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(More customer reviews)I recently purchased a Guardian Alert 911 unit to replace the monthly fee system I have now. When I tried to install the Guardian, I discovered a few problems. First, the pendant: the battery compartment door on the pendant is held in place by two incredibly tiny phillips type screws. They do supply an appropriate screwdriver to use, but heaven help you if you lose that and don't have a jeweler's type screwdriver on hand. Even so, the screws were in there so tightly that to open it to install the battery, I had to use my trusty pliers to grasp the barrel of the screwdriver to get enough leverage to get one of the screws to turn. A person with less than good vision, and/or hand strength and dexterity, would have a very difficult time with this, especially since the battery would need to be replaced every six months or so. Why not just a simple snap-in cover like my tv remote has?
Then there's the main problem: in the enclosed instructions they tell you not to install it near any other type of electrical appliance or cordless phone. I only have one phone outlet, to which are connected my cordless phone, computer modem and fax line. I also have the computer and printer in the same area. When I connected the Guardian, my fax line plug wouldn't fit in the line splitter they supplied, and worst of all, my cordless phone suddenly developed persistent and unacceptable static. For the present I have reconnected my old system, which fortunately I hadn't cancelled yet.
I can't actually evaluate how well the Guardian system works, as I haven't been able to leave it installed to use it.
I still like the Guardian idea of direct contact with 911 if you need it, via the pendant, versus an out-of-state call center that may not be able to hear me unless I'm close to the base unit. Also, a one-time purchase beats heck out of ever-increasing monthly monitoring fees. However, it looks like I'm going to have to get another phone jack installed in another room before I can use the Guardian 911. It would've been nice to have known all that up front.
Barbara F.
January 2009 update - I have since gotten another phone jack installed in another room, which has solved the interference problem. In something less than a year that I've had the system, both components have had to be replaced. The base unit lost its power within days of installation, the pendant went bad a month or so ago. On the plus side, their tech support was very accessible and helpful. In both cases, they said they would (and did) send a replacement unit immediately, with the request to return the defective one in the same box. The box also included a return address label and postage sticker, so there was no cost to return them. On the down side, I am a little uneasy as to the quality and dependability of a product in which both components failed within less than a year. I note other reviewers have also had product failures. I would strongly recommend doing the self-test with the button on the end of the pendant on a regular basis, say every week or two. That's how I found out my pendant had gone bad.
Second point, IMPORTANT: having worked in the emergency response field, I will strongly recommend that if you want to do an actual test by activating the system (as I did too), PLEASE call your responder's non-emergency number first, explain what you want to do, and ask if this is a good time. Emergency dispatch centers can get incredibly hectic at times, and a call coming in that is not an actual emergency could interfere with handling of one that is. In my own case, when I asked about making a test call, the response was a harried-sounding, "Not right now, please, check back in an hour." Which I did, and at that time they said fine, and thanked me for checking first. It did test fine at that point, by the way; the dispatcher and I could hear each other clearly.
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