Robert L. Bass said:
Ahhh... the "friendly greeting"... Let's all get "buddy-buddy", relax...
That's fairly typical pricing in many areas. Whether it is fair and
reasonable is subjective.
You must know the OP pretty well. It's only "subjective" in your eyes...
A small fire alarm like you describe would cost
the dealer about $475 (give or take a few dollars depending on the brand he
chooses).
What devices? What kind of heat detectors is the company quoting? What's
the code requirements for the installation?
Labor to install such a small system may be three to six hours,
depending on the level of difficulty of your building.
"Depending on the level of difficulty" could mean having to run conduit...
I think your arbitrary "six hour upper limit" is a bit "light" in those
circumstances... But I've forgotten. You *know* the poster.
For comparison I put
the necessary components for the system in a shopping cart on my website.
Uh-huh... That's the shill.
Retail cost, including 25% markup, would be about 1/3 what you were
quoted.
That's the "comparison".
It is not unusual for alarm companies to mark up hardware + labor 100-300%
over cost. Markups tend to be even higher if there isn't a multi-year
monitoring agreement associated with the sale.
And there's the "professional putdown"...
Bass is right. Buy the stuff from him and install it yourself. I'm sure
he'll tell you all about the necessary code requirements, pulling the
necessary permits and having the inspection/verification done... Heck...
I'm sure he can teach you how to bend pipe and install the cable in about an
hour on the phone and afterwards inspect the job "remotely" for you,
download the panel, and sign off on it as well. Do you have a web cam??
)
--
Frank Olson
http://www.yoursecuritysource.com
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