Re: Need to cut through the BS on Alarm monitoring costs

[blueman <NOSPAM@xxxxxxxxxx>]

tourman <robercampbell@xxxxxxxxx> writes:

> On Feb 1, 5:34Â pm, blueman <NOS...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> I am looking for honest, unbiased, unemotional answers to this
>> question. (I know it's Usenet, but one can always hope...)
>>
>> I currently have a fire & burglary monitoring policy with the local
>> dominant alarm company. I own the equipment and I am responsible for
>> service charges to fix the equipment.
>>
>> They charge me $36/month for straight Internet monitoring.
>>
>> National online monitoring companies offer seemingly the same service
>> for $8.95/month. Or 1/4 the cost.
>>
>> My high-priced local company claims:
>> - They are big (20,000 customers) - but the national competitor claims
>> Â  40,000 customers
>>
>> - Their service center is "local" -- but it's really halfway across the
>> Â  state so does that really mean anything in the day of the Internet
>>
>> - They are a "security company" vs. competitors being "monitoring"
>> Â  companies. Though not sure what that means or why I care
>>
>> - They have a 5-star UL-listed center - but the national competitor
>> Â  claims to be UL-listed and it's not clear what 5-stars means and who
>> Â  even grants such certification. Sounds like marketing hype.
>>
>> - They have 30-second average response time -- but competitor claims the
>> Â  same
>>
>> - They say they have a better BBB track record than big national
>> Â  competitors - but the competitor claims an A+ BBB rating which can't
>> Â  be too bad
>>
>> The bottom line is that I can't see one compelling reason to pay 4 times
>> the competitor rate for what seems to be a commodity service.
>>
>> - I live in a very safe, low crime neighborhood.
>>
>> - I primarily pay for the monitoring to get the insurance break.
>>
>> - I don't stay up nights worrying about fires or burglaries and in any
>> Â  case I still have the in-house alarm to warn me of a fire and scare
>> Â  off amateur burgalers.
>>
>> - I am technically adept and have no problem servicing and programming
>> Â  my system
>>
>> Seems like worst case perhaps the response time will be a few seconds
>> longer in some rare cases or maybe there is a small chance they will
>> make a mistake -- but the point is that there are so many other failure
>> points in a security system and we are talking about rare events (fire,
>> burglary) anyway.
>>
>> So, why pay 4 times as much????
>
> RHC; Sir, you pose a valid and excellent question. Bottom line, no
> matter what anyone says, monitoring is pretty much the same wherever
> you get it, regardless of price. Provided you are capable and willing
> to look after your system yourself, there is no reason NOT to use the
> most reasonable monitoring station around. Especially so if all you
> need is the insurance certificate for home insurance reduction.
That is the primary reason we have the system.

> However, in fairness, I have rarely ever found any end user competent
> enough to really understand the total functionality of his alarm
p> system, so think that one through carefully.

Valid point. However, the fact is that I actually know the system better
than the senior techs at this large regional company. I use the dealer
version of RemoteLink to access/program the DMP XR200 system. I have
reverse-engineered much of the RemoteLink protocol and have written a
range of perl scripts that allow me to do everything from send the local
weather to the keyboard status line every half hour, to sending calendar
reminders to the status line, to automatically arming and disarming the
system with different bypass lists based on an arbitrarily-complex
schedule (e.g., holidays, vacations, sunrise/sunset times). I can
control my system via my cell phone by sending codes to my Linux server
that then interface with the alarm via the RemotLink protocol. I
actually have been tempted to distribute the Perl Library I wrote for
this. Also, I have added and reprogrammed many sensors on my system.

Bottom line is that I am not worried about my ability to service the
system on my end.

> As a professional dealer for 20 some years, I see the market laid out
> in different pricing segments as I will outline below. Firstly, know
> that basic professional monitoring is available to dealers everywhere
> from $1 to $3 monthly per account. All monies collected above pays for
> profit and the legitimate costs of running the dealers business, or
> goes into the high cost of running a large national organization.
>
> Price category 1 - Monitoring sold directly to end users for $10 or
> less by the monitoring station with no dealer interface. This is the
> domain of the "cream skimmers" who provide only monitoring services
> but no direct service or warranty service, or sub it out to expensive
> subcontractors in various cities.

This seems to be the $8.95 type deal I am seeing.

>
> Price category 2 - Monitoring sold through dealers from $10 to $20 who
> throw in (usually) a measure of service and warranty, with or without
> a long term contract. This is usually the domain of small independent
> alarm companies (who are not usually well advertised in a given area,
> but hold about 85% of the North American market share).
>
> Price category 3 - Monitoring sold through medium to larger alarm
> companies from $20 to $30 monthly, usually with a measure of service
> and warranty (often at additional monthly price), usually with a long
> term contract, often with reduced pricing up front..ie: :"free
> system", and often with national coverage

This is the category of my current provider though they charge beyond
the upper range you cite since my fee is $36/month. Moreover, this does
*not* include any service on my end. I have to pay premium hourly rates
for any service call for labor plus materials. The service contract
would add about an additional $15/month. Additionally, I paid full price
labor and materials for installation up front (about $7000).

Clearly, I am being ripped off and to make matters worse the company has
raised my rates 50% since I first signed on 6 years ago even as
inflation has been nil. They cited all types of bogus reasons for
increased costs while the true cost to service me has actually gone down
since I switched from dial-up to Internet monitoring and the company
itself has grown in scale by acquisition and consolidation.

>
> Price category 4 - Monitoring sold through the largest companies (such
> as ADT, Brinks etc), always with highly restrictive contracts from $30
> to $40 monthly, and generally very expensive and sometimes with long
> service times.
>
> Where an "end user" customer buys his monitoring services is largely a
> measure of how receptive he is to large advertising campaigns and the
> hype that goes with them (big national companies spend large amounts
> to garner exposure, knowing most consumers don't shop around very
> much). No matter how much larger companies and larger monitoring
> stations insist they offer "better response" times, there is much more
> to it than merely having a multitude of stations around, or even
> having them interconnected as does the largest company. Monitoring
> here in Canada is strictly ULC qualified, and all companies large and
> small must meet stringent standards to keep their insurance listing. I
> suspect it is the same in the US. It matters little whether you are a
> small independant monitoring station or a large national....by and
> large you as an end user can normally expect excellent service under
> most conditions of traffic volume. Nor does it matter whether the
> station is "local" to you or long distance - it's simply a phone call
> at its most basic level.

Exactly, both my current provider and the ones that I am considering are
UL certified. Thought the current provider claims some type of 5-star
certification which I would doubt is a UL thing since UL doesn't usually
give out gold stars :P
Also, even my current provider only quotes a 30 second average response
time which itself seems to be industry standard. Plus averages are just
that - averages.

> It is up to YOU, the knowledgeable consumer to make sure that whoever
> monitors your system, for whatever price, also follows these
> guidelines as a minimum:
>
> 1- Your panel must be programmed with an auto test signal to ensure
> it's continued functionality.
Yes - I know how to do that and how to set the interval on that.
In fact, one of the issues with my current way over-priced providers is
that we get frequent transmit trouble codes and I know the problem is
not on my end (since I have tested by constantly pinging both the alarm
company ip address and my panel). Yet, they want to charge me an hourly
rate for a service call.

> 2- It is strongly recommended you have them activate in your panel (or
> in your case do it yourself), "cancel codes" to assist in preventing
> false dispatches
I know how to do that.
> 3- Get a guarantee the station will call your complete calling list
> before dispatching authorities at the end (larger companies only call
> one, or at most two numbers before dispatching)
Good point.
I also want to check that there is no charge on their end (not the
fire/police) for false alarms if we accidentally trip something. We have
kids and we get a bunch of those...
>
> I have found the truly best monitoring comes from some of the larger
> independant monitoring stations, but these are usually only provided
> to the end user through a legitimate dealer on their station.
> Remember, there is a lot of bullsh*t out there permeated by large and
> small dealers alike, and it can be pretty hard to know what's real and
> what's not. It is definately a "buyer beware" market at all levels,
> but more so for the uninformed consumer.

Can you list any nationally available or local to Boston area companies
that you have heard good things about...

>
> Like everywhere, in every market, for every service, it's up to the
> consumer to shop around !! If you wish to read further, my site may
> assist....www.homemetal.com.

Thanks. Very helpful and seemingly unbiased approach!
You have confirmed my assumptions.

Basically, if you don't care about money, don't have the time to look
around, and are not very knowledgeable/capable of monitoring and
servicing the home end of the system then by all means pay premium
pricing.

If none of the above is true, then the monitoring itself is pretty much
a commodity so go with a lower priced company with a good reputation.
> Good luck !!