Re: Brinks Home Security Evergreen Clause

[Frank Olson <Use-the-email-links@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Harry Houdini wrote:
> We all have such clauses in our contracts. Like most reputable dealers, I allow my customer to cancel at anytime after the end of the contract with a 30 day written notice.
>
> So if the customer has a 3 year contract, at the end of the contract it is then considered on a month to month basis, but we use the Evergreen Clause to keep from having the customer sign a new contract year after year.
>
> And if the equipment was a lease purchase, the customers rate would in fact go down not up. This is something large companies cannot afford to do. They figure that once you are accustom to paying them their kings ransom, you should continue to do so forever, and in fact hit you with increase after increase, for equipment it has been long since paid for. I can't tell you how many customers that had Rollins System 6 systems they paid a fortune to install, and paying $40+ a month for monitoring and a very limited service contract, if any.
>
> Pittsburgh Steeler Fan


I've never lost a customer to a competitor (for one thing there's only a
few out there that offer monitoring at our rate and usually their
service sucks).  Our contracts employ an "evergreen clause" as well.  So
did Bass' (and so does the monitoring contractor he presently refers his
clients to).  There isn't a contract for monitoring service out there
that's less than a year.  Whether the company wants to enforce it
depends on how much they want their business impacted with negative
publicity.  That having been said, companies that use their own
proprietary equipment are basing their revenues on an entirely different
business model.  You can't compare companies that sell or fixed term
lease standard off-the-shelf alarm products with either Brinks or
AlarmFarce.  For one thing, neither Brinks or AlarmFarce will sell you a
security system that you'll end up owning.

There are two ways I can receive hi-def signals from my cable provider.
  I can either purchase the receiver for something like 600 bucks or I
can "rent" the equipment for as long as I want to watch those channels.
  In the first instance the "subscription" to the channels is a lot less
than having to pay the equipment rental as well.  On a rental term if
the receiver ever needs service, they'll come out and replace it.  If
the hardware ever gets upgraded, they'll come out and replace it.  If
I've purchased the equipment, it's subject to the one year warranty
clause, and if I want to upgrade it, I'll have to purchase the new receiver.