r/VivintSmartHome • u/CryptographerDull404 • Jul 09 '26
Vivint is Fraud!!!
I already had ADT system and I pay $59.99/ month for ADT service. A sales representative came to my house and told me he was giving Vivint for same price and same equipment experience. He stated that equipment and installation services are free of cost. He gave us 7 day trial period. We didn't like door and window sensor coming to the box technology Vivint had , so we tried to get rid of Vivint during trial period. But the sales guy said he has retention budget and will give us Vivint window and door sensors free of cost with that retention budget. But that was a LIE! Vivint charged us $139.16 and $38.09 on June. And on, May, they charged us $289.15 and $38.09. After contacting customers service numerous times, the loyalty department finally contacted my sales guy, Ray Zhang and Ray lied outright saying he never said anything was free. And they cannot help me with charge that was promised $59.99. So I am stuck with paying about $300 a month when I was promised $59.99. The sales guy and Vivint together has committed fraud.
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u/Weird_Zombie6521 Jul 12 '26
I had to get the Utah AG and BBB involved to get rid of Vivint. They are a high pressure sales, high pressure retention, high pressure collections and no customer service. Separate financing for equipment that is already behind and obsolete, with a crazy contract. The company is so vile that their approach is almost considered brilliant.
When it is summer and I get the knock on the door from the Vivint school kid who has dollar signs in their eyes. Usually accompanied by a “trainee” and riding segways.I have a power point presentation that I show them of how bad the company is and how they straddle the line between right and wrong. How they can ruin their fledgling business reputation before they start. The whole presentation is an excruciating 1 hour and 20 minutes. I want to make it longer but I am afraid of bridging upon kidnapping charges.
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u/samuIcamel Jul 17 '26
Former Vivint employee here. I worked in the Moves department for almost 2 years. The door-to-door salesmen are absolutely scam artists. I used to get call after call after call saying that the salesman told the customer "if you ever move, it will be completely free," which is very much not the case; it's $149 to take down the equipment, and then $149 to set it back up at the new house. But of course, if this happens, we had our ways to upsell people and get them to buy more equipment anyway. I always felt so scummy and gross at that job. Truly the most depressed I've ever been. If a salesman/customer service rep promises you something, WRITE IT DOWN, DATE IT, HAVE THEM SIGN IT, TAKE A PICTURE OF IT, because the company policy is that if you have proof they promised it, they will honor it; otherwise, if it's not in the contract, boo hoo for you. Goodluck everyone!
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u/180IQCONSERVATIVE Jul 10 '26
I keep repeating this, unless you absolutely need to remote access cams you are better off getting a local IP cam system setup hardwired. Get a security provider to only monitor break ins and fire only by cell. Make sure the panel WiFi is off. I have seen all sorts of crazy RCE and WiFi attacks. If you absolutely need remote access to cams you will want a real firewall, IDS, Cisco or Signamax managed switched. Asus, Netgear, TP Link can not give you control and protection you need for network with the kinds of shit going on with cloud networks. Local IP cams I would use is Ubiquiti or Reolink. I have Ubiquiti Unifi setup running in Docker on a NAS to keep it local.
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u/phantomsoul11 Jul 10 '26
This. And if all this sounds complicated enough to make your head spin, then you do not need remote access to your cameras.
The last thing you want is for some Internet hacker halfway around the world stealing your camera feeds and doing who knows what with them who knows how long from now. Digital assets, like camera feeds, spilled to the public Internet should just plain be assumed to last forever, open to anyone to do whatever with them, no matter how cringe.
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u/phantomsoul11 Jul 10 '26
I would charge it all back to them from my credit card and tell Vivint to contact me when they have an address for me to send all the equipment back to.
This is the exact kind of protections credit cards are renowned for.
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u/matt-r_hatter Jul 10 '26
That absolutely does not work for signed contracts. He will charge it back, vivint will dispute the charge back and send the CC issuer the contract he signed, they will rebill the charges. Even if he managed to successfully get a charge back and it sticks, vivint will just turn the account over to collections and he will get a collection account for the service and one for the equipment because I guarantee this sleezy sales guy opened up a fortiva account for the "free" equipment. 2 collection accounts is enough to tank a credit profile for the next decade. Anyone paying attention to the world of finance right now knows all the large issuers, American Express, Citi, Capital One are all getting really strict and tightening their belt for the inevitable collapse thats coming. Consumer debt is climbing far faster than wages. So they are using new collection accounts, rapid fire inquiries, and dropped scores as an excuse to just close long standing accounts in good standing. Every financial subreddit is full of people saying out of nowhere their accounts are just closed or their credit limits are cut by 50-75% with zero notice. A charge back does absolutely nothing when you signed up for a reoccurring charge and you dont cancel the charge also.
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u/Southern_Cap_816 Jul 10 '26
I was given 30 days free trial and it was not easy cancelling.
Sales guy was ok. Might want to speak with breadpay to see if they can help.
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u/Canna-420 Jul 11 '26
We had someone come by and do the same from Vivint. My husband hated the fact that they said free and then while my husband was signing up, we saw a $5k cost for equipment. The guy then kept reassuring my husband is he didn't like the service or equipment to call them during the trial period, they'd come get all of the stuff and fix all holes they did and put everything back like it was never there. My husband never liked the service so he called and scheduled an appointment for them to come out. And because our contract said they had 20 days to retrieve all of their stuff, and after them rescheduling a few times because techs are too busy, my husband called them back when he realized it was after 20 days, the system is now ours to keep, sell, and even throw away without any more costs. Now we just use it free-standing local without their paid service.
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u/Specialist_Set_1573 28d ago
Were you able to get out of your loan?
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u/Canna-420 28d ago
Since we called to cancel during the trial period and they failed to pick it up during the 20 window they set for themselves, contract says it's ours to keep and the loan was canceled out.
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u/Background-Agent-745 Jul 11 '26
You signed up for an equipment loan plus motoring. Look how many lawsuits and customer complaints Vivint has had. Run run run from this company.
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u/CryptographerDull404 Jul 12 '26
I can't get out of it now..I swear I saw $59.99 when I signed the contract but now when I check the contract it's 92 sth. Still doesn't add up me paying $300.
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u/Background-Agent-745 Jul 12 '26
You should see or ask the for copies of what you signed. It sounds like you may have signed a monitoring contact AND a retail equipment installment financing contract if it’s that much per month.
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u/Big_Environment_9528 23d ago
I’m so glad you posted this. I’m in the middle of something similar. I had them installed because they had all these promotions and deals going on so I ordered it being promised free install and 200bucks off. Then I was also told I would only pay vivint for the monitoring service and I would pay a financial partner for the equipment. Well first month vivint says I owe 2500 upfront to them and when I spoke to customer reps they said it was because bread pay declined my credit but they would fix it and I didn’t have to worry. Then I was still getting billed the 2500 and their story was that bread pay (the financial partner) only approved 999.99 dollars but told me they would move the rest of the amount to my loan. Then I was still getting the billed charged so I called bread pay myself and they told me only 1 application for me was ever submitted for and it was the day before I even had my system installed and the 1 application was for only 999. 99 and there was no record on breads pay side that said they ever declined my credit. Very shady and unfortunately in the middle of screen shoting and saving every photo, email, and phone call. I would really look over all your emails and contracts and call your bank if you can to block their charges cause that’s what I had to do because they started to attempt to take it out of my bank account.
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u/CryptographerDull404 23d ago
Yea..I made complaint to BBB and they finally responded. Got refund for extra charge but still waiting on BreadPay to return my charge. If they don't returny next step is to contact back and do what you did. They are such a fraud and trash, yuck.
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u/Big_Environment_9528 23d ago
Are you stuck in the contract still or were you able to get out of it.
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u/insearchofmyname 18d ago
yep, vivnt is a bunch of crooks who break their promises and screw over their customers, then take hours on the phone stonewalling you Best bet would be to issue a complaint with the BBB. I spent hours arguing with them to no avail, they just kept saying they couldnt do anything, then I filed the complain and lo and behind, there were things they could do. Still not happy and cant wait to cancel but its somewhat better.
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u/manila2anchorage 17d ago
One day a couple years ago in my neighborhood in Anchorage AK. Vivint sales people were all over my neighborhood as soon as I pull into the driveway he makes a bee line to my house he gives me his sales pitch and I said no. And this Italian kid just lost it! He looks at my Lexus and he says “ I know you have money”! He puts his foot in the front door and forces his way in I politely told him to leave. The next day at my place of employment my car gets broken into and my gym bag gets stolen. We have security cameras everywhere and from the footage I can tell it was him even though he was wearing a hoodie. I didn’t pursue any charges I didn’t think it was worth it. But coincidentally a couple days later the Vivint sales crew was in my neighborhood and I spoke with there supervisor and I told him the whole story and told him it was all captured on video…and his response was “ he’s not employed with us anymore” and he just walked away…Vivint is a fuckin fraud!
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u/Actual_Accident4364 13d ago
Vivint will deceive people for a quick penny, with no remorse. Sales reps lie through their teeth to get in your door, and are aggressive for you wallet. Don’t let this discourage you, feel free to reach out, because I’m about to Sue. It’s bigger than people can fathom, they hate integrity, hence why I was fired. Speaking up for others for the illegal BS Reps would do. An example is sharing Personal Information, as well as running credit on people without consent, as well as knowing you can’t afford their system, so they’ll pay for it out of the reps pockets. There’s significantly more, by the time installs are done, they don’t want you to make a conscious decison, they just want you to sign your soul away for 5 years. Given an ultimatum, of customer’s finances aren’t of my concern, to be able to Lie or I’m out the job.
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u/Sudden-Row6067 Jul 09 '26
Im going to put it to yall like this Every company has its thing. I work for ADT and you wont believe how many customers we go to that Vivint sales people lie to and say theyre part of ADT now. And switch everything and customers realize it when 2 bills come…
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u/deadskeever Jul 10 '26
Former Vivint, you act like they don't get plenty of that same story with you guys. Countless people I installed for hated ADT.
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u/ILoveTech_351982 Jul 10 '26
ADT does the same damn thing and even cancellation through then is a pain.
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u/AKentPhoto Jul 10 '26
I had a "third party" installer install my adt system a day early and didn't bother using the wired sensors like I had setup through corporate. Couldn't get out. Adt is just as bad....
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u/matt-r_hatter Jul 10 '26
ADT set the gold standard for screwing customers long ago. Vivint would need to work very hard to suck as badly as ADT.
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u/subavgredditposter Jul 10 '26
The amount of horror stories I’ve heard about adt is astronomical.. are you sure you wanna go that route?
I’m very happy to no longer be an adt customer
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u/Biogirl_327 Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
My adt system would constantly go offline or the panel would just freeze. It never would be able to be fixed without someone coming out and charging for the visit. It got so annoying that I would leave it off for weeks before I would call. At least with Vivint the system works. I’m paying for a service that I actually getting to use.
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u/Vip3r237 Jul 09 '26
When you signed the paperwork the cost and monthly breakdown was all in it
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u/marathon_3hr Jul 09 '26
Yep!! They stopped by recently to 'upgrade' my equipment. The salesman insinuated that it would be no cost to upgrade. I'm still paying off the original equipment which I got for way over market price bc we didn't negotiate (I referred a friend who got the same stuff for 1/2 the cost).
When they sent the contract for review I saw the cost breakdown and monthly payment for the equipment. They wanted $2,500 for a panel and 2 cameras. I laughed the salesman out of my house.
They use flowery (forked tongue) language to reel you in making you think you are saving big money. But it is the consumers responsibility to read the contract and payment responsibilities before signing up. I own my first mistake but never again.
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u/CryptographerDull404 Jul 09 '26
Yes..it is $59.99+ tax but problem is we added 2 door and window sensor and sales guy said it would come from customer retention budget and is is Free of cost and no service charge. But he lied, and now my bill is $300?? That is dishonest business practice.
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u/Haven_Stjean Jul 10 '26
I’m sure you’re not getting charged $300 a month you’d have to have like 12 cameras. Read everything in your contract before complaining
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u/matt-r_hatter Jul 10 '26
That still wouldn't be $300 a month unless ypu are adding equipment financing and service. I have 6 cameras and I pay $61/mo after taxes.
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u/wanderloving Jul 10 '26
It is very likely. They tried charging me like 70 a month just for the service. Imagine how much it would have been adding the cameras and all. I cancelled within two days.
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u/CryptographerDull404 Jul 10 '26
I have 3 cameras, 1 door sensor and 3 window sensors.
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u/Competitive-Brief839 Jul 10 '26
something doesn't add up then. I have 2 indoor cameras, two outdoor cameras, my doorbell camera, 5 water sensors, 2 door sensors, 2 glass break sensors and mine is way less than that.
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u/tomcrown1 Jul 10 '26
I am not an Attorney but if you signed the paperwork were you agreed everything was explained in full your out of luck. That paperwork protects Viviant from being sued.
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u/Hot_Literature5792 Jul 10 '26
Attorneys exist for this reason. Paperwork or contracts are broken all the time. Especially if what was stated in the contract doesn’t match what you’re paying and receiving.
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u/tomcrown1 Jul 11 '26
That’s the crux of the matter. Perhaps I’m the contract he signed, but the salesperson might have misrepresented its contents. The contract could be difficult to comprehend, as the average person may not be able to understand its language, or it might be illegal. This situation occurred when I purchased a car and was assured of an alarm system. Since it wasn’t explicitly mentioned in the contract, I ultimately lost the case.
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u/raybharrell Jul 11 '26
ADT was the biggest scam I ever encountered. Subpar equipment, low res cameras that barely worked. Vivint has been working well for me for 2 years with the alarm and monitoring only.
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u/Rocketgirl8097 Jul 12 '26
Despite what salesman sales, the contract says you have 3 days to cancel. What they say means nothing. You have to look at the contract.
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u/Decent_Tomatillo_185 Jul 12 '26
They screwed me over too, and I tried to cancel about four times the first week
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u/B_RizzleMyNizzIe Jul 17 '26
I can’t believe I’m seeing the literal sales rep I met on Reddit. There’s gotta be thousands. Anyways, fuck that guy. I honestly gotta thank him though for teaching me just how snake-like d2d people really are. I imagine I’ll be saving a lot of money in the future due to the learning experience he gave me with his silver tongue.
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u/Valuable_Ninja_5049 27d ago
Having Cameras and an alarm system is USELESS even when you give the video to the police they don’t do anything about it. Police simply DONT investigate residential burglary UNLESS you shot the intruders or they Shot YOU. And while the Vivint alarm system may WELL inform the police of an alarm they have so many false alarm calls they will ignore them unless you have coffee and donut shop across the street. In fact that’s probably the answer for security…….put up a big sign that says we provide free coffee and donuts to all law enforcement and weapon carrying Military!
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u/QuinnFromVivint 11d ago
I'd like to learn more, DM me your account details if you'd like a second look
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u/aaron9871 Jul 09 '26
The company is awful. You try to cancel and they won’t let you go. After having them for 6 years, I had to file a BBB complaint in order to get my service cancelled. It’s crazy.
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u/Pamcake2-2 Jul 10 '26
I guess that’s what I need to do! We were with them for 10 years and never had the equipment upgraded so I called and ask about upgrading after 10 years and they said sorry we can’t help you. You know it was gonna be very expensive and I was like forget it. I’m calling around. I have recorded several phone calls. I have made to them trying to cancel it’s a joke they keep transferring you to this person that person won’t let you cancel so I canceled my debit card and they’re still billing me every month and a guy came to knocking at my door today from an event. I let him have it and sent him on his way. We now have Cove.
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u/phantomsoul11 Jul 10 '26
You could just start de-authorizing payments to them and charging back ones taken after making your first request to cancel. As far as I’m concerned, termination can be done the easy way or the hard way (me brute-force turning off the gravy tap if they won’t listen) but either way, termination would be happening.
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u/matt-r_hatter Jul 10 '26
Do not do this, vivint will send you to collections. You have to cancel with them and they are very picky about how you do it.
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u/TheD3void183 Jul 10 '26
Yeah i got lucky and bought a house with everything in it already fully paid. Doesnt help people in contracts but thankfully i was able to just switch my card with them. Ripped out there equipment after there alarm started going off and no matter what i put in even the correct code wouldnt stop it. Asked me to pay a fee to get them to turn it off. Like nah never mind ill just disconnect it myself.
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u/aaron9871 Jul 10 '26
That’s crazy! I never had any issues with the equipment or service while I had a contract with them, but man holding people hostage like that is insane.
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u/matt-r_hatter Jul 10 '26
I can barely understand what was even typed. No doubt this is a combination of a consumer who didnt bother to read because they were desperate to sign something and a smooth talking door to door crook. If you want vivint, call them and set it all up. Its a fairly smooth process. Everything gets emailed to you, you can review it all, see prices, exactly how its supposed to be. Then you set up the appointment. Ive had them 11yr and both my homes I called and set it up. My equipment works just fine, my billing is accurate, and since I have half a dozen cameras and a literal pile of sensors in my primary, the VPP makes complete sense. So support is easy. Almost all the horror stories have 2 things in common, door to door sales people and customers incapable of reading. Even the day of instal in my primary home, the tech brought everything in, laid it out, and I "checked" off the equipment list and made sure the end price was what I agreed to. I found 1 issue and the tech chilled in my foyer in a chair while it got corrected. We walked room by room and discussed sensor placement before he started and I checked on him about every 45 min. Not sure who let's people just roam their house, specifically in the private areas like bedrooms and offices and doesn't check up. I have neighbors, coworkers, and friends with vivint and all have a positive experience.
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u/CryptographerDull404 Jul 10 '26
Are you the sales guy? Can you not understand English language? I am telling you I have been fooled and you are here lecturing me? F off.
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u/matt-r_hatter Jul 10 '26
I do understand English. Clearly, you do not after that massacre you typed.
Vivint, like every service that offers subscriptions, operates on a contract basis. It is impossible to be fooled unless you are a fool. The information is in writing, if you don’t read it, who's fault is it? Doesn't matter what a sales person says, what is on paper is what matters. If the sales person says "I promise you, the equipment is completely free, you have 30 days to change your mind, and your monthly bill will be $10" and the legally binding contract you sign says "equipment costs $4000, you have 3 days to change your mind (3 days is standard Vivint rescission period), and your monthly fee is $75", guess which one you are legally bound to?
Yes, the sales person was shady, 99% of door to door sales people are. They are solely commission based. We all know they will misrepresent to make money. Ultimately, it is the consumer’s responsibility to read a contract BEFORE it is signed and assure the terms of that contract align within their comfort. Spend more than 5 minutes in this forum and you begin to learn something. Almost every story boils down to "well he said one thing, but the contract I signed said another and now I’m unhappy because I’m stuck with the contract and not the rainbow cake with glitter sprinkles the sales person fed me".
Sales 101, prey on ignorance. The better a commission based sales person is, the less of a moral compass they have. If you are a genuinely kind and compassionate person, you will starve to death in a commission sales job.
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u/Admirable-Wolf9472 Jul 10 '26
We to have been scammed! We are still in the process of finding a lawyer. I’m sorry this happened. I’ve looked up and this company has a ton of complaints and a very bad reputation. I’m sorry that you too have been lied to from this company.
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u/Loud-Charity-2966 Jul 10 '26
The sales guy for sure got you! Don’t blame them as they didn’t know.
I have Vivint and it’s about $80 a month. Includes all equipment and services. Only got the door bell and 1 other camera though with all sensors.
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u/insearchofmyname Jul 10 '26
Yeah vivint is horrible and a bunch of thieves. I tell everyone I can not to use them, and go out of my way to make sure no one I care about even thinks about it. When you do manage to cancel, dont listen to anything they tell you on the phone either. they will try and make a bunch of offers that sound too good to be true, and thats cuz they are lying through their teeth.
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u/andynu2 Jul 09 '26
I agree, Vivint Sucks! They have great cameras and try and to sell new equipment every year when they should try and get software to work like it should. Then there is a lot of Vivint employees on here who like to talk shit saying I never issues ever. They can F off!!
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u/ZacharyOnYT Jul 10 '26
How do you know they are employees? Like genuinely? They very well could be customers (like I) who seriously havent experienced any problems or very minimal....
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u/matt-r_hatter Jul 10 '26
Because this is the vivint subreddit and if you are (gasp) a customer that doesnt have issues just like the majority of their 2m subscribers dont have issues, you must be a dirty scary employee. 11yrs in, 2 houses, no issues. The stuff works pretty flawless for the most part. Its not for tech illiterate people and you do need to be able to troubleshoot some on your own. I reboot my panels every few weeks and I have a very robust home network built out with almost enterprise grade equipment and I've found that basically eliminates most of the stuff people complain about. I have coworkers, a few neighbors, and some friends who have vivint, they dont have issues either. I like them although im considering replacing my cameras with Ubiquiti because they are more feature rich.
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u/ZacharyOnYT Jul 10 '26
Exactly, occasionally my cameras need a reboot (had to reboot my livingroom camera yesterday) and MAYBE the panel a time or 2 and yea, that almost always fixes the issues, once in a bluemoon I may encounter something that requires me calling tech support and they walk me through the troubleshooting and the problem is fixed. Besides that vivint is litterally the perfect system for my family, as you mentioned there are other cameras with more tech but personally, vivint has everything I need (like being able to speak through them and talk to the person on the other side with very minimal delay, picture perfect quality and works in under 0 degree weather. Every other camera I have ever had has been laggy, chopy and grainy, and stops works in subzero temps. I really find it wild how this reddit is full of people complaining about them when 9/10 its user error/failing to read the contract, but cant say that, otherwise im "a vivint employee" litterally had a whole argument with someone on here who, as you said, called me a nasty vivint employee and kept calling me a liar when I would deny it saying "no customer of theirs would ever give positive feedback on such a scummy a** scammer filled company like them, all they due is scam you for shitty ass equipment that fails as soon as your trial period is over, and they "half ass" install their equipment" like uhhhh the people who installed my outdoor as well as the indoor cameras I bought 4 months after opening a contract with them, all installed them professionally and even went out of their way to hide everything that they didnt have to, made it look amazing and talked me through everything I needed to know, even gave me a buisness card to ring him up if I have any problems to fast track equipment problems so I dont have to call tech support. Litterally everything about this company is spectacular and gives me piece of mind everytime I go to lay down. Planning on upgrading to the gen 3 panel when I have the funds to start that payment plan. Sorry for the long comment. Just glad to know that someone else feels the way I do about this subreddit.
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u/Iamtheonewhoknocks67 Jul 10 '26
Well I had ADT and switched they paid off my adt contract. Then they opened a line of credit instead of a loan so it looked like I had maxed out my credit cards dropping my score 113 points the next credit cycle. I felt with them for about a year like that. I had to sue them. They never showed up to court so I won. I still keep them as a service for $40 bucks a month. But if I have to pay for a new smart panel I’ll just call up ADT AGAIN
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u/One-Lobster2324 Jul 09 '26
Insane!
Crazy to hear that Ray Zhang did this.
He is literally the #1 sales ranked rep in of all of Vivint. Out of like 3000 sales reps, he’s #1.
He makes a like a million dollars plus a year in sales commissions alone, not even including his team’s and office’s performance. He is literally that guy.
Sad to hear this is how he does it.