may be a problem with the app. Also, we have a 2nd indoor camera that never worked after the technicians left our home. It may stay on 30 mins or less then goes offline. I think that Vivint needs to update all video components to their system. The remaining components are stable and works perfectly. We receive a lot of package deliveries which is why we need the video doorbell to work consistently. We love the system but may consider switching to a different company that can offer comparable services on a more stable system.
The app is good! A few tiny bugs but usually very stable and reliable. Unfortunately and more importantly please! Please bring back Status View on the the Hub. Not sure what the issue is with deactivating the status view. I really miss it! My kids miss it too. We want the option of activating it or deactivating it. Please Vivint give us back control of the status view! I’ll give you 5 Stars when you do.
Update: Vivint has totally removed the Status View from the HUB! Are you guys planning to replace it with a more stable or similar view? Or are you completely done with it? I don’t understand the need to totally get rid of it. The explanation on the panel makes no sense. You guys update all the time but they’re still connection issues with the cameras. Dropped recordings. Communication via the microphone to the doorbell camera whether on your phone or using the control panel is “sometimish.” Something so simply like the ability to always see the time/clock and constant weather is appreciated. Not to mention it would go a long way with most of your clients. Just bring it back please!
I keep having problems with this app., for instances, the app keeps going offline, stating that the wifi is not connected, when it is. Why is this keeps happening. The pictures on the apps are dark. Why is this happening as well? What’s the point of having this app if it doesn’t work properly? Can you please fix this glitch? Thank you.
Again I’m disappointed with you app!!!! It seem that my first review was ignored. I’m still having the same problem plus now the alarm that should go off when someone or animal is at my front door is not. My plant which was near the front door was attacked by a raccoon and not once did the alarm went off or the video took clips of the attack that night. Keep in mind that the deter was on and still no alarm. Yet early the next day the alarm went off for no reason. It did this 17 times and even recorded clips of no one there. The only reason I was aware that a raccoon attack my plant and not the wind was looking back at the unrecorded video and actually seeing the raccoon attacking my plants. Not to mentioned that one of the first recorded clip shows the camera flashing like it was taking a picture of the front door area with no one there. Can you please fix this problem!!!
We have had many of the same issues others here have written. Since our installation around Christmas time our system, cameras, doorbell, microphones, app, panels freezing and no reset helps, etc have never ever functioned appropriately since the minute the first install tech left!!!! We have had multiple technicians out and have notified Vivint nearly every time (exhausting, inconvenient, annoying). We have told their manager fix it or give us our money back. No response. So we call back for a repair tech. Each visit’s fixes and upgrades do nothing. We have repeatedly heard “Your home is too large, cameras are too far away”?!? Really?!? Then why sell to us telling us it will all be great?! Everything is delayed just like many here have written. We get double notifications, mics don’t work, video starts after the car has driven in or out of view. We have our doorbell on our gate. We never have gotten a live feed or live notification ever! It’s really really shady business to charge what they do and the product does not work even close to promised. Only our Nest works and that’s not even Vivint’s. Ugh! VIVINT I would like you to honor your commitment or give us a full refund and put our house back the way you found it!
Oftentimes, the app doesn’t work, or stops functioning correctly; like the cameras going offline. I have to constantly uninstall the app and reinstall it again. I just literally had to reinstall it at this very moment. There have been instances that I was out in a rural area and I couldn’t turn off my alarm. My husband would come home (he doesn’t know the passcode, crazy I know) and he ended up having to subjected to the alarm sound for 2 hours until I got home to turn it off. My cameras go offline quite a bit too. My alarm had several false alarms and they tried contacting me thru texts, email and I think phone calls (not sure about the calls), but NO ONE sent the authorities neither time! And I am locked in with a contract for 2 or 3 more years (5 years, unbeknownst to me). And customer service can only give so much help, like help you to troubleshoot. It’s having to go thru what I’ve stated in this review again, and again, and again that it starts to be a pain in the rear end. I would have given it a higher rate had I not been going through all these issues for the past 3 years.
Every time I attempt to use Vivint from
My Apple Watch it tells me to sign into Vivint using my iPhone. I am already and always signed in on my iPhone, so as soon as I open the app Vivint is available for use on my watch (sometimes because this has issues as well). Here is what’s frustrating…..if I have to use my phone to open the Vivint app on my watch there is then no need to use the app on my watch, I might as well use the app on the phone to perform actions. I use the Vivint app on my watch for convenience, having to also use my phone removes this convenience. Is Vivint getting away from having the app accessible on Apple Watches? If so, I can uninstall the Watch app and recondition myself to use my phone, but if this is not so please create an update to fix this. This issue has been present for weeks now, but as of recent I have also not been getting notifications on my watch about activity at my home regarding my alarm system and/or doorbell which is concerning. Any help with this issue would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Don’t always get alerted of “visitors”, and definitely does not detect everything and the voice mode on the doorbell rarely ever works. I do enjoy the special doorbell chimes for the holidays and the clarity on the doorbell cameras. The cost is high for what it is and don’t like the reinstall fee whenever we move since I was initially told in the beginning I wouldn’t be charged for moves (but more than likely, the sales person was just trying to get a sale). There has been a lot of improvement from with their employees compared to when we first signed up for this, so that is good. Also do not like that the installers keep saying we requested info on insurance when we haven’t, which in turn leads to lots of phone calls 🙄
Pros: camera clarity, holiday doorbell chimes, easy use of app, generally easy to troubleshoot basic things
Cons: cost, voice mode often does not work, doesn’t always detect people/movements, phone calls related to insurance, reinstall fee with moves, sales people will say anything to get you to purchase and are not always truthful
Doesn’t provide some badly needed features like others
The Vivint system has a critical missing feature that they don’t acknowledge and could likely fix easily. If you have cameras outside your house, there is not a ‘mute this device’ button. It’s driving me and my family nuts. Great security at night or while you’re traveling but if the kids want to play basketball or anything else, the camera notifications drive you nuts. If you want to mute the cameras, good luck. You have to go in and shrink the detection zone as small as possible since turning off notifications seems to do nothing. What people need is ‘mute this device’ for a specified time. We could do that with our old Ring system. For instance if you have contractors lingering in your driveway or kids playing basketball, I’d like a ‘mute for 3/4/5/or 6 hours’ setting for my watch and or phone. Something you’d think that they would think of, yet it isn’t there. I’ve talked to them about and they took it under consideration. 🙄 I don’t think they have a customer advisory board or even really consider how their systems may be implemented. Frustrating.
BUYER BEWARE!!! Warning!!! If you read this…Take a look at the real reviews on BBB and Business complaints website The positive reviews are likely from Vivint themselves. DONT BUY, YOU’LL REGRET IT! Currently, they’ve restricted tech support on my account. Who does this to a customer buying their product and it doesn’t work! They’ve given no reason real reason as to why and I’ve only had them since March 2022. They use alternative offers to keep until your 2 weeks expire or tell you you have 3days to cancel. Only 2 techs arrived to care for the problems, so now they won’t send anyone without the area supervisors approval. Puzzling and angry with this company.! They’ve been sued for fraud, read about!!! Don’t Buy!! My system would not connect online. It reboots from the app and when I look at my system there is no rebooting process from the panel. The cameras are blurry and many time the visuals deletes without you doing so. This system is hacked and I can’t rely on them for support; always, whenever I call I’m told they have to wait for a response from this area tech supervisor and no one calls me back as promised. Buyer regret!
The app rarely works for us. We are constantly having to reboot. Every time we’ve gotten notifications that our alarm is going off, Vivent calls to ask if our home is okay... and we’re not home so how would we know?? It causes such panic because we have been burglarized in the past. After we request they notify law enforcement, they have called back every time to say the police won’t be dispatched. Then what’s the point of having an alarm system?? And for the amount of time it takes to do all that, if our home was being burglarized they would be long gone. The cameras - when “online” - have been useful on occasion but typically when we really need them to actually work because we’re away from home they are “offline” and useless. For the amount of money we pay for the system and cameras and doorbell, I’d expect a lot better product. From day 1 the doorbell camera hasn’t worked properly. The only piece of mind it offers is that if our home is broken into while we’re away, at some point we will be notified. The way the system is set up won’t prevent burglars or make them leave... but at least we’ll be informed.
We’ve been with Vivint for 5 years and could not be happier to cancel our contract. In that 5 years, Vivint changed our contract by cancelling a service we paid for (cloud storage with space monkey), failed to honor our moving terms that were specifically discussed before we signed our contract, and had faulty equipment installed at our new house that resulted in the police being called and my home being searched while we were gone. The app itself is horrible. Playback on our cameras almost never works. It takes about 2 hours to get playback to do anything if it decides to. Our camera on the front door always disconnects and sends an error. The app settings are set to auto record a doorbell ring and visitor but it only records if the bell is rung. The sales people for this company are AMAZING. Truly nice and honest people. They try to upgrade and sell to us often. We don’t bite any more because the customer service after you’ve signed up with Vivint is THE LOWEST OF THE LOW. Vivint does not care about anything but money. They are not a security company that wants to protect you. They just want your cash. Worst 5 year contract ever!!!
I’ve had the Vivint system for about 6 months now and it’s been decent, but the app needs major improvement. At least once a week I will have to manually lock doors, close the garage, or arm/disarm the system. Which I know sounds like I’m just being lazy, but it’s the times when I need to access these things remotely that it becomes an issue. I’ve had items delivered to my home or needed to give a repair person access while I’m at work and I’ve gone to access the app and it simply refuses to connect to my system at all and that’s incredibly frustrating. There’s times when I’m in my driveway trying to arm my system after I’ve locked my doors and closed my garage and I go to arm my system and it won’t cooperate, so I have to go back inside and do everything manually. Whats the point of home automation when you’re app refuses to cooperate with the hub, which in turn negates the convenience of your app? If the convenience of the app is a big selling point for Vivint’s system for you like it was for me when I was shopping systems maybe look elsewhere because it’s definitely not the convenience they claim.
If you’re considering Vivint, don’t!!! This review would be too long to type out my full experience but I paid for my equipment in full up front and was told I would owe $0 on a monthly basis if I paid for my equipment (opposed to financing it). Then got charged $40 a month and called to let them know I paid for my equipment already and they said that $40 was for “monitoring services” so they lowered my monthly bill to $30 a month but apparently upon that phone call it entered me into a contract (I was unaware of and never signed anything). Then I sold my home and they wanted to charge me to move my equipment (that I own and paid for in full already). So I left the equipment with the home and went to cancel my service and they told me I had to BUY OUT MY CONTRACT??! I was wondering “what contract” so upon calling and finding out that I got a lower rate for complaining about the salesman lying to me, that entered me into a contract and I owed $400 in order to cancel. So I paid that fee and then a month later saw they were STILL withdrawing money from my account. This company is full of fees and hidden services contracts and cannot be trusted
One of the first things I noticed about this app was its ease of use. Even for non-tech saavy folks, the UI is easily navigable and intuitive. There’s very little searching that needs to be done to access most of the features. I love how simple they make the process of setting custom rules, though I hope in the future they offer some more complex options. I would particularly love to see if/then statements become available.
My only complaints would be technical—when adding users, I keep getting an error when attempting to set a pin. Settings also tend to reset or not save when attempt to set accessibility for guests. The cameras also tend to freeze sometimes, and I’ve noticed that playback for events can be a little slow. These are little things, however, that don’t detract from the over all experience.
Ultimately, however, I’d say this is definitely one of the best home security apps I’ve used in terms of features and accessibility. Thank you Vivint team!
Easy to use, makes arming the house fun! Almost everything can be controlled from the phone as well as from your Alexa or Google Devices; arming and disarming, monitoring & controlling the temperature, locking and unlocking the doors, letting the garage up and down. We also have the digital key locks, and indoor & outdoor cameras. They also provided Linksys systems to help expand the WiFi throughout the house. There are other Aps that can be used with the system to help enhance its usefulness, such as Streety to help connect with other Vivint users in the neighborhood. Easy to change the PIN numbers also, and it monitors your carbon monoxide systems also. Alerts the police, fire dept, etc. The only thing I don’t like is that all of my doors have to use a different key now. Even though we do not have it yet, it has the ability to control lighting by use of special type light bulbs. Very quick install process. Definitely worth the money.
From DAY ONE, I was and still am, impressed with the VIVINT HOME SECURITY SYSTEM! This is not only a great investment, it’s a smart investment!! Worth every penny and then some!! Camera quality is clear, live video feed is up to date within seconds, microphone is as clear as a phone call or any high quality intercom system, and the monitoring from various vantage points is top notch!! And you can check and monitor EVERYTHING from any smart device; cell phone, laptop, tablet!!
With videos and the ability to take pictures of people lurking around the property or at the front or back door, you’ll never be in the dark, as to who, when, what and where!! PLUS, motion sensors and blaring loud alarms inside your property, trigger a call to the police!! I recommend this system whether you live in a home, condo or renting!! VIVINT is like having a live- in, big beefy security guard!! But one who doesn’t eat you out of house and home!! Bottom line: GET THIS SYSYEM, IT WORKS!!!
My wife and I started with Vivint 2 years ago. The salesman was very informative and kind and we decided to go with Vivint. The man who installed our system was nice and funny but he was higher than a kite and he drilled multiple holes all over our brick because he was installing the camera doorbell system wrong and it took him 5 different times and 10 holes later.. it still today looks terrible and unprofessional throughout the house. Until this past weekend our doorbell system was off line 90% of the time and didn’t provide a picture at all. My wife and I have both been on the phone with Vivint troubleshooting for hours at a time before they would send anyone else to install a new one.
This last week we had a young gentleman who was very kind and professional and saw several different issues from the last guy and fixed it then and there. He was awesome!
All that being said we like how the system works and functions (when it works). And other than the installer and the customer service/network issues we are happy with Vivint.
This app use to only mess up on me occasionally but now it won’t even work. I’ve deleted and redownloaded several times, and customer is awful and can’t or wont help either. Spent over two hours on the phone with them and they fixed nothing. Their support through the app was unprofessional and very sarcastic when trying to “help” me. The app now will take 5-10 seconds to even load the live footage so whatever was detected is already moved or gone. The playback won’t work on my phone but will on all other devices. It’s so pixely as well even when on the clearer setting. The app won’t let me change anything in the settings unless I use another device or the panel. It simply went to doodoo in the last few weeks and customer service is doing NOTHING to fix it. They gave me a ticket number but nothing came of it. It’s takes a million years to get customer service on the phone. I pay way too much money a month for this to not work properly and them doing nothing to fix it. I’m over this company and I wish I wasn’t in this garbage of a contract if they can’t get their stuff together and fix these simple issues many people seem to be having.
We recently purchased the system, and they had me get the app so I didn’t have to keep going back to the base unit to check on things. The app enables you to view previous videos not available on the main system. You can speak with someone at the door, or someone snooping around the yard or at my husband’s truck, without them seeing you, which is a real bonus. And monitoring video clips has proven that nobody has been snooping around the home. That is a great comfort! The only negative I can think of is that the system only provides 4-second clip videos, rather than 24-hour monitoring. Still, it provides clips any time there is motion around the house, so it gets videos of anyone snooping around or just trying to visit or drop off a package. I highly recommend the Vivint Smart Home system, and the app makes it a winner!
The system is great, overall. However, there are issues that constantly pop up. The cameras are the main issue. Even though I set it for recording on movement and the sensitivity is set low enough to record when it detects objects as small as my chihuahuas, I’ll walk around in back for several minutes and when I come in to check the operation of the cameras on my iPad or iPhone, it shows under clips that the last recording was hours ago. I’d hate to have a burglary and have to rely on this system to provide authorities with evidence.
The other issue is the wait time to speak with a representative when there’s a problem with the system. It took over 20 minutes on hold today to get a camera issue resolved. It’s the same excuse other companies use; higher call volume than expected. Geez! Figure it out. If your system is malfunctioning so often that you are getting such a high volume of calls, either fix the system or hire and train more reps. 20 minutes is way too long!
Was told it ran off of more than just my WiFi but my camera’s frequently require rebooting cuz they stop working or can’t connect. The ring camera isn’t super great, I wish the picture was better especially in the dark. I will say though, there have been 2 situations where I was super glad to have the service, both situations required police presence. It has also come in handy that I can speak to people outside through the camera. That has actually helped a few times.
I’m disappointed bc I never saw a credit from the referral, It should have been like $250 credit for me signing up after 30 days and then the couple was supposed to get a $250 credit for referring me. They never got their credit either. Also one of the items I initially ordered wouldn’t work for my house so they came back and got it but my month payment never changed and I never saw a credit for the item. It has its pros and cons but I suggest looking around and pricing before signing any contracts.
Very ok service for the money. Everything is do-it-yourself and if u need a tech forget about it as they will charge you to fix the equipment which breaks constantly. Batteries die in these things like every week. Techs have the house rigged up all wrong and too hard to change it myself so have to live with it. Would give less stars but have no real basis for comparison and when one calls the people are pretty cool unless u get to a supervisor ... they are not so cool. Tech was very nice but overworked and clearly didn't understand what we needed. App is fine when it works but like right now it won't show videos for 3 days - this is a recurring issue that usually fixes itself at some point but can take weeks at a time.
Update: app won't open even with update. Business model remains that they can't seem to be profitable without screwing the customer so beware when signing up that if u ever need tech they will charge u for coming out - even though it is their faulty product. Also - sun up and down should not set off visitor alarm every single time so I get 127,542 alerts in a 30 minute period.
I’ve appreciated my security system for years. Recently, I’ve had issues and trying to reach Vivint has become increasingly more challenging. If my phone screen goes to sleep while waiting in que to chat, it kicks me out of my place: which is very frustrating when the wait time is 20+ minutes. It’s hard to keep my screen “awake” that while time while also trying to watch my child.
My current issue is a pink hue that has taken over one of our cameras and if we watch any section of video we are unable to watch it again. We get a message that says “video unavailable”. This lack of repeated video playback is a huge issue for me that I want resolved. I live in a “safe” neighborhood, mostly retirees and families with young children. Unfortunately, our safe bubble popped and one person was killed, 2 kids shot, and property damage occurred. Our video did catch some unknown vehicles prior to the crime and after watching one time we can no longer pull the video up. Really really upsetting
We just switched from an ADT/Ring setup and are pretty happy overall. The one REALLY disappointing thing is that you can’t simply snooze a camera in the app. Ring has this feature and it’s great for when I’m working in the yard. With Vivint, you must manually switch off alerts, and then remember to toggle them back on later. Not difficult by any means, but inconvenient when you’re used to a different company’s app.
We also had to have a tech come out the day after our install as the installers didn’t even get all of our windows (which are all hardwired) set up with the system. 1/2 of our house wouldn’t have triggered the alarm in case of a break in. This doesn’t reflect on the app itself, but makes me worry what we’re in for with Vivint. Strongly considering using the 3-day cancellation document at this point as the salesman didn’t seem to know what he was promising.
I love this app. It is always working work no lag time or glitches. The options that are available are very helpful and there are dozens to choose from. I can leave the housefor the night or weekend and know exactly when my mom comes and goes, out of which door and that she’s home safe when she sets the alarm. I think the best option on the app is the setting to arm and disarm the system automatically on specific days and specific times. We don’t ever have to worry about the alarm being set when we’re home at night if we forget to set it manually. And there’s no more panicking when we’re not fully awake yet in the morning if we open a door and forget to disarm the system first, because it’s already disarmed when we are ready to leave the house for the day! Thank you so very much VIVINT, your security system and app gives us one less thing to have to worry about!💯
I’m coming from having frontpoint security system so I only have one thing to compare to. Right off the bat the customer service has been phenomenal, easy flowing layout, easy to figure out. The picture quality is amazing in my opinion and it’s totally customizable. One or two things I would like adjusted however is the talking via doorbell or cameras, if your hand is on the button you can’t hear the other person, much like a walkie talkie, I would rather it be like a phone where I can hear when the person starts talking so I can stop. On the panel you can’t zoom into images but the phone app you can. It would be nice if the panel and the app totally matched because they already practically do. The widget for the app could use a little tweaking too but it’s still functional. There’s a glitch or a lag when updating user names but it hasn’t been too big of a concern.
Bought all the equipment outright for hundreds of dollars and then a couple years in chose to not have the monitoring anymore and six months later they took my app access away which makes my system way less useful and not worth it. I don’t need or want monitoring but they’re saying that you HAVE to have it to make the app work. I could understand if the equipment was free but it was very expensive and then that’s not good enough, they want to keep getting your money every month so took away the main feature that made this all worth it. Now I can’t do 80% of the things I did without access to the app. Doorbell camera was crap and didn’t catch over HALF of the motion events and people detected and I had someone enter my house once when I forgot to lock my door and the camera didn’t catch it. I had to get a nest camera for my living room as a backup to see my front door. I don’t like being forced into paying for something I don’t need or want just to have access to something I do need and want. Selling equipment and going with another company.
We've had vivint for about 3 weeks but it hasn't functioned properly from the beginning. My husband has talked to service several times. They walked him through several things to no avail. A service man finally came and It worked about 3 hours. But now it's worse than ever. It hasn't clipped anything since Friday while service was here. I was on my patio with my dogs for about 15 minutes. It didn't do a thing. The doorbell video has only worked once today then it works a while and records bugs flying around and cars passing a block away but rarely records someone in the yard or at the door.
They need to do something about the APP as well. That could be one of the problems too, but yet today the sky panel isn't clipping today except once 😡. We should have stayed with ADT ....JUST SAYING
I may change my mind if they ever get it performing properly ALL THE TIME. It doesn't do us any good to be away and not be able to monitor our home. That's why we have it. RIGHT????? In order for us to have security with Vivint ALL THE TIME is to sit and watch the LIVE 24/7 😡
The Vivint app brings home to the palm of your hand. Whether you’re on the go or at home, controlling your smart security system has never felt so easy. The Vivint app allows you to:
Arm or disarm your security system
Control your whole system anytime, anywhere with the touch of a button. Including arming and disarming your system and setting up custom actions to automate your smart home.
View live camera feeds and recordings
Keep your home safer with cameras and security that work together. Check on what's happening around your home day and night, and rewatch important events with 30-day DVR recording and Smart Clips.
Receive alerts and notifications
Know if one of your cameras has deterred a lurker, your garage door was left open, a package has been delivered, and so much more.
Answer your doorbell
See and speak with visitors through your doorbell from anywhere with 2-way talk and clear 180x180 HD video.
Control lights
Create custom schedules for your lights and easily turn them on and off from anywhere.
Lock and unlock doors
Know your home is secure by checking the status of your smart locks and easily lock or unlock your doors with a swipe.
Open and Close your garage door
Check to see if the garage door is open through the status indicator on the app and be alerted right away if you happen to leave it open.
Note: Vivint Smart Home System and service subscription required. Call 877.788.2697 for information on a new System.
Note: If you’re looking for the app that supports the Vivint Go!Control Panel, search and download the “Vivint Classic” app.
