Life Alert Review

Friday, March 24th

2023 Medical Alert System Reviews

Life Alert

• "A+" Better Business Bureau
• 24/7 monitoring
• Waterproof
• 10-year battery life
• Handles over 2 million calls per year

Life Alert has been in the emergency response business since 1987. It is a nationwide company headquartered in Encino, California. Many people may remember the commercials for Life Alert's services that first aired in 1992 where the tagline, "Help! I've fallen and I can't get up!" was born. In 2007, the commercial was ranked by USA Today as the number one most memorable TV commercial in the preceding 25 years.

Needs an upgrade

Now that there are quite a few competing companies for medical alert systems on the market, Life Alert needs to step up their appeal to stay in the game. Their website is not secure and badly needs a remodel. Initially it's a little confusing to get an understanding of what Life Alert offers and sort through all their sales-pitchy information.

Basic emergency pendant

There are three simple products offered by Life Alert, one of which is an emergency pendant. It can be worn around the neck or as a wristband and is fully waterproof. The pendant comes with 800 feet of range and users can choose to either use cellular data or a landline. Since it uses a battery, users won't need to charge it, but rather replace it when it starts to die around the 10-year mark. Each unit comes with a backup just in case.

Bathroom emergency button

Aside from the pendant/wristband, customers can get a help button for shower and bathroom emergencies. No telephone line or electrical outlet is needed. It's just a big red button that sticks onto a wall to immediately reach Life Alert's dispatch center and talk to a team member. As with the pendant, batteries last up to 10 years, so they never need charging.

Emergency on-the-go GPS device

The third product that is vaguely described by Life Alert is their on-the-go + GPS for emergencies button. It's a small device that can be worn, carried, or kept in a bag or pocket. The batteries never need charging and a GPS is included so you can be located anywhere in the United States. As far as special features or other capabilities, Life Alert doesn't give any additional description of the button.

No listed pricing

Unlike many other medical alert system companies, Life Alert doesn't post their prices on their website. This is definitely a barrier to purchase that we aren't fans of. You'll have to call their service center to find out exactly what Life Alert will cost you. On the front of their website they've posted their phone number and added that you'll get a free brochure when you call. Do people still read those? However, we did a little digging and our research has shown that the cost of their in-home landline service is somewhere around $24.95/month and the mobile GPS + 2-way voice is $44.95/month with a $99.95 fee with free activation and free shipping.

Need more information

In general, it seems that Life Alert is falling behind their competitors. They don't offer comprehensive equipment that caters to a wide range of lifestyles for seniors. For those wanting a basic system, this is a good place to find it, but there are a lot of details about how it works that we would like to see posted on their site. Besides being left in the dark on the exact cost of Life Alert, we also don't know if there is a cancellation policy, return policy, required contract length, and more.

Not impressed

The Better Business Bureau gives Life Alert an "A+" rating, but their reviews comment about rude customer service, expensive pricing, difficult contracts to get out of, dismissing set protocols of who to call first in an emergency, and more. We're not impressed with the lack of transparency on policies and pricing from Life Alert and they don't seem like an up-to-date company. Because of this, they've earned one of our lower ratings.