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



"Russell Brill" <russwbrill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

> "blueman" <NOSPAM@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:m2d39x1l45.fsf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> "doug" <vssdoug@xxxxxxxxx> writes:
>>> "blueman" <NOSPAM@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>>> news:m2y5sm18v7.fsf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>>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
>>>>  40,000 customers
>>>>
>>>> - Their service center is "local" -- but it's really halfway across the
>>>>  state so does that really mean anything in the day of the Internet
>>>>
>>>> - They are a "security company" vs. competitors being "monitoring"
>>>>  companies. Though not sure what that means or why I care
>>>>
>>>> - They have a 5-star UL-listed center - but the national competitor
>>>>  claims to be UL-listed and it's not clear what 5-stars means and who
>>>>  even grants such certification. Sounds like marketing hype.
>>>>
>>>> - They have 30-second average response time -- but competitor claims the
>>>>  same
>>>>
>>>> - They say they have a better BBB track record than big national
>>>>  competitors - but the competitor claims an A+ BBB rating which can't
>>>>  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
>>>>  case I still have the in-house alarm to warn me of a fire and scare
>>>>  off amateur burgalers.
>>>>
>>>> - I am technically adept and have no problem servicing and programming
>>>>  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????
>>>
>>>
>>> The bottom line is that alarm monitoring service is pretty much a
>>> commodity
>>> nowadays. The reality is there is little difference in the monitoring
>>> service if you pay $10 or $30 per month, the issues may come if you need
>>> maintenance or repair service.
>>>
>>> We no longer provide service to fire or burglar alarm systems that we
>>> don't
>>> monitor and most service companies won't provide repair service to any
>>> system they don't monitor, or if they do then they charge a premium price
>>> for the service and don't attach any priority to it.
>>>
>>> So, if you can handle the repair/service in-house, or are prepared to pay
>>> a
>>> premium for repair service and save a couple of hundred per year on
>>> monitoring, then take the lower cost monitoring, but be prepared to pay
>>> substantially more for repair service if and when it is required.
>>
>>> We charge $35 a month for fire alarm monitoring and make no excuses for
>>> not
>>> being the lowest price, do you get better monitoring service with us than
>>> a
>>> $10 per month company, probably not. What you get is a prompt, reliable
>>> response when you need service or repair, something you are unlikely to
>>> get
>>> with the lower priced monitoring service
>>>
>>
>> All of what you say makes sense and you certainly have the right to
>> charge whatever the market bears in our capitalist sytem. I would do the
>> same if I were in your situation.
>>
>> For me the alarm system is pretty simple to diagnose/repair. Heck the
>> XR200 panel still uses a Z80 CPU and I was designing and
>> building computers with that processer 30 years ago.
>>
>> In any case, the current company doesn't really fix much themselves
>> anyway - they just swap parts. These parts are readily available online
>> for a fraction of the cost they charge anyway. I don't even mind going
>> for a few days without service. My house is over 200 years old and
>> survived fine for its first 200 years without any alarms or monitoring.
>>
>> By the way, the current company which installed the system did a pretty
>> crappy job in some areas with a number of the connections just twisted
>> together rather than soldered or connected with a solderless
>> connector. After a few years, I started getting faults which I tracked
>> down to these bad junctions. A little blob of solder fixed it all.
>>
>> Bottom line though is that if you know simple electronics and computer
>> programmming, alarms are actually quite simple...
>>
>> Just out of curiosity, does your $35/month include service or is that an
>> extra charge?
>
> Come to think of it, I can save lots of money on my IT needs by doing
> business with companies that get rid of their high paid North American
> employees and outsource everything to some third world country... After all,
> a computer is a computer, and software is software :-)

Considering all the useless noise you add to this group, you must be one
of those 'sleazy' alarm scam artists that gives the whole industry a bad
name.

So far the sum total of your contribution to this group has been:
1. Post false accusations
2. Name call
3. Post irrelevant information as a 'scare tactic'

Please keep your noise on another thread...


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