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

[Nomen Nescio <nobody@xxxxxxxxx>]

>For our case, the weekly timer set to go off every Thursday at 1:40pm.
>It was working fine for 16 years until November 2007. On 12/27/07 for
>example, the alarm system dialed the central station from 1:40pm until
>10:18am the following morning of 12/28/07, with one call per minute.
>Despite 21 hours, or 1260 called to the central station, the alarm
>company did not receive this test signal until 10:15am on 12/28/07.

Most alarm systems have a programmable limit on the number of dialing
attempts.  Although the FCC has rules on this, I believe alarm dialers are
exempt.  Current UL standards for alarm control panels call for a maximum
of ten dialing attempts, I believe, however those standards are not legal
requirements.  Older systems, such as yours, often had an option for
unlimited dialing attempts.  Generally, there's no real benefit to doing
that, because if an alarm signal is delayed an hour or two it is no longer
of much value, and it ties up people's phones.

>The alarm company claim that they have no responsibility to monitor
>these timer tests, and according to them, if the timer tests failed,
>it is clients' responsibility as the alarm panel's LED light will be
>blinking or sound an alarm sound. However in our case even up to today
>the alarm panel never sounded or the LED light (the CMD indicator)
>never blinked. So according to industry standard, is the alarm company
>responsible to monitor these weekly timer tests? Or is it the client's
>responsibility?

How test signals are monitored is a matter of the contract between the
customer and the alarm company.  Whether the keypad beeps or lights a light
for a fail to communicate condition depends on the type of control panel
that is being used.  Different manufacturers handle it differently.
Personally, I view a missed timer test as a not-particularly-urgent trouble
indication, something that needs to be investigated, but not with the same
urgency as an alarm signal.  On a missed weekly timer test, for example,
the problem could have occurred several days before the missed timer test.

In your case, even an immediate follow-up by your alarm company wouldn't
have helped.  If they had called you to investigate the missed signal, your
phone would have been busy due to all those dialing attempts.  The alarm
company wouldn't know if you were just having a long conversation.

>Also if we are to file a complaint about this issue, to which
>regulatory agency of the alarm industry should we write to?

I don't see that you have anything to complain to regulators about.  If the
alarm company owns the control panel, then maybe they have a duty to keep
it in good working order.  On the other hand, if you own the equipment,
your warranty expired about fifteen years ago.  That situation would be
rather similar to your water heater springing a leak and flooding your
house:  if the plumber installed it fifteen years ago, the leak is not his
fault -- it's your bad luck, and you get to pay for it.

Ideally, your system should dial a toll-free number, should have a limit on
the number of dialing attempts, and should provide some sort of indication
at the keypad when it fails to communicate.  Your present system may or may
not be able to do all that.

- badenov