A "HUH" phone call

This reminds me of a funny episode in CT.

If you were ABC Alarm of CT you could remove most of the system and charge $40 a month for monitoring and maintenance. That's what they did to a hardware store in Kensington, CT. This was many years ago. We installed an alarm in the owner's new home. He and his wife liked our work so they asked me to check out the alarm in their store. I found the control panel screwed to a pegboard merchandise display in the front display window of the store where anyone with a rock could disable it in two seconds. Motion detectors were each mounted with a single screw, most of them hanging so loosely that a passing truck might cause them to sway. Wiring was wire-tied to electrical conduit. Some of it hung loosely from overhead beams down the walls to keypads, etc.

Most of the zones had been shorted out at the panel during various "service" calls after numerous false alarms. The store owner had no key to the panel so I had to pick the lock to find this out. Thus, the "repairs" were clearly ABC's work. I guess this was a prime example of how to solve false alarms -- short out most of the sensors.

The system was so bad and the wiring so poor (visible wires to keypads and phone connections, RJ31X installed at eye level right in the same display window, etc.) that we completely replaced the whole system.

BTW, we never asked for the job. I was called in by the owner because he had been unable to get ABC to fix the alarm for months, this despite the fact he had been paying them for monitoring and maintenance for years. When we finished the work, I removed ABC's trash, placed all of it in a box labeled "ABC" and called them to pick it up.

Several days later I got a letter from the president of ABC. He threatened legal action for tortious interference. This he followed up with several phone calls, each laced with profanity and more threats. He seemed not to notice the periodic "beep" sound of my voice recorder on the line, nor my statements that the calls were being recorded.

In the end he gave up without a fight. This might have been because I told him that we photographed and documented every one of the literally scores of screwed up wiring and installation errors as well as the peg-board mounted control panel. Perhaps he decided having that material in open court might be bad for business. :^)

BTW, the company was actually ABC Alarm Company of Milford, CT. I'm pretty sure Tom would have run across their trash installation work since he worked there for some time before moving to NY State. They not only screwed the hardware store I mentioned but most everyone else they did business with. Perhaps that's why Doug refuses to believe they're that bad -- they're his kind of folks.

ABC managed to annoy so many clients that someone eventually contacted the AG about them. Turns out they didn't even have a license. Check the following link for more on these scammers:

Doug, what is/was your relationship with these folks?

messagenews:DdCdnVBqadrp0wLXnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com...

scammers:

messagenews:DdCdnVBqadrp0wLXnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com...

scammers:

messagenews:DdCdnVBqadrp0wLXnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com...

scammers:

>> Doug, what is/was your relationship with these folks? > Actually I was their Vice President of Sales and Marketing in 1996

So the settlement they reached with the CT AG's office must be "pocket change"...

Too bad they couldn't just shut them down.

Similar thing happened to me.

Just installed a system in a house 6 months before. House ended up sold. New owner calls and wants to know about the system. I was close by and had some time so I said I will stop over. System is monitored so I need to get new paperwork and all.

Met the owner at the door. Big guy is in the process of doing some renovation. He ask how it works and I explain the monitoring issues and the fee. He says he does not want to pay that so just take it out. I explain I just put in and there will be a fee to remove. I explain that I need to change the programming so it will not communicate and it will just take me a couple of minutes. While I am in the process at the keypad he starts screaming he wants the thing out and proceeds to the basement and starts ripping out the wires. Hopefully he pulled some of the wrong wires in the process. I finish at the keypad and exited stage left.

Nuts!!!! Really nuts!!!!

Les

Heh. We had a client (briefly) in CT who was just about as nasty. This was a couple -- he a doctor and she just a bi.... I got a call from them about a month after the installation. She said the system is broken and I need to come right away to fix it. I ask what's wrong. She can't arm it -- "come over right now!!!" The system was a Moose Z1100e. I told her to press "2" and tell me what light came on. She told me and I looked at the zone list -- living room front windows. I said please check the windows. One must be open. She insisted they're all closed and refused to even check -- "You have to come RIGHT NOW!!!"

OK, ma'am. I'll come over and if there's a problem with the system the visit is free. If the window is open there will be a charge for the call. "Just get over here now and I don't want to hear about your stupid charges!!!"

Parked in her driveway I can see the middle, front window is open about 2 inches. Ring the bell. Angry customer lets me in. I walk to the window, part the curtain and point to the open window. She looks at it but says nothing. I close the window, walk to the keypad, ask for her code and arm it with no problem. After showing her the system is OK I ask to sit at the kitchen table. "What for?" I need to write out the bill for the service call.

"I'm not paying for a service call. The system is supposed to be under warranty!!! And besides, your installer didn't even finish the job. There are wires in the basement by that box thing on the wall that he didn't connect."

We made it a practice in those days to pull a couple of extra 12-pair cables from the control panel whenever we wired a new job. If you're pulling one cable it's just as easy to pull a couple of extras in case you need to add something on later. The cables above the panel were clearly labeled "Spare A: Main Attic" and "Spare B: Garage Attic." I explained why they were put there for future use.

She insisted that was a lie -- "No one ever does extra work for free!" Arguing with her was about the same as talking to Doug. No matter what you say she's not going to believe you because she does believe (without benefit of any supporting evidence) that she's an intelligent human being.

At any rate, the conversation went nowhere. She refused to even accept the invoice so I left. I explained that we would not provide further support or service until that invoice was paid, secretly hoping that this imbecile would never pay so we could drop her. The following month we did just that, issuing a refund of the balance on her prepaid monitoring contract less the charge for the visit.

Like newsgroup jerks, there are some customers you're better off without.

Although this was about liability insurance, it goes to illustrate why we need competition against the insurance industry. Left to run things themselves with nothing but the bottom line to motivate them, they will never "do the right thing" and people like you and I will get screwed every time they get the chance. That is why we absolutely need to pass a reform, but I would not call it health reform. I'd call it insurance reform. Our health care system in this country is terrific. It's our insurance system that's broken and everyone but Rush knows it.

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D>

RHC: Man oh man...isn't that the truth ! I've made it a point to dump all the troublemakers over the years, but even then, there are still some idiots that come back. I'm at the point in my business where I lose a few customers and gain a few, for a small net gain over a year. I tell customers leaving to call me to take out their alarm panel and equipment if it's a high end system I installed. This will save them a few bucks when I go to re-install it for them, or if they move out of the area, with an new company. But real estate agents invariably convince them to leave it in because it adds to the resale attractiveness of the home, even though the new owner is not likely to use it at all. I don't get one in 30 new owners that call me back even though they have all the information and a good recommendation from the previous owner. And I don't have time to chase the new owner in any fashion (my choice...)

So the calls I get often go like this:

Customer: " My keypad is beeping and a trouble is showing, can you come fix your system ?"

Me: " Sir, this system belongs to you, it's not mine. If you wish me to hook it up properly to the alarm station, I'd be glad to come out and set everything up for you"

Customer: "No, I just want it to stop beeping..."

Me: "Well sir, I don't service non monitored accounts in any fashion...best just to power it down if it's bothering you"

Customer: Well, it's your system, come do it for me......you say you give full service in your warranty"

Duh !! ...and it's downhill from there. Another casualty of the "something for nothing environment" created by the free system marketers !!

(thanks for listening....I feel better now....rant mode OFF..)

RHC: Well, one way to look at it....you get to keep the old gear, which is useful for service on other accounts........ Whether that's worth your time is of course another matter...

Service call is free but the battery is 40 bucks? If it were Brinks quoting that everyone here would be going nuts

Brinks doesn't do services calls. That would hurt their image.

Jim Rojas

It's more than a rumor. Three of them come up with a permission error, meaning the sites are registered but not open for browsing yet. Any chance they belong to you, Tom?

IF they're going to sign a monitoring contract, the first hour of service is free upon fire-up (if we've service the system in the past 3 years) - sometimes I'm nice and extend that offer beyond but I don't tell them that till Im on site.

Why what's wrong with that deal? You know what batteries cost these days (12v 7amp Genesis is all I use), you know what a great deal the above is.

binkyview.com ?

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