Re: Danger - Independent Alarm Dealers

["Stanley Barthfarkle" <sbarth@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Jim Rojas" <jrojas@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:zoagf.16704$tT1.14690@xxxxxxxxxxx
> ADT at one time had over a hundred monitoring stations throughout the USA
> & Canada. Now they only have 6 left. And out of that 6, a high percentage
> of all signals get processed through their Colorado facility. Cutting
> costs just makes good business sense. With their Mastermind network, they
> can use the 6 different central stations to evenly handle service,
> dispatch, new installations, etc.
>
> What I have a problem with is that the large nationals bend the rules when
> it comes to Fire Alarm monitoring. Many states still require that the
> monitoring center be located within the same state of the fire system they
> are monitoring. So how does ADT get away with that? Easy. They get a toll
> free number billed to their local branch office within said state. The
> signals are then forwared to Colorado, or wherever. With toll free lines,
> it's easy to bend the rules to suit your needs.
>
> ADT does have a tiny (borderline answering service) central station in
> Florida. Though its suppose to be UL and everything, signals do not get
> dispatched from there, they don't even get processed there. Unless you
> consider forwarding the signal to a large facility thousands of miles out
> of state signal processing. Since they use the Mastermind network, there
> is usually no way to tell where the signals get processed from, or even if
> it went overseas for that matter. I wouldn't be surprised if the siganls
> get processed & dispatched from India...sorry, that's a Honeywell tech
> support thing... :)


When I left ADT (Core Commercial Rep) in April, (leaving ADT for the second
time, as it is now a Tyco sinking ship ;) they had 4 networked CS's left, as
I recall, not including Indianapolis, where all of the National Accounts
went (a non-redundant CS, not backed up by the others). Indy probably won't
be needed too much longer anyway, since the National Accts. have been
dropping like flies for a couple of years now. They are trying to
consolidate even further, and as I recall Kansas City and Denver will be the
remaining 2 CS's. I don't know if Elmhurst will still handle service
dispatch. I'm not sure anyone there really knows the plan except a few at
the top of the food chain, since Tyco is constantly wringing them out like
an old dishrag and chasing away the best people, with their focus on maximum
profit at the expense of customer service. Such a shame- the first and once
the finest Commercial Alarm Company has been reduced to fighting over
low-rent resi and SB accounts, and constantly chasing non-pays. They once
had over 90% of Fortune 500 companies, and still have a good share, (70% or
so, methinks) but it has been dropping drastically since Tyco came into the
picture in 96 and started the push toward the cookie cutter crap.

Yes, local alarms are "telebranched" from the local ADT SSO to the
monitoring center. Not a bad thing, IMHO, since in the digital age it really
doesn't matter much where the CS is, as long as it's UL and redundant to
another CS. Down the street or across the country is irrelevant, as long as
the signal is received.