Re: Central Station Cancel Signal

["Frank Olson" <Please-use-the-email-links@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"alarman" <alarman2000@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:u%G2f.65362$lq6.20926@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> "Frank Olson" <Please-use-the-email-links@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
> message news:WvG2f.142931$oW2.35349@xxxxxxxxxxx
>> The system you consider "typical", I consider "a-typical".  Our systems
>> transmit opens and closes as well as a daily test.
>
> You are sounding more like bass every day.
> js


Really??  Never meant to.  Opens and closes are logged for a reason.  Daily
tests are transmitted for much the same reason.  When I was working for
Chubb in Edmonton, several businesses wound up in severe financial trouble.
A number of them had "incidents" where the owners "said" they had armed the
system but it had "failed" to function properly when they had a break-in and
they lost "thousands" of dollars in stock, and other damages etc.  Insurance
companies were looking for scape-goats and in two instances, Chubb wound up
on the receiving end of a Statement of Claim involving subrogated damages.
In order to head off any further such possibilities we started programming
all our systems to transmit opens and closes (the signals were simply
"logged" at the station if the customer wasn't paying for the reports).
It's a practice I've continued with every company I've worked for since, and
I believe a good one.  In addition, there's been numerous occasions where
customers have called in to say that they weren't sure that they'd armed
their systems and could we somehow "check".  "Yes, Mr. Smith, your system
was armed at 1735 hours this evening.  No worries."  If you're not currently
offering the service, you might consider doing so.  When you can save your
customer from making a trip back to his office at the peak of rush hour
his/her expressions of gratitude sure as heck makes it all worthwhile
(particularly when it results in their recommending your service to their
friends and neighbours).

If a system fails to arm and then fails to test, we follow up the next day.
It's not unusual for a business to "shut down" suddenly.  On a "monthly
test" you could wind up "out of the loop" for up to 29 days before you
realized that the phones had been disconnected and the customer's "flown the
coop".  It's a good way of "staying on top" of things.