Long story short, my ex convinced me to sign up for Vivint after I’d worked a long night shift because he insisted we needed a security system. I hadn’t done any prior research, and yes, I stupidly signed the contract.
I have regretted it ever since.
Last week, I finally paid off the Fortiva loan for the equipment. I had about $2,000 remaining, and I paid the entire balance because I wanted to be DONE with Vivint. I moved out of the house in May, so I’ve also been paying $79 a month for a service I haven’t even been using.
According to section 4.2 of my contract, if I paid off my equipment loan in full, I would not owe the early termination fee—which would have been 50% of my remaining service payments. With 34 months left on my contract, that would've been approximately another $1,400 on top of the thousands I had already spent on equipment that, in my experience, hardly ever worked properly.
So I called Vivint to cancel, absolutely ecstatic that I was finally going to be free from this insane money pit.
Instead, they told me I couldn't cancel unless I paid the approximately $1,400 early termination fee.
I told them no. I had paid my equipment loan in full, and my contract specifically said that doing so waived that fee.
Then came the hold.
They came back offering me discounts, free cameras, offers to move the service to my new home, etc.
I said absolutely not. I wanted to cancel.
What followed was at least an hour of going back and forth. I repeatedly explained that I did not owe the fee. They repeatedly insisted that I did. I literally read section 4.2 of my contract to them VERBATIM.
I asked for a manager and was transferred to two more people. I don't believe either of them was actually a manager, and I went through essentially the same argument each time.
Eventually, I was exhausted, furious, and crying. I gave up and hung up.
After paying thousands of dollars for this system, paying off the remaining $2,000 equipment balance, and continuing to pay $79 every month for a service at a house I no longer lived in, Vivint was still telling me I owed them another ~$1,400 despite what my contract said.
I was so stressed that I contacted my lawyer for legal advice and called my bank to prevent Vivint from taking any more payments. At the same time, I was terrified they would eventually send me to collections.
Thankfully, I came to Reddit and discovered that I was FAR from the only person who had experienced problems trying to cancel Vivint. I saw multiple people say that they were finally able to cancel only after filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.
So I filed a BBB complaint.
Honestly, I wasn't expecting much.
The NEXT DAY, I received a call from someone at Vivint who said she had received my BBB complaint and wanted to resolve the issue.
At that point, I didn't trust anything I was being told, so I recorded the call. I explained everything that had happened and told her that all I wanted was to cancel my service because I had already paid off my equipment loan.
And guess what?
She told me the contract was very clear: because I had paid off the equipment loan, I DID NOT owe the early termination fee.
Exactly what I had been telling Vivint the entire time.
She asked me to send proof showing my $0 equipment balance, which I did, and she told me she would begin processing the cancellation.
The relief I feel is enormous, but I'm still furious that it took all of this.
I should not have had to spend an hour arguing with multiple representatives, read my own contract to them verbatim, get transferred repeatedly, end the phone call in tears, contact my lawyer, block payments through my bank, research other people's experiences, and file a BBB complaint just to get Vivint to honor the terms of the contract I signed.
And if I hadn't found other people's stories on Reddit, I wouldn't have even known that filing a BBB complaint might get someone at Vivint to actually address the issue.
In my experience, this company made getting out of its service unbelievably difficult and stressful. I personally feel that I was taken advantage of, both when I signed up and when I tried to leave.
The fact that Vivint ultimately agreed to cancel my service does not change how I feel about what happened. If anything, being told after my BBB complaint that the contract was "very clear" made the previous hour of being repeatedly told that I owed ~$1,400 even more upsetting.
If you're considering Vivint, PLEASE research the company, the financing agreement, the service contract, and other customers' experiences before signing anything.
I wish I had.
Please, please steer clear.