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Where to look for inexpensive monitoring?

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Bill

Jan 1, 1970
0
Any suggestions (I'm sure there will be) for inexpensive (less than the
$25/mo my local alarm guy wants) monitoring?

Seems like I should be able to find monitoring for around $10/mo, no?

Scott
 
J

Jim Rojas

Jan 1, 1970
0
Many of my customers are DIY'er, just looking for a good deal on monitoring.
They are all well aware that I offer monitoring, not in home service. I do
help them over the phone with programming issues, and troubleshooting, but
they understand that they are 100% responsible for maintaining and testing
their equipment.

I offer the following monitoring services:

$12.50 per month, monthly billing
$10.00 per month, quarterly billing
$8.95 per month, annual billing.
$2.50 additional per month for equipment maintenance & replacement.

In the past 2 years, I have receive very little service problems with these
type of customers. The phone calls I get are usually code changes &
equipment addons.

Jim Rojas

 
B

Bossman

Jan 1, 1970
0
Do you think $10.00 monitoring will be as good as $25.00 monitoring?

When you need service, will you be able to get an alarm company to service your
system, if they are not monitoring it? Personally, if someone calls for me to
service their alarm system, I always ask who their present alarm company is and
if they have a monitoring/service contract. If they do, I tell them I will not
touch the system. If they do not have an agreement, I'll ask if they are
interested in having me monitor and maintain their system. If the answer is no,
then ...... so is mine. Without any signed agreement, I don't feel it's worth
it (time or risk-wise) to service/maintain an unfamiliar system. If I were to
take over such (or any) system, I would require that I give the system a
complete inspection with the intention of noting if the system was in good
enough condition to warrant my acceptance of taking responsibility for it. If
there were minor things that needed attention, I'd take care of it at no cost.
If there were major items, the owner would have to decide if they wanted them
fixed (at their expense) or not.

In my estimation, monitoring an account is a very important responsibility.
Simply collecting a payment from you every month with out concern for false
alarms and improper protection in not the way I do business. You may find this
a factor in trying to find someone to service your system, if you are being
monitored direct.


Jim

I second all the above. A handful of my customers over the years have
thought my monitoring rate was too high (most were at $19.95) and
instead opted for the $9.95 another notorius company usually offers.
With one or two exceptions, they all came back with their tails
between their legs after they collected a pocketful of false alarm
fines, or when they couldn't get their system serviced, codes changed,
questions answered etc. I charged every one of them a full service
call to come out, default the system, and fully reprogram it. I also
charged for any repairs that needed to be done at the time. While they
were all miffed that they had been taken in by the worthless company
offering the $9.95 rate, few complained when I did the work and
reactivated them at their old rate. Without exception, they wished
they had never tried the cheap route. Lower rates are better, but
their is definitely a point of no return, and in my opinion, $10.00 a
month is definitely around the bend.

You may save a few (very few) dollars per month if you go after cheap
monitoring, but you will most likely end up paying more for your
security over the years than if you contract a professional such as
the one Jim decribes above.

Bossman
 
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Marc

Jan 1, 1970
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I recently lost about 10 customers to some internet company that offers i
think $10 or so a month, i told the people they woudnt get service, but the
internet company said they would. One guy had a moose z1100 and they got him
to change the info in the programming over the phone, and i he told me this
cuz i was curious. He said his keypad ended up dying and they said they
would not replace the system, but they would give him a new keypad for $295.
Luckily for this guy the internet company had no contract with him and he
ended up comming back to. Before he left, i was charging him $19.95 and when
he came back i charged him $29.95 because he needed a new system. I also
charged him for 1 hour labor and the parts. I warned him of this before, but
hey , most end users seem to care more about immedicate savings than real
savings.

Bossman said:
[email protected] (Alarmanex) wrote in message
 
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Jim Rojas

Jan 1, 1970
0
Yes, for $2.50 per month, I will mail the customer any replacement parts
they need at no charge, except for batteries.

Jim Rojas
 
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Jim Rojas

Jan 1, 1970
0
Most of these systems are newer Ademco Lynx, Paradox, Powermax, Simon 2,
etc, which people buy from an online store. I keep track of all signals, and
I receive daily reports from my CS. If an account ever does become a
problem, I will take the proper steps to either correct the problem with the
customer, or place the account in "log only" status until which time the
system is back in working order. To this day, this has never occurred. Most
false alarms are from customers who recently changed their code, and can't
remember what heck it is...I do program all system with dial delay and/or
cancel code. This keeps the false alarms down significantly.

Jim Rojas
 
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