[no subject]

> With the price
> of a new board being around $50 from just about any alarm
> manufacturer, it doesn't serve even that purpose anymore

So why do you keep on harping about it? My company uses lockouts and
pre-programmed panels but for quality control not anti-takeover
prevention. It keeps people from sending the wrong format on the wrong
account number using the wrong receiver number. It works very well and
we will unlock the board after the contract is up

It's hard enough getting one person to correctly program the panel
much less several thousand.

, since it
> seems most dealers will gladly cough up that minimal amount to gain
> another long term contractual monitored account. However, it does
> leave the homeowner who moves into a new house highly exposed if he
> wants to "self monitor" or simply use the panel in "local" mode. No
> one will assist him in any fashion because there is no money in it for
> them, so with a locked board, he has to go out and purchase a new
> system at FAR more than $50. It's his property yet he has no control
> over it....

The panel "MAY" be his (and that is in doubt in several parts of the
country) but the programming isn't, if they don't unlock it (for a
fee) afterwards that

> I got a call some years ago from a Detective in the Denver, Colorado
> police department. At the time he was looking into the fraudulent
> aspects of companies locking boards that didn't belong to them. I
> spent an hour with him on the phone....dunno if it ever went anywhere,
> but he certainly agreed that he was hearing of major abuse of this
> feature in his city.

I can tell you it never went anywhere, there isn't any local in the
country that doesn't allow locked boards.

> As far as other companies stealing my accounts, that is a possibility
> for everyone. I do know that long term contracts or locked boards are
> not going to save my customers from pillaging by unscrupulous dealers.

In my experience locked board HAVE prevented several instances of
someone stealing our accounts