Life Alert is one of the most recognizable brands in the medical alert industry today. It earned its place in pop culture with its commercial tagline “Help! I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up!”.

Its frequently played commercials combined with its reliable services have helped Life Alert become one of the top-ranked medical alert companies that people know and request by name. You can decide if Life Alert is right for you by considering some of the online reviews about this company.

Life Alert Advantages

A company that has been in business for 24 years, Life Alert maintains an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau and continues to respond to more than two million in-home medical emergencies per year. The company touts on its website that it saves a life every 10 minutes and that its services account for one of the primary reasons that subscribers continue to feel safe living at home alone.

Indeed, Life Alert designed its services for the senior citizen demographic and was one of the first companies to offer wearable emergency alert buttons. While offering detection services for fires, carbon monoxide, and other dangers, it specializes in making available medical alert emergency services.

It also offers some of the most technologically advanced equipment in the medical alert industry. Its call buttons come with a 10-year life span as well as GPS location capabilities. It also garners high reviews for mobile app and for its easy-to-install equipment.

Life Alert Disadvantages

Despite its recognizable brand name and high ranking with the Better Business Bureau, Life Alert has recently gained less favorable attention for its limited or lack of services now deemed vital in the medical alert industry. Primarily, reviewers have found that Life Alert’s equipment only offers a 150-feet pendant-to-console range.

This limited range of detection within one’s home is among the lowest in comparison to other medical alert companies. This disadvantage makes Life Alert one of the least attractive options for people who live busy lifestyles or live in larger homes.

Likewise, despite its famous commercial depicting an elderly woman lying on the ground and reaching for her phone, Life Alert does not offer any fall detection services. While it does allow people to push their emergency alert button to call for help, neither the console nor the button itself is capable of telling whether or not the subscriber has fallen and needs medical attention.

Further, the company does not offer active monitoring services. Instead, people who subscribe to Life Alert must push the button on their consoles once a day to notify the company that they are fine and still active in their homes. Failing to push the button could result in subscribers being called by Life Alert or having 911 emergency responders dispatched to their homes.

Similarly, Life Alert does not perform monthly tests on its equipment. Subscribers must make sure that their devices remain in working order and request that the company send out replacements if their console or emergency alert buttons stop working.

However, Life Alert’s biggest criticism stems from its high costs and prohibitive subscription rates. The company can charge as much as $295 for equipment installation. It then requires that people pay for its monitoring services that cost anywhere from $29.95 to $59.95 a month.

It also requires that people subscribe for a minimum of three years and limits the circumstances by which they can cancel their services. People on a limited income or seniors who experience financial changes during that three-year period may be unable to cancel their subscriptions and face having to continue paying or risk being turned into a collection agency.

These disadvantages stand out as the top reasons why review sites like Consumer Advocate only give Life Alert a two out of five-star rating. Despite its famous brand name and recognizable commercials, Life Alert falls behind its competition by charging higher prices for a relatively limited selection of alert services.

Life Alert continues to stand out as one of the top names in the medical emergency alert system industry. While it helps millions of people each year during medical crises, the company also receives criticism for not offering services that many people now expect from a home monitoring company.