System Takeovers

Service & Support for Systems We Didn’t Install

Your system isn’t the problem. The way it’s been supported is.

Somewhere behind your walls is a smart home system someone once promised would make life effortless. Instead you’ve learned which buttons not to press, which rooms don’t work, and which company stops calling back after the check clears. Here’s what we’ve found walking into hundreds of homes: the equipment is rarely the real problem. Wiring and hardware are usually sound — it’s the programming, the documentation, and above all the support that failed. We take over systems other companies installed, put them right, and stand behind them the way they should have been stood behind from the start.

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Systems We Take Over

Crestron

Our team is Crestron trained and certified. We assess the processor generation and programming, then take ownership — most systems have more life in them than their owners were told.

Savant

A platform we design with ourselves — we know what a well-set-up Savant home should feel like, and how far yours is from it.

Lutron

As a Lutron Platinum dealer we support every residential generation — from Illumination and RadioRA 2 through HomeWorks QSX — whether we installed it or not.

Something else?

A different platform, or a mystery rack nobody remembers installing — ask. We’ll tell you honestly whether we can help before you spend anything on us.

Sound Familiar?

Owners rarely call us about equipment. They call about a relationship that broke down. The stories repeat, almost word for word:

The repeat visit that fixes nothing

The same problem, the third visit, the same invoice — and the system is broken again by the weekend. Symptoms get patched; the cause is never found, because finding it takes someone who understands the whole system.

Technicians learning on your time

Whoever was free gets sent, knows less about your system than you do, and spends the first hour rediscovering what the last technician already figured out — because nothing was ever written down.

Issues that are never actually resolved

Tickets go quiet. Calls go to voicemail. “We’ll order the part” becomes silence. Eventually you stop reporting problems and just live around them — which is how a six-figure system becomes a light switch.

A system your family won’t touch

One remote works, sort of, if you follow the ritual. Guests can’t turn on the lights. The keypads do mysterious things. Everyone has quietly agreed to stop touching it — in a home built to be enjoyed.

What Changes When We Take Over

What you’ve been living with

Calls that go to voicemail and stay there
A different technician every visit
Symptoms patched until next weekend
Every service call turns into a sales pitch
Nobody knows how your system is put together

What service should look like

A phone that gets answered — our support team is available 24 hours a day
Our own trained, certified employees — never subcontractors — who know your home
Root causes found, fixed, and written down so they stay fixed
An honest read on what’s worth keeping — and most of it usually is
Your system documented, labeled, and credentialed — finally on paper, finally yours

The First Conversation

We Don’t Start with a Proposal. We Start with the Truth.

The takeover starts with an assessment, not a pitch. We walk the system with you — what works, what doesn’t, what you’ve given up on — and map what’s actually there: the wiring, the equipment, the programming, the network underneath it all. Then you get our honest take, in plain language: what’s sound and should stay, what’s failing and why, and what’s genuinely worth updating. “Rip it all out” is almost never the answer, and we won’t pretend it is to win a bigger project. Most systems can be brought back — stabilized first, improved over time, on a plan that respects what you’ve already invested.

How a Takeover Works

The honest assessment
We walk the home and the equipment with you — every room, every rack, every complaint. You tell us how you actually want to live with the system; we map what’s there and what state it’s really in.
In your home
Stabilize what’s broken
Before anything else, we go after the problems that drive you crazy day to day — the rooms that don’t work, the remote nobody trusts, the network dropping out — and recover access, accounts, and passwords where the old company held them.
Quick wins first
Document and take ownership
We map the wiring, label the racks, secure the credentials, and register the system with its manufacturers where the platform allows — so your system is finally understood, on paper, and belongs to you rather than to whoever installed it.
Your system, finally on paper
Support that answers
From then on, your system has the same backing as one we installed ourselves: a support team available around the clock, remote fixes where possible, and a plan for improving things over time at the pace you choose.
Ongoing · Support available 24 hours a day

Why Personal Technology

Certified, not improvising

A Lutron Platinum dealer with factory certifications, Crestron trained and certified, and Cinergy Certified (CC-78722) — training that shows up precisely when a system has no documentation to lean on.

Our own people, every time

Every technician is a trained, certified Personal Technology employee. Subcontracted labor is not our style — which is exactly the failure mode most takeover clients are escaping.

The honest-keep philosophy

We’d rather save your system than sell you a new one. Takeovers are won on trust, and trust starts with telling you what doesn’t need replacing.

Local, and staying that way

Based in Alhambra since 2007, serving only the West San Gabriel Valley, with more than 2,000 installations. The team that assesses your system is the team that answers when you call.

Networking underneath

Half of “the system is broken” is really “the network is broken.” We engineer enterprise UniFi networking under every system we support, which quietly fixes a remarkable number of mysteries.

A path forward, not a cliff

Stabilize now, improve over time — shades, lighting, a modern processor — on your schedule. When replacement genuinely is the right call, we’ll show you why and stage it sensibly.

Frequently Asked

Will you tell me to throw everything out?

Almost never — and never to win a bigger project. Wiring and hardware are usually sound; it’s programming, documentation, and support that fail. When something genuinely is at end of life, we’ll show you why and stage the replacement on your schedule.

Can you support a system another company installed?

Usually, yes — that’s what a takeover is. Some platforms require dealer authorization to take ownership, and we’ll tell you upfront, honestly, what’s possible for your specific system before you spend anything.

The old company won’t hand over passwords. Is that fatal?

It’s common, and usually survivable. Many platforms have documented recovery or reset paths, and part of our takeover is securing every credential in your name — so no company, including us, can ever hold your home hostage again.

My system is fifteen years old. Takeover or upgrade?

That’s exactly what the assessment answers. Often the right move is both: stabilize what you have now, then modernize the pieces that earn it — see our Lutron and networking upgrade pages for what those paths look like.

Do you have to replace my existing network?

Only if it’s part of the problem — and it often is, because most system complaints trace back to networking. If yours is sound, it stays. If it isn’t, that’s usually the single highest-value fix in the whole takeover.

What happens on the first visit?

A walkthrough, not a sales call. We look at every room and every rack, listen to what’s been driving you crazy, and leave you with an honest written read on what you have and what we’d do about it.

Where do you work?

We serve the San Gabriel Valley and its foothill communities from our home base in Alhambra — Pasadena, South Pasadena, San Marino, La Cañada Flintridge, Glendale, Altadena, Arcadia, Sierra Madre, Bradbury, Glendora, and neighboring cities.