AMERICAN AUTOMATION

They had to continually come out because the system was not working. They charged us for every visit.

American Automation had to come back multiples times to complete the work as parts that were ordered did not come in on time. We have had problems with the equipment -- including a malfunctioning remote control -- in the few months since installation. And although the president, Eric, put on a great sales job when we decided to sign the contract, I never saw or heard from him again during the actual work -- until the company began insisting that I pay bills for items clearly within the initial scope of work (such as training us to use the system and coming back to install parts that hadn't arrived on time). Although they made sure to bill me for the balance of the initial price they quoted (thus treating the deal as a fixed-price contract), they then claimed that they were also billing for extra hours and so insisted on payment for time associated with training, late-arriving parts, and completing the initial work promised. When I indicated frustration with their practices, they hired a lawyer. Certainly not a customer-service minded company, and I would not use them again (nor would I recommend them).

Great. The only timing issue was waiting for equipment from manufacturers. Otherwise, project proceeded per plan. I was updated regularly. They left a sheet each day itemizing what had been done that day and any decisions or questions. The system is great. The house had Cat5 and speaker wiring which they leveraged to minimize the amount of new cabling they had to break into walls to install. A lesser company would have just run wiring everywhere. We wanted to be able to watch any source in any room, especially the TiVos (2 of them). Their system does that. We can also plug our IPods into it and play them through the whole house. Meets all our expectations! And Eric is a straight shooter. He is pragmatic about equipment selection, giving choices and not just steering you to the most expensive items to run up sales (which other companies definitely do). He is also incredibly up to speed on latest developments, which makes a big difference.