Re: question about burglar alarm dispute (San Francisco Bay Area)

["John R. Sowden" <jsowden@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

hotister@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> Hi dear all:
>
> We recently got involved with a dispute with a burglar alarm company
> (in San Francisco Bay Area), and I hope this is the right place to
> post this question.
>
> On our AT&T phone bill last month we noticed that we have a long list
> of "automated" long distance phone calls dialing to a area code (408)
> phone number. These phone calls happened on daily basis and always
> start from 1:43pm and would continue to dial until 2:39pm (for about
> one hour, and call every one minute). At first we didn't think of it's
> a problem from our burglar alarm company, so we called AT&T and they
> put these calls on dispute for us. The next month, we noticed the same
> thing again, so we called AT&T again and they told us that it seems
> the phone number is a fax/computer type of phone number, they also
> asked whether we have some kind of alarm system, so we started to talk
> to our alarm company. The alarm company did some investigation, then
> got back to us saying that these phone calls were made by the alarm
> system for automated testing, as all these calls were never actually
> went through, so the modem kept on trying to make those automated
> testing calls. However, they did mention that they have another 4-5
> customers who also had this problem before and the problem seems to be
> related to really old modem (on the residence side, not the modems on
> their company side), so they suggested that we should upgrade the
> modem in our house (the current one was provided and installed by
> them), and they also switched the 408 long distance number to a 1-800
> number. They continue to say that we should dispute these phone calls
> with AT&T and they are NOT willing to pay for these phone bills
> (currently there are about $390 due to
>
> Some questions:
>
> 1. From the technical side, who should be really responsible for these
> phone calls? I know that we shouldn't, but we also don't know from the
> technical side whether AT&T or the alarm company should be responsible
> for this $390. Could someone please give us some "technical details"
> about how this type of automated dialing system works (for burglar
> alarm systems)? If, according to the alarm company, that these
> automated dialing (from our home modem) never went through, why would
> AT&T has a record on their computer and still charge us?
>
> 2. Is there any regulate agency for burglar alarm companies? If this
> is the alarm company's fault and they should be responsible for the
> $390 bill, other than the BBB (better business bureau), is there any
> other places that we could file a complain against this alarm company?
>
1) The alarm system seems to be programmed to send a test signal daily.
This should involve one call.  If the test signal is not being received
properly by the alarm company, then a real alarm will probably also not
be received properly.

2) As you state, if the call is on your bill, it was answered by the
alarm company's receiving equipment.  What they probably meant by 'it
didn't go through' was that the alarm company's computer did not process
  the test properly.  Since a proper test was not processed by the alarm
company's computer, it would show up, DAILY, as an "exception report",
requiring action on their part.  Since this series of events has
generated $390. in fees, it must have been going on for a while.  If
this were my account, and I screwed up by not following up on a "test
signal not received" for (several weeks?), I would bite the bullet and
send you a letter of apology, ask for copies of the bills, and send you
a check, or account credit (I prefer a check as an audit trail).  I had
something similar happen in the early eighties, with a runaway dialer.
We had telco chase it down, as we did not know where it was coming from
(no data was being sent).  We responded that night, and reimbursed the
customer.

Regarding who is responsible to repair (not upgrade) your system, you
need to refer to your agreement.  I have dialers that were installed in
the late seventies that are still in service working.  You should not
need to upgrade your control (most alarm systems create their "modems"
in software) because the alarm company changed its receiver or computer.

John Sowden
American Sentry Systems, Inc.