Re: New House Alarm - Am I locked out?

["alarman" <alarman2000@xxxxxxxxx>]

Nelson Muntz wrote:
> jasonextras@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
>> Alright.  I called the monitoring company.  I'd call them out by
>> name, but since the news is not good I think it might be wise to
>> keep it to myself at this point.  According to them, the previous
>> owner purchased and owns outright the entire system, including
>> wiring, panels, keypads, and sensors.  They supposedly never rent or
>> lease equipment, only sell it.  The company does, however, claim to
>> own the programming of the unit itself and will under no
>> circumstances allow the unit to function locally.  Not even if I pay
>> for a tech to come out and make the necessary changes to the unit.
>> Nor will they provide the installer code to allow me to reset the
>> unit to default values (which I checked and am locked out of).  How
>> they are allowed to disable a functional alarm system that they do
>> not own is beyond me.  If they want to wipe the programming since
>> they claim they own it fine, but they won't even allow me to
>> reprogram my own unit.  I got a supervisor involved, but they
>> wouldn't budge.
>
>
> That's a bunch of crap.  If they own the programming, and you own the
> panel they should set the panel back to -default- upon request (for
> the cost of a service call).  That would erase their data, and allow
> you to use the panel.
>
> However, a service call would cost $50-$100 to do so, and you can
> replace the board for $30.  Hell, I have a few old Vista-10's laying
> around, and you can have one- but it will cost ya $10 probably to
> ship.
>
> Report it to the BBB.  It sounds like they are dishonest.

1  The BBB is a sham. They don't mean shit.
2  Send the board to Jim Rojas, or just replace it. (I vote for Rojas, cuz,
well, I like him a lot.)
3  Tell all your friends, family, and anyone else who will listen including
us who the alarmco is and what they did.
4  No 4.
5  Get on with your life.
js