Thus, Vivint belongs to the largest Home Security System companies in the United States. Their primary product line is their innovative smart home security solutions that include devices such as smart locks, cameras, lights, and so on. As with many home security organizations, Vivint binds their customers to long-term subscription agreements, which fall within 36-60 months. Customers also have to install Vivint equipment like control panels, sensors, cameras, etc, and have to either pay for these or finance them They thus ask themselves some questions such as whether one can cancel Vivint before paying for the equipment.
The short answer is yes, you can cancel your Vivint service at any time, however, certain conditions have to be met before you can be allowed to cancel the service. But if you have balances on financed Vivint equipment, you will still have to complete the payment as agreed when you financed the equipment. So let us look at the following areas which are how contracting and equipment financing of Vivint operates and what you need to know if you wish to cancel your services.
Vivint Contract and Other Allied Terms and Conditions
Before engaging with Vivint home security services, you have to agree with some terms and conditions which always involve entering into a legally binding agreement that makes you stick to the service for a particular period. Standard terms are normally between 36 and 60 months that is 3-5 years depending on certain factors. This contract renews automatically after your term stated above without prior notice unless canceled by either of the parties. The idea of the contract benefits Vivint by ensuring a steady stream of monthly revenue from monitoring services in the future.
Some of the conditions include: The consumer cannot end the contract before the stipulated time. If you do want to make this change before the end of your contract term, you will also agree to pay early termination fees which will be calculated per month at the amount of months remaining on the term. The contractual termination fees can go up to several hundred dollars and even over one thousand dollars depending on the number of months left to the end of the contract.
Vivint Equipment Financing
While some of the other home security companies take the equipment to the clients free of charge or for a few dollars only in return for those lengthy contracts, Vivint usually has the customers pay or finance the equipment. Hardware costs can range between $499 to $1,399+ based on hardware configuration of the system being purchased.
Instead of having you spend that amount of money at once, Vivint makes available 0% APR financing programs to enable the payment of equipment in installments. The most frequent is called a 60-month payment plan which translates to adding between $16. 67 and $ 23. 33 to the Vivint every month. Just like with your service contract, you committed to full financing and will need to plan for it.
What Happens If You Cancel Before Paying Off Equipment?
If you want to cancel your Vivint service early and have outstanding equipment financing balances, you have three options:
- The best way to eliminate the account is to pay it in full
- For example, if the client no longer wants television, then he or she should continue making monthly payments for the equipment without services.
- Return the Vivint system.
First, it allows you to clear the balance you took for equipment financing and no other payment to be made. Simply give a ring to Vivint and inquire about the payoff amount for the current situation and then make the payment before you cancel the monitoring services. The payoff cost for this route is the cash, therefore, having the cash readily available is a prerequisite for this route.
If you cannot pay the balance in full, you can only cancel monitoring services while making monthly equipment payments for the length of the financing term. It is also important to note that you will not be able to get any kind of use out of it because it will no longer be monitored or updated. This may be good for the financing contract, though.
The last activity that is left is to try to return the Vivint equipment as the company has a policy of a 60-day money-back guarantee. Should the remaining equipment balances be left unpaid, Vivint may offer a payment extension under the following conditions: If the remaining equipment balances are not paid, Vivint can offer a payment extension under the aforementioned terms: Vivint can waive remaining equipment balances if being paid within 60 days of install. It is simply important to know that returns mean a Vivint technician has to remove all the equipment. Same, equipment can’t be damaged and should be in a condition that it can be resold.
Issues of decision making: advantages and disadvantages of canceling early
Before deciding to cancel your Vivint contract early and figure out equipment, think through the key pros and cons:
Pros · Cease payment of monthly monitoring fees · Reduce the security measures that the company is using · Terminate long-term transaction
Cons · May owe as much as several hundred in termination fee · Want to continue paying off the remaining balance on equipment · Lose usage and access to the Vivint system and the functionalities of the smart home system. · Provider swapping cost: cost incurred when a new provider is engaged
To summarize, there are some monetary implications that one needs to make when terminating the Vivint contract early. Ensure that you compare the below monthly charges with the one-time payment of termination/equipment balances together with installation charges with a new provider. Perform a cost analysis to add rationality to the decision in case you want to cancel from the side of costs.
Also, bear in mind that you will also require a new system and not get new equipment and features from someone. You may prefer staying with Vivint if you like the technology already compared to having to familiarize and implement a new system.
What to Do If You Want to Cancel Your Vivint Service?
If after weighing the pros and cons you still decide canceling Vivint early is best, follow the proper cancellation steps:
- To cancel both monitoring services and your equipment financing, you should call Vivint at 800-216-5232. Tell them that you want to terminate all services as of now, along with the possibility of settling the accounts for financed equipment or returning them.
- If the call includes details of a contract termination fee or an amount to be paid to pay off the equipment, then remit that amount. See that you are provided with a receipt showing that the account balance is zero.
- If it is a return, a Vivint technician should be scheduled to come to the property to remove all the equipment used. All the removed system components should be clean and laid out for analysis as necessary.
- If you have been paying using monthly billing plans through Vivint, then you need to halt all the automated payments. This one can be a boring task, but at some point, you might need to update billing details.
- If you still desire home security and automation services, get a new security provider on board. Be specific about the ownership of equipment or devices that are being reused to avoid problems related to compatibility.
Below are the steps that should be closely observed to ensure that this process is clean and moves away from Vivint to something new. Finally, it is always wise to be equipped on the call with exactly what you want, plus have finances ready, so that early cancellation becomes much less of an ordeal. If any difficulties are encountered during the process, it is advisable to contact the customer service department.
May I Cancel the Policy Before the Stipulated Time?
The final way to negotiate with Vivint’s early termination clause is possible – attempt to haggle the amount of the termination fee. Though it is a common tactic to employ when you no longer wish to continue ‘using’ a service – which you have to pay for – because you signed a legally binding agreement, it is possible to negotiate on the fee amount if you threaten to cancel.
Inform him that in the next two weeks, you will be canceling the contract unless Vivint is going to refund the fee, and provide credit or discount. Be clear you are not joking, and have looked up other service providers. In some cases, it may be possible to negotiate with Vivint to either reduce or possibly waive the cancellation fees by explaining the situation politely and informing them of the possibility of your business going elsewhere. Well, it depends on your bargaining skills and more so the stand of the agent to negotiate on the prices.
Why not try to be more polite and approach Vivint’s customer service department and kindly ask them if they are willing to offer an exception or at least a settlement instead of completely losing the client? Simply don’t count on words to justify fees that were charged with your call – any exceptions to the cancellation policy should be written down before you decide to cancel the agreement.
Bottom Line
Yes, customers can even cancel their subscription with Vivint Home Security before the agreed time of the contract if they wish to. Regardless of which option you choose, you will be struck with early termination fees for breaching the contract and you will have to pay off the remaining balances on the financing of the equipment. However, once one has met these financial obligations, he or she can opt-out and change to any other service provider. Be aware of all the cancellation consequences and all the transition procedures for exiting from Vivint systems as efficiently as possible.
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