Pye-Barker Fire & Safety

Reviews

• AP

  Adam Pace

  May 8, 2026
  1.0
  This review concerns Pye-Barker Fire & Safety's Alarm Specialists subsidiary. If you are considering any Pye-Barker acquired company for home security monitoring, please read this first. I have been a customer of Alarm Specialists since 2001 – that's 25 years of loyalty and on-time payments. For 24 of those years, they were reliable and I never thought twice about renewing. Then Pye-Barker acquired Alarm Specialists in April 2024. What followed has been a complete and dangerous breakdown in service. I do not think that is a coincidence. I am writing this review not only as a frustrated customer, but because the failures I have experienced carry real public safety consequences. When Police, Firefighters and EMS respond to false alarm calls, these unnecessary responses result in an enormous burden on resources and expense, which in turn reduces emergency unit availability to respond to real emergencies. In April 2025 — shortly after the Pye-Barker acquisition — I was told I needed to install a new network communicator for $1,500. Just one year later, I was told that communicator was insufficient and I needed yet another upgrade — a cellular communicator — for an additional $500 out of pocket plus an extra $10/month for monitoring. Two very expensive upgrades in two years that have caused frustration for a loyal 25-year customer. Then came April 23, 2026. My alarm triggered at 10:48 PM while I was away from home. What did the central station do? They called my disconnected landline — the very number I had just paid $500 to move away from. Then at 10:51, just 3 minutes after the alarm triggered, they dispatched police to my home. Only at 10:53 did they call my cell phone, leaving a voicemail rather than waiting for me to answer. They never called my wife's cell phone at all. In other words: they tried a number they knew was dead, sent police to my house, and only then attempted to reach me after emergency services were already dispatched. When I called to complain, they told me they had added "special instructions" to my account so that they would call me before dispatching police in the future. I'm pretty sure that's not industry standard — it should be the default for every customer, not a special accommodation I have to fight for after the fact. Then came May 8, 2026. I changed my WiFi password and noticed a "communication failure" on my panel. I called in, they performed a remote reset, and assured me everything was working fine. So I tested the alarm myself — triggered it deliberately — and waited. Six minutes of silence. No call. Nothing. Only when I called them back was I told my system had been placed in "test mode" — something they never mentioned, and never asked my permission to do. I then had them reset the system properly, triggered the alarm again, and this time received a call 2 minutes later. But here's the question that should concern every homeowner reading this: what if that first test had been a real emergency? My system was silently disabled and I had no idea. My wife is now afraid to be alone in her own house without a working alarm system. A security company's only job is to make you feel safe. This company — and by extension Pye-Barker — has failed at the most basic level imaginable. If this is what happens to a long-tenured customer after a Pye-Barker acquisition, I strongly caution anyone considering any company under the Pye-Barker umbrella to think twice. They have lost a 25-year customer, and based on this experience, I suspect I won't be the last.
• SK

  Shaun Klinger

  Oct 5, 2023
  5.0
  Excellent service providers!!
• OO

  Orlando Oberst

  Jun 10, 2022
  1.0
  I am very disappointed in the new braunfels TX location. Please provide number to contact you to file a formal complaint.
• DP

  Dhruven Parikh

  Sep 25, 2021
  5.0
  Fast response, great service and fairly priced!