Re: Brinks v Rojas Update Request

[tourman <robercampbell@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Sep 21, 12:14 am, Jim <alarmi...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Hard to imagine anyone trying to make a living on doing takeovers,  in
> my area, like Bob in Canada. But it could be I'm insulated from the
> real market by my total dependence on referral work.
>
RHC: I would hardly say that I make my living from doing takeovers,
but lately anyway they do comprise a lot of incoming systems. After 15
years in the alarm business,  mostly I work as you do by referral -
I'd say  70% from referral and 30% directly from my website. Other
than the website, I don't do any advertising at all.

I believe I experience pretty much the same things you do in your
area. A lot of takeovers are people moving into a new home with an
alarm installed already, and when they do their shopping, end up at my
website, and from there to me. A lot are takeovers from high priced
systems put in by ADT and others, who have paid off their systems, and
instead of staying with the high priced status quo, decide to go
elsewhere. I also get people calling with systems installed by a lot
of the "little guys", but these I ALWAYS inspect before taking them
over. Alarm installations are totally unregulated up here, and as a
result, we depend upon market forces to drive out the poor companies,
but unfortunately, not before they end up doing a lot of damage in the
process. Most of the bigger companies put in a decently installed
system, and don't lock their boards either. I also get a few systems
coming from Alarmforce, after the customer realizes how useless his
system really is, and has them remove it, then opts for a proper
system.

Overall, takeovers now represent about 30 to 40% of our new business.
It wasn't always that way, but seems to have increased greatly over
the last couple of years. I know you and I don't agree about long term
contracts; however, a lot of the large companies shoot themselves in
the foot by insisting on a second contract after the first one is
finished, and they won't lower the rate at all (or if they do, only by
a dollar or so a month). So the customers shop around and inevitably
find someone else to do the monitoring.

As you say, the customers shopping around who want everything for
nothing, or who won't pay a penny to upgrade a 15 year old clunker, I
don't want either. After awhile, you can smell these guys.......

I do believe you have a larger percentage of the large Nationals in
your area than we do in ours. Brinks is almost non existent and  ADT
is the most prevalent, and generally the most expensive. By my
informal calculations, once the ADT salesman gets in the door, the
$149 special ends up costing the client about $1100 on average. This
is almost double what any other dealer up here will install the usual
system sold here .....2 to 4 hardwired doors, 2 hardwired pet motions,
hardwired basement windows, and maybe a smoke.

Like everything I guess, it's up to the consumer to do his shopping
before they sign on the dotted line.....