Re: Monitronics monitoring assigned to Apex

["Jim" <alarminex@xxxxxxx>]

thesatguy wrote:
> > Ask any company at your door one question..."Why should I sign a long
> term
> > contract..what's in it for me". The only truthful answer is "absolutely
> > nothing".
> >
> > So why agree to it ??
> >
> Perhaps he would like to have an alarm system and cannot afford it.
>
> In America the only thing that matters is 'how much down' and 'how much per
> month.'
>
> A complete home alarm system will run around $3500. in most cases and many
> folks can't afford that but still want an alarm system.  Instead of shopping
> around or asking their friends they fall for one of those bs commercials on
> tv or some high-pressure salesman for one of the three national firms that
> specialize in junk systems and junk paper.  After the fact they discover
> they didn't get the $3500. system they saw at a friend's house or were
> promised but instead they got some $99. box o'crap and its just pay pay pay
> and pay some more forever.  Two doors and one motion is what they got plus
> an estimate to upgrade to a complete system for $70. per drop which works
> out to around $3100. in most cases.  It's $90. to hook up the telephone
> line.  It's another $595. for the cellular backup system.  There's a trip
> charge to come out plus all these other charges and the $27.95 per month
> they quoted turns out to be $34.95 per month from the start.  Of course,
> senior citizens get a $2. per month discount.  And, you never own anything
> except the paper you signed and four times a year they stick an additional
> $7. on the bill to cover the property taxes.
> And, you pay to fix it whenever it needs fixing.  And for 36 months you are
> stuck.
>
> All they had to do was read the contract but people don't read it.  A good
> practice is to NEVER sign anything and say you'll have to have your lawyer
> look it over first.  This will quickly rid your home of these scammers.

Have you ever had an attorney who wasn't familiar with the alarm
industry read a typical alarm monitoring contract? In my experience,
most don't have a clue and strike out most of the clauses that protect
an alarm company from being responsible for a loss or from being used
as an insurer.

>
> Why do people keep signing?  The only thing that matters is 'how much down'
> and 'how much per month'.


Is that to say that you don't ask your clients to sign a sales
agreement, pay a fee  .... then sign a monitoring agreement and then
pay a monthly fee for monitoring?