Why you should never sign on as a dealer with a large company

[robercampbell@xxxxxxxxx]

When I first started my company 25 years ago as an independant third party =
dealer, I signed on for the monitoring services of Protectron, a large alar=
m conglomerate up here in Canada. I also made the major mistake of having t=
hem do my billing, which was a much easier way to go while in "startup mode=
". My business grew over the years primarily because we were able to sell f=
ull priced services with bundled service and warranty in the monthly, witho=
ut the need for a long term contract committment. And we did so at a far mo=
re reasonable price than any of the larger companies. Many people wish the =
more personal services of a small, family oriented company versus the facel=
ess and expensive service of a large company, regardless of pricing. For ye=
ars we could barely keep up, and that was with no advertising; only word of=
 mouth. This still holds true today.

Along the way though, we made two major mistakes, which we are now paying f=
or:=20

First mistake - to make a long story short, when I finally went to them to =
take over our own billing, the horror story started. Due to their complete =
incompetence, the billing data which they sent to us was in such shambles t=
hat I had to hire an outside contractor to put the data in a format that I =
could input to the new independant billing company. This cost $3500 up fron=
t just to have the data file corrected. I also found dozens of credit cards=
 which hadn't been billed, several for some years. I concluded that they di=
dn't follow up properly because it simply wasn't their money and thus didn'=
t really give a damn !! It has taken nearly a full year to get the billing =
sorted out. Now that my son is running the business, I am working strictly =
in the office, and it has been my major job for 2015 to sort out this mess.=
 It has taught me a hard lesson in dealing with large security companies, a=
nd one which I hope I can pass along to others thinking of making the same =
mistake

Second mistake - not setting up my own independant lines for alarm transmis=
sion. Now that Protectron has been purchased by ADT, I am beginning to see =
the start of the cheapening of their monitoring services. As such, we are m=
oving our accounts off Protectron/ADT's station on to the facilities of a l=
arge independant monitoring station. However, without the ability to quickl=
y shift all accounts, this is another major job for us.The top quality of s=
ervices now being reported by clients on the new station is astounding comp=
ared to what they were receiving before, with loads of extra options availa=
ble to them for less than I am paying with ADT. Bottom line, I am not bashi=
ng ADT here, it's just that their services are not in keeping with the more=
 personal monitoring services available through a top quality independant s=
tation.It's more "cookie cutter" due to the large quantity of clients they =
have to deal with (over 8 million last I heard), and their big company emph=
asis on the bottom line.

So, anyone thinking of starting an alarm company today would be well advise=
d to heed the following:

1- Take control of your billing from day one and resist the urge to have th=
e large company do it for you. Although this can be the more expensive way =
to go, especially at the beginning, it's far better for your company down l=
ine
2- Make sure all your accounts are dialing numbers that YOU control, and no=
t using the large company receiver numbers directly. Today, this is pretty =
easy to do and definately FAR easier than when I started in the '90's.
3- Make sure all your accounts are electronically on line with a server you=
 own, and all information is available digitally on that server for all acc=
ounts ie: contract, programming, correspondence unique to that client, etc.=
 This way, you can access all relevant data on site with the client. Nor do=
 you have to keep 8 or 10 filing cabinets around to house your files.

We have overcome all these obstacles and our business is full steam ahead, =
including all the high tech options customers are needing today. The busine=
ss has never been more profitable than it has since my son started offering=
 services, and I personally couldn't be happier with the outcome. It took 1=
5 years of working with me to learn the business, and most importantly, to =
finally become a top quality businessman in his own right (the son should a=
lways exceed the father). And his outlook is somewhat different than mine (=
with the exception of ethics) and he is bringing a new approach to things w=
hich has shown in the results.=20

But I wanted to put this email out to warn startups about some of the easy =
but disastrous lures of the larger company's dealership options.

If you are unable to sell services on your own, you will do slightly better=
 "hitching your wagon to the star" of a large corporation at the beginning,=
 but you will fare much worse over the longer term.

Good luck to you

Bob Campbell
www.homemetal.com

PS: Jim, if you're still on this forum, this is probably the only post wher=
e you and I would agree completely....:)) Feel free to say..."I told you so=
..."


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