Evan P.
2/5
Our experience with AFS has been terrible. I'm giving them 2 stars instead of 1 since they have at least been cordial and professional on the phone. We inherited their services from my in-laws and should have done a better job researching other options before signing a 3-year contract to stick with AFS. Their billing is done at inconsistent times month-to-month, and the spelling of our city is still butchered on our bill after almost 3 years of service. Their customer service leaves a lot to be desired. We are sent in circles between AFS and their sub-contracted central stations while seeking assistance over the phone, and oftentimes receive no response to our emails. They only cover "ordinary wear and tear" of equipment, which excludes any lightning strikes, power surges, home maintenance (telephone company work in our case), and even intruder damage. So if someone breaks into your home and damages the system panel trying to disable it, you get to pay $85/hour to have it fixed. Extremely understaffed, AFS has only ONE technician named Walter for over-the-phone technical assistance, and only ONE person named Victor in their cancellation department. It took Victor almost three weeks to respond to our cancellation requests. We have been proactively attempting to cancel our services for 4 weeks now and without a functional system for over a month. After reading other nightmarish reviews from individuals who had to file Better Business Bureau complaints or contact the State Attorney General for help, we also filed a BBB complaint to elicit a response from AFS, concerned that their billing department would contact credit bureaus if we simply quit paying, unable cancel and close our account as requested. Today, AFS informed us that 30 days is the typical time-frame it takes for them to complete the cancellation process. Since you can finance and complete the purchase a home in less time, that seems a bit excessive. After today's correspondence with AFS, all we need to do now to finalize the cancellation of our services is mail AFS a cancellation form along with a check for the total amount due to fulfill the 6-months remaining on our 3-year contract. I'm hopeful that is true, but also skeptical after what we've experienced the past month. I'm not someone who writes negative reviews, in fact this is my first, but as someone who relies on experienced consumer reviews myself I feel obligated to let others know about our experience with AFS. I hope our experience is not the norm and hope AFS gets the help they need to better serve their customers.
